Hot Foot
May 1, 2023
This was the "Rally Parakeet" game. A parakeet the same color as Cespedes' sleeve came out on the netting behind home plate. I remember drinking a bottle of red wine alone while watching this game and being worried about the little guy.
"Attraction" was how Keith Hernandez described it, and in his next at bat, Cespedes hit his first home run as a Met, and the SNY cameras found and cut to a shot of the Rally Parakeet on his perch. It was an amazing moment. "The Rally Parakeet lives!" was Gary Cohen's classic call, maybe his best ever.
The 2015 season began with a sense of possibility (the Mets started 13-3, their best start since '86) but soon hit the skids until Cespedes got hot.
Therefore, when I think of the highlight of the 2015 regular season, I think of this game before the "Wilmer Flores game" (even though Wilmer was probably my favorite Met at that time). The way I see it, that fluorescent green bird propelled Cespedes to a hot streak that in turn led the Mets to the postseason.
After this game, Mets.com beat writer Anthony DiComo posted this on his Twitter account:
Yoenis Cespedes said he wore his yellow armband because "I knew there was a bird on the field and I wanted to look like the bird."
I looked up what happened to the Rally Parakeet after this game, and never found out, but I did learn that it was a pet female budgie named 'Tequila' who lived in Whitestone, escaped after Hurricane Sandy, and made Citi Field her home.
The Rally Parakeet lives!
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