Legendary Hall of Fame Pitcher Tom Seaver Diagnosed with Dementia & Retires from Public Life

The legendary, Tom Seaver has been diagnosed with dementia. The Hall of Famer has decided to retire from public life after his diagnosis.

Tom Seaver, the Hall of Fame pitcher and former New York Mets legend helped the team win the 1969 World Series. He has now been diagnosed with dementia at the age of 74.

His family announced on Thursday that Seaver has retired from public life. He intends to work at his California vineyard which he owns with his wife Nancy.

As a result, Seaver will not join his former teammates this season in New York for the 50th anniversary of the “Miracle” Mets who won that ’69 championship. The news of Seaver's illness stunned and saddened the baseball world.

Former Mets players and fans took to social media to share their admiration for the pitcher. He won a total of 311 games for the Mets, Reds, White Sox and Red Sox during his career from 1967 to 1986.

“He will always be the heart and soul of the Mets, the standard which all Mets aspire to, this breaks my heart,” former Mets catcher Mike Piazza wrote in a tweet. “Do not feel worthy to be mentioned in the same breath.”

It's not the first time, Seaver has been diagnosed with a disease, he also had Lyme disease in 1991. At the time he lived in Connecticut. The disease reoccurred in 2012 and led to Bell’s palsy and memory loss.

Seaver’s former teammate Art Shamsky revealed in an excerpt from his upcoming book “After the Miracle” that the pitcher was suffering from short-term memory loss. Bud Harrelson, another former teammate also recalled telling teammates to be prepared when they meet with him.

“He can forget things that happened just a few minutes before,” Harrelson told Shamsky, according to Newsday. “And he repeats himself a lot. But when he gets his rest, he still has a lot of energy.”