Its the ninth inning, and after sitting in the dugout by his lonesome deep in his own thoughts, Johan Santana ventured over to the rubber to take on the ninth inning and so much more. But hey, we won’t talk about it because that’s tradition. That’s baseball tradition to not talk about something bordering on excitement. SHHHHHH. EVERYONE QUIET!!!!!
Its never been easy being a Mets fan. We live in a city filled with obnoxious older brothers always willing to knock you down a peg with the same, yet inarguable point: Talk to us when you get to ten world series. They have the much larger group of Hall of Fame players. They have the lore of their stadium. They have the worldwide brand. They have the owner who’s famous for spending whatever it takes to build a winner. They even took two of our most famous pitchers (Dwight Gooden, and David Cone) and saw them to a no-hitter and a perfect game. That’s the kind of note in the back of your mind that Met fans have to keep whenever trying to savor a bit of joy in any Met win or feat. Its been done by them and probably better.
So I’ll save Yankee fans from even having to make the argument: should there be an asterisk on the first no-hitter in franchise history? Maybe. Carlos Beltran’s liner in the sixth was a fair ball according to replays and the chunk of chalk it took with it as it lined foul according to the 3rd base umpire. But we can all agree that umpires usually stand in the way of games and this time an umpire finally got a play wrong and did right by it. The Mets deserved a no-hitter. This is a franchise that employed Doc Gooden, Tom Seaver, David Cone and worst of all, Nolan Ryan. He of the 7 no-hitters. All of them having thrown no-hitters after they had left the Mets. All of them great pitchers. None of their no-hitters ours.
And I don’t use the word “I” in reference to the team but last night it was a collective sigh of relief. For Johan Santana. The warrior who had battled back from major shoulder reconstructive surgery. Terry Collins had a strict 115 pitch count and he had to see it go steadily higher after the seventh inning. This was the franchise ace and he was throwing him out there in a game having already been decided. But in his defense: the bullpen sucks and there’s no telling how many runs they would have let up especially considering that the Mets were up against the number one offense in the major leagues. YEAH! He threw it against the number one offense in the major leagues with a slider, fastball in the high 80’s and a wicked change up in the mid to late 70’s. Johan who was traded for and lavished upon the largest contract, at the time, for a lefty pitcher didn’t need any more validation. Met fans knew about his fight and his guile. On a bad knee he threw a one hitter on the day before the season ended in heartbreaking fashion against the Marlins in 2008 giving Met fans a glimpse of what a real ace was like.
For manager Terry Collins, Johan Santana’s final pitch was a huge relief. His arm hadn’t fallen off and only until this morning will he know what it took out of him to reach this great milestone. A manager has many duties and one of them being the safety and well being of his players. So much was said by the huge breath he took as Santana locked up the no-hitter. He knows what he had. He knows what he was protecting and he also knows what a no-hitter would’ve meant for this fan base and for the franchise and he wasn’t about to risk all of that. Not with a warrior like Johan out there and not with a crowd frenzied up in the ninth. You had the feeling that even before a potential first hit had reached the floor, Terry would’ve already been motioning to the bullpen and running out there and carrying Johan on his back to the dugout. That’s how much concern he had. It was fatherly. His tears running down when he finally embraced Johan near the dugout was heart warming and so telling. Terry Collins, manager of the year so far, cared so much and loved his team and his team loves him back.
For the fans. Its been fifty years with this franchise and despite the joy of the 69 and 86 seasons. The awfully close but exciting ’73, ’99, 2000, and ’06 seasons. The sting of these last six years have been a lot for this fan base. Two collapses, one of them epic. The rash of injuries. Being Ponzied by Bernie Madoff. Watching Jose Reyes get hand delivered to a division rival. Its been difficult to understand the feeling of Met fans who often wondered what could happen next?
And yet now, next has infinite possibilities. Now that this monkey is off our backs, what is next? What could possibly happen this season that could top all of this? Met fans know. But we’re not saying. See, there’s a tradition in baseball. You don’t talk about it until it happens and hopefully we’ll get to that ninth inning. To that final strike. To that 134th pitch and hear Gary Cohen scream: “the BALL GAME IS OVER” or Howie Rose yell “PUT IT IN THE BOOKS”. But shhh, we won’t talk about it.
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The Lazy Eye of Sports 