Matt Harvey is Hot: First SI Cover, Now 'New York' Magazine Spread

By Ellyn Santiago

The cover of Sports Illustrated was huge. But a four-page color spread in New York magazine isn’t too shabby either.  

The magazine, which this editor just happens to receive in the mail once a week, is chock-a-block with everything one ever wanted to know about Harvey’s pitching and just what makes him such a ‘phenom.’  

The Groton native can “make hitters swing and miss,” has the “second-hardest fastball in the league,” and, among myriad other reasons, he mixes up his different pitches (“four-seam fastball,” “slider”, “cross change-up,” “curveball and two-seam fastball) “to keep hitters off balance.”  

Harvey, the standout starter for the University of North Carolina and before that, Fitch High School (where he was coached by his dad, Edward), was featured on the SI cover with the headline “The Dark Knight of Gotham.”  

The now-celebrated 24-year-old 6’4” pitcher, made his first Major League start for the New York Mets last summer. The 2007 Fitch grad -- and former Mystic Little Leaguer -- was drafted seventh overall in the 2010 MLB Amateur draft.