‘PLAYER’: Rafael Diaz dons a Johan Santana jersey yesterday at home in Massapequa after a jail stint for crashing the Mets’ celebration of Friday’s no-hitter (above). (Neil Miller)
‘PLAYER’: Rafael Diaz dons a Johan Santana jersey (right) yesterday at home in Massapequa after a jail stint for crashing the Mets’ celebration of Friday’s no-hitter (inset). (
)
Mets fanatic Rafael Diaz said he got such an adrenaline rush from Johan Santana’s no-hitter at Citi Field that “he couldn’t help” himself from running on the field to celebrate.
“I was overcome with emotion, just being a die-hard Mets fan,” Diaz told The Post after his release from jail yesterday. “That’s all it was.”
Diaz, 32, was charged with trespassing for taking part in the on-field celebration. He spent two nights behind bars before a Queens judge released him and pal John Ries, 25, on their own recognizance.
Diaz returned to his Massapequa, LI, home, wearing the same Gary Carter No. 8 jersey he had on Friday night.
He hit the showers and donned a fresh Santana jersey before explaining his stunt.
After Santana retired the final St. Louis batter on Friday night, Diaz jumped over the railing on from his field-level perch on the first-base side of Citi Field. Moments later, Diaz was rubbing elbows with Santana, R.A. Dickey and Ike Davis in a joyous Mets mob.
“I couldn’t help myself,” Diaz said. “I just wanted to be on the mound celebrating the no-hitter.”
Diaz jumped onto the Citi Field turf first. Ries followed.
Diaz recalled that, while in they were in lockup together, Ries told him: “Bro, I saw you out there, and I had to go.”
Ries didn’t make it past the first-base line before security knocked him down.
Diaz paid a stiff penalty, both at home and Citi Field.
He missed his 1-year-old son’s birthday party Saturday, and the Mets have banned him for life from their home park.
“That’s the bad part,” Diaz said of missing his son’s bash.
Balloons from the party were still all around his home yesterday.
Asked if his jaunt was worth missing Saturday’s family celebration, wise-cracking Diaz said: “You’ll have to ask my wife that.”
Asked whether the thrill was worth all the trouble he’d gotten into, Diaz smiled and declined to answer.
He thanked Mets officials, security and cops for their fair treatment of him.
One jailer even showed him YouTube footage of the Friday-night antics that landed Diaz on yesterday’s Post front page.
Diaz recalled phoning his wife from jail and telling her, “I got caught up in the moment. I’ll be spending some time on the city’s tab.”
Diaz and Ries were both charged with misdemeanor trespassing and entering the field of a New York sports event, otherwise known as the “Calvin Klein Law” — named after the designer’s venture onto the Madison Square Garden court during a 2003 Knicks game. They both face up to a year in jail. But with previously clean records, they’ll almost certainly get only probation.
Diaz and Ries spent 38 hours locked up. Diaz, a married father of two, is a pilot who works at Republic Airport in Farmingdale.
Ries is an air-traffic controller. Both fans are due back in court on July 2.
A Mets spokesman yesterday declined to comment and refused to confirm Diaz’s lifetime Citi Field ban.
Santana said he had no idea Diaz was among the celebrants.
“I didn’t know that until I watched the highlights” on Saturday, the hurler said.
Additional reporting by C.J. Sullivan and David K. Li