One Mets fan may have just won the early season award for 'best catch of the year.' During New York's dominating 10-0 victory over the Washington Nationals Tuesday, one fan caught Starling Marte’s two-run homer to center field, making for a viral moment in what was otherwise a doozer of a game.
The ball initially bounced off the tarp leading the man -- with his one-year-old child wrapped around his other arm -- to reach over and snag the ball with his bare hand.
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Alan Alcantara, a resident of the Ridgewood neighborhood in Queens was caught by SNY cameras reaching over a railing from his seats in center field, catching the first-inning homer barehanded, all the while cradling his little son, Levi.
Alcantara wasn't the only one surprised that he was able to catch that ball. Mets play-by-play man Gary Cohen asked Keith Hernandez, “did he catch that?” Cohen soon declared that “this man will go viral.”
The AP was able to catch up with Alcantara after his viral catch, asking the 31-year-old Queens resident how he was able to come up with the ball while maintaining a hold on his son.
“I knew I was not going to have time to put the baby down," Alcantara told The Associated Press. "So I decided to just hold on tight to him, jump on the rail and see if I could catch the ball. And we did.”
Alcantara, who was at Citi Field with his wife and family as part of an organized church group, said once the ball popped off Marte's bat, he knew it was coming directly his way.
“As soon as it came off the bat, I knew it was coming my way," he said. “So it was just a matter of seeing where it was going to land. It was just a quick reaction.”
While catching a homer barehanded sounds like a tough feat for some, Alcantara credits his experience playing baseball in the Dominican Republic and having to play the game without a glove. Having caught balls barehanded his entire childhood, he was confident he could do it at a big-league ballpark.
“Instinct," he explained. “In Dominican Republic, we don’t all get to have gloves, so we do play baseball barehanded, so I figured I could do it. I did it many times when I was a kid, so why not?"
However, the ball will not be a souvenir that stays in the family, Alcantara said he is giving the ball to his pastor, who he says is a "diehard" Mets fan.
“I know they're going to hear about it on Sunday,” he said, pointing to his fellow church members. “They're going to talk about it for sure.”
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