Astronuts

Have you ever heard a story that seemed so utterly ridiculous that you wondered how anyone could believe it let alone repeat is as fact? As a card carrying skeptic and cynic the only thing that annoys me more than having my time wasted on senseless drivel, is finding out that on rare occasion the story turns out to be true.

A couple of days ago I heard a story about a guy from my home town in Long Island. It went something like this.

….he wanted to play for the Mets but he didn’t make the cut so he became an astronaut instead. To console the reluctant astronaut the Mets gave him home plate from the now defunct Shea stadium which he then took with him into space.

Yeah, sure, right, whatever you say. I wondered what was next – ‘Damn, not good enough to be a pro bowler; guess its brain surgeon then’. Still, since America’s obsession with sports makes dumb things more the rule than the exception I thought a quick Google search was in order. Needless to say the story turned out to essentially be true.

According to Newsday, Astronaut Michael Massimino, who also holds a PhD in Engineering from MIT, did in fact bring a Mets home plate into space. It also seems that he took a Mets jersey with him on a previous flight but that was just a dry run for main event.

I don’t get, and maybe it’s me. I just don’t think "Getting to take a Mets home plate into space makes all the hard work it took to be an astronaut worth it." ranks up there with “One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind”.

If only that were the end, but it gets worse. He isn’t alone. The article also mentions that astronaut Garrett Reissman brought – wait for it – dirt from the Yankee Stadium pitchers mound into space with him. Dirt! Seriously!

Have we fallen so far that even our astronauts would rather define themselves by a label given to a random assembly of people that play for a living? What wonderful role models, NASA must be so proud.