My first knowledge of Anthony Young came while he was a pitcher for my favorite team, the New York Mets, in 1991. He was known by many because of a streak of 27 consecutive losses as pitcher, a steak that ran from May 1992 to July 1993. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with how pitchers earn wins or losses, the streak is actually quite misleading. During the time the streak was in progress he actually had 12 consecutive saves and had a consecutive scoreless innings streak of 23 2/3 innings. It is often said that "most of life is timing", and this would be a classic case.
I remember recalling "that's just bad luck" when he broke the previous record which had lasted some 81 years. Shortly after the streak ended A.Y. actually appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Leno had made reference to A.Y. much like Johnny Carson would refer to the early Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Now, at no time did I ever think that I would ever meet the man himself in person. But that's how life is, I suppose.
In January of 2013 I had a chance to attend my first New York Mets Fantasy Camp in Port St. Lucie, Florida. One of the former Mets was one Anthony Young. He was as nice and humble a person as I had ever encountered. "The Streak" was not brought up during the introductions at the opening banquet, but I didn't expect it to be. I did hear that he talked about it in a humorous way, mostly because you have to remember that one must have a decent amount of talent in order to be sent back out to the mound often enough to set such a mark.
I didn't have the chance to spend much time with A.Y. in 2013, but on my return in 2014 I got a great chance. I was drafted by the team coached by Ricky Bones, Alan Friedman and A.Y. We had a great deal of talent and we took a 6-0 record into the championship game. The afternoon game took place on A.Y.'s 48th birthday. The ball which became the final out of that game is in my sports memorabilia collection, being that we won a championship that year. The post-game photos include the man himself with a festive hat and party favor. Never has victory looked so cool.
In the offseason he coached baseball in the Houston area and this leads me to my favorite A.Y. story. During Mets Fantasy Camp 2017 my team was playing his team and he was coaching first base. I was playing first at the time. The batter hit a double into the right field alley and when the batter headed toward second base I did what any good first baseman should do- I followed, or "trailed" the batter to second in case a throw to second got loose or there was a possible play to be made, especially if the runner doesn't know I'm there. I jog back over my position and A.Y. tips his head and says, "What are you doing?" I said, "You mean trailing the play?" He says, "Yeah! Nobody does that. I try to teach it, but my kids don't wanna do it." I told him, "Old school, baby! Old school!" We high-fived and went back to the game in front of us.
At this year's fantasy camp he revealed to us that he was fighting a brain tumor. We were all stunned but we were all able to see him and embrace him and say goodbye. We all thought the worst and hoped for the best, but most of us feared that it may be our last opportunity to give our love to the man. He returned to the championship game two days later and once again led his team to a title.
We found out a few weeks ago that the reunion would be taking place in New York in July. We all began looking forward to seeing each other again but many of us hoped that A.Y. would be there along with us. We all knew that he was fighting to be there with us, but today today's news put those hopes to rest for all of us.
We will see each other in just over three weeks but we will all be thinking of the man who won't be with us in person. His spirit, however, will be with each of us and will give us so many stories to share with each other.
July 21st will be here soon and for me it's gonna be one thing.... Old school, baby! Old school!
I'm just sayin'.
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