You can say what you want about the New York Mets and their measly two World Series titles, their historic collapses at the end of the season, and their role as the second rung baseball team in New York (behind the legendary Yankees). However, one thing you absolutely can’t say about the New York Mets is that their pitching sucks. This is a team that has prized its hurlers since they first entered the major leagues in 1962 — consider players like Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden, R.A. Dickey, Johan Santana and others — and this year, the title of top Mets ace arguably belongs to Noah Syndergaard.
Even though it’s only his second season in the majors, the hard throwing number 34 has established himself as one of the best pitchers in the league. Syndergaard is also a part of one of the strongest pitching staffs in baseball, throwing alongside young talent like Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom (the 2014 National League Rookie of the Year), and current rookie Steven Matz, plus seasoned and formidable MLB veteran of 19 seasons Bartolo Colon.
Syndergaard may be dominant on the mound, but he comes across as a quiet and soft spoken individual. We can only assume that he prefers his pitching to speak for itself. However, as a result, many baseball fans may not know much about the right hander they call Thor. Of course, there are lots of interesting details about the life of this young flame thrower. Here are 20 things that you didn’t know about Noah Syndergaard.
1. Syndergaard hails from Mansfield, Texas, a town just south of both Dallas and Fort Worth. While young Noah grew up playing baseball, his family was decidedly more interested in football. However, Noah’s mother encouraged her athletic son to play the sport he loved, and his father offered excellent coaching advice to him as he progressed through little league and high school ball. He never played football, and in fact, he’s gone on record as saying that he was absolutely not a fan of his parents’ favorite team, their hometown Dallas Cowboys.
2. Baseball players are typically among the smaller athletes, at least compared to hockey, basketball, and football, but not Noah Syndergaard. He stands at a very tall six feet and six inches, and he weighs in at 240 pounds. Genetics has certainly helped him in this regard, but Syndergaard’s enthusiasm for lifting weights and bulking up has also contributed to his size. He’s actually a surprisingly good lifter; he can reportedly squat 455 pounds and deadlift 512. This athleticism definitely helps him as a ball player, both on the mound and even at the plate.
3. Growing up in Texas, young Noah rooted for the Texas Rangers. His home in Mansfield was right near where the Rangers played in Arlington. Noah’s favorite player as a kid, however, was the retired Rangers ace Nolan Ryan — a pitcher who also got his start with the New York Mets way back in the 1960s. Former Mets pitcher and current Mets broadcast announcer Ron Darling has even said that Syndergaard looks like Ryan in terms of his placement and control. And if you need any more of an indication that Syndergaard idolized The Ryan Express, check out his jersey number: it’s 34. Just like Ryan.
4. Syndergaard throws a wicked curve ball. He’s got a really good change up. In his rookie season in the majors, he added a nasty slider to his repertoire. But when you strip all of the variety away, Syndergaard is, at his roots, a fastball thrower. His high heat is consistently just under the hundred miles per hour mark, typically coming across the plate at 97 or 98. No wonder hitters have such a hard time against him.
5. At Mansfield Legacy High School, Syndergaard was a standout pitcher and got some interest from college coaches who wanted him on their teams. He was courted by the University of Nebraska, Baylor University, and the University of Oklahoma, but none of those schools offered him a scholarship. Instead, Syndergaard signed with Dallas Baptist University because they did. However, despite all the back and forth among different schools, Syndergaard never actually played college ball. Why not? The answer’s in #6.
6. Why play college ball when you can play in the big show? In the 2010 Major League Baseball draft, Syndergaard was chosen by the Toronto Blue Jays in the first round. He was the 38th player chosen overall. So, instead of reporting to Dallas Baptist University as he had initially planned, Syndergaard accepted a $600,000 signing bonus from Toronto and reported to play Class A ball for the Blue Jays organization.
7. Syndergaard’s time with the Blue Jays would only last a few years, though. In 2012, even though he was a highly regarded prospect, Syndergaard was traded to the New York Mets, along with catcher prospect Travis d’Arnaud and several other players for the Mets’ recent Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey and some others. For the Mets, the trade was an investment in their future, and they used their best bargaining chip in Dickey to get the player who they hoped would lead them to the World Series in a few years.
8. A baseball player’s major league debut is always a big event, and Syndergaard made his on May 12, 2015 at Wrigley Field. Although his throwing was up to major league standards, he unfortunately took a loss to the Cubs. Fortunately for Syndergaard and the Mets fans that were counting on him to deliver, this loss would be an exception to his rule of shutting down the opposing teams one batter at a time.
9. Syndergaard had a solid 2015 rookie season, starting 24 games and racking up nine wins, seven losses, and a 3.24 ERA. In the post season, however, he was excellent. Although he took a loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series, the Mets ended up winning the series. He had an excellent outing against the Cubs in the National League Championship Series, which the Mets swept, and then earned the only Mets win of the 2015 World Series against the Kansas City Royals; the Mets eventually succumbed to the Royals in five games.
10. Major league pitchers are generally not known for their prowess at the plate, but Syndergaard is actually a strong hitter. He hit his first home run a few months after his debut, and hit a respectable .209 in 2015. Then, on May 11, 2016, Syndergaard hit two home runs in a single game against the LA Dodgers. He was the first pitcher in nine seasons to hit two home runs in a single game. Talk about helping your own cause — Syndergaard can whiff the opposing team’s batters and get runs on the board as well.
11. With his impressive pitching stats, Syndergaard is in good company with some other great Mets pitchers. His first few starts of 2016 were excellent, as he was all but unhittable by opposing batters. He struck out an incredible 21 batters in his first two starts of the season, which tied the Mets franchise records for most strikeouts in the first two games. He’s now in the record books along with Dwight Gooden (you know: Doctor K) and Pedro Martinez. If you have to share a pitching record, those are the guys you want to share it with.
12. It’s no secret that Syndergaard is a hard thrower, but did you know that earlier in the 2016 season, he threw the ball so hard that he actually branded the catcher’s chest? It’s true: in a game against the Philadelphia Phillies in April 2016, Mets catcher Kevin Plawecki had to block one of Syndergaard’s fastballs. Even though he was wearing the standard catcher gear, including a chest protector, the ball hit Plawecki so hard that it left a bright red imprint of his cross necklace on his chest. A photo of the branding was tweeted out by an SNY reporter, and a lot of New York media outlets picked up on the unusual story.
13. Despite Syndergaard’s quiet demeanor, he was ejected from a game against the Dodgers on May 28, 2016. Here’s what happened: Syndergaard was pitching against Dodgers second baseman Chase Utley, who you may remember took a hard and nasty slide into the Mets’ shortstop Ruben Tejada in the 2015 National League Division Series, breaking Tejada’s leg. The Mets organization and its fans were incensed over the incident, and felt that Utley got off easy. At this fateful at-bat, Syndergaard threw the ball behind Utley, but he never actually hit him. Syndergaard blamed the poor toss on a sweaty hand, but the umpire saw the throw as retaliation for the previous fall’s incident and immediately threw a stunned Syndergaard out of the game. Mets manager Terry Collins came out to argue for his ace and was also thrown out. It was a highly controversial call, and we may never know if Syndergaard actually meant to throw at Utley or just give him, to use the baseball jargon, a little chin music.
14. His proper name may be Noah Syndergaard, but to New York Mets fans, he’s best known as Thor. He’s been given the nickname of the Norse god of thunder, and while it may stand to reason that he’s called that because he throws thunderbolts at opposing pitchers, the story behind how he got the name is actually a lot less glamorous. According to a 2014 New York Post article, Syndergaard got the name because the name of Thor’s home planet Asgard sounds like his last name. However, Syndergaard has totally embraced the moniker, occasionally tweeting out photos of himself dressed in character. Plus, on April 28, 2016, he actually walked around midtown Manhattan in a Thor costume, just to drum up some press for the Mets.
15. Ask any Mets fan what Syndergaard looks like, and the first thing you’re likely to hear out of his or her mouth is, “He has long hair!” Indeed, Syndergaard’s dirty blonde tresses are part of his signature look and even add to the Thor mystique he’s built up. It also seems to be a Mets ace look, as fellow pitcher Jacob deGrom also prefers to wear his hair on the longer side. Axe, the maker of men’s grooming products, took notice, and in the spring of 2016, the company signed both Syndergaard and deGrom to promote their new line of men’s hair care products.
16. You’d think that Syndergaard would have a pretty sweet New York bachelor pad, but in fact, he actually shares an NYC apartment with his teammate Michael Conforto. Conforto is also a young prospect for the Mets, and even though he’s an outfielder and Syndergaard is a pitcher, the two are good friends and love sharing an apartment together.
17. We live in an age of multimillion dollar contracts for athletes, and with Syndergaard’s prowess on the mound, you’d think he’d be earning a pretty penny. However, you’d be mistaken: Syndergaard’s salary for the 2016 season is projected to be just over $530,000. It’s quite a bargain for the Mets, and Syndergaard is under contract until the 2022 season. You can bet, however, that if the Mets are serious about keeping him on their roster, they’ll approach him with a better deal before he becomes a free agent. And if they’re not, well, Syndergaard’s next team will probably have to cough up 9 figures to buy his arm.
18. Syndergaard’s mother Heidi suffers from Sjögren’s Syndrome, an autoimmune disease that causes chronic pain as well as other ongoing symptoms. There is no known cure for the disease. In an effort to raise money for the Sjögren’s Syndrome Foundation, Syndergaard auctions off some of his gloves and other game-used equipment.
19. Besides being in phenomenal physical shape, Syndergaard is meticulous about his diet. He tries to eat foods that keep swelling down in the body, which he insists helps both his ability to pitch well and the speed at which his body is able to recover from the demands of his position. Plus, Syndergaard is a juicing enthusiast and is even an investor in a juice bar in New York. While some of his teammates regard his diet as a curiosity, Syndergaard has actually convinced several of them to give juicing and clean eating a shot.
20. For all of his athletic abilities, Syndergaard is still a 23 year old guy who likes to have fun. He loves playing video games and watching “Game of Thrones.” He’s also a fan of the Star Wars franchise, and he likes the comedy of Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart. Syndergaard does, however, count yoga among his favorite activities — a bit of an anomaly, to be sure, but when you consider his attention to his health and wellness, it makes sense.
