NOAH’S ARC
Mets ace aims to boost baseball’s profile with his off-field endeavors
PORT ST. LUCIE — In addition to his physical presence and his powerful performance, Noah Syndergaard’s mechanics have people in the industry talking.
To be clear, this would be the entertainment industry.
“One of the hardest parts of acting in a sitcom is hitting your mark,” Rock Reuben, an executive producer for the CBS sitcom “Kevin Can Wait,” said in a te l e phone in t e r v i e w. “Yo u’ v e got to have your body a i med in the right direction so the camera gets you.
“[Syndergaard] was a real quick study. The second time through, he got it exactly how you needed him.”
May b e yo u saw Sy nd e r - gaard’s two-scene acting debut as “Viking” — they couldn’t call him his nickname, “Thor,” for copyright reasons — in the Halloween episode of the show that stars longtime Mets fan Kevin James. Or perhaps you follow him on Twitter or Instagram, where he re g ul arly di s pl ays hi s impressive sense of humor. Or are you one of those who have encountered him on the streets of Manhattan during a photo shoot?
The Mets’ scheduled Opening Day starting pitcher leads a colorful life by design, one intentioned to boost both his brand and that of his sport — wh il e s i mu lt a - neously respecting the game’s long-held mores and keeping his focus where it needs to be.
“Playing baseball opens up a lot of doors for certain things,” Syndergaard told The Post in a recent interview at First Data Field. “I just kind of want to embrace those certain things, whether it’s acting or doing something outside of baseball t hat allows you to show your personality.”
Plenty want to be e mb ra c e d by Sy n - dergaard. When the 24-year-old takes the mound (good health permitting) for the Mets in their April 3 opener against the Braves at Citi Field, he’ll unveil a custom cleat created by his new apparel partner, Nike. He also endorses products by Majestic, New Era, PlayStation, DirecTV and CytoSports and is in discussions for additional significant deals. He works with Topps; he shot a spot for the MLB Network with his Mets starting rotation mates Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey and Steven Matz; and he has contributed to the Mets’ web show, “The Amazin’ Life.”
Yet , as the “Kevi n Can Wait” spot showed, Syndergaard wants to be more than just a pitching pitchman, or just funny for a baseball player. He has the look, personality and onfield success to think bigger. “Maybe Entertainer of the Year later down the line?” Syndergaard asked dryly. “We’ll see about that.” Thor Inc. begins on the mound. “His on-field success speaks for itself,” Marissa Dishaw, one of Syndergaard’s agents at CAA, said in a telephone interview. “As he’s grown into that exciting, dynamic pitcher, his marketing fell into place right after. The fact that he’s 6-foot-6 with long blonde hair makes him more interesting than your stereotypical baseball player.” Then add the knack for comedy, one that stayed publicly hidden as Syndergaard, acquired from Toronto in the December 2012 R.A. Dickey trade, climbed the Mets’ minor-league ladder. “I was always a bashful kid,” Syndergaard said. “I was shy, sort of like now. But once you get to know me, I open up. Then you start to realize who I actually am.” Social media has allowed all of us to realize who Syndergaard actually is. Whether he’s engaging with fans or reporters, dropping classic movie lines and clips or carrying on his fake feud with Mr. Met, the right-hander registers a high batting average. “I try to stay as active as possible on those spectrums because fans, all they see is what yo u do on the f ield,” Syndergaard said. “They want to not
only root for that, but they want to know the person that they’re rooting for. That’s a good way to interact with fans.”
While Syndergaard occasionally uses his support team as a sounding board and muse, “The majority [of the posts] are coming from him and his mind and his personality,” said Dishaw, who works with CAA’s entertainment representatives as well as the Mets to procure opportunities for her client. “Maybe the ones I don’t think are funny are his. But making baseball fun again, that’s something Noah has really done a great job with.”
It was rival Bryce Harper of the Nationals who formulated the “Make Baseball Fun Again” slogan, and Syndergaard cited that as his rationale for dropping a playful “Douche” on Harper’s Instagram account last New Year’s Eve.
“He and I, we want more attention to baseball, and we want it to draw [a bigger] fan base,” Syndergaard said of Harper. “You see that a lot in basketball. In basketball, it’s kind of going crazy in terms of who they draw to the games as far as celebrities and how many people actually follow basketball.
“You look at basketball players: LeBron James. He’s bigger than the Cleveland Cavaliers. You look at Instagram, on social media, you can see it there. Harper’s got a million followers or so on Instagram, but LeBron James has [over 28] million? I’d like to see baseball become something more like that.”
So he does what he can while grasping the bigger picture. Syndergaard worked as an extra in an episode of the upcoming season of “Game of Thrones,” the popular HBO series he loves, because it fit his schedule; he flew to Spain last November to take part in the filming. Yet when the Discovery Channel asked him to take part in a “Shark Week” show with a January shoot, he passed. “It was too close to spring training,” he said.
Furthermore, when Syndergaard interacts with his teammates in the Mets’ clubhouse, he doesn’t behave like a guy going Hollywood. He conducts himself like the third-year major leaguer he is.
“I feel like everyone’s got a job to do and everyone’s got responsibilities,” Syndergaard said. “As long as you make sure that baseball becomes a priority and all your extracurricular activities don’t start to mesh and interfere and start becoming a distraction, [it’s good].”
“I think he understands that these cool perks come along with success on the baseball field,” Mets captain David Wright said. “So the success on the baseball field’s first, and these cool perks are second.”
Just as Syndergaard plans to be an even better pitcher, showing up at camp with an additional 17 pounds of muscle, he holds ambitions for his entertainment career. Appearing in a Marvel “Thor” film, however, is not one of them.
“I don’t know about that,” Syndergaard said, shaking off The Post’s suggestion. “But [Derek] Jeter hosted ‘SNL.’ That’s hopefully something, in a couple of years down the line, that would be cool to do. I really liked when Peyton Manning did the United Way [commercial], when he was teaching the kids how to steal cars. That was awesome.”
One pitch, one tweet and one proper acting technique at a time, Syndergaard works toward his goals. In the process, he might help baseball far more than any pace-of-play change.
“I was always a bashful kid. I was shy, sort of like now. But once you get to know me, I open up. Then you start to realize who I actually am.” — Noah Syndergaard