The Mets’ spring training game against the Washington Nationals on Friday took a back seat to another event happening in Florida.
SpaceX Falcon 9 was launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Merrit Island, Florida, about 100 miles from the Mets’ spring training facility on Sunday.
The launch was visible from Clover Park in Port St. Lucie, where the Mets were in the eighth inning of a game against the National and SNY’s cameras were able to get a close shot of it.
SNY’s announcers even had to pause talking about the game because they were so interested in the launch.
“Is that a rocket launch?” Steve Gelbs asked on the broadcast. “I got to cut off what I’m saying if I’m looking at a rocket launch. Do we know what rocket that is? Is that a SpaceX?”
The rocket was launched to deploy Starlink satellites into orbit.
The launch had been delayed from Wednesday to Friday due to issues with the “transporter erector’s cradle arms”.
On X, SpaceX confirmed the launch.
“Let’s hope it’s coming this way, Steve,” Todd Zielle added on the SNY broadcast.
It was 25th launch and landing of the year for Elon Musk’s company.
As for the game, the Mets fell to the Nationals 7-3.
Nationals outfielder Lane Thomas drove in three runs off a three-run home run in the fifth inning, and for the Mets, Starling Marte, Rylan Bannon, and DJ Stewart each drove in a run.
Adrian Houser, a new Met after playing seven seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers, got the start and went five innings, allowing four runs on four hits and striking out six batters.
The loss dropped the Mets to 9-9 in spring training games, but the beauty of those games is the wins and losses don’t matter just yet.
And where else are you going to see a space shuttle launch while at a baseball game?
