Jose Reyes

Jose Reyes is pretty much everything that's great about sports. A couple nights ago, my friend Lee and I were watching the Mets Giants game. At one point Lee says, "Just look at Jose Reyes. He's like a 5 year old. He acts exactly the way a 5 year old would if he were in the MLB." At the time, the Mets were at bat and Reyes was standing up at the edge of the dugout next to Endy Chavez. Jose was dancing and grinning and waving his arms at the pitcher to try to mess him up. If you just said to yourself, "come on, it's the big leagues, there's no place for that," then I hate you. It was absolutely hilarious, and really just perfect.

It reminds me of the kid from the movie Little Big League, when a 12 year old plays for the Chicago Cubs. He gets on first base and starts dancing, making faces at the pitcher, and shouting the imfamous "pitchers got a big butt" chant. Then the pitcher pegs the batter in the back and says "that one was for you kid." I digress.

At the beginningn of the year, my friend Max said that Jose Reyes is the most exciting player in all of sports. I found it hard to believe that such a prestigious title could go to a baseball player, but it's true. He's already a top 5 player in the game. He gets big hit after big hit, has 28 stolen bases (more than several entire teams), has 7 triples already, and fields unbelievably well. Whenever this kid is at bat something ridiculous is about to happen. He can take a standard double and make it a triple, and he can take a single and steal 2 bases to get to third. He drives pitchers crazy. A couple nights ago, he was on first base, with the mets down 1 in the bottom of the 12th. He dances around and fakes a steal, which causes reliever Armando Benitez to balk. Reyes is on second. Then Benitez throws a wild pitch. Reyes is on third. Reyes messes around with Benitez some more and causes him to balk a second time! Reyes scores and the Mets go on to win.

And when he's not doing something amazing, Reyes is dancing and playing around on the field and in the dugout. He's also known for his amazingly creative and elaborate handshakes that he does with the 2 Carlos'. Everything about this guy is great. He's got that competitive edge that lets him be great, that little kid mentality that never left him, and the physical ability that gets you out of your seat on a regular basis.

Surprisingly, I couldn't find any good videos of Jose (youtube failed me for once). But I did stumble onto the greatest playoff catch I have ever seen. I'm sure you remember last year in game 7 of the NLCS, Mets vs Cardinals. It was 1-1 in the 7th and Edmonds hits a shot that shod be a homerun, making it 3-1 i think, and basically ending the season. But out of no where Endy leaps up and makes the most amazing over the wall snow cone grab ive ever seen, keeping the Mets alive. The catch's glory was diminished after the Mets lost the game and got eliminated.

The Catch
The Catch from the Crowd's perspective