Vayamos Pedro

Well, well, well....

So much for a tough luck draw against Aaron Harang. What more can be said..he is a walking, talking, pitching legend in orange & blue.

I remember opening day 2005 so clearly. It was his 1st game, it was against the Reds at The Great American Ballpark. It was the first game of "the new Mets".

He looked nervous in the first, just like today, and let up a 3-run homer to Adam Dunn before Gary could welcome new starting CF Carlos Beltran and new starting 1B Doug Mientkiewicz (yuk). Not to mention the switch back to SS for the great Jose Reyes and shift to 2B for the NY bust Kaz Matsui. After the homer, you saw the Pedro look come over his face. Soon he was mowing down batters. Fastballs, nasty change-ups and that steady slow curve. He didn't allow another hit but he has struck out 12 in just 6 innings and was over 100 pitches so he was removed from the game leading by 3 runs. A guy by the name of Manny Aybar then came in (he was that year's Mota) and let up a run. Followed in the 9th by Braden Looper letting up 2 HRs - Dunn to tie it and Joe Randa to lose the game. It was a sickening loss but that day all Mets fans knew that something had changed. Pedro's games all became festive holiday's. At home, attendance shot up 8,000 or more when he pitched. The "new Mets" had arrived.

Sitting down today to see Pedro throw, I was as excited as I was that April day in 2005. He had that same look of nervousness on him in the first, as did I on my couch. The leadoff guy hit a dinker like Aaron Rowand did last week followed by a rocket to LF that Alou misplayed for a double. Suddenly, things looked shaky. Granted the Alou play should've been an out but he was throwing 82-83 and they were crushing the ball. Next batter, Junior, crushes one right at Beltran for an out. A run scored but the Pedro face is suddenly back. He lets up a single to Phillips to plate the second run and then proceeds to retire 8 in a row and 9 of 10, reaching as high as 90 MPH on the clock, something I have never seen Pedro do as a Met. A weird error by Beltran plates a run and that was it. He let up a dinky IF single in the 5th and retired Dunn to end the 5th. The Mets promptly came up the next inning and put 2 on the board and with Manny Aybar off playing in the Korean Baseball Organization, Schoenweiss, Feliciano and Sosa eased through 3 innings, the Mets tacked on 4 more and won in a romp.

Pedro is back my friends. He joined the team before the Braves series and I don't think it's at all a coincidence that we are 4-0 since then.

He is the one that brought us all of this. He brought us Beltran & he brought us Delgado. He brought us Fernando Martinez and many more like him in the future.

This team has been in need of an identity all season long. Our identity has just entered the building. He wears 45. His name is Pedro.