My Sincere Congratulations

I know.  This one is going to surprise you.  You'll read this, saying to yourself, "Where's the punchline?"  Rob is going to rip them eventually.

Nope.  Not today.

Johan Santana finally got the New York Mets over the hump last night.  In this terrible era of Mets baseball (though probably not as bad as the late 70's and early 80's, when even I felt sorry for them, and will never make that mistake again), the Mets fan got a chance to let a smile fly.  On a terribly foggy, groggy, rainy night, in front of a mere 27, 609 (and likely less) fans, the Mets finally got their first no-hitter.  A franchise that began in 1962 - in its FIFTY-FIRST SEASON - saw it's first no-no in front of the home town fans.

Curious side note: guess who drove past Citi Field last night right around 8:30 or so?  That would be me, having picked Lisa up from LaGuardia.  Sean, riding in the back seat, was making faces and pretending that he had a rocket launcher with him.

Admittedly, I didn't see a single pitch.  I got a text from ESPN after Santana finished eight innings.  Then my friend Dave Sweet texted me after the final out.

I'm happy for them.  Legitimately happy.  Look, I deplore the Mets, but to me, they're really not worth my time.  Neither are the Red Sox, for that matter.  I don't like Mets fans - I'm on record on that one - but if one can be civil and logical, then I happily talk baseball with them.  I'm still firm in my belief that one can NOT be a fan of both New York teams (read: fanatic).  And yes, I know a few Mets fans that I enjoy talking to about baseball (my old bowling teammate Rob Ellsworth immediately springs to mind).  My "Press Box" colleague Chris Kaelin, on the other hand, thinks everything is a Yankees conspiracy.

I say that only half-kidding.

My world doesn't end when the Mets (or the Red Sox...or Cowboys) win.  The sun comes up.  Life goes on.  I survived '86 and '04 and '07.  The thrill of victory, to be honest, can be short and fleeting.

Now, I'm not going to get on the bad call that was made off of the bat Carlos Beltran.  We saw - everyone saw - that Beltran's ball kicked up chalk and was clearly fair.  So chalk one up for the Mets and their fans.  It was a bad call, and they happen.  Even Beltran passed it off as no big deal.  As he said - correctly - the call had no bearing on the outcome of the game.

So let's let it go.  I love history.  I'm all for it.  We saw history last night at Citi Field.  Rejoice and celebrate it.

The media will blow it all up.  The mayor will likely throw a parade (have I mentioned what a fool he is recently?).  Mets fans will enjoy it.  They should.

This is one monkey that is off their backs.

UPDATE: I've found Howie Roses' radio call, via Deadspin.  Well done - really well done, and he saved his foolish "put it in the books" until well after the moment.  Perhaps he could have let the moment breathe and let the crowd noise wash over (that's the Scully school, friends) but really, I can't complain.  Really well done.  Gary Cohen's TV call, which does look the pictures tell the story, is here, via MLB.