Re(1): 1st - Brief Statement - Longer to Follow Posted on February 18, 2024 at 07:52:13 AM by MJAFANALWAYS
Stu, that is an unusually out of touch post for you. Racial or religious prejudice is horrible, but unrelated to on the court outrageous behavior. That is what this was. I will provide a MLB analogy and admit while being a Met Fan, in general I was mostly not a fan of the person I am about to discuss, but proud of him and the team that day.
In 2015 I went to 8 Met games, including Noah Syndergaard's first pro start. They were crushing the Brewers, and as you may know it takes 5 innings for a starter to get the win, and he took the mound top of fifth. It was going to be his last inning that day; fans understood and were in celebratory mood, ready to cheer once he finished half inning. Early in the inning he hit the opponents' leadoff man, Carlos Gomez, in the head, accidentally and he threw amongst hardest of all starters then. Gomez fell to the ground, not fully aware what was going on. It took about 90 seconds for him to get to his knees. Noah, who is 6'5', was distraught. Umps watched him circle mound, teary eyed (I had great seat and could see his face) another 90 seconds. Even catcher let him be, a wise move. Found out later, he spent rest of game checking with medical staff on Gomez, who luckily was not hurt badly past the moment. Gomez told him this happens, do NOT change a thing you do, and became close friend of his.
As was usual case, SNY reporter interviewed starter seconds after ninth inning ended. Noah quickly blurted out, emotionally "Any update on Carlos?" Minutes after his first win went in the books.
Overall, his on the field record has not been as super as it appeared it would be in 2015, but I knew leaving that day he was raised very well.👍 And I talked to many regular fans, as we knew each other by face, and all were in awe of his behavior that day, even more than his initial pitching ability. We had forgotten about the first four innings when Mets raced to what was an easy win. We had forgotten how impressive Noah looked those four innings. Despite his less than great overall career, I can never root against Syndergaard even if he faces the Mets, the team I root for.
