The Mets’ Tom Seaver statue, which has been in the works for nearly two years, will be unveiled at Citi Field on Opening Day 2022, the team announced Tuesday.
Seaver, nicknamed ‘The Franchise,’ died last September at age 75 following complications from Lyme disease, dementia and COVID-19.
“We are excited to celebrate the unveiling with more fans at Citi Field in 2022 and know that Tom would be proud,” the Seaver family said in a statement.
The statue was commissioned by former Mets owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon in 2019 and was originally scheduled to be unveiled this summer. The date was pushed back due to pandemic-related delays on the artist’s part, team president Sandy Alderson said Tuesday in a statement.
“We are excited to unveil this one-of-a-kind tribute to Tom, but it has to be right,” said Alderson. “Given delays related to the pandemic, the artist asked for additional time to complete his work. After conferring with the Seaver family, we made the decision to unveil the statue on Opening Day 2022.”
Mets fans advocated for a Seaver statue for years before the Wilpons announced plans for it the same day they officially changed Citi Field’s address to 41 Seaver Way on June 27, 2019. There is already a space cleared for the Seaver statue near the Home Run Apple in front of Citi Field.
Seaver dropped out of public life in March of 2019 after being diagnosed with dementia. The Hall of Famer left behind 311 victories, 3,640 career strikeouts, three Cy Young Awards and memories of his role in the 1969 Miracle Mets championship season.
