Among the many highlights of Lee Mazzilli’s enjoying profession was hitting a house run within the 1979 All-Star Recreation along with his former Mets teammate Tom Seaver within the sales space as a visitor announcer for NBC.
“I’ve received the tape of it and [Seaver] was the one speaking about me,” Mazzilli stated Thursday. “That was so cool, Seaver saying good issues about me.”
Mazzilli’s ideas will likely be with the Seaver household Friday, when the Mets unveil a statue within the Corridor of Fame pitcher’s honor outdoors Citi Subject earlier than the house opener towards the Diamondbacks.
The Brooklyn native Mazzilli debuted with the Mets in 1976 and spent the top of that season and a part of the subsequent as Seaver’s teammate, a stretch through which the right-hander was nonetheless among the many sport’s most dominant pitchers. The 2 grew to become buddies and remained involved after their respective enjoying careers concluded.
“I’m excited for Tom’s household,” Mazzilli stated. “The one draw back to this, that statue ought to have been there when he was alive. I might simply see him cackling — he had that cackle, you already know — and I might simply see him laughing with that little cackle after they unveiled it.”
Mazzilli credited Seaver for instructing him about hitting.
“I discovered quite a bit about hitting from him, which means how he would pitch hitters,” Mazzilli stated. “How he would arrange hitters. What he would do early in a sport versus late in a sport with sure hitters. It was fascinating. These are the issues I cherish.”
Mazzilli recalled the final dialog he had with Seaver, one or two years earlier than the previous pitcher’s demise in August 2020. Seaver on the time was battling dementia.
“I actually known as him to thank him for what he did for me,” Mazzilli stated. “I stated, ‘Tommy I simply need to name you and thanks for all the pieces and once I got here up how a lot you taught me in regards to the sport and his reply was, ‘Are you kidding me? That was enjoyable. We had enjoyable.’
“After I received off the telephone I felt so significantly better that I received to talk to him and I felt prefer it was good drugs for him at the moment. It was a bizarre feeling. It was good drugs and it was nice for me. That telephone name meant quite a bit to me and simply by listening to him and the best way he was speaking, he simply received a kick speaking about stuff.”
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