“No, it isn’t.”
Seaver looked out the
window. There was no
Porsche.
“What the hell,” Seaver
said. “As long as nobody
steals you or the dog. The
car is just a piece of tin.”
On Aug. 31, 1969, Pa-
rade magazine published
a story from Tom under the headline, WHAT IT’S LIKE
TO HAV E MY WIFE WATCH ME WORK. It was a love letter
shared with millions.
“My wife is extremely important to me in my baseball
career,” he wrote. “I often look up at Nancy, not only when
I’m pitching but when I’m in the on deck circle waiting
to bat. Just a glimpse of her sitting in the stands gives me
a great deal of encouragement. I’ll tip my cap to her and
she’ll tip an imaginary cap back, letting me know there is
something extremely personal between us no matter what
the outcome of the game. Baseball is my entire life, but I
could never play this game if it were not for my wife.”
Seaver grew up studying the humble, understated bril-
liance of Sandy Koufax and Hank Aaron. His father, Char-
lie, a vice president at Bonner Packing Company, was the
1933 California amateur golf champion and a Walker Cup
member who showed Tom how to compete with honor at
Sunnyside Country Club, just down the street from thesmart and in love. Super Bowl–winning Joe Namath was
threatening to quit football and was running a notorious
bar in New York City. (National League president Warren
Giles issued a directive in June asking players to stay out of
Bachelors III.) Slugger Ken Harrelson cut a divisive figure
with his wild outfits, contract demands and controversial
book. Mickey Mantle had just retired.
Tom and Nancy gave Americans torn by the turbulence
in sports and society a safe harbor. Newspapers knew the
appeal of baseball’s First Couple, and they invariably re-
ported how Tom and Nancy looked and what they wore.
The New York Daily News in April: “With brown hair fall-
ing boyishly over his forehead and apple cheeks aglow,
Tom Seaver doesn’t look old enough to cuss.” By June the
News was calling him Mr. Dreamboat.
The Fresno Bee in June described Nancy as “the wide-
eyed 5-6 blond who has those bathing suit measurements.”
Nancy Lynn McIntyre had been a pep girl and diver at
McLane High in Fresno. Tom went to Fresno High. Nancy
watched him play basketball then—Seaver was all-city in
t hat spor t, not ba seba l l—but he made no i mpression on her.
“He was only 5' 10," ” she once explained. Upon graduation
Seaver spent the next year in the Marine Corps. There he
grew into a man. When Nancy was attending Fresno City
College and saw Tom again, she was smitten.
“After Tom finished his duty in the Marine Corps, he was
6' 1" and it was a different story,” said Nancy, who accord-
ing to The Fresno Bee was “the campus queen and came
within a judge’s wink of making All Miss Fresno County.”
After the Mets won the lottery they assigned Seaver to
the Triple A Jacksonville Suns. Tom and Nancy had been
considering marriage after that season, but Nancy, after
consult ing w it h her parents, decided it was best if t hey wed
quickly. So she hopped a plane to Florida and they were
married in June 1966 on the afternoon of a night game
in between his starts. The newlywed pitched two days
later. Seaver gave up four runs, made two errors and was
knocked from the game in the fourth inning.
Arriving in New York the next season, Tom, Nancy
and their French poodle, Slider, quickly became the dar-
lings of the press, especially because Nancy was such a
conspicuous cheerleader for her husband. Once in 1967,
Seaver was hit on the right elbow by a pitch from Den-
nis Ribant of the Pirates. Nancy waited nervously out-
side the New York clubhouse. A reporter she recognized
walked out.
“The right arm,” Nancy said. “Why couldn’t it have hit
him in the head?”
On April 20, 1969, returning late from a trip to St. Lou-
is, Seaver drove his brown ’68 Porsche home to Bayside,
Queens, and parked it on the street. When he awoke the
next morning Nancy asked him, “Where’s the car?”
“Right in front of the house, where I parked it.”32
SPORT S ILLUS TR ATED OC T OBER 21–28, 2019
SEIZING THE MOMENT
In Game 3 of the Series
at Shea Stadium, Tommy
Agee’s backhanded catch
at the wall saved two
runs in the Mets’ 5–0
win over the Orioles.