Wilmer Flores may suddenly be Major League Baseball’s biggest “Friends” fan.
The Mets infielder admitted that he used the TV show to help him learn English when his career was just starting out, and the story has taken off so much that the show’s theme song is now his walk-up music at Citi Field.
Flores signed with the Mets as a 16-year-old in 2007, and when he came to America from Venezuela, he didn’t know any English. In 2009, a homesick Flores resolved to begin learning the language, and his favorite method quickly became watching “Friends.”
“It’s still my favorite show,” Flores told Marc Carig of Newsday. “I don’t know why I started, I really don’t. I watched it once and I liked it.”
Lest you question Flores’s devotion, he has seen every one of the show’s 236 episodes, and he says he still watches it every night on Netflix or Nick At Nite before he goes to bed.
This fandom came to a head on Sunday, when Flores walked up to bat to the sounds of “I’ll Be There For You,” the show’s famous theme song.
Here’s video of it:
Here it is, in all its glory: Wilmer Flores waling up to the "Friends" theme song pic.twitter.com/SCJfs88OeH
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) September 5, 2016
I love Wilmer Flores pic.twitter.com/QKfNtLldWc
— Alexandra (@Aleeexandraaa24) September 5, 2016
According to Roger Rubin of ESPN, the crowd loved it and began clapping along, and Flores so enjoyed the reception that he plans on keeping the music.
“It was awesome,” Flores said. “It got them going.”
Flores is a fan favorite in New York, particularly after this went down last season. Quirks like this are only going to help endear him further.
