Tom Seats

Thomas Edward Seats

• Bats Right, Throws Left
• Height 5' 11", Weight 190 lb.

• Debut May 4, 1940
• Final Game September 28, 1945
• Born September 24, 1910 in Farmington, NC USA
• Died May 10, 1992 in San Ramon, CA USA

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Biographical Information

Left-hander Tom Seats started his seventeen year (1934-1950) professional baseball career as a free agent with the Lincoln Links of the class D Nebraska State League at 23 years of age. He came up with a first year record of 18-8 while pitching 222 innings. Tom would lead the league with 221 strikeouts, make the All-Star team and help his team to the league championship title. Seats was picked up by the St. Louis Cardinals before the 1935 season and assigned to the Springfield Cardinals of the the class C Western Association where he had his second double digit winning year at 25-9 and a 3.03 ERA in 273 innings.

Seats would spend the next four seasons in the St. Louis Cardinals chain and after having a very good year in 1939 with 21 wins and 14 losses and a 3.02 ERA for the fourth place Sacramento Solons of the Pacific Coast League, helping his team to the PCL playoff title, he was snatched up by the Detroit Tigers, on October 3, 1939, in the 1939 Rule V Draft. Seats would spend the 1940 season with the major league Tigers, his first of two in the big leagues, picking up two wins and two losses with a 4.69 ERA. In a somewhat surprising move on April 2, 1941 he was purchased by the San Francisco Seals from the Tigers.

Tom would spend the next four years (1941-1944), all World War II years, with the San Francisco club, winning 63 times and losing 60, having his best numbers in 1944 at 25-13 and a 2.36 ERA while pitching 320 innings. This probably induced the Brooklyn Dodgers club to draft Seats from the San Francisco team on November 1, 1944, in the 1944 Rule V Draft. Seats spent the 1945 season with the big league Ebbets Field club, spun a 10-7 record and a 4.36 ERA for his team but this ended his run in the show and he finished up his big league time with a 12-9 record and a 4.47 ERA while appearing in 57 games.

The 35 year old pitcher would go back to the PCL, spending the next four years (1946-1949) with the San Diego, Oakland and Hollywood teams, where he would win 40 and lose 51 before finishing up his 15 seasons in the minors with the Eugene Larks of the Far West League, at 2-1 in six games, at the age of 39 in 1950. Tom closed out his minor league time with 202 wins against 177 losses while appearing in 521 games, a .533 percentage.

Thomas Edward Seats would remain on the west coast, where he lived and worked until his death on May 10, 1992 at 81 years of age. He died from pneumonia and chronic obstructive lung disease at the San Ramon Medical Center in San Ramon, CA.