Astronaut Mike Massimino To Take Shea Stadium Home-Plate Into Outer Space

In sports, there are fans and then there are fanatics. Mike Massimino is the latter. But he’s also an astronaut, offering him perks which allow him to be revered as the greatest Mets fan that ever lived. Why? Because he’s about to embark on the greatest Mets-illian task in the history of Metserdom. After a fellow Yankee-loving astronaut was given the privilege of taking dirt from Yankee Stadium into outer space, launching the mythical muck into orbit, Massimino decided to raise the bar for New York baseball fans everywhere by vowing to take a Shea stadium home-plate into outer space. What. A. Hero!

The home plate from the 2007 season was given by the Mets to Mike Massimino to fuel his rivalry with fellow astronaut and Yankees fan Garrett Reisman of Morristown, N.J.
Reisman carried dirt from the Yankee Stadium pitcher’s mound on the shuttle Endeavour mission in March.
“We can do better than that, pal,” said Massimino, 46, of Franklin Square, L.I. “We’re flying a home plate from Shea.”

Hell yeah you are. He’ll take the plate with him in October aboard the shuttle Atlantis. There’s only one catch; Mike has to return the plate to New York. You see, Shea can only afford two plates a year so if the back-up goes, then the Mets might have to resign from scoring for the rest of the season. But, compared to last year, that wouldn’t be too difficult. Oh we kid, guys.


Yankees sent dirt into space - now, Shea Stadium plate headed for orbit [NY Daily News]
Image [Nasa, Daily News]