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The Last Icon: Tom Seaver and His Times
In early 1969, New York City and all it represented was in politically, criminally, and athletically. But while Simon and Garfunkel lamented the absence of a sports icon like Joe DiMaggio, a modern Lancelot rode forth to lead the New York Mets to heights above and beyond all sports glory.
This book tells the complete, unvarnished story of the great Tom Seaver, that rarest of all American heroes, the New York Sports Icon. In a city that produces not mere mortals but sports gods, Seaver represented the last of a breed. His deeds, his times, his town—it was part of a vanishing era, an era of innocence. In 1969, six years after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Seaver and the Mets were the last gasp of idealism before free agency, Watergate, and cynicism. Here is the story of “Tom Terrific” of the “Amazin’ Mets,” a man worthy of a place alongside DiMaggio, Ruth, Mantle, and Namath in the pantheon of New York idols.
This book tells the complete, unvarnished story of the great Tom Seaver, that rarest of all American heroes, the New York Sports Icon. In a city that produces not mere mortals but sports gods, Seaver represented the last of a breed. His deeds, his times, his town—it was part of a vanishing era, an era of innocence. In 1969, six years after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Seaver and the Mets were the last gasp of idealism before free agency, Watergate, and cynicism. Here is the story of “Tom Terrific” of the “Amazin’ Mets,” a man worthy of a place alongside DiMaggio, Ruth, Mantle, and Namath in the pantheon of New York idols.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published November 15, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 28, 2016
At first I was very glad to see a Seaver biography since there was not one out there previously. The first half was a typical athlete biography, but as you kept reading, you realize there is a difference between fandom and idolatry as demonstrated by the author.
The use of the word "Pentecostal" to describe a pitching outing by Seaver the first time was unique. To continue to use it is hyperbole. The author would have you believe that Seaver should have won the Cy Young award every year and when he did not, he used phrases like "Oh, the injustice" and "robbed blind" to support and really belabored the point continuously. Worse yet, he childishly ridicules the pitchers who were recognized, saying that Randy Jones "could not carry Seaver's dirty jockstrap" and Fernando Valenzuela a "politically correct vote" that was "not in Seaver's class. Even fellow Hall of Famers are not immune as Jim Palmer is labeled a "hypochondriac"
He also noted many times that his teammates "worshipped" him, which may have been overreaching. Words like "savior," "the man," and the constant bemoaning of teammates "not scoring any runs" for him sometimes made the book tedious. However, as you read along, you waited for the next outlandish comment the author would make in describing a baseball pitcher.
Last I will let a line from the author speak for itself: "The combination of looks, intelligence, education, range of interests, character, family, luck, talent and accomplishments is shared by Tom Seaver and....nobody."
The use of the word "Pentecostal" to describe a pitching outing by Seaver the first time was unique. To continue to use it is hyperbole. The author would have you believe that Seaver should have won the Cy Young award every year and when he did not, he used phrases like "Oh, the injustice" and "robbed blind" to support and really belabored the point continuously. Worse yet, he childishly ridicules the pitchers who were recognized, saying that Randy Jones "could not carry Seaver's dirty jockstrap" and Fernando Valenzuela a "politically correct vote" that was "not in Seaver's class. Even fellow Hall of Famers are not immune as Jim Palmer is labeled a "hypochondriac"
He also noted many times that his teammates "worshipped" him, which may have been overreaching. Words like "savior," "the man," and the constant bemoaning of teammates "not scoring any runs" for him sometimes made the book tedious. However, as you read along, you waited for the next outlandish comment the author would make in describing a baseball pitcher.
Last I will let a line from the author speak for itself: "The combination of looks, intelligence, education, range of interests, character, family, luck, talent and accomplishments is shared by Tom Seaver and....nobody."
June 14, 2016
Tom Seaver was an excellent pitcher who was, and probably still is, a good guy, albeit one with a large ego. However, this book presents Seaver as a paragon of all that is right with the world, to the point where I was laughing out loud AT the book and the writing. It was absolutely ridiculous. Basically, Tom Seaver is the pinnacle of human evolution, and everything else sucks. I have never read a book in which the author trashes everything and everyone that are not the main subject so completely. The author's nostalgia for a past era of baseball, along with the book being a clear vehicle for his opinions, drag the whole book down. I was looking for a journalistic, unbiased approach to Tom Seaver, especially since there really aren't any other Seaver books out there, as the author noted in the last chapter. Very nearly one star.
