Guess who has season tickets for the New York Football Giants? That’s right!!! Through a stroke of luck and great consideration from my uncle, to whom I’m eternally grateful right now, I have purchased two tickets to the 2008 Giants season. Our section is of course in the Mezzanine, Section 216. What a great section to be in, by the way. When you get to the top of the escalator, there’s a beer stand to your right, a cookie stand to your left and the Men’s room just beyond the cookie stand. I mean, can you have better placed amenities?
My first game on the season ticket plan was last Monday night, August 18, against the Cleveland Browns. Uncle Mike couldn’t make it to the game, neither could our 4th of the 5 tickets, Johnny. So I had all 5. A-Train gladly accepted along with my cousin Anthony, fresh off of his graduation from Southern Florida and my cousin Tommy, just back from
1) Okay, I know there’s issues with the parking considering the fact that Lego has taken over the area around Brendan Byrne’s Continental Izod Center (if your drive on Route 3 or live in the area, you know exactly what I’m talking about right now.), but this is ridiculous. (Supposedly one of the Mara’s is in charge of this. He’s doing a real bang up job.)
2) So, let me get this straight, we are forced to prepay $20 a game to park, which allows us to park on “stadium grounds” as opposed to “satellite” parking, which is two miles away, and they put us behind the racetrack, because they closed the road that leads from the Paterson Plank Road entrance to the stadium. After all that, you still have to take a bus to get to the stadium anyway? (I honestly that the Mara and Tisch families are a bunch of absolute bird brains. Either that or maniacal geniuses.)
3) Well, at least when you’re this far out, you don’t have to worry about drinking too much, because the walk to and from the stadium is sobering enough. (This organization stinks.)
4) So Anthony and his buddy brought a bottle of Peppermint Schnapps. I have some interesting memories of that on a golf course recently. It’s like drinking Scope. (Only more refreshing and drunkifying.)
5) Okay, seriously, this walk is too long. I’m losing my 4-beer in 15 minute buzz. (What the crap?)
6) Oh, look there’s the new stadium that nobody wanted or asked for. (Well, I should say that no fans wanted or asked for, yet are being asked to foot the bill. Yeah, that’s seems fair, right?)
7) You know what sucks even more, because of the construction and our current position in the parking lot; I could not walk over to Gate B, because it’s blocked off. No, we had to do a lap around the entire stadium. (This is going to get more and more annoying as the year goes on, I can see it now.)
8) Since we had to park closer to Stiletto’s than the stadium, it cost us the first drive of the game, which ended in a Browns’ field goal. (Oh well.)
9) Wow, Eli looks phenomenal with 3rd string receivers. That first drive seemed to take all of about 2 minutes. 7-3 GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-MENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!! (Actually, that drive took 1:28. Dominick Hixon made a nice catch too, remember that.)
10) Sure, I’ll have another beer.
11) Not sure how to put this, but the guys are definitely impressed with the seats and the sight from our seats. (Take that as you want)
12) Wow, either the Browns O-Line is really bad or the Giants D-line is really good. (I’m gonna go with we’re really good)
13) Sure, I’ll have two more beers. (Oh by the way, the short walk to the bathroom is clutch.)
14) Now I know the Jets just played here two days ago, but I wonder, is this why the end zone does not have “GIANTS” painted on it? Rather they went with the Notre Dame white stripe look, which in my opinion looks pheNOMenal. I guess we’ll see what they do once the season starts, but I like that look, I like it a lot. (I really like that look. I like Brandon Inge. I like Inge a lot….That was one for you Mike Francessa fans out there.)
15) After an awful
16) Great job by
17) It’s the Dominick Hixon show. An 82 yard kickoff return for a touchdown, his third…OF THE QUARTER and it’s 23-3 GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEMENNNNNNNNNNNNNN (Sell on the Browns. SELL!!! SELL!!!! SELL!!!)
18) Even A-Train clapped for that one.
19) You know, we didn’t grow up in the 80’s, so we didn’t see my uncles and all their friends in action on Sundays in the parking lot, but sitting there at the game, bonding with my two cousins really gave me that feeling that if we wanted to, we could resurrect the old tailgates. (This may be something that we should look into, oh wait, you’re not allowed to entire the parking lot more than 5 hours before game time. That’s actually not a Mara rule, that’s a Great State of New Jersey rule. Can I move out yet?)
20) 33 seconds into the second quarter, Derek Anderson gets sacked, fumbles, which is recovered by the Giants, who return it 95 yards for a touchdown. Anthony and I were on the beer line, heard a ruckus, then saw a Giants player streaking in the other direction. (This calls for a beer!)
21) This just in, sell on the Browns.
22) Derek Anderson just got sacked again and is now hurt. (He’s not having a good night.)
23) It’s time for the Brady Quinn show!!
24) Quinn actually didn’t do too badly in
25) Just like that, it’s 30-24. Good thing they cut off beer sales at the end of Halftime. (