CCCAA Hall of Famer, Fresno City great and MLB legend Tom Seaver passes away at 75
His life and baseball legacy was as vintage as the cabernet sauvignon grapes he grew in the Seaver Family Vineyards of Calistoga, Calif. George Thomas Seaver, 75, died in his sleep on Aug. 31, 2020 due to complications from Lewy Body Dementia and COVID-19.
Tom Seaver, who starred at Fresno City College, was inducted into the CCCAA Hall of Fame in 1986. Read his HOF bio
Read "The Early History of Tom Seaver", courtesy of PannerAlumni.com
Read story from the Fresno Bee.
By Woody Wilk
Fresno City College
FRESNO - His life and baseball legacy was as vintage as the cabernet sauvignon grapes he grew in the Seaver Family Vineyards of Calistoga, Calif.
George Thomas Seaver, 75, died in his sleep on Aug. 31, 2020 due to complications from Lewy Body Dementia and COVID-19.
A 1962 graduate of Fresno High School and a self described "junk-baller," Tom Seaver had enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve and served his first six months of active duty at Twenty-Nine Palms MC Air Station. He returned to Fresno shortly before the Fall, 1963 semester. Upon seeing a new, taller and muscular Seaver, his future legendary Fresno City College baseball coach, Len Bourdet, observed, "he had left as a boy and came back a man." Seaver's baseball legacy was underway.
Pitching for the FCC Rams in the spring of 1964, Seaver compiled a fabulous line: W-L, 11-2; ERA 1.58; 132 strikeouts in 114 innings; 25 walks; 64 hits; 10 complete games and three shutouts in 13 starts. In a critical double header against College of the Sequoias on May 7, he won the first game 3-2 and pitched a shut-down final inning in a 4-3 win which clinched the Rams sixth consecutive Valley Conference championship.
Following a 9-3 loss at Sacramento City College on March 28, Seaver (4-2), a quick learner, proceeded to go 7-0 the rest of the season. Larry Bowa (yes, that Larry Bowa), and his Sac City teammates had lit him up for 8 runs (6 earned) on 8 hits in 4 1/3 innings. He had 4 Ks, 3 BB.