I originally had another opening planned for this installment, but here was Mike’s response when I emailed to him…
For the love of god tell me you are drunk… Almost justifiable reading it to that song...but I would erase that one from memory. I feel like Dennis Leary shooting down Kenny's poetry on
In case you hadn’t figured it out, I wrote a song as my opening. It wasn’t one of my best works, so it’ll remain on the cutting room floor. Thank you, Mike for being so brutally honest.
Anyway, yeah, I had some bad writer’s block, so I’m gonna try my best not to bore you with a long winded opening.
When individual game tickets went on sale, I counted the games to see exactly when Johan was going to be making his first start at Shea. The game I was eyeing up was Saturday, April 12 against
She put the brakes on it this year, considering the weather and the fact that we were going Saturday anyway, which was a bummer because we missed an awesome game by Figueroa, but that’s neither here nor there, we were going to see Johan! Little did we know, Johan wasn’t ready to see us.
A couple days before the game, James said he had another extra ticket, at first, I asked J-Nic, being that he lived the closest, but we had a parade in town that he had to be in, so X-factor was clearly my next choice and clearly, in X-factor fashion, he accepted. The plan was for the three of us to meet at Pete’s Backyard, have a couple of cold ones, then met James and Francene at the gate. Since this opening turned out to be long winded anyway, we now join our regularly scheduled program, already in progress…
1) Leaving the house at 10 AM on the dot made for a very smooth ride to the stadium. (It’s amazing what can be accomplished when you establish a schedule and follow it.)
2) If they think I’m gonna pay $15 to park, they can kiss my…. (I’m parking under the highway.)
3) After playing Frogger on
4) Then it hit me, they stopped the ferry service to Shea. This was the establishment’s main source of clientele. Without the ferry travelers, there wasn’t much business. (I’m absolutely heart-broken. I’m still not over this. COME BACK PETE!!)
5) Still hurting. (Gimme a minute.)
6) I’m a little verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves.
7) ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
8) Sniff, sniff…………………………………………………………………………..
9) Okay, I’m done. (Sniff)
10) Little D tried her best to cheer me up. “Maybe we’re just early, or they are closed because it’s early in the season.” (She always knows how to cheer me up. Unfortunately, I don’t think either of these scenarios applies.)
11) At this point, was so bummed, I just wanted to get in the stadium, so we met James and Franny at the Mets Team Store behind right field, which was eerily similar to the NASCAR one in Daytona. (On a much smaller scale of course.)
12) Shortly after, X-factor came walking down the stairs from the train station. We exchanged introductions, and X-factor became the first 7-packer outside of Mike and J-Nic to meet Little D. (He even referred to her as Little D, which made for a funny moment.)
13) We decided to take a look inside to see if they had anything good. X-factor and I came across a picture frame with a picture of Shea during a game, and a slot for a 4x6 photo and a ticket stub. It seemed like a pretty cool idea except for the fact that the picture was from 1987. We debated over the time for a few minutes as we gathered the facts. I said that the scoreboard looks like it is a post 1986 version, while X said that if it were post 1986, then there should be a World Series banner hanging somewhere. It was a game between the Mets and Giants, bottom of the 7th and Dave Magadan was pinch hitting. The Braves and Cubs were also playing that day. Time to look this up. (Update, this just in from X:
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. it wasn’t 1986. It was a Sunday aug 28th in 1988. what was amazing is how in 86, 87, 88, everytime we played the giants at home, the cubs played the braves in
14) As we walked toward the gate, I looked at the ticket and noticed our seat location. Mezzanine, Section 11, Row E!!!! (Now that was just weird.)
15) Mike texted to ask what the weather was like, so I responded by saying Little D was sitting in his seat from the 7th inning on on Wednesday.
16) These fans were ready for Johan. As he walked to the bullpen for pregame warmups, the whole stadium gave him a standing ovation, then again when he was introduced batting 9th, then again as he walked back to the dugout. (There is definitely a buzz in the air)
17) I didn’t really address this in the Opening Night post, but Citi Field looks amazing, yet it feels even more awkward now seeing it almost done looming over the doomed Shea. (Oooh, oooh, honey! Can I just sit in it?)
18) I found my new favorite sandwich. I’m foresaking the Premio Sausage sandwich. My new fave is the Mama’s of Corona Mama’s Special: Peppered ham, salami and fresh mozzarella with oil and vinegar and roasted peppers. (They gave me freakin roasted peppers. I’m sold!)
19) The new pregame Shea montage to the Rob Thomas song is pretty cool. I like it. Good work Shea people. Kudos.
