Zack Wheeler shouldn’t try to be Tom Seaver tonight when he makes his much ballyhooed major-league debut in Atlanta.
That’s straight from the horse of The Franchise’s mouth.
“These guys are major-leaguers but they’re wearing a uniform just like you do,” Seaver told The Post. “You still have to get ahead of hitters and throw the ball inside.
“Throw to your strengths. Don’t change what’s been successful for you.”
Seaver made his Mets debut April 13, 1967 at Shea Stadium and lasted into the sixth inning against the Pirates before manager Wes Westrum pulled him. Forty-six years later, Seaver was asked how he dealt with the nerves.
“I think I dealt with it after I got to the mound,” he said. “The mound is pretty much like your office.”
Seaver turned it into a Hall of Fame office, with the Mets, Reds and White Sox. But mostly with the Mets.
“You have to answer the question, ‘Can you do this?’ and you’re the only one who can answer it to yourself,” Seaver said. “When I got into the second inning, I thought, ‘You can do this.’
“Do what you do. Don’t try to do what Nolan Ryan does or Sandy Koufax does or Tom Seaver does. Don’t try to throw the ball 100 miles an hour. Use your stuff. Have confidence in your stuff. It’s worked before, it’ll work again.”
And if it doesn’t work in your first start, don’t despair.
“It’s not gonna happen in one game,” Seaver said. “And you shouldn’t think, ‘Here I am for the next 20 years,’ either. It might be a month, or two months, before you really understand who you are and if you can or cannot do this. This is a continual learning curve.”
Seaver recalled that the original plan was for him to start the 1967 season opener.
“One of the coaches, I think it was Sherriff Robinson, said, ‘You can’t do this to him,’ ” Seaver said. “‘Let him pitch when there’s 5,000 people.’ I was told that much later. It was very much the right thing to do.”
And sure enough, a crowd of 5,000 witnessed the start of the Seaver Era. He walked four and struck out eight in 5 1/3 innings before giving way to winning pitcher Chuck Estrada. Ron Taylor closed the 3-2 Mets victory over the Pirates.
“I got my feet wet and they gave me the ball again five days later,” Seaver joked. “I must have done something right.”
He would go on to do something right 311 times on the mound and capture three Cy Young awards. He finished his rookie season with a 16-13 record and a 2.76 ERA. I asked Seaver what, in his mind, made him a Hall of Fame pitcher.
“One is respect for what I did for a living,” he said. “Pitching is a mental and physical art form. I never stopped trying to learn.”
The young Seaver never had a changeup. “I got it by fooling around with the ball,” he said.
Seaver doesn’t believe it is more beneficial for Wheeler to start on the road, even though he won’t be far from his hometown of Smyrna, Ga.
“I don’t think it makes any difference,” Seaver said, before adding, “I don’t know him as an individual.
The 68-year-old Seaver, still throwing strikes with his vineyard in California despite coping with Lyme Disease, will attend a season-ticket holders dinner tonight in Manhattan, but will try to catch glimpses of Wheeler.
Mets phenom Matt Harvey has already caught The Franchise’s eye. A Harvey-Wheeler dynamic duo would change everything for the Mets.
“That’s why we won,” Seaver said. “We weren’t a big offensive ball club. You can win games 2-1. You don’t have to win games 5-4.”
“I’ve heard he’s a real student of the game,” Seaver said. “He takes his bullpen sessions very seriously and watches the game on the bench to see batters’ approaches. As a young pitcher, that’s pretty impressive.”