We're all talking about #TomSeaver as if he has died & that's because any of us who have dealt with a family member with dementia knows it is death, only worse.
A few weeks or months on the DL doesn't fix this. It's a one way trip that takes away your loved one - as in death - but leaves this facsimile of the person who is nothing like the man/woman you knew.
Obviously, Seaver's illness isn't going to affect any fan the way it would if a spouse/parent/sibling/other family member was suffering from dementia, but we can all imagine how it's going to affect him and we know it's a death, of sorts, only less dignified. And we don't want to imagine this man we all admired for his athletic ability AND his spirit, his determination and his smarts becoming the facsimile of the Seaver we loved.
So this is Tom Seaver's first death. We will never see him again, never again hear him talk about the great games of the past or the game today. We get to read all the obituaries today and we'll all do it again down the road, when he undergoes that second and final death.
