This Magic Moment, 2012

[bmfc1]

There were some good moments in 2012--name one of your favorites. Not a game but a moment in time. E.g, the no-hitter isn't a moment but the feeling you had when the no-hitter ended, and you jumped up and down and dropped your pants, that's a moment.
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I'll start: April 26th, Thursday afternoon. Justin Turner walks with the bases loaded off Heath Bell to tie it (a 13 pitch AB), and then we learned how to spell "Nieuwenhuis" who singles in the winning run. Jose Reyes walks off a loser as the Mets sweep the 3 game series and at that moment, we felt the possibility that the season could be special.

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2012_04_26_miamlb_nynmlb_1&mode=wrap&c_id=mlb#gid=2012_04_26_miamlb_nynmlb_1&mode=wrap

[Vic Sage]

if i had dropped my pants anywhere in the vicinity of the tv, that no-hitter would not have happened.
ask anybody.

as for my favorite moment this year, i'd have to say it was sometime in March when i looked at the team we had compiled in ST and just knew it wouldn't be worth shit this year and decided, at that moment, that the Wilpons would not get one red cent from me this season.

[Ceetar]

Don't remember the date, but leaving after the second of Dickey's one-hitters in a row with my wife and noting how she'd had yet to see the Mets bullpen in two games and realizing Dickey had a chance to have a really magical season.

[metirish]

When Johan took the mound for the 9th.....wow

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Wright's three-run homer to give Dickey the lead for his 20th win. The best moment I've had at the ballpark in a couple of years.

[Lefty Specialist]

metirish wrote: When Johan took the mound for the 9th.....wow

Yeah, that gave me the chills for the first time in forever.

[Guest themetfairy]

I'd say the realization that the No Hitter was complete. I was totally verklempt.

[Edgy MD]

Seeing the black ditched for the first time was pretty sweet.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Two words:

REO.
Speedwagon.

(maybe that's 5 words)

Keep on Rollin.

[G-Fafif]

The last Mets-Astros game ever of a National League nature in late August. It was on Channel 11, which meant it wasn't on my Cablevision-fueled television. For a couple of reasons, I decided to grab my pocket radio and drive it to my hometown of Long Beach (which is six miles from where I live but where I haven't been in several years) and spent the afternoon on a middle-aged sentimental journey of sorts, walking and listening, walking and listening. When the Astros tied it in the top of the ninth, I was guessing we were due for 16 or 24 innings, classic Mets-Astros stuff delivered as farce. I was ambling close to the elementary school playground where I sucked at stickball when Ike Davis ended it with one swing in the bottom of the ninth (nobody ever ends it with two swings, but you know what I mean). I was about a half-block from the scene of my lack of youthful triumphs. Kept walking, took a look around, saw construction had closed the playground off for summer, read something into it, turned around and picked up some mushroom barley soup to go at a deli I used to patronize.

Next to the no-hitter and Dickey winning his 20th, it was my magic moment of 2012.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Meeting Cooby in person at Citi Field.

[metsmarathon]

when minimm picked keith hernandez' nose

[seawolf17]

Being a very small piece of the 50th Anniversary Conference at Hofstra and getting to present on baseball cards and the Mets.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I'd say honestly the only Mets game I went to that they won (I think I went 1-5 this year), Friday night in May, Duda hit one off the Pepsi porch, Nieuwy had a big RBI, Gee was pitching, we beat the Padres.

[TransMonk]

Even though this season was a major bummer, Johan's no-hitter, Dickey's great season and Wright breaking the hits record will still make it more memorable than other sucky seasons.

My magic moment came on Wednesday, June 13th at Tampa Bay. The Mets had beaten the Rays 11-2 the night before and Dickey was ROLLING to 10 wins against 1 loss. When we chased superstar David Price after 5 innings and 7 earned runs, it was one of the few times that I honestly thought this team could realistically compete in 2012.

Oops.

[Chad ochoseis]

Catching the end of TMF and D-Dad's pre-game tailgate on Opening Day.

After that, it was all pretty much downhill.

[ashie62]

Dickey, Johan and the booth..

[Benjamin Grimm]

The last out of the no-hitter. It was really the only baseball thing that stirred me at all in 2012. Even when the Mets were winning in the first few months of the season, I never got the sense that I was rooting for a contending team and I never really engaged with the team this year.

[Fman99]

My magic moment at Citi Field is pictured in my avatar -- running into Greg Cashen's son in the Mets HOF museum and getting Fboy a chance for him to wear a real World Series ring.

