Last night Mets stars Xavier Nady, Aaron Heilman and Duaner Sanchez appeared at Hall of Heroes. The signing did not start until close to 7 PM due to the early rain delay of Saturday's game. There was a great crowd eagerly awaiting the entrance of Aaron, Duaner and X. Nady was the hero of yesterday's game. He had a huge three run home run that essentially won the game for the Mets. Each person in line made sure to thank X for the day's heroics. This team is incredible. Every day it truly is a different hero. The night before it was John Maine and Jose Valentin. Yesterday it was X and, it's safe to say that, today will be someone else. I have been around a lof of winning teams the past few years and that is exactly how it is with the winners.... a different guy coming up big each night. There have been plenty of games where Aaron and/or Duaner come in and shut down the opposition in a huge spot. Those two have become the quintessential 7th and 8th inning setup men. They bridge the gap seamlessly between the starter and Billy Wagner.
The appearance itself went great. All three athletes loved interacting with the fans. They took photo with everyone and were so appreciative of the compliments and encouragement of the fans. I have been a big fan of X all season but did not realize, until last night, how much the rest of the fans have endeared themselved to him (hitting a game winning three run homer helps that). Going into the appearance I was unsure of how big a crowd we would have due to the weather. I was pleasantly shocked by the endless line. Aaron is awesome. I did not realize that Heilman is a Notre Dame graduate. We spoke in length about the school and I told him about some of the great Irish items that we have. As for this signing, we got some cool new product signed including MLB baseballs, some sick photos and a handful of Nady balls with "The X-Factor" inscription. All three Mets have really good signatures. Check out the site tomorrow for images of these new items.
I could probably go on forever about this appearance (I'm sure you guys know by now that I get pretty pumped up talking about the Mets) so I going to cut it short here.
Check back tomorrow for more about this signing (there is a pretty funny story I am holding back), the '86 Giants event, and a preview of some new appearances we just booked.