New York Mets relief pitcher Tommy Hunter appeared in his 476th career MLB game on Tuesday night in Atlanta, going two innings strong and striking out four Braves batters. It was easily his best performance of the season on the mound so far, but not even that could compete with what he accomplished at the dish in his lone at-bat of the night.
Hunter has spent the bulk of his career in the American League, and thus has not accumulated many plate appearances. On Tuesday night, though, he stepped in for just the fifth time in his career, and got his first-ever MLB hit:
As you can see, Hunter was understandably excited. But the immediate reaction paled in comparison to his postgame reaction, when he had plenty of time to think about what he had accomplished and it finally sank in. There's simply nothing like your first big-league hit, as his priceless reaction shows:
So, so good. Stuff like this gets said a lot, but it's really not thast crazy to say that no player has ever been this happy to get a base hit in the show. Look at this freakin' guy:
Pure, unbridled joy. This is a guy who has struck out nearly 600 batters, pitched in the ALCS opn two different teams, pitched in a World Series, and the "coolest thing" he's ever done in his 14-year career, according to him, is rip a single to left in a May regular season game in Atlanta. How can you not be romantic about baseball.
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