Also, sitting on the concourse outside of left field, eating lunch, and catching up with themetfairy, which has become an annual tradition for Fboy and I now (four years running, if I'm counting right).

[Gwreck]

The last out of the no-hitter is an obvious choice (and previously mentioned), so I'll pick another one from that same game.

I keep score at (just about) every game I go to. Plus, I am a Mets fan. Hence, I start thinking about "is this the night" after the second consecutive batter is retired. It's not an all-consuming thought, but it's always going to be there in the back of my head.

The moment from me was when -- that evening -- things moved from the "this could happen" to "wait, this really could happen!" When Mike Baxter made that catch and crashed into the left field wall (on a ball that none other than one Yadier F. Molina had hit) that was when you knew.

[Guest themetfairy]

Being on the field for the first Banner Day in MK's lifetime was also pretty damn cool!

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

All the obvious, already mentioned ones, of course. Plus, the second of Dickey's one-hitters came on a rough day during a difficult week; I watched the last couple of innings while surrounded by family, sharing it with me. Watching him practically leap off the mound at game's end was a welcome, welcome moment of soothing and respite.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

We were in Vermont over July 4 week. I managed a staticy FAN signal in the car on our way home from a fireworks show, got to the house, but for some reason thought I should stay in the car and listen to the 9th inning just in case. Much better than following it on my cellphone.

In a related memory, Valdespin's HR off Papelbon, which I experienced via headphones near the very end of a long, crappy, sweaty run. I was hurting and about to shut down the running for 2 months but a great reward for fighting through that night.

In general, Howie and Josh made this season much more enjoyable aurally.

[seawolf17]

Speaking of Valdespin -- the game-tying home run in Washington. Awesome moment. Reached across five rows of seats to high-five the other Mets fan in my section.

(The only Met game I went to this year, and it wasn't even in New York.)

[bmfc1]

I had the pleasure of meeting seawolf17 at that game, July 17. What a great moment that was:
http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2012_07_17_nynmlb_wasmlb_1&mode=recap&c_id=was#gid=2012_07_17_nynmlb_wasmlb_1&mode=recap&c_id=nym

and then Parnell coughed it up and the Mets lost in the 10th.

[Lefty Specialist]

Another point from the no-no....when someone at SNY said "screw the commercials" and just let the cameras roll between the end of the eighth and the top of the ninth, letting the tension build. That was good television.

Certainly better than watching Derek Jeter drive his Ford aimlessly through empty streets.

[G-Fafif]

The No-No DVD, available for about $14.95 (at most), is worth the price not just for the SNY telecast but the WFAN audio track AND the Spanish-language call that, while hard for someone with six years of junior high/high school Spanish to understand, was about as energetic as could be. Sounded like a 1962 broadcast in the best sense of the atmospherics.

Gary joining Howie on Mets Extra that night (the upside of Josh being absent for his daughter's HS graduation was the original host being on air) was magic within magic.

[Gwreck]

Most of my favorite Met moments occur when I'm in attendance but I have one from this season that sticks out in my mind from watching on the radio. I was in Paris in early July and had just come back to the hotel after attending one of the greatest concerts I'd ever seen.

It was a long show, ending past midnight (Paris time), and after post-show drinks and food I was still wired, so naturally, I put on the Mets game (it was about 4:00 AM at this point) -- just in time for the Mets' rally in the ninth against Jonathan Papelbon. Murphy beat out the infield single for the tie, and then Wright got the winning hit, and I was able to experience it through the magic of the internet, gameday audio and the dulcet tones of Howie Rose. Perfect.

[G-Fafif]

Gwreck wrote: Most of my favorite Met moments occur when I'm in attendance but I have one from this season that sticks out in my mind from watching on the radio. I was in Paris in early July and had just come back to the hotel after attending one of the greatest concerts I'd ever seen. It was a long show, ending past midnight (Paris time), and after post-show drinks and food I was still wired, so naturally, I put on the Mets game (it was about 4:00 AM at this point) -- just in time for the Mets' rally in the ninth against Jonathan Papelbon. Murphy beat out the infield single for the tie, and then Wright got the winning hit, and I was able to experience it through the magic of the internet, gameday audio and the dulcet tones of Howie Rose. Perfect.

That game was the moment I finally allowed myself to believe the 2012 Mets were for real. The next night they came close to forging an even more unbelievable comeback, falling just short against the Cubs. When they didn't, I got the sense the realness had passed. And so it did.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

I gathered my entire family into the living room to watch the final inning on the MLB network. Magic!

The second-best moment might have been Valdespin's homer against the Phillies.