June 9, 2012
The title refers to the author’s idea that Seaver is the last homegrown star in sports. That is the just the start of the hero worship. When not relying on quotes from other sources, Travers descends into flowery praise of Seaver, especially during the games. This would have been a better read if Travers had used more of his own words in describing the events. The career stats at the end were a nice addition, although it could have been larger for easier reading. If you are a fan of Seaver you will probably enjoy yourself, but for others there are other books that provide a more unbiased look at his career. I won this through Library Thing’s early reviewers program.
October 10, 2022
Some years back, I came across Tom Seaver's book (co-written with Dick Schaap) about his game-four performance in the 1969 World Series (a great showing against Baltimore, and the penultimate game before the "Miracle Mets" won it all). That book was intriguing because it offered an insight into the mind of Tom Seaver, who wasn't like other sports stars of the time, or indeed of modern times: an open-minded, socially conscious man who wasn't with the mainstream in what was going on in the country at the time (Vietnam, Civil Rights, etc.). Tom Seaver was his own man, and I liked that about him. I then found myself coming across the great, fun and entertaining "So Many Ways to Lose," Devin Gordon's book about the Mets and their crazy history, and his writing about Seaver made me want to read more about the man, so I went searching for biographies, especially in the wake of Seaver's passing in 2020. I have read two such books, and...neither one of them were all that great.
I'll have to go back and check, but I don't think I rated Bill Madden's book about Seaver very highly (though I might've been forgiving because it was published not long after Seaver's death). "The Last Icon," by Steve Travers, is over ten years old at this point, and doesn't have that excuse. Pedestrian, repetitive, and full of "huh" moments that show the author's particular biases, this isn't even the kind of book I could wait to finish to review because it's so poorly written that another day spent trying to get through it would be a waste. Ladies and gentlemen, can a book that you didn't finish be the worst book that you've read all year? Because if so, this one takes the moldy, worm-ridden cake.
I kept coming across passages that were head-scratchers (talk about how Nixon "eventually did end" the war in Vietnam, discussion of how Seaver, famously left-of-center in the context of most of major league baseball at the time at least, would be considered a "moderate Republican" today, laying it on thick about USC athletics and how the campus was a "safe haven" from the upheaval of the Sixties), so I decided to do what I often do when reading an author's work for the first time: I Googled Steve Travers. This led to his Twitter page and...let's just say old boy is a little far removed from me on the political spectrum. Like "to the right of Attila the Hun," as the saying goes. The man is a straight-up conspiracy loon, judging from the things he's shared on his page. If the quality of the writing hadn't put me off of trying to finish this book, the Twitter stuff absolutely did it for me. I'm glad that I got this used, at a discount, because I would be more than a little upset about wasting more than I spent to prop up this guy's career. He's a loon.
But even without the politics, the writing here is just so very, very bad. I'd seen reviews before saying this, and I guess I should've heeded their warning. But I had to see for myself, and in a way I'm glad that I did. The guy wholesale uses massive quotations from other sources to pad out chapters, and he repeats points often enough that you could almost do a drinking game to them (how many times will he bring up that Tom "is a loyal husband" or "likes to play pranks in the clubhouse"?). I wanted to read about how Seaver became a great pitcher, but Travers is focused on reiterating, again and again, that the late Sixties were bad, permissiveness and Communism ran rampant, and that somehow Seaver was the last bastion against all that, or some such nonsense. This book is crap, and I can say that having gotten to page 152 or so and realized (after my quick perusal of the dude's Twitter page) that I could be doing much more constructive things with my life. Nothing is a waste of time if you get something out of it, but what I got out of this book, as far into it as I read (more than halfway through) was a sense that some people write books when they really, absolutely have no business doing so. Steve Travers is an author whose work I will never again go near if I live to be a thousand years old and his are the only books left on whatever Earth is like by that time.
It gets one star for the cover art, which is great. Other than that, I'd give this zero stars if I could. I don't mind the endless hero worship of the prose (I remember the review that got me to get the book saying "this book is all about Tom Seaver" and thinking, "wait, do you not know what a biography is?"). It's just that the book is so repetitive and poorly written, and the author's politics don't help. Save your money and get "So Many Ways to Lose," which is the best book about Tom Seaver that I've read so far. If you're desperate, check out the Madden book but be prepared to be let down slightly. If you come across this one, however, run as far in the opposite direction as you can. I read (most of) it so you don't have to. You'll thank me later.
