Column: Two Hall of Famers leave a different game behind

They were the heroes of a generation of baseball fans, a pair of first ballot Hall of Famers who were worth the price of admission every time they stepped on the field.

Tom Seaver liked to tell the story about how he first met Lou Brock, who mistook the baby-faced pitcher for a clubhouse attendant at the 1967 All-Star game and asked him to fetch him a soda. It wasn’t long before familiarity wasn’t a problem as Seaver and Brock dueled against each other over the next 12 years.

No one batted against Tom Terrific more than Brock. No one tried to get Brock out more than Seaver, nicknamed “The Franchise.”

It was fitting, perhaps, that both died within a few days of each other in what was a sad week for everyone who loves America’s pastime. Both battled the kind of health problems in recent years that no one who saw them in their prime would have imagined.

For those of us who reveled in their exploits it was yet another sober reminder that nothing lasts forever — even your childhood heroes. At the same time, it was also a reminder of how much of the game they once played is no longer, either.

No one is going to win 300 games again, like Seaver did with 311 over 20 years. No one is going to pitch nearly 5,000 Major League innings or complete 231 games.

No less authority than the great Los Angeles announcer Vin Scully called Seaver the best right-handed pitcher he ever saw. He would have been the greatest pitcher Scully ever saw, but there was a lefty on the Dodgers by the name of Sandy Koufax who had that honor.

That he won only one World Series in his long career wasn’t Seaver’s fault. He was on some bad teams over the years, including one in New York that didn’t become the Amazin’ Mets until Seaver picked them up and carried them to the pennant in...

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