The Odd Couple
Tom Seaver and Bud Harrelson were roommates for a decade. Harrelson once said, "I love him like a brother."
As the New York Mets readied for the team’s first road trip of the 1967 season, traveling secretary Lou Niss stopped by Tom Seaver’s locker and asked, “Who do you want to room with?”
Seaver paused for a moment to think, then told Niss: “Harrelson.”
For the next decade, Harrelson and Seaver were teammates — and roommates. They won together, lost together, ate together and laughed together. They were born six months apart and both of them grew up in Northern California.
“I never heard of him until we both showed up in Homestead in the spring of 1966,” Harrelson wrote in his memoir, Turning Two. “We didn’t have much in common and we were sort of an odd couple as roommates.”
Seaver had trouble sleeping on flights and when he was in the hotel, Seaver often fell asleep to the sound of the television running in the background. Harrelson was polar opposite: “I could fall asleep at a Wagnerian opera and could sleep through a tornado,” he said.
Despite their differences, the Mets Odd Couple became best friends. When Seaver was traded to the Cincinnati Reds, the news broke Harrelson’s heart.
Not long after the trade the Mets played a game that included a long rain delay. Harrelson used the opportunity to sit down and in the clubhouse and write Seaver a letter.
“After the trade, I went through two miserable days before I started to pull out of it,” said Harrelson. “It gave me a chance to tell him a few things. We roomed together and I love him like a brother.”