I'll have to go back and check, but I don't think I rated Bill Madden's book about Seaver very highly (though I might've been forgiving because it was published not long after Seaver's death). "The Last Icon," by Steve Travers, is over ten years old at this point, and doesn't have that excuse. Pedestrian, repetitive, and full of "huh" moments that show the author's particular biases, this isn't even the kind of book I could wait to finish to review because it's so poorly written that another day spent trying to get through it would be a waste. Ladies and gentlemen, can a book that you didn't finish be the worst book that you've read all year? Because if so, this one takes the moldy, worm-ridden cake.
I kept coming across passages that were head-scratchers (talk about how Nixon "eventually did end" the war in Vietnam, discussion of how Seaver, famously left-of-center in the context of most of major league baseball at the time at least, would be considered a "moderate Republican" today, laying it on thick about USC athletics and how the campus was a "safe haven" from the upheaval of the Sixties), so I decided to do what I often do when reading an author's work for the first time: I Googled Steve Travers. This led to his Twitter page and...let's just say old boy is a little far removed from me on the political spectrum. Like "to the right of Attila the Hun," as the saying goes. The man is a straight-up conspiracy loon, judging from the things he's shared on his page. If the quality of the writing hadn't put me off of trying to finish this book, the Twitter stuff absolutely did it for me. I'm glad that I got this used, at a discount, because I would be more than a little upset about wasting more than I spent to prop up this guy's career. He's a loon.
But even without the politics, the writing here is just so very, very bad. I'd seen reviews before saying this, and I guess I should've heeded their warning. But I had to see for myself, and in a way I'm glad that I did. The guy wholesale uses massive quotations from other sources to pad out chapters, and he repeats points often enough that you could almost do a drinking game to them (how many times will he bring up that Tom "is a loyal husband" or "likes to play pranks in the clubhouse"?). I wanted to read about how Seaver became a great pitcher, but Travers is focused on reiterating, again and again, that the late Sixties were bad, permissiveness and Communism ran rampant, and that somehow Seaver was the last bastion against all that, or some such nonsense. This book is crap, and I can say that having gotten to page 152 or so and realized (after my quick perusal of the dude's Twitter page) that I could be doing much more constructive things with my life. Nothing is a waste of time if you get something out of it, but what I got out of this book, as far into it as I read (more than halfway through) was a sense that some people write books when they really, absolutely have no business doing so. Steve Travers is an author whose work I will never again go near if I live to be a thousand years old and his are the only books left on whatever Earth is like by that time.
It gets one star for the cover art, which is great. Other than that, I'd give this zero stars if I could. I don't mind the endless hero worship of the prose (I remember the review that got me to get the book saying "this book is all about Tom Seaver" and thinking, "wait, do you not know what a biography is?"). It's just that the book is so repetitive and poorly written, and the author's politics don't help. Save your money and get "So Many Ways to Lose," which is the best book about Tom Seaver that I've read so far. If you're desperate, check out the Madden book but be prepared to be let down slightly. If you come across this one, however, run as far in the opposite direction as you can. I read (most of) it so you don't have to. You'll thank me later.
September 7, 2015
Easy read- well written. The author was/ is a HUGE Tom Seaver fan and it came across in this work. Turns that Steven Travers is a USC grad (as is Seaver) and that probably led to the hero worship. I have never read a baseball book that kept referring to a players alma mater quite like this one, especially considering that Seaver basically only went there for 2 years and finished up at his leisure in the off season.
All-in-all a decent read, although the gushing got a little annoying.
All-in-all a decent read, although the gushing got a little annoying.
June 5, 2012
The book was enjoyable and all encompassing of his career, both the good and the bad. My only issue was that the author constantly seemed like he was sucking up to Seaver, constantly referring to him as the best or the greatest ever. The book felt like it was written by, ya know, the biggest Tom Seaver fan EVER!!!!
March 21, 2015
Two stars because the writing isn't completely horrible, but just because Seaver didn't authorize a bio didn't mean that interviews of others couldn't be done, and it doesn't mean that the book had to have such a fawning tone.
Just save your time and read the SABR Bio Project entry on Seaver, online.
Just save your time and read the SABR Bio Project entry on Seaver, online.
January 11, 2012
Poorly written. Seemed more like a bad college paper than an actual published biography. Still waiting for the definitive Seaver bio.
July 27, 2020
The author seems to be striving mightily to portray Tom Seaver as Ward Cleaver of "Leave It to Beaver". Turn the clock back to the white suburban 50s and early 60s. The author attended the University of Southern California. So did Tom Seaver. The absolute Mom, Pop and Apple Pie and GOP politics the author keeps vomiting up in a book about one of the greatest pitchers ever to play baseball becomes annoying. Calling free agency for MLB players IMMORAL is out of touch with reality. Did the author write the book at the frat house at the University of Southern California.
