Berg: Q&A with Figueroa, the Mets Fan
Nelson Figueroa will start for the Mets tonight, making his first major-league start since 2004.
Figueroa was born in Brooklyn and drafted by the Mets in 1995. He was then traded to the D’Backs in 2000, after which he pitched for the Pirates and Brewers.
Ted Berg:
When you’re making all those stops – Taiwan, Mexico, the Caribbean Series – what keeps you going? What makes you make that next stop?
Opening Day in Shea Stadium. I got drafted by the Mets in 1995, so my dream was always to be a Met. My first uniform when I got to extended Spring Training, I had Howard Johnson’s pants and Dwight Gooden’s jersey. So for a kid that grew up in New York, it was just — right there was everything I wanted. I could have gone home and been happy just for to put on that uniform. Now, I get to see HoJo every day, I get to see Darryl Strawberry, I get to see all these guys I grew up absolutely idolizing. Willie, same thing – he played for the Mets for a little bit. This is the dream that we all dream of. I came back from my surgery and I busted my butt to get back and prove I was healthy. I went all over the world to prove one thing: that I could pitch at a very high level.
…Howard Megdal of the New York Observer, whose article is linked below, then pointed out that figueroa and A.J. Burnett are the only players from the team’s 1995 draft who are in the major-leagues…
That’s crazy, just me and him, huh?
That just goes to show you – I was a 30th round pick and I know he was a lot higher.
Ted Berg:
Who was the first-rounder that year? Ryan Jaroncyk?
Oh, Jaroncyk – the shortstop.
Ted Berg:
He ended up out of baseball in a few years.
Again, and see how much of a lottery it is, it’s just a crapshoot. You think this guy’s a first-rounder, you think you know his background, then all of a sudden he doesn’t want to play baseball – two years after they gave the guy a million dollars. I got my 2500 bucks and, for me, I was going to be a Met and have my foot in the door to just play.
When you look at it, my name is on the clubhouse walls with Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden for the Minor League stops I’ve made and the numbers I’ve put up there. That alone – I can go in that clubhouse at the minor league stop in PSL, and my names with Jefferies, then I look down that list and, hey, there’s Nelson Figueroa…That’s one of the neatest things…hopefully one day, hopefully this season, we get to the World Series and win a World Series and then I get my name with those guys again. That’s the icing on the cake.”
…added to by Matthew Cerrone…
…first of all, outstanding interview by Ted Berg…second, wow, figueroa is as big of a Mets fan as any one…seriously…i mean, he mentioned Gregg Jefferies for pete’s sake…i’m stunned, and want this guy to do well, not only for the team, but because i feel like he’s one of us at this point…amazing…
For more on Figueroa, check out Berg’s full column for SNY.tv, in which they continue their discussion and talk about 2008, going from ‘not wanted’ to ‘adored,’ how he ended up at Brandeis, and Nelson’s nickname, ‘Figoolow.’
Also, in the New York Observer, Megdal writes a profile on Figueroa, as does the Journal News and the Daily News.
