Last night Johan Santana made baseball history by throwing the first no-no hitter in New York Mets’ history. And as he damn well should be, he received all of the headlines.
But to me, the other guy who should be grabbing a few headlines himself is Terry Collins.
The way Collins maneuvered through the in-game situation of deciding whether or not to let Santana chase down history was the first aspect of this. However, following up that impressive performance by tearing up during his post-game press conference sealed the deal for me.
After all, who ever said there is no crying in baseball?
In my mind, Collins’ passion and desire for wanting this group of guys to succeed is unmatched across the sport. The Mets had to suffer through some real duds at the helm, but they have finally found someone who has all of the intangibles.
How many managers would have the guts to leave Santana in the game in a market like New York? Santana was approaching an alarming pitch count and his shoulder has a checkered past. Yet Collins saw through all of that, understood the magnitude of the moment and allowed Santana to go out and make history.
Santana hurts something and Collins career would be forever marked as the man who ended Santana’s career. Instead, he will go down as one of the men who defined it.
Added on to all of that–it really seems that last night was yet another positive result of Collins instilling a sense of belief in this team. Despite all the cellar-dweller predictions which surrounded this time before the season, Collins has this team convinced they have no limits.
They want to go out and play winning baseball? They can do it.
They want to go out and throw the Mets first ever no-no? They can do it.
They want to go out and make the playoffs for the first time since 2006? We’ll see but you can bet all 25 guys in that clubhouse under Collins’ leadership believe they can do that to.
If there was any doubt at all if Sandy Alderson made the right choice during his managerial search, the first two months of the season and last night in particular demolished all of that.
