Matt Harvey is an American professional baseball pitcher for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB).
Let’s see some interesting facts about him!
1. Matthew Edward “Matt” Harvey was born March 27, 1989 in New London, Connecticut.
2. He is the only son and youngest of three children of Ed and Jackie Harvey, both teachers.
3. He is of Irish and Italian descent.
4. Harvey was raised in Mystic, Connecticut, with his two older sisters, Jessica and Jocelyn.
5. His father was a standout athlete at Groton, Connecticut’s Fitch Senior High School and attended the University of Connecticut where he played both baseball (as a centerfielder) and football, even appearing in the 1972 College World Series.
6. After UConn, he eventually returned to Groton to coach his former high school baseball team.
7. Harvey grew up as a New York Yankees fan, especially admiring Paul O’Neill and Derek Jeter, whom he has described as a childhood idol of his.
8. At the beginning of every elementary school year, when asked to write about his life goals, Harvey would write that he wanted to play professional baseball.
9. At Fitch Senior High School, Harvey played both baseball (where he was coached by his dad) and basketball. He was teammates with future Major League pitcher Jesse Hahn on both teams.
10. As a high school freshman, he was able on a few occasions to throw as fast as 90 miles per hour (140 km/h).
11. Harvey also played summer baseball for numerous travel teams across the country, including the South Florida Bandits, the Midland Redskins, and the East Coast Grays.
12. As a high school senior, he was selected as a Rawlings First Team All-American and named to their Northeast All-Region First Team.
13. He was grouped with Madison Bumgarner and Rick Porcello as one of the best pitchers in the 2007 MLB draft and a likely first round pick.
14. Baseball America ranked him the best high school prospect in 2007.
15. However, he fell to the Los Angeles Angels in the third round with the 118th overall pick. As the Angels offered only a $1 million signing bonus, Harvey took the advice of his advisors, Bill Caudill and Scott Boras, and opted to sign with the UNC Tar Heels instead.
16. Harvey would go on to pitch three seasons at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he majored in sports administration.
17. During his collegiate career, Harvey went 22–7 with 3.73 earned run average (ERA) in 238 2⁄3 innings pitched.
18. He ranks ninth all-time in UNC history in strikeouts (263) and 10th in wins (22).
19. Harvey spent the summers of ’08 and ’09 pitching for the Chatham Anglers of the Cape Cod Baseball League.
20. Harvey was a key component of the Anglers’ 2008 bullpen, completing the season with a 0.83 ERA, the lowest on the team, pitching 21 2⁄3 innings and striking out 29 of 92 batters faced.
21. Harvey returned to Chatham in 2009 after a difficult sophomore year on the mound.
22. As Harvey explains, he had lost some of the mechanics and flexibility that had made him such a great pitcher throughout high school and the beginning of his college career.
23. Although his ’09 summer was not as impressive as the previous one, his time on the Cape helped him return to the basics and set him on the road to becoming the seventh overall draft pick in the 2010 first year player draft.
24. According to his pitching coach at UNC, Scott Forbes, Harvey returned from the 2009 Cape League season with “a more professional approach.”
25. Harvey was selected as the seventh overall pick by the New York Mets in the 2010 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.
26. Harvey was listed at 6′ 4″ and 210 lbs, batting and throwing right-handed.
27. In his major league debut on July 26, 2012, against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Harvey set a new club record with 11 strikeouts while earning his first career victory.
28. Harvey had a breakout season in 2013, being selected to play in his first Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
29. Harvey then missed the entire 2014 season due to Tommy John surgery but returned to top form in 2015, leading the Mets to the pennant.
30. After a 2013 magazine cover compared him to Batman, Harvey and his fans have embraced “The Dark Knight” as his nickname.
31. Harvey is a passionate New York Rangers fan and frequently attends their games at Madison Square Garden, sometimes with teammate Jon Niese.
32. He has been described as perhaps their most prominent and identifiable fan. However, his experience as a hockey player is limited to casual roller hockey and ice hockey at a cousin’s backyard rink in Vermont.He is also a fan of the New England Patriots.
33. Harvey has a high profile in the media.
34. He is known to live a flashy lifestyle, drives an expensive Maserati sports car, has been described as a “lothario” due to his record of dating fashion models, and is frequently mentioned in celebrity gossip columns in New York media.
35. In May 2013, Matt Harvey began dating model Anne Vyalitsyna after meeting her at a New York Rangers game. hey broke up in February 2014.
36. In 2015, he began dating Polish model Ania Cywinska.
37. He also appeared nude in The Body Issue of ESPN The Magazine in 2013.
38. Harvey appeared on the cover of the May 20, 2013 issue of Sports Illustrated magazine, dubbed “The Dark Knight of Gotham,” a play on Batman’s home city, its association with New York City and the recent Dark Knight film trilogy. Harvey, who had been a Batman fan since childhood, as well as teammates, fans, the Mets and other media sources immediately embraced the comparison.
39. Harvey even had “Dark Knight” carved into the knobs of his bats to begin the 2015 season before replacing it with a personalized hybrid Harvey-Batman logo, versions of which had previously appeared on his locker and on T-shirts.
40. Early in the 2013 season, fans, media and teammates also began referring to any day on which Harvey is scheduled to start as “Harvey Day.
Got anything to add?