When I wrote about the greatest game Johan Santana ever pitched as a Met, I didn’t realize it would be the greatest game Johan Santana would ever pitch as a Met. At least I didn’t go on about it in a vacuum. After all, there was one more game to go in the 2008 season, and a playoff berth to go grab. There was also a stadium that needed a proper send off.
Too often a sporting event happens, and people talk about its place in history five minutes after its over. That didn’t happen on September 27th, 2008. As previously noted, there was a hell of a lot going on. Now, it’s safe to look upon that game that Johan Santana pitched on in its own prism … Its own context. Personally, I can tell you that was the most dominant I’ve ever seen a pitcher in person, and when that team needed it the most. Two games left in the season and with one loss threatening to eliminate the Mets from postseason consideration, Johan Santana took the mound on three days rest with a bum knee, and three-hit the Florida Marlins.
Santana was a Met for six years, and most likely no more than that after the Mets officially bought him out on Friday for money that could buy you Beltran’s mansion in Long Island, with enough left over to pay Scott Rice to warm up in Beltran’s back yard. It doesn’t seem like six years. Partly because time goes by too fast as we get older. And partly because Santana missed two of those seasons, along with significant parts of others. The ace that the Mets got because their previous ace broke down … also broke down. He led the league in innings pitched and batters faced in 2008, then never went over 200 innings in a season again. His body wouldn’t allow him to give the Mets more than just that one magical game when then needed him most. Johan Santana wasn’t a failure. His body failed.
I wrote a whole lot more about Johan’s no-hitter as if it was in a vacuum. It was. There was no backdrop of anything except what would turn out to be another dismal season … though it wasn’t so dismal at 29-23 when Johan got done with the Cardinals. The return of Carlos Beltran to Flushing as a visitor couldn’t compare to everything that was going on in 2008 when Santana pitched the game of his life … the game that the Mets acquired him to pitch. September 27th, 2008 was pure brilliance and guts that shouldn’t be lost in the story of his Mets career. The only reason it will be lost is because the Mets couldn’t clone Johan in time for a start on September 28th, 2008, which reduces the 27th to a mere footnote … a two hour and seventeen minute long Endy Chavez catch.
That day deserved better … much like the last six years.
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