It wasn't the first pitch Noah Syndergaard ever threw in the major leagues. It wasn't even a strike, although that was kind of the point.
It wasn't supposed to be a strike. It was supposed to make a statement.
And just in case it didn't, Syndergaard followed it up with words.
"Hit that first pitch," he said in a text that night to Frank Viola, his Triple-A pitching coach.
"If they have a problem with me throwing inside, they can meet me 60 feet, six inches away," he told the world in a postgame press conference that late October night at Citi Field.