The caution, the whole time, has been getting too far ahead of ourselves with Matt Harvey. It's easy to do that with young baseball players, most of whom we never see until they drop out of the sky and land on a major league roster.
There was never an air of mystery around Michael Jordan, for instance, since we were able to see almost every one of his important basketball moments at North Carolina, or at the '84 Olympics, before he ever scored a point for the Bulls. Maybe nobody quite understood how good Tom Brady was, or could be, but he did go to Michigan, and the Wolverines are on TV more than Ryan Seacrest.
Anthony J Causi
Matt Harvey
But baseball, even in 2013, keeps its gems hidden. Maybe you see an occasional college game. Maybe you follow the minor leagues, if you have an especially deep-seeded affinity for your favorite team. But that's still more exception than rule.
So when they do arrive?
"The temptation," Terry Collins said a few weeks ago, "is always to fall pretty deeply in love, especially when you see the talent on display for the first time."
So Harvey's magical mystery tour takes another remarkable spin tonight. He still hasn't been a big leaguer for a full calendar year, but this evening he will take the mound at Citi Field along with the rest of the National League All-Star starters, and he will undoubtedly receive a thunderous greeting, and some time after 8 o'clock he will throw what will almost certainly be a 97-mph fastball in the direction of Mike Trout — another kid with big game who inspires grouchy, hard-to-impress baseball lifers to poetry.
"I love pitching in New York," Harvey said, "and I love pitching in this stadium, in front of fans who've been very, very good to me from the beginning."
So it just became that much harder not to get ahead of ourselves about Matt Harvey. It took 15 minutes for Harvey to become woven into the fabric, the Mets' living history, because his youth conjures the young Doc Gooden and his icy seriousness recall the young Tom Seaver, and because his explosive right arm brings to mind both of them at their very primes.
Both of the antecedents will be constant presences for as long as Harvey pitches here, both tangibly and ethereally. Gooden has been a supporter — in person and via Twitter — all season; Seaver will get his first up-close look tonight after he throws out the ceremonial first pitch. Seaver is a beacon of what is within Harvey's grasp if he's blessed with similar longevity and similarly good health, a testament to what being a star in New York can deliver; Gooden is a cautionary tale of what can happen if you succumb to too many of life's — and New York's — temptations.
Before Harvey, Seaver and Gooden were the only other Mets ever asked to start an All-Star Game — Seaver in 1970, Gooden in '88 — and as if by necessity, they both had shining moments in their All-Star debuts as rookies, something else to draw the circle ever tighter around the trio.
As a 22-year-old rookie in 1967, Seaver was brought into the 15th inning, handed a one-run lead, and asked to protect it against Tony Conigliaro (F-7), Carl Yastrzemski (showing he was already smarter than his age, Seaver walked '67's best player), Bill Freehan (F-8) and, ultimately, Ken Berry (strike out).
As a 19-year-old in '84, Gooden struck out the first three hitters he saw in the fifth inning — Lance Parrish, Chet Lemon, Alvin Davis. He worked a scoreless sixth, too, and left American Leaguers shaking their heads and grateful that nobody had invented interleague play yet.
So that's what Harvey chases tonight. That's what this splendid season has brought him, already. And still it is important to remember that Seaver's career (and Gooden's) are already whole, already complete, important to remember that what we've seen from Harvey so far is, being fair, what you would call "a hell of a good start."
Maybe it's worthwhile to ponder the list of names of men who have started All-Star Games in the past (Esteban Loiaza? Jack Armstrong? Charles Nagy? Ken McBride?) …
Or maybe even that is getting too far ahead of ourselves. Maybe it's best just to let it all happen however it's going to happen. Maybe it's best not to overthink any of it. And simply to sit, and watch, and enjoy.
"People who haven't seen him yet," Collins said yesterday, "are gonna see something pretty special."
Yeah. That sounds like a good plan.
michael.vaccaro@nypost.com
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