#hi57ory

One year ago today, Johan Santana made Mets history - or should I say HI57ORY! Santana, a three-time Cy Young award winner, had been considered somewhat of a bust in his five years as Mets ace. But on this night in June, to most Mets fans, his contract became justified; and for the first time in the team's 50-plus year history, we had a no-hitter to call our own...finally! Here are some of my memories from that day, that I'll surely never forget.

It started that afternoon at work. I had tickets to the game and was all set to go with my girlfriend, until my mother convinced me to go to the beach instead of the game because there was no late ferry this early in June. After some thought I obliged and decided to go straight from work to the ferry.

On the train and ferry ride to Fire Island, I listened to Howie Rose on WFAN via the At Bat app. I recall him saying while I was sitting on the ferry that Santana was at x amount of pitches in an early inning and you can get any thought out of your head.

When I got off the ferry, I went into the bar where my dad was. He was on the first bar stool drinking wine and asked me if I knew what was happening. Of course, I did and we watched the remaining of the game together. Some Yankees fans tried to ruin it with texts in the eighth and ninth innings, but the Mets magic was too strong that night.

In the days after the no-no, looking at the numbers one thing really stood out to me - the presence of the number 8, which was the number worn by Gary Carter who passed away before the season last year:

The Mets won the game 8-0.

The Mets had 8 hits.

Santana had 8 strikeouts.

Santana threw 134 pitches, which sum equals 8.

And then there was this guy...