No Hitter

After 50 seasons and 8,019 games my New York Mets finally had their first no hitter. The man who pitched it? Johan, or as everyone is saying "No-Han," Santana.

My ESPN Scorecenter app sent the buzz to my phone around 7:06pm letting me know that the Mets game had just began. It was another fairly regular Friday night at Citi. The drama around this game was Carlos Beltran's return to NY after his 7 up and (mostly) down years. He would actually be involved in something more dramatic as the night became historic.

I get updates after the 3rd and 6th inning as well as the end of the game. After 3, Mets were up. After 6, Mets were up. I thought:"Cool, were doing out thing. Bout to get this win." Then I got another buzz. "Johan Santana has not allowed a hit after 7 innings." Then another "Johan Santana has not allowed a hit after 8 innings." Then another "Johan Santana enters the 9th inning with a chance to throw a no hitter."

Can't tell you how excited I was, but also nervous. I would have jumped to the closest TV if I could but I was at a play with Grandma so I just had to hoped for the best. Finally, I found out what happened as I got 3 more buzzes from my phone. Scorecenter let me know twice via the end of the game update and the baseball headlines update. New York Times let me know too: "Johan Santana throws the first No-Hitter in Mets history."

We finally did it. Johan "You know who big" Santana did it.



It's so awesome! I'm happy that it was Johan. He has been a beast the whole time he has been a Met. We could never give him enough run support in his first few years, years where he could have won Cy Youngs. Nonetheless he always pitched well. Unfortunately, he was shutdown in September of 2010 and had shoulder surgery. He missed all of last year due to rehab and returned this year. He is no longer the dominant (pitch speed wise) pitcher that he used to be, but he has been very good this year and now has the 1st no hitter in our history.

The no-no didn't come without controversy though. Beltran hit a sharp liner down the 3rd base line in the 6th the was ruled foul. It actually was fair, as it hit the chalk. It would have broken up the no-no and prevented history. But it was ruled foul and no-no attempt went on. It's kind of sweet that Beltran didn't break it up, payback for him not coming through when we needed him the most: final at bat of game 7 of the 2006 NLCS.

Johan didn't do it by himself. Queens native, and life long Mets fan turned Mets player Mike Baxter gave up his body to help preserve the no-no in the 7th.

Thank you Mike. Thank you Johan. Thank you Mets. History. Proud to be a Mets fan!

9-11-11

10 years. We will never forget.

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

When I first visited Washington D.C. I went as part of a history/government trip and I was certainly (still am) a history geek. We had tours of all the major memorials and monuments, I was pretty amped. My favorite monument/memorial was the FDR Memorial, he was my favorite president (this guy has over taken him). My second favorite memorial was the Lincoln and not why you may have thought. I stood on the spot that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the "I Have a Dream Speech." (I def wrote about this before lol). It was a powerful moment for me. I realized that the engraving on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial was not enough for Dr. King...he deserved his own monument/memorial.

When I got to Morehouse this feeling intensified as I walked the campus, his campus. (Talked about this also in that previous post lol). While there I found out that a memorial was in the works. For the past month or so I've been getting emails daily counting down to the opening of the memorial and the "Official" unveiling and dedication. The unveiling and dedication isn't until this weekend, but the memorial opened today. 

It's beautiful. 

The next time I'm in DC I'll go to it, take a picture, cry, reflect, give thanks and come away with a new favorite monument.

#Respect to the King

African American Registry Interview

You may have never heard of the African American Registry before but it is a great organization. The Registry is an educational organization whose mission statement is "Uniting Communities through Education, Transforming Communities through Learning." It strives to improve the black community through the education of children, parents, community activists and educators. Its a really cool organization and the website has many resources and information on our great history and heritage.

One of the things that they do is interview people for their video section of the website: The Black Box. Within these interviews they talk with invested members of the Black Community about things of importance to our community. I was honored to be asked to interview last fall. Until last night I had never seen the footage. Thanks to my father Google searching my name we found it. I'm not able to embed the videos to this post so just click the links below to see me talk about a few things. Each video is like a minute and a half long so it won't take up too much of you're time.

HBCU Avantages, Christopher Lynn-Logue | African American Registry


Generation Differences, Christopher Lynn-Logue | African American Registry


Favorite Book, Christopher Lynn-Logue | African American Registry


Working with Parents and Children, Christopher Lynn-Logue | African American Registry