Tommy Lasorda’s Scouting Report of Tom Seaver

After the great success of our last post about scouting, A Mariners scouts thoughts on the 1988 Mets, I have come across an even better scouting report thanks to the Diamond Mines section of the Baseball Hall of Fame website.

While working as a scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Tommy Lasorda, the legendary former Dodgers manager and baseball ambassador, took a trip down to the University of Southern California and scouted a young 20 year old pitcher on the Trojans staff.

That kid was future Hall of Famer and Mets legend George Thomas Seaver.

The picture below is the report filled out by Lasorda in 1965, two years before Seaver made his debut for the Mets in 1967.

The Dodgers in the 60’s had a ton of great pitching and their farm system was one the best in all of baseball.

One the things that had to help was that they had the opportunity to scout a great college baseball program like USC because it is in the same town.

Of course the story of how Seaver became a pitcher for the New York Mets instead of a pitcher for the Dodgers is a story that had many twists and turns.

As a sophomore, Seaver posted a 10-2 record, and he was drafted in the tenth round of the 1965 Major League Baseball Draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers. When Seaver asked for $70,000, however, the Dodgers passed.[3]

In 1966, he signed a contract with the Atlanta Braves, who had drafted him in the first round of the secondary June draft (20th overall). However, the contract was voided by Baseball Commissioner William Eckert because his college team had played two exhibition games that year (although Seaver himself hadn’t played). Seaver intended, then, to finish the college season, but because he had signed a pro contract, the NCAA ruled him ineligible. After Seaver’s father complained to Eckert about the unfairness of the situation, and threatened with a lawsuit, Eckert ruled that other teams could match the Braves’ offer.[3] The Mets were subsequently awarded his signing rights in a lottery drawing among the three teams (the Philadelphia Phillies and Cleveland Indians being the two others) that were willing to match the Braves’ terms. – Tom Seaver’s Wikipedia Page

Some of the highlights from this scouting report include.

1. Tommy’s insistence in referring to Seaver as “Boy”. I can just hear Tommy in his distinct voice talking to the higher ups in the Dodgers organization and constantly calling him boy. Hilarious stuff.

2. Seaver of course had a great fastball but his curveball was just as legendary. Based on what Lasorda wrote, Seaver clearly got the right instruction to improve his curve.

3. Based on the stories I have heard about Seaver in his career, Lasorda nailed it when he said “Boy has plenty of desire to pitch and wants to beat you.”

Seaver would go on to actually “struggle” against the Dodgers in his career, in comparison to his numbers against all other NL teams during his career.

He had a 22-22 record with a 3.23 ERA against the Dodgers, his 2nd highest ERA against an NL team. His highest ERA against an NL team, by the way, was 3.57 against the Reds.

Like I said in the last scouting post about the 1988 Mets, the Diamond Mines website is really one of the best things that the Hall of Fame has ever come up with.

To see what a scout thought of a Hall of Famer like Tom Seaver when he was in college is fun to read. Add in the fact that the scout just happens to be a great baseball man like Tommy Lasorda, and it only gets better.

So I encourage you to check out the site and see what kind of scouting reports you can find about some of the best to ever play the game.