ENTER DEALING:

Westrum would later tell the writers that what impressed him just as much that day as Seaver's 7⅓ innings of one-run, five-strikeout, walk-free ball was his honesty. "He could have selfishly told me he was okay, and I probably would have left him in, but he knew he was about out of gas, and that wouldn't have been fair to the team," the manager said.

Five days later, Seaver faced the Cubs again, this time at Wrigley Field. He pitched ten innings, yielding only four hits and one unearned run for a 2-1 victory. He was 3-1 with a 2.21 ERA for his first six major-league starts when he faced the Braves--and his boyhood idol Hank Aaron--in Atlanta on May 17. In their first encounter, with one out in the first inning, Seaver got Hammerin' Hank to ground into an inning-ending double play on a sinking fastball. The next time up, leading off the fourth, Aaron struck out looking. In 2016 Seaver remembered strutting back to the dugout after the inning, being giddy with joy.

"You can just imagine how I felt at that time, having retired Henry on a double play and a strikeout looking," he told me. "Growing up, the Braves had always been my favorite team because Henry was my favorite player. Henry was always first with me, and I don't find it strange at all that a white boy who wanted to become a major-league pitcher would most identify with a black hitter. I thought of Aaron as excellence. He was so much fun to sit and watch because he was so damn consistent, dedicated, and yet capable of making the game look so easy to play. Confidence flowed out of him."

That was never more evident than in his next at-bat, in the sixth, with the Mets nursing a 3-1 lead. After a one-out single by Felipe Alou, Aaron clubbed a long home run to left field to tie the score. The pitch was the same sinking fastball Seaver had struck him out on two innings earlier. Seaver had always prided himself in remembering hitters' tendencies and weaknesses and then capitalizing on them. On this occasion, he learned a lesson that hitters, especially hitters like Bad Henry, also remembered.

"When Seaver came into the big leagues, he came in pitching."

Meanwhile, the rookie pitcher helped his own cause with the bat, going 3-for-3 with a pair of run-scoring doubles off Braves starter Bob Bruce. The contest remained tied until the bottom of the ninth when catcher Joe Torre, playing with a broken index finger, led off with Atlanta's third homer of the night for a 4-3 win. (Over the course of his career, Aaron was 18-for-82, .220, with 5 homers and 14 strikeouts against Seaver.)

In a July 2017 interview, at the Hall of Fame, Aaron recalled those first impressions he had of Seaver.

"Tom was just so dedicated. He came up to the big leagues knowing what baseball players were all about. I can't think of anyone else in my twenty-three years in the big leagues who was as competitive as he was," he said. "I remember that first time we faced him, somebody on our team said, 'This kid coming out of California, right out of college, he's not ready for the big leagues.' And then I went up to the plate, and I said, 'I don't think you're right. This kid is ready for the big leagues and probably ready for the Hall of Fame.'" Aaron laughed. "He was that good. I don't know who his teacher was, but to me I would have to say he was more than ready for the Show."

Seaver made it a point of getting to know Aaron, and, through the years, they talked often, particularly about what might have been.

"He seemed like he wanted to meet me, and I wanted to meet him," Aaron said. "We had a great relationship. It was not one of those deals where we shook hands and he said, 'Well, I'll take it easy on you.' We were friends until he put on that uniform and got on the mound, and then I was his enemy. I had heard all about him because of that draft that came as a result of the Braves' illegally signing him. I think we would have won a few championships if he'd been a pitcher on our Braves ball club, don't you?"

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