20) Here are the picks for today’s homerun game: Little D: Wright and Schneider, Me: Beltran and Church, X-factor: Pagan and Delgado.
21) Interesting observation, Johan got the no-strike clap. (That’s a new one.)
22) Shaky first for Johan, but he gets out of it unscathed. (Just first inning jitters.)
23) Nice 1st for the Mets tacking on 2 against Sheets. Pagan just gets on base and D-Wright just drives in runs. (Even Beltran and Delgado kept up a nice 2-out, bases cleared rally to push across another run.)
24) Okay, I LOVE D-Wright and all, but he’s gotta start hitting the target with his throws. (There’s 1 unearned run.)
25) Somehow in the bottom of the second, the Mets end up with 4 baserunners, but none score. (This team never ceases to amaze me.)
26) Being that we have the “Meet the Mets” sing along in the 2nd inning, I say that’s it. There is no need for anything else after that. I love singing “Meet the Mets.” I’m going to sing it to my kids some day. As I was singing, Little D looked at me and said, “No one else is singing, why are you?” All I had to do was turn to X-factor. I knew he’d be singing. (That’s why he’s the X-factor.)
27) Okay, seriously, at some point this season, somebody is going to cross the line during “Dancing with the Fans.” (This will happen.)
28) Anyone else notice that Ryan Church walks up to “Crazy Train?” I’m sorry, as a Mets fan who endured the beatings from the Braves during the late 90’s and early 2000’s, all I can think of is that this is Larry Jones’ song in
29) On this date, April 12, 19?? (I stink. I actually wrote 4/12/19. Hold on, I need to do some research……….www.baseball-reference.com…..Teams….Box Scores….1997? Nope….1996? Uh uh…..1998? Try again….1999!!!) Anyway, I was there on April 12, 1999, 9 years ago, when starting pitcher Bobby Jones hit a home run against the Marlins in an 8-1 victory. (Now that is weird.)
30) Bill Hall leads off the top of the 4th with a homerun and we’re tied. (I swear this guy’s on the juice. Mark my words.)
31) Top of the 5th and Rickie Weeks hits an absolute BOMB off of Johan over everything in left. 3-2 Brew Crew. (What’s going on here?)
32) We’re now through 6 and the Mets have not had a baserunner in 4 innings. (Great offense guys, way to be patient.)
33) Top of the 7th and I stop to get chicken fingers and fries. Johan gets the 8 and 9 hitters, including his 7th K, but then walks Rickie Weeks and as I’m walking up the ramp I hear the sound that only the Shea faithful could make with such perfection. It’s the sound of all the air being sucked out of a 55,000 seat stadium as Gabe Kapler blasts a 2 run homer. It was about 20 seconds later that I found out that Kapler wasn’t even playing last year. Nope, he was managing in the minor leagues. (Bad Johan! Bad!!)
34) Schoeneweis, or Swiss Cheese as Little D calls him, comes in to a smattering of boos and gets Prince Fielder to fly out to right. (Of course, he got some cheers then. These fans are so fickle.)
35) In the top of the 8th, Little D noticed that Schoeneweis was out of the game after facing one batter and asked why. I told her that he was the lefty specialist. “Lefty specialist? This guy gets paid millions of dollars to pitch to one batter a game? I wanna be a lefty specialist.” (You know, sometimes as fans, we need to take a step back and look at things from the innocent fan’s perspective and realize what it is we’re actually looking at. In this case, she was spot on with her observation.)
36) Bottom of the 8th and we finally get more than just a baserunner, as Little D is $4 richer on the D-Wright homerun. (Of course, it’s with 2 outs and nobody on, but at least it added some life to an otherwise dead ballpark.)
37) Beltran walks leading to everyone realizing that Guillermo Mota was warming in the Brewers pen. (Of course we chanted for him, but Ned Yost would not oblige, instead giving us a guy named Shouse, who clearly got Delgado to ground back to him for the third out.)
38) With that, Gagne comes on in the 9th without even a peep from the Mets’ offense. (Ugly)
Not a good day. Johan looked shaky, maybe even a little nervous, the offense hit a brick wall against Sheets, which I can understand, but man, there was just no life to them at all. I hope things turn around soon before the crowd becomes mutinous. Well, at least we parked for free. And Johan did have 7 strikeouts, which is nice. So I’m 1-1 on the season. There’s still plenty of baseball left.
Sorry, no pictures right now. I forgot to load them. I’ll try and update this post again later with some pics. I got a lot of good ones of Citi Field.
