John Higginbotham, who knew Seaver through Sunnyside Country Club, speaks at a news conference Friday at Chukchansi Park. Photo by Edward Smith

One of the Central Valley’s athletic standouts is being honored — appropriately — along a stretch of Highway 41.

A two mile stretch of the highway, from Jensen to Ventura avenues, will be renamed the Tom Seaver Memorial Highway, corresponding with the All Star’s No. 41 worn with the New York Mets.

At a press conference Friday at Chukchansi Park, Assemblymember Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) made the announcement as longtime friends of the now-deceased pitcher remembered the player’s roots in Fresno.

“It’s not lost on any of us that Highway 41 is the same number as his jersey as a pro — number 41, which is a nice coincidence,” Patterson said.

Seaver was born in 1944 in Fresno and played for Fresno High School and Fresno City College before joining the Marines at 17-years-old in 1962.

Before joining, he was 5’6” and 165 pounds, said Tom Sommers, president of Christian Business Men’s Connection. By the time he got out of the Marines, he was 6’1” and nearly 200 pounds.

“He had a blazing fastball by that time,” said former Fresno City College baseball coach Len Bourdet. Bourdet called him a “prankster” who kept up the spirits of his teammates.

Seaver went on to pitch for the New York Mets in 1967 for an illustrious ten-year career. In 1969, Seaver won a World Series with the Mets as one of their starting pitchers. It was that same year he won his first Cy Young Award, with his next two coming in 1973 and 1975. From the Mets he went on to play with the Cincinnati Reds, the Chicago White Sox and the Boston Red Sox. He played a total of 20 seasons.

Seaver was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992 with a nearly-unanimous vote, garnering the highest percentage ever recorded at that time, according to United States Department of Defense.

Seaver was inducted in the Fresno County Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986.

In 2013, a portion of Echo Avenue east of Fresno High School was named Tom Seaver Lane.

Seaver died in September 2020 from Covid-19.