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Standing in front of the mirror in a W Hotel suite, Matt Harvey is wearing a nearly $6,000 Tom Ford robe that could have been plucked from Hugh Hefner’s personal wardrobe.
He zeroes in on his reflection with the razor-sharp focus that has made him a superstar on the mound as the Mets’ ace pitcher, and announces, “This is like ‘Boogie Nights.’ All right, let’s do this,” as he jokingly pretends to drop his robe.
It wouldn’t have been the first time the 6-foot-4 hunk with deep green bedroom eyes stripped down to his birthday suit.
Harvey proudly shows off outtakes from his in-the-buff shoot for ESPN the Magazine’s upcoming Body Issue, including one of him lounging with his feet on the table, reading a strategically placed newspaper.
But for his shoot with The Post, Harvey, who follows a low-carb, gluten-free diet, opts to keep his clothes on.
“I’m a baseball player, I’m not a male model. I don’t want to be known as the naked baseball player who always takes his shirt off. I love high-end fashion, but at the same time, I don’t want to be the high-end naked fashion model,” he says.
Still, it’s the kind of exposure the 24-year-old Mystic, Conn., native has craved since he was a wide-eyed Yankee fan watching pinstripe star Paul O’Neill.
“I’ve always wanted to be in the spotlight,” Harvey tells The Post. “I’ve always wanted to be that guy — and that comes with fans approaching you and media being all over you and paparazzi. At the same time, everybody says how annoying it gets, but I understand it comes with the territory, and I’m not one to shy away from that. I don’t want to be the starting pitcher for the Mets that nobody knows. Being able to put on a uniform that says New York has been a dream come true.”
The handsome hurler, who was called up to the majors last July, is having a storybook first full season. Sports Illustrated has dubbed him “The Dark Knight of Gotham.” He narrowly missed a no-hitter, is leading the National League in strikeouts and may be the starting pitcher at next Tuesday’s All-Star game at Citi Field.
Not since Derek Jeter has the Big Apple seen someone on the diamond shine so bright.
And Jeter is a player Harvey has intentionally tried to emulate.
“Just the way [Jeter] became Mr. Baseball in New York. The player that he was and the way he played in big games and rose to the occasion and surpassed expectations . . . He was always a class-A superstar, but he was never in the paper for anything bad. He’s always had a great image. He’s always smiling and having fun and joking around with people. That was something I always watched,” says Harvey.
With his movie-star looks and affinity for old Rat Pack movies, the ballplayer is even hoping to break into show business.
“[Acting] is something that has been interesting to me. I wouldn’t do the modeling stuff, but definitely movies. Even now, I’m not really afraid of a camera,” he says, adding, “Obviously I don’t have a lot of time, but Tom Brady showed up on ‘Entourage,’ and I always thought that would be really cool.”
Off the field, the right-hander is equally prolific. A fixture at Rangers hockey games, he’s been dating Victoria’s Secret model Anne Vyalitsyna, whom he met rinkside, since May. He’s clearly smitten: A grin spreads across his face, and his green eyes flicker when he recounts recently driving her to the airport.
But when asked about the Russian beauty, Harvey politely declines to discuss their relationship, despite the fact that photos of them kissing in Soho were plastered across The Post’s front page on July 4.
“My personal life is very private. If the pictures come out, they’ll come out. Obviously, I put myself out there and haven’t shied away from opportunities, but when it comes to people that I really begin to trust, the trust stays between us. I’m a very loyal person. Whether it’s being a boyfriend or just a friend.”
But dating hot chicks and being the life of the party didn’t always come naturally for Harvey.
“I got easily embarrassed when I was younger. Speaking in front of people, and getting called on, I was always really embarrassed. I was shy around girls, and I think I had a bunch of different girlfriends in middle school and didn’t talk to a single one of them,” he laughs.
Harvey has two older sisters and was coached in high school by his father, Ed Harvey, who played center field for UConn in the 1972 College World Series.
His dad began fine-tuning his son’s game from an early age.
His powerful fastball earned him a spot on the baseball team at the University of North Carolina, where the shy guy decided to work on his game off the field.
“I didn’t know a single person. I really started sitting down and realizing what kind of person I wanted to be, and I didn’t want people to look at me and say, ‘This guy is a dud or boring or extremely nervous and shy all of the time.’ I learned to change and adapt and hopefully for the better,” he says.
Harvey has grown close to his teammate David Wright and members of the Rangers such as Brian Boyle and Henrik
Lundqvist. The latter, known as the most dapper player in the NHL, has pushed Harvey to develop his fashion sense.
“Being friends with him has definitely encouraged my credit card. I continuously ask him for fashion tips and to take me shopping, but he continues to say I’m doing just fine, and it kind of ends the conversation. Maybe he doesn’t want me to spill his secrets,” jokes Harvey, who shops at John Varvatos and Rag & Bone and favors dark skinny jeans, boots, leather jackets and light-colored shirts.
“My eyes are probably what I get the most compliments on. Definitely the lighter the shirt I am wearing, the more my eyes pop,” he says, adding, “I’ve always really liked to look good and to dress well. When it comes time to travel, I love a three-piece suit,” he says of his collection of Varvatos, Burberry and Elevee numbers. He bought the first of two Breitling watches when he signed with the Mets and is looking to add a Rolex or an Audemars Piguet to his collection.
On the field, he is a bit more spartan in his style. For the past six years, Harvey has worn two necklaces, one a chain and another a cross, given to him by his mother, schoolteacher Jackie Harvey.
“I don’t feel comfortable without them,” he says, adding that he had left them at home last Wednesday, when he pitched a lackluster game against Arizona. “I’m not making excuses for my poor performances. It’s one of the days when things weren’t going so well.”
(Over his heart is a tattoo of a handwritten note his aunt wrote before she succumbed to a brain tumor: “Ain’t it a shame that a body can’t be where the heart is.”)
While most baseball players live in Upper East Side high-rises, Harvey opts to call the youthful East Village home. It’s an easy commute in his black Escalade to Citi Field. And he prefers laid-back restaurants such as Bar Pitti, Lure and Dell’anima to the Meatpacking club scene.
His favorite meal in New York? A medium-rare steak with his power agent Scott Boras at Quality Meats.
However, he feels most at home on the mound.
“It was always my comfort zone,” says Harvey, adding that he goes through an Incredible Hulk-like metamorphosis when he runs out of the bullpen.
“I definitely get a lot more mean. Unless you really piss me off, I like to consider myself overly nice, but when I get on the mound . . . the aggression comes out.”
And his game performance takes priority over his leading-man aspirations.
“I know [opportunities] wouldn’t come if not for performance on the field. It definitely starts with that, and I hope not being a bad-looking guy doesn’t hurt. I’m very competitive, and I want the best of everything.”
Photographer: Tamara Beckwith/ NY Post
Stylist: Christiaan Choy
Model: Rachel Scott/Wilhelmina Models
Hair/Makeup: Natasha Leibel/Artists By Timothy Priano
Location: W New York
541 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY
212.755.1200
Whiskey Bar located in W Hotel Lexington
Car: 2014 R8 V10 Spyder/AudiUSA.com