Meet Met's Ike Davis
KId Reporter goes behind the scenes at Met's Citi Field baseball card event.
Meeting Ike Davis was like a dream come true for me. The new first baseman for the New York Mets told me his own version of a dream finally realized.
Davis was playing in the minor leagues in Buffalo when he got a call in April to fly to New York and play for the Mets. I was at Citi Field, the new home of the Mets in Queens, New York, when Davis played in his first major league game ever. He rocked the house by going 2 for 4, with an RBI that helped the Mets to a 6-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs.
I was dying to ask him what it felt like to get the call that brought him to the big leagues. I got my chance when I covered the Topps Attax National Championship Finals at Citi Field recently.
“I was so excited, so nervous, it was a dream come true,” he said. He added that it took him “a full week for it to sink in.”
When I asked which player he looked up to as a kid growing up, he didn’t even hesitate in saying that his dad was his hero for “teaching me how to live, how to play baseball, how to be a man.” His dad, Ron Davis, is a former major league reliever.
And as someone who dreams of being a major league baseball player myself, I wondered what Davis liked best about his career.
“Playing in front of 30 to 40 thousand people,” he responded to my question.
I also asked him what he would like the sports history books to say about him. He gave it some thought before answering. “That I was a really good guy,” he said.
As I watched him pose for pictures and sign autographs for kids at the Topps event, I thought to myself, “You know what, Ike? You already are!”
PHOTO: Kid Reporter Joseph O'Connor with New York Met's first baseman Ike Davis at the Topps Attax National Championship Finals. (Photo Courtesy Joseph O'Connor)
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