Video Of The Week: The Walkoff Homer
I apologize if you came here looking for the business/tech section and landed on the sports section. But that’s how its going to be today.
I grew up an army brat moving every year. I was a baseball fan and my teams were the A’s and the Pirates, the two most colorful teams in baseball in the 70s. When we arrived in NYC in 1983, I had two choices, the Mets and the Yankees. There was no way I was going to be a Yankees fan, so the Mets were the default choice but not one I was excited about.
A year later in the summer of 1984, I arrived back in NYC from a business trip on a steamy July night, just like this week has been, and got in a taxi at LaGuardia. Back then the taxis did not have AC so we drove into Manhattan with the windows down and the breeze in our faces. The taxi driver had the Mets game crackling on the radio, the best way to consume baseball in my opinion. The Mets had their young rookie pitcher Dwight Gooden on the mound and it was late in the game and he was striking out everyone. It was mesmerizing to listen to this kid strike out batter after batter. I got home, turned on the game in our apartment, watched the end of it, and have been a dedicated Met fan ever since.
The early years of my Met-fandom were easy. The 80s were a great time to be a Met fan. The rest of my time in NYC no so much.
But this year has been different. The Mets have pitching, lots of it. And so I’ve been watching more closely all summer long.
Last night, after dinner and after our guests retired for the night, Josh and I turned on the Mets Nationals game. Matt Harvey was in fine form and, as usual, the Mets were not hitting. Harvey stayed in an inning too long, lost the lead, and the game went into extra innings. Finally, in the 12th inning, Wilmer Flores hit this walk off homer and the Mets are now two games out of first place with Yoenis Cespedes on a plane to NYC. I think we’ll be watching a lot of Mets games the rest of this season.