Jacob deGrom: A Perfect Fit
Jacob deGrom: A Perfect Fit
By Elizabeth Muratore
I rifled through the shirts at a Cooperstown souvenir shop, knowing exactly what I was looking for. I was about halfway through my summer internship at the Baseball Hall of Fame, and today, as I did on many of my days off that summer, I came into town anyway and wandered around. I had decided that now was the time to break my long-held streak of not buying Mets player merchandise. Normally, I shied away from purchasing shirts with Mets players’ names on them, since there was always a chance that their performance would slip (Ike Davis, I see you) or that they would be traded. I never wanted to be that fan sporting a Marlon Byrd jersey on his Citi Field t-shirt night the same day he was traded.
Jacob deGrom was different. He was undoubtedly my favorite Mets player, but he was also the player I always believed in the most. I vividly remember watching his debut on TV in 2014, when I had barely heard of him. On that warm May evening, the 25-year-old rookie looked like a seasoned veteran, striking out six Yankees, pitching seven innings of one-run ball, and recording his first major league hit. He lost, of course, because, you know, the Mets. But as he mowed down Yankee after Yankee, a thought bubbled through my mind: “This guy looks legit! Where did he come from?”
After sorely missing the spectacle that “Harvey Day” had been in 2013, I now had “deGrom Day” to look forward to. Years later, “deGrom Day” is still the best part of my week.
In that souvenir shop, I vowed that even if deGrom were traded the next day, I would still wear his shirt proudly. After more digging, I found a blue deGrom shirt in the kids section. It was half the price of the adult sizes, and just fit me. I happily handed over $18 to the cashier and walked out of the store, completely satisfied with my purchase. That shirt became my go-to Mets game attire.
I wish I had that shirt back in 2015, when I went to one of deGrom’s April starts against the Miami Marlins, right at the beginning of the Mets’ remarkable push towards first place. I had never heard Citi Field as electric as it was that night. I also had never seen deGrom pitch in person before that game. He had what I would call a “vintage deGrom start,” tossing seven shutout innings with eight strikeouts. The precision with which he dismantled the opposing hitters filled me with an unfamiliar hope. I closed my eyes and imagined that this game was actually a playoff game, and that he was about to send the entire Mets fan base into a historic frenzy. I was used to faintly hoping that the likes of Mike Pelfrey or Dillon Gee would emerge victorious at Mets games I attended, but now, the “Mets magic” of 1986 and 1969 that I had heard so much about seemed within my grasp.
deGrom finished eighth in Cy Young voting in 2017, the year I bought the shirt. In 2018, he won the National League Cy Young award.
That same year, the All-Star game was at Nationals Park. One of my friends from the University of Virginia sang in a choir that was part of the game’s national anthem. I texted her the night before the game, asking if by some miracle she happened to meet deGrom, if she could say hi to him for me.
The next day, I watched with pride as my friend sang on national television and as deGrom was the sole Mets All-Star representative. It was a thrill to watch him on the national baseball stage once again, a place that the Mets had rarely been since his ascension to “ace-status” in the 2015 playoffs. A few hours later, my friend texted me.
“deGrom walked right by us on the field before we started singing! I said hi to him, and he smiled and waved at us!”
She had done it! I felt an unusual feeling of “secondhand excitement” that my friend had stood on the same baseball field as my favorite Mets player and he had acknowledged her existence.
What I love most about deGrom is not his fastball velocity, smooth windup, or warmup music (the incomparable “Simple Man” by Lynyrd Skynyrd). It’s the way he shakes his head in frustration nearly every time he leaves the mound, even if he surrendered no runs or hits. I have actually seen deGrom doing this after striking out the side, which just boggles the mind.
But if you know what deGrom is about, you’ll understand why he does this. He never rests on his laurels, even after becoming the best pitcher in baseball. He has occasionally danced with perfection, and pitches like he wants every start to be a perfect game. When he shakes his head in frustration after striking out the side, I know it’s because he threw too many pitches, or gave up a scorched foul ball, or something else fairly inconsequential. He always seems to have something to prove to himself, even if he has nothing else to prove to me.
Though the Mets did not make the playoffs in 2019, deGrom won the Cy Young for the second year in a row. On that glorious evening, I sipped a celebratory glass of wine from my Baseball Hall of Fame wine glass, proudly sported my slightly shrunken blue deGrom shirt, and decided that “deGrom Cy Young announcement day” was my new favorite holiday. If I end up back in Cooperstown for his Hall of Fame induction ceremony one day, I’ll be sure to wear the shirt then, too.
Elizabeth Muratore is one of the editors of IBWAA’s Here’s the Pitch newsletter. She also writes for Rising Apple and Girl at the Game and is a former Baseball Hall of Fame intern. Elizabeth is a lifelong Mets fan who thinks that Keith Hernandez should be in the Hall of Fame. You can follow her on Twitter @nymfan97.