John Buck’s touching moment with Matt Harvey

By now, we all know the terrible news about Matt Harvey’s partially torn UCL, which might require surgery. If Harvey would need to undergo Tommy John surgery, he would miss mot (if not all) of the 2014 campaign.

The news was heartbreaking to all of us. It was the first time in a while that I didn’t have words to describe my feelings about what I was reading, hearing, seeing. Never before has it been so hard to try to put something like this into perspective, and it still isn’t.

But last night during the Mets game, there was a moment that put it all together for me and really gave this sad story a promising future. For those who have not seen this yet, be prepared to be a bit depressed for a moment. Credit to this goes to JewishDoggy on Reddit:

Now there are two ways to look at this and both would be appropriate. The first would to feel that the world is coming to an end and everything that Sandy Alderson and the Mets have been working towards has been flushed down the drain. The first time I looked at this, I also had the same reaction.

Standing there is Matt Harvey, hood up and in a state that no Met fan has seen him in. He is always focused and energized, whether on the mound or not. This Matt Harvey looks like one who just had everything he loved taken away from him. It’s a site that Mets fans don’t ever want to have to see again.

But there is an optimistic way to look at that moment above. After looking at it for a while, it hit me. Harvey is so down on himself because he feels that he’s letting the team, the fans, baseball down. He feels that it’s his fault he got hurt. His will to be the best pitcher on the planet has led him to blame himself a lot for mistakes that aren’t his, including this one. Baseball is Matt Harvey’s life. The Mets are Matt Harvey’s life. And he feels that he’s letting down 24 other guys in that dugout with him. It speaks to the drive Harvey has and the responsibility he takes as a pitcher. He wants to get to rehabbing this injury as soon as he can, because he wants to get back on the field to pitch and to win a World Series and nothing else.

And there is John Buck who only adds to this moment by comforting Harvey, because he knows Harvey’s work ethic and knows how Harvey wants to be on that field every 5^th day, no matter what. Buck shows how classy of a teammate he is and how much he cares about Harvey this team.  While it’s no consolation prize, this moment last night, gave extreme optimism to this situation. It showed a guy who is going to do anything he can to get back onto the field and it showed a teammate comforting a fellow brother. It’s hard to find a positive here, but going through this absence of Harvey will only make the Mets strong and it will make winning a World Series, even sweeter.

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