Tom Seaver is a bright man. He created his own public image. The author is so smitten with Seaver he fails to realize othet brilliant athletes have done the same.....MICHAEL JORDAN comes to mind.
The baseball stuff is great. Seaver was a great competitor. So are ALL Hall of Fame athletes.
Seaver pushed himself to the limit.....so did Michael Jordan and Walter Payton.
The author's political views.....calling U.C. Berkeley a breeding ground for Communists is pure Orange County-USC nonsense from the 1970s.
There is something so disturbing about the author's political views that I have to wonder if he really wanted the book titled......"The Last Great WHITE Sports Icon".
Tom Seaver needs to be remembered for his accomishments. There were many.
Tom Seaver is a bright man. He created his own public image. The author is so smitten with Seaver he fails to realize othet brilliant athletes have done the same.....MICHAEL JORDAN comes to mind.
The baseball stuff is great. Seaver was a great competitor. So are ALL Hall of Fame athletes.
Seaver pushed himself to the limit.....so did Michael Jordan and Walter Payton.
The author's political views.....calling U.C. Berkeley a breeding ground for Communists is pure Orange County-USC nonsense from the 1970s.
There is something so disturbing about the author's political views that I have to wonder if he really wanted the book titled......"The Last Great WHITE Sports Icon".
Tom Seaver needs to be remembered for his accomishments. There were many.
August 18, 2020
Not the Cy Young of baseball books
I found myself disappointed in this book. The author too easily enters into tangents that are not resolved and thus seem quite out of place. He alternately paints Seaver as a god or a money-loving, ego-centric individual, not really bringing the reader in touch with the real man wearing the glove. Although I read it as a kid, the 1973 Baseball is My Life, by Seaver and Steve Jacobson was much more enjoyable. A more interesting read on the 69 Mets is surely After the Miracle: The Lasting Brotherhood of the '69 Mets by Art Shamsky and Erik Sherman.
I found myself disappointed in this book. The author too easily enters into tangents that are not resolved and thus seem quite out of place. He alternately paints Seaver as a god or a money-loving, ego-centric individual, not really bringing the reader in touch with the real man wearing the glove. Although I read it as a kid, the 1973 Baseball is My Life, by Seaver and Steve Jacobson was much more enjoyable. A more interesting read on the 69 Mets is surely After the Miracle: The Lasting Brotherhood of the '69 Mets by Art Shamsky and Erik Sherman.
December 30, 2022
I grew up a Mets fan in the 1970s and remember how disappointed I was when they traded him. I remember how upset I was when they lost to Oakland Athletics. The book does a great job describing his struggles in high school and how he developed his unique pitching style. The parts about his time in Alaska is great. In this era when a pitcher is done at 100 pitches, and has little knowledge of the history of the game, this book can serve as a guidepost for athletes and non athletes.
August 19, 2020
Great topic some good info but poorly told. As a huge METS and Seaver fan I just couldn't get through it. Waiting for new bio due in 2021.
August 2, 2022
Returned by library. A must for Mets fan that remembers the era he pitched in. Pitching has changed in today's game. Enjoy!
December 15, 2011
Tom Seaver is the quintessential New York Met. The Mets were a hapless team, a joke in baseball when Seaver was signed in 1966. Steven Travers' new book, The Last Icon: Tom Seaver and His Times takes you back to those days.
Seaver was a Southern California boy, raised in a conservative family in a conservative community. He was not the best baseball player, but he loved the game. He became a real student of the game, studying the history of it and mechanics of pitching.
He was one of the first major league players to use a weight training program, after discovering that working in a loading dock at a factory made him stronger and improved his stamina and pitching.
I learned many things from this interesting book. I had heard of the Cape Cod league for up and coming players, but I had no idea that what Cape Cod was to east coast baseball, Alaska was the western equivalent. Who would have thought that? Seaver's days playing for a great coach in Alaska help make him the great player he became.
The Vietnam War was raging, and I never knew how many players were in the reserves, and missed games to serve their weekends. I can't imagine that happening today.
Seaver was an intelligent guy, and during the off-season, he went back to USC to take classes to finish his degree. Not many athletes then or now would do that, although back in the 1960s, the contracts were not that lucrative.
Winning was important to Seaver, and he had a strong work ethic. It annoyed him that many of the players on the Mets did not take the job of baseball seriously. Some of his teammates did not like Seaver, thinking that he believed himself to be better than they were. He had a reputation for being faithful to his wife on the road, and this bugged some players, while others tried to live up to Seaver's high standards.
Growing up in a conservative white community, thoughts on race were different then, something from which the author doesn't shy away. Jackie Robinson had opened the door to black major leaguers, and men like Seaver found their views on race challenged.
The season of 1969, when things really jelled for the Mets, is detailed here. Seaver led this team, which had great pitching but lacked hitting. He consistently posted annual ERAs of under 2.00, yet he lost many games 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 because his team did not score enough runs. They seemed to save their runs for pitchers like Jerry Koosman.
Seaver dominated the game, winning the Cy Young Award three times, yet he never won the league MVP, though many people thought he deserved it. He won more games than any other Mets pitcher, led the league numerous times in strikeouts, wins and ERA.
The author did not get to interview Seaver for this book. He culls many other books and magazine articles, including many that Seaver himself has written, though Seaver has not written the definitive autobiography he has said he would one day write. (Reportedly his management has said that not enough money has been offered.)
The Last Icon is a must-read for any Mets fan, and for any baseball fan for that matter. Travers not only gives you a look at this fascinating man, but he evokes a time in baseball when baseball was the American past time. I was taken back to a magical time in my life, when I couldn't wait to watch the Saturday afternoon game on TV with my father and siblings. If you have a baseball fan on your Christmas list, this is a fantastic gift.
Seaver was a Southern California boy, raised in a conservative family in a conservative community. He was not the best baseball player, but he loved the game. He became a real student of the game, studying the history of it and mechanics of pitching.
He was one of the first major league players to use a weight training program, after discovering that working in a loading dock at a factory made him stronger and improved his stamina and pitching.
I learned many things from this interesting book. I had heard of the Cape Cod league for up and coming players, but I had no idea that what Cape Cod was to east coast baseball, Alaska was the western equivalent. Who would have thought that? Seaver's days playing for a great coach in Alaska help make him the great player he became.
The Vietnam War was raging, and I never knew how many players were in the reserves, and missed games to serve their weekends. I can't imagine that happening today.
Seaver was an intelligent guy, and during the off-season, he went back to USC to take classes to finish his degree. Not many athletes then or now would do that, although back in the 1960s, the contracts were not that lucrative.
Winning was important to Seaver, and he had a strong work ethic. It annoyed him that many of the players on the Mets did not take the job of baseball seriously. Some of his teammates did not like Seaver, thinking that he believed himself to be better than they were. He had a reputation for being faithful to his wife on the road, and this bugged some players, while others tried to live up to Seaver's high standards.
Growing up in a conservative white community, thoughts on race were different then, something from which the author doesn't shy away. Jackie Robinson had opened the door to black major leaguers, and men like Seaver found their views on race challenged.
The season of 1969, when things really jelled for the Mets, is detailed here. Seaver led this team, which had great pitching but lacked hitting. He consistently posted annual ERAs of under 2.00, yet he lost many games 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 because his team did not score enough runs. They seemed to save their runs for pitchers like Jerry Koosman.
Seaver dominated the game, winning the Cy Young Award three times, yet he never won the league MVP, though many people thought he deserved it. He won more games than any other Mets pitcher, led the league numerous times in strikeouts, wins and ERA.
The author did not get to interview Seaver for this book. He culls many other books and magazine articles, including many that Seaver himself has written, though Seaver has not written the definitive autobiography he has said he would one day write. (Reportedly his management has said that not enough money has been offered.)
The Last Icon is a must-read for any Mets fan, and for any baseball fan for that matter. Travers not only gives you a look at this fascinating man, but he evokes a time in baseball when baseball was the American past time. I was taken back to a magical time in my life, when I couldn't wait to watch the Saturday afternoon game on TV with my father and siblings. If you have a baseball fan on your Christmas list, this is a fantastic gift.
March 17, 2015
Tom Seaver is my favorite baseball player. He's my "Last Icon." I want to give Steven Travers' book a higher rating, but that would be based more on my idolization of Seaver than of the book itself. I would call this fair writing throughout. Travers is not a Jeff Pearlman, Mark Frost or Kevin Cook. This is not an insult. Travers is adequate. And I think he admires Seaver. I just wish the overall book was a bit stronger than it is.
June 8, 2012
Fun, easy read, too much admiration by the author
Read
December 23, 2013Quit halfway in, when I found myself continuously asking/saying "who cares" and "damn Tom Seaver is one boring sports star."
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