This past weekend my plan was actually to take things relatively easy. My physical therapist had been on me a little bit recently about the fact that every time he had asked me what I was doing over the weekend on my time off I was saying that I was going away, I was heading to a concert, I was off to the beach, basically anything other then taking it easy. In fact one of the hardest things for me to do is take it easy. I am of the firm belief that a moment free is a moment wasted, I don’t slow down ever and (as I’ll get more in-depth about in future posts) I avoid excuses and simply try to do as much as I possibly can. However, this weekend my PT said to me “ya know Box, I want for one time, one weekend when I ask what you’re up to for you to say “Well PT I’m actually going to take it easy and rest my back.” Thus, I decided to take my PT’s advice and this was my idea heading into this weekend. I hadn’t had too much planned and in the weekends coming up I had a bunch of stuff coming up so this was going to be the weekend where I toned it down…as much as I could at least.
Therefore, Friday came and I was pushing Calrence to really go see the Mets game. I had seen Johan Santana’s last start live and was blown away how someone could come back from an injury so soon and be dominant so I wanted to witness greatness pitch once more. Unfortunately, Clarence had something come up and asked if we could go check out the Dictator way later on in the evening, I went along with the plan deciding to give Sasha Baron Cohen one last shot. I called my buddy Trent up and had told him that I wanted to get down to Citi Field to see the game but he reminded me that I had tickets with a host of different folks on both Sunday and Monday so I would be running the risk of getting “Metsed Out” (A fair point as at the end of the day I really am a Yankee fan). I agreed and laid down for a nap.
I woke up at about 7:30 and did what I always do for the Mets, check the boxscore to see how many hits they had given up. I don’t know why but I have always been fascinated by the fact that the Mets had never had a no-hitter since way back when I first found this out (on a seventh grade science class field trip when my buddy Dafe told me about this in 1998) and so every time they have had a game since the possibility of that first no-hitter is always on my mind until they give up a hit. Everyone who has been to a game with me could probably tell you that whenever the opposing team first gets a hit against the Mets, I often times say with much annoyance “Damn! There goes the No Hitter!” To me it was always on my mind that I really wanted to be at the first ever Mets no hitter, I mean to see something like that would be something I could tell my kids, scratch that, my grandkids about one day!
There was a game I think in 2006 that the Mets had brought Bruce Chen out of mothballs and he came in and pitched like 3-4 innings of no hit ball and I remember the possibility of that first ever no-hitter started creeping in my head once again. “My lord, how insane would it be if Bruce Chen threw the first no-hitter”…then I heard my buddy say the same my thoughts aloud and I freaked out at the insane nature of my buddy ruining Chen’s chances with the ultimate jinx! Chen came out for the next inning and gave up five runs and did not record a single out more! See this is another thing about me, I’m insanely superstitious! If the Jets are winning a game I will often tweet that they will end up losing so that I won’t jinx them by saying they got the game, if a friend mentions anything about something good happening in the future, I tell them to shut up, I even wore the same pair of blueberry never wanna get laid windbreaker pants for every test I took in college because I swore they were good luck, I’m kinda nutty about it. Low and behold if anyone even thinks of mentioning someone’s chances at a no-hitter I kinda sorta want to hit them in the face and if the no hit bid gets tarnished I blame said jinxer!
I digress, when I woke up at 7:30 I checked the boxscore and through two innings Johan Santana hadn’t given up a hit. Was this going to be the day? Too early but I was thinking about it, I mean it would make sense I always wanted to go to this game and so it probably could happen now that I decided to stay home. I called up Trent and made plans to get dinner before meeting with Clarence for the movie. I turned back on the Mets game towards the end of the fifth and I noticed someone on base…I guessed the no hit bid had been ruined. I rewound the DVR a bit and noticed that I was wrong, just a walk…holy crap Santana was alive! Again I called Trent and told him that I thought something may be happening at Citi Field that had never happened in Mets history…Trentsaid you don’t think Santana was throwing a no-hitter do you? I did, everything was adding up to a great story and this seemed like it was going to happen! Trent said dude fuck it if this is gonna happen we gotta get there!
Trentwas right! So in the top of the six and with history looming it was time to put dinner and the Dictator on the backburner! If this first Mets no-hitter was gonna happen, I was gonna be there to see it! Trent and I were off to Citi Field!
