By William Kristoph
I’m a New York Mets fan. I’ve been a New York Mets fan my whole life. I admit that I didn’t pay much attention to them during the 90s when I didn’t have access to watching them on television. Over the last decade I’ve been able to pay more attention thanks to expanded coverage, Extra Innings and now, MLB.tv. That means I get to watch or listen to every Matt Harvey start this year.
Matt Harvey is the great hope for Mets fans. That doesn’t mean that he’s going to save the team or even bring Mets fans a championship. What he does, however, is make Mets baseball interesting every five games. He brings hope to a group of fans that seems pretty disenchanted. That’s all obvious, so please allow me to focus this on a more personal note.
Matt Harvey is the first “start” that my son might get to remember someday and that excites me. I remember my first Mets game at Shea, I remember watching Doc Gooden and Keith Hernandez and even Rafael Santana. I remember my first baseball “heroes” and how fun it was to check out their stats, watch them on WWOR or see the highlights from Warner Wolf. If Matt Harvey is as good as advertised so far, I might get to have fun conversations with my son about how great Harvey pitched.
I’d love to do that with David Wright, who is another favorite, but my son probably won remember him. He’ll maybe remember the tail end of Wright’s career, but trying to explain how great Wright was to watch is like someone trying to explain to me the great Tom Seaver. I never saw him in his prime and I’m too young to remember the tail end of his career. Forget about explaining Gooden or Hernandez. I’m willing to bet that my son will be more interested in why the television picture was so grainy and square while I try to show him highlights or the Let’s Go Mets video.
So yes, Matt Harvey’s baseball career is a “hope” right now. It might or might not pan out. It might be another Mets player or someone from another team or sport entirely. Either way, watching Harvey pitch so far in 2013 is a treat. His starts provide a moment that is all too rare: the moment you can recall being a kid. I can’t wait until my son gets to experience a bit of that for the first time.
