New York Mets win Tom Seaver Lottery
On April 3, 1966 – 1966: The season hasn’t started yet, and the New York Mets already are big winners. In a special lottery, the Mets win out over the Cleveland Indians and Philadelphia Phillies — the only three teams who had agreed to match the Atlanta Braves’ original offer of $40,000 — for the rights to sign USC right-hander, Tom Seaver.
The special drawing is held because Commissioner William Eckert had ruled Seaver’s signing by the Braves’ Richmond farm team, for a $40,000 bonus, was illegal. Atlanta had drafted Seaver. Eckert nullified the contract and fined Richmond $500 because USC already had started its season. Baseball rules say that a player can’t be signed off a college campus once his team has started playing.
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