Johan Santana‘s no hitter at Citi Field Friday night came as a jolt for more than one reason.
The event itself was amazing enough. No Mets pitcher had recorded a no-hitter before Friday’s performance, and the team has had some damn fine pitching throughout its history.
But more than that, Santana’s “no-no” (no hits, no runs) reminded us that the Mets turned 50 this year. How did that happen? The Mets are supposed to be the new kids on the block. They were founded to ease the pain of losing the old-guard Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants to California in 1957. Yet, at the half-century mark, the Mets are beginning to approach the ages the Dodgers and Giants were when they packed up and headed out for the then-promising Left Coast, 73 and 74 respectively.
I was invited Saturday to go to a Mets game, and so I did. But I first stopped to pick up a friend in the Pelham Manor neighborhood where my family lived from 1972 to 1989. The street looks identical to how it did when we first moved in, only with different faces behind the brick and stone house walls, save one where a friend’s mother remains.
The rest of this column is available at Newsday Westchester. Thanks for reading.
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