While the Mets community continues to mourn the loss of Tom Seaver, manager Luis Rojas had his own words about the greatest Met ever.
"Growing up in a baseball family in the Mets organization, I have complete understanding of who Tom Seaver is," said Rojas. "For the Mets family, for the organization, for the Mets community, for baseball. Everything he did for the game, the way he carried himself, what he represented, one of his characteristics that was always told to me, my family, is how humble he was outside of his incredible talent. It's one of the things that I know I heard plenty of stories of.
"There's a bunch of stories in the family. [My] family members got to meet him. I never had the privilege to meet Tom, but it's something for us going into tonight's game, we definitely want to honor on the field, and want to honor, always, the best Mets player [to] wear the uniform."
Rojas' uncle, Matty Alou, knocked the first hit that Seaver ever gave up in the big leagues.
"I know that he had good numbers against him in a minimum number of at-bats. I think it's pretty cool just to have some success versus a guy like Tom Seaver who's one of the best pitchers in the history of the game," said Rojas. "It's just unbelievable to look at the numbers and all the awards and everything that he did. It was pretty special just to see that."
Aside from his uncle, Rojas' father had a connection with The Franchise as well.
"My dad actually told me a story today about a time that he got a hit. My dad was already in the big leagues for a couple of years, and he was in his rookie season, and he struck out my dad [and he was] like 'You're lucky. You're lucky you got that one,'" said Rojas. "This kid back then was pretty sure of himself and he knew that he could beat you. They became friends and he told me how humble he was as a person. They lost contact recently or in the past year or so, but there is some connection in the family."