Tonight’s Mets start Jon Niese stepped into the Q&A batter’s box to take some fastballs from Steve Serby.
Q: Do you think you can be an ace?
A: I think I could be. I think I have the potential to be. Obviously, it depends on who else is on the staff. I’ll never be satisfied until I retire.
Q: How neat would it be to be the first Mets to pitch a no-hitter?
A: It’d be nice (chuckle). I guess that’s what every pitch strives for, is to throw a no-hitter or perfect game. In 2010 I was pretty close. To be honest with you, I didn’t even realize what I was doing until after the game. I didn’t realize I threw a one-hitter until after the game.
Q: You almost had a no-hitter this year, too.
A: Dan Uggla put together a really good at bat and I walked him. I think if I would have put him away, it’d been a different scenario. I just left one a little up on [Freddie] Freeman, and kinda poked it through the hole.
Q: How would you describe your temperament on the mound?
A: Boy … it varies. Sometimes I’m in a hurry. Sometimes I take my time. Sometimes I lose focus. But usually, most of the time, I’m always focused just on the catcher’s mitt.
Q: What causes you to lose focus?
A: Usually when I give up a string of bloop hits or broken-bat hits, it kinda [ticks] me off a little bit. Or if I don’t have command of the fastball, I get angry and frustrated.
Q: Has playing in New York been what you expected?
A: Yeah. I’ve always heard that the fans always got on the players throughout the history. But the fans have always been good to me. I’m just thankful for that.
Q: What are thoughts about Johan Santana?
A: His changeup is the best n baseball. To listen to him talk about hitters, and what his philosophies are, it’s pretty amazing, and I’m trying to follow that.
Q: Your nickname in high school was Jonchalant.
A: [It was given to me by kids] by the name of Will Swary, and Mark Scott, everything I did on the baseball field was kinda nonchalant … just kinda free and easy. … I wasn’t that guy that overexerted myself. So they just nicknamed me Jonchalant.
Q: What kind of a pitcher do you think Cameron Niese, who turned 9 on Friday, will be?
A: I don’t know. He’s doing real well. … And he’s left-handed, and he throws a lot of strikes. Hopefully he can fill my shoes some day.
Q: How does he compare to you at that age?
A: He’s a lot more advanced than I was. I struggled throwing strikes. I kinda just threw it up there and hopefully they swung at it.
Q: Who was your boyhood idol?
A: I really looked up to my dad a lot … just because he kinda showed me the way to everything. Just learning how to do stuff as far as baseball when I was young. We practiced … all the time.
Q: Where would you practice?
A: In the backyard [in Defiance, Ohio]. He’s big into carpentry and stuff. I remember him cutting pieces of wood from this table saw and we’d use them as bases. He took like a little swing set thing and then draped a piece of carpet over it and we hit balls into there and I threw baseballs into it.
Q: Would he take you to Indians games?
A: A lot of times it was 7 o’clock games, he’d get off of work, and he’d pretty much surprise me ’cause like I’m just sitting there at home after school, and he’d come home from work and say, “Hey, I got Indians tickets,” so we’d drive 2 1/2 hours to Cleveland, watch the game and then drive back, it was pretty cool.
Q: He was your Little League coach. Was he harder on you than the rest of the kids?
A: Of course, all dads are. (chuckle) But also [Dodgers pitcher] Chad Billingsley’s dad was my Little League coach, too.
Q: Any Little League stories about your dad?
A: He always got after the umpires a lot — threw his hat down. He was like a Lou Piniella. (smile)
Q: Describe your first major league start.
A: First major league start was in Milwaukee, and had a bunch of family there. The first four innings were really good, and I felt good, and then all of a sudden, I don’t know what I did, but they started hitting my changeup a lot, and things snowballed in the fifth inning, and I couldn’t get out of the fifth. … We still won.”
Q: Ricky Weeks hit a home run leading off. Was that the very first pitch you threw?.
A: No, it was the second pitch I threw. The first pitch I threw was high and wide. The second pitch was a fastball right down the middle, and he ambushed it. He got it.
Q: Your first win?
A: It was on the first-year anniversary that my good buddy passed away — Sept. 13. It was the second game of the doubleheader against the Braves. We were in the pennant race, and the stadium was packed, obviously. I threw eight scoreless innings, the fans were cheering my name and … hell, I didn’t even know they knew me, you know? (smile) I was just like, “Wow, they’re cheering my name!” It was crazy. But it was a good moment.
Q: Tell me about your friend.
A: His name is Jordan Shirey. We always played baseball, soccer — he was on my team growing up as a kid. He lived walking distance from me.
Q: And what happened to him?
A: Alcohol poisoning on his 21st birthday. I wasn’t there. I was supposed to be there, but I was back home in Defiance. It’s crazy — my buddies were there. Said he was fine that whole night. Not overly wasted … kinda just hangin’ out. And then that next morning, he didn’t wake up.
Q: Where was he?
A: At Bowling Green.
Q: Who called you?
A: A friend, her name is Lauren Knipp. I think I was building a tree stand with my dad out in the shop. I just couldn’t believe it.
Q: How does something like that change your perspective?
A: It was nuts. It hit me pretty hard at first. You never think that stuff like that could ever happen. And then it did. … It made me look at life a little bit different. Any day could be your last. It’s pretty incredible to think that one day you’re fine, and then the next day you’re gone.
Q: Did you go to the funeral?
A: Yeah, I went to the funeral. Yeah it was sad ’cause the funeral home is right next door to my house.
