It was a looong wait for 8-year-old Phillies fan Tyler Barnett -- and the rest of us too. So when Bryce Harper finally signed his free agent megadeal, the world was ready for Tyler's jubilant but disbelieving reaction that took over all of our devices.
Here's a two-minute oral history of Tyler's glorious moment after he got off the bus. (Click here if your memory needs a refresher.)
LINDSEY BARNETT, TYLER'S MOM: Tyler had cancer as a baby, and he has a prosthetic eye now. We were at the oncologist recently when Manny Machado signed with the Padres. Tyler was sitting there with his prosthetic eye in a cup, and he was more upset about not getting Machado than his eye being in a cup. That's who he is. Sports are everything to him.
TYLER: I've been a Phillies fan for years; I started following Bryce Harper about three years ago. He hits a lot of home runs. My dad was telling me all about what teams he was maybe going to, and I got scared when he said he might not be coming to Philadelphia.
LINDSEY: When my husband, Bill, texted me that we got Harper, I knew Tyler would be ecstatic. Bill was still at work, so I wanted him to be able to see Tyler's reaction.
TYLER: When my mom told me, I didn't believe her. Then I was really happy and started screaming.
LINDSEY: My husband tweeted the video on March 1, and within 24 hours the Phillies had contacted us -- it happened so quickly.
HARPER: I saw [the video] first on Twitter. A lot of people tagged me in their replies. It was hilarious -- I thought it was great that he was so excited.
BONNIE CLARK, PHILLIES PR: I was at an event with John Middleton [principal owner of the Phillies], and I showed the video to him. Then John called me and said, "Let's use it in the press conference."
LINDSEY: Someone from the Phillies messaged my husband and said, "We'd love to share the video at the press conference and offer you tickets to Opening Day." We figured Tyler would be a part of a fan reaction montage -- we didn't realize Tyler's video was opening up the press conference with Harper.
HARPER: I think [it went viral] because of how surprised he was and how real the reaction was. He was a great example of how Phillies fans were feeling at the time.
TYLER: I couldn't believe it. When I got to school, my teacher showed the video to my class. And yes, I felt very famous.
* See Tyler's favorite team/player on Monday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN) when the Phillies visit the New York Mets.