A night to remember. (Photo by Steve Feitl.)
It was a magical night at Citi Field.
Really, one of the first memorable nights in the still relatively new ballpark. Opening Night went downhill when Jody Gerut crushed the second-ever pitch from Mike Pelfrey. Gary Sheffield's 500th homer was nice, but part of cup of coffee with the team. Jose Reyes won the first batting title in Mets history there last September... but did so by not coming out of the dugout.
Not exactly a lot of great options to choose from.
A no-hitter is what it is. A statistical quirk. An individual accolade that can only be accomplished with help from the Mike Baxters of the world and a little luck. In the end, it counts the same in the standings as all those 35 one-hitters (assuming the Mets won all of them).
But anyone in Flushing on Friday knows how badly those 27,069 (or less) wanted to see it happen. And it was euphoria when it did.
So that's a great moment for Citi Field. Here's a look back at a few of the photos I managed to snap from Section 517.
I quietly started documenting his Johan Santana's progress after he made it through five innings. Here's a look at the scoreboards each inning along the way.
After five innings... (Photo by Steve Feitl.)
Moving along to a Lucas Duda at-bat...
After six innings... (Photo by Steve Feitl.)
Moving along to the seventh-inning stretch...
After seven innings... (Photo by Steve Feitl.)
Moving along to another Johan Santana at-bat...
After eight innings... (Photo by Steve Feitl.)
Now we know, they only announced 27,069 for the crowd, but with a rainy, windy night, we know there were less than that in the stands. Of course, that won't stop tens of thousands of fans from claiming they were there. Here's some documentation of just how full the stands were after the seventh-inning stretch.
The left-field stands. (Photo by Steve Feitl.)
And a look down the first base line...
The right-field stands. (Photo by Steve Feitl.)
So I was a little busy jumping up and down and high-fiving strangers, but I did manage to grab one shot of the postgame scrum.
Moshpit time. (Photo by Steve Feitl.)
And it didn't take long for the grounds crew to be out after the game to retrieve the pitching rubber. Coming soon to a Hall of Fame near you.
They authenticate everything nowadays, don't they? (Photo by Steve Feitl.)
That's it for this photo tour of a magical night. Something tells me I won't have as much need for a camera the next time at Citi Field. But that's the thing about sports. You never know when that unexpected joy is coming. That's why we put up with the bad times.
And Mets fans have put up with plenty of bad times.
