Friends in the MLB

Often in college, J. Price and I would sit around and talk about our athletic careers of yesteryear — specifically our baseball careers — and talk about how if this injury hadn’t occurred, or if that coach had just recognized our brilliance, we woulda seriously considered finding a little D-III school and tried to play baseball for a living. Lord knows we dreamt about playing in the Bigs for years on end as kids, and Joey loves to talk about until he was about 14, he had never assumed he’d be anything other than a major league baseball player when he grew up.

Far too often, those dreams die as silly dreams because we have people who don’t believe in us, or we don’t have the balls to stick to it. Well, I know a guy whose stuck to his dream against so many odds, and yesterday I got to watch him pitch in a major league game.

Matt Daley -- Long Island Legend

One of my good friends from UVa is none other than Andrew Daley (a long-time friend of the Sports Brethren), and on Monday night, his older brother Matt pitched in his 27th game of the year since being called up in late April for the Colorado Rockies. Daley is from Garden City, Long Island, and there were hundreds of Daley-supporters in attendance at Citi Field last night for his NY-debut against the Mets — and I was fortunate enough to be one of those on-hand for the game.

I’ve met Matt on a few different occasions since I first got to know his younger brother Andrew six years ago, and I’m not going to lie: the first time I met Matt, Major League Baseball player was not the first impression I got. He’s 6-2, 175-lb — which actually makes him smaller than Andrew — and isn’t the most athletic-looking guy I’ve ever seen. But what you see on the surface doesn’t begin to describe Matt and his pretty wildly incredible journey to the big leagues.

Not many people gave Matta a chance, but what I saw on Monday night in action was a guy who absolutely can pitch in the major leagues. He was brought into the game in the 8th inning after two Rockies relievers promptly let a tie game become a 7-3 game in the Mets’ favor. There was only one out, and the home crowd was rocking. Even still, Matt stepped in and it took him only 5 pitches from his deceptively-crouched pitching stance to get the final two outs of the inning.

Five pitches was all Matt needed on Monday night. He throws strikes, has great command, and has been known to hit 94 on the radar. He was clocking a fastball at 90 on Monday, but he does a great job in his delivery of not giving away the location of the ball. Combine that deception with a three-quarter release, and he’s a pitcher most major leaguers haven’t figured out.

The reception he got from his home state was even cooler. There was a loud, audible cheering when he made the run in from the outfield bullpen. There were multiple home-made “Daley” shirts and jerseys. There was a group of 6 sitting two rows behind me that went to Bucknell with Matt. All-in-all, it was an awesome experience, and it was great to see the Daley family as their dreams of playing in their hometown stadium came true on Monday night.

And now it’s official: the Cube has friends that play in the MLB.