Q: The late Gary Carter encouraged you to sign with the Mets after the draft.
A: He played before my era. … I was kinda clueless to who he was when he called me, and then after the fact I kinda realized who he was, and I was like, “Oh wow, do I feel like an idiot!” (laugh)
Q: How would you describe the difference between Defiance, Ohio, and Manhattan?
A: Well, Manhattan has I don’t know how many million people, and Defiance only has around 17,000. But it’s just a place where everybody knows everybody. It’s full of great people. I don’t regret growing up there. It’s just a great place to live.
Q: Was there culture shock when you came here?
A: Yeah, kinda. When you leave a place like Defiance and come to a place like New York, you grow up real fast, ’cause in Defiance, you’re real naïve, you really just don’t know what’s out there. But after coming here, playing baseball at 18 starting my professional career, forced me to grow up pretty fast.
Q: Had you been to New York City at all?
A: The first time I came to the city was in 2006, the year after I was drafted.
Q: So what were your first impressions?
A: You’re not hearing that story … but it was crazy. I went to Shea Stadium for the Sterling award [form top minor league player on each Mets minor league team]. … I was fascinated. I’ve seen big league stadiums before — Jacobs Field, Comerica Park, Great American Ballpark — and then when I came to Shea Stadium, it was so grand. It was really intimidating.
Q: Did you get lost?
A: Yeah … I guess you could say that. The cab rides were a struggle for me, and the train rides there.
Q: The way the driver drove?
A: Yeah … driving on shoulders … it is crazy.
Q: Was there something in New York City you wanted to see?
A: (Smile) You’re trying to get this story out of me, it ain’t happening.
Q: Who knows this story?
A: Just me.
Q: Tell me about your fiancee Leah.
A: The most beautiful girl you’ll ever see in your life. She’s just a Midwest sweetheart, and she will go out of her way to do anything for anybody. She loves kids. She’ll babysit anybody. … She rarely takes money for it. (chuckle) It’s amazing what she puts up with me being gone all the time. She never complains.
Q: How did Leah feel about your nose job?
A: She didn’t care. She was for it. … She wasn’t against it. She had a hard time looking at me right after it was done because I was in a lot of pain. (smile)
Q: Has it helped you on the mound?
A: I don’t know. … It’s helped my breathing a lot, like I can breathe a lot better. As far as working out, cardiovascular stuff, it really helps out.
Q: Why did [Carlos] Beltran offer to pay for it?
A: I don’t know. But it was messed up. He thought I’d look better in interviews.
Q: What did you do with your pink Mother’s Day cleats?
A: I gave one of them to my mom, and I gave the other one to my grandma.
Q: You mailed them?
A: Mailed ’em. Signed ’em. Said “Happy Mother’s Day.”
Q: You donated a portable pitcher’s mound to Defiance High School.
A: Throwing bullpens in the offseason at our high school, and they had the same portable mound that I threw on in high school, and I think 10 years before I was there, and it was just beat up, ripped up. Every time you threw off the mound it would slide forward, or slide back. So I told ’em I’d get them a new one.
Q: You think LeBron James is better than Michael Jordan?
A: I think talent-wise he’s better than Jordan. I think, obviously, Jordan has better credentials, but LeBron ain’t done yet.
Q: You think they’ll do it this year?
A: Of course. I don’t have a doubt in my mind. I thought they would last year, too.
Q: How did you feel as a New York athlete when he told the Knicks “No thanks?”
A: I was kinda devastated. That’d been nice if he was in town. (chuckle)
Q: In high school, were you a better pitcher, or tuba player?
A: Pitcher, of course. (smile)
Q: How did you get involved playing the tuba?
A: In fifth grade I started playing the saxophone in a band. In Defiance, our instructor Vince Polce, who passed away last year, it wasn’t like if you’re in the band you’re marked a nerd. … Band was very interesting. That’s why it was pretty big in Defiance. It kinda faded as he stepped down, but they needed a tuba in the marching band and in the concert band, so they asked me if I could try it.
Q: Do you still play it?
A: I could if you had a tuba here.
Q: You were a three-year letterman in soccer in high school. What position?
A: Left forward.
Q: Were you pretty good?
A: I’d hold my own. I wasn’t very fast, but I had a strong leg.
Q: How bad is your slice in golf?
A: Very bad. It’s crazy because I never know when I’m gonna slice and I never know when I’m gonna hit it straight. I’m facing the clubhouse so I can hit it 100 feet to the left of the clubhouse and then I hit it straight and then I crush everybody that’s sitting in the clubhouse.
Q: Hunting?
A: That’s my passion in the offseason. I hunt white-tail deer, I hunt turkeys … coyotes … just anything in season. I have a piece of property in southern Ohio.
Q: You’ve thought about opening a sports bar [called Lefty’s]?
A: I’ve thought about it. Leah doesn’t think it’s a very good idea. It’s a tough business, you have to spend a lot of time with it.
Q: Who is Red Wanting Blue?
A: Great band from Columbus, Ohio.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Ted Nugent, Abraham Lincoln, Cy Young.
Q: Why Cy?
A: He’s a country boy from Ohio. He’s one of the best pitchers to ever play the game. It’d have been nice to get to know him.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “Dumb and Dumber.”
Q: Any favorite lines?
A: Every single one of ’em, I can quote that whole movie to you right now if you wanted me to.
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Tom Hanks.
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Jennifer Aniston.
Q: Favorite entertainer?
A: Jason Mraz.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Sushi.
steve.serby@nypost.com