Carlos and David's catch, up close

I've written here plenty of times about how I love Carlos Delgado and David Wright's tradition of having a catch out in front of the Mets dugout before home games, after the National Anthem, while the starting lineups are being announced on DiamondVision. Our seats under the net behind home plate afforded me the best view I've yet had of their ritual ball toss.




they start out pretty close to each other, just lobbing the ball.



slowly, they move further apart, making the tosses into throws.



Carlos keeps moving back toward first, and David keeps moving back toward home, until they're really throwing the ball and shagging the throws.



the game winds up with David throwing running shots at Delgado, and ends quickly when they get the sign that they're about to be called onto the field and scamper back into the dugout, just to run out again with their team when we start cheering for our 2007 New York Mets.

I don't know why I love minutiae like this, but I bet it has something to do with my father, who rightly pointed out once Mota came into the game that David was firing the ball back to him on the mound after outs, a departure from the normal toss from third baseman to pitcher-- and then rightly pointed out that now, for the rest of my life, I'll pay attention to the way third basemen throw the ball to the pitcher after an out.