I fielded the phone call in late afternoon: The Mets are in first place, the world champion San Francisco Giants are in town, and we have our blond Viking strikeout machine, Noah Syndergaard, on the mound.
Be there, aloha.
Soon enough I was swinging off the No. 7 subway to join my sons, Aidan and Nick, inside Citi Field, where the temperatures danced in the 70s and the field was a radiant green.
Alas, Thor — as Syndergaard is nicknamed — lasted six ragged innings, bested by Chris Heston, a slow-throwing Loki the Trickster of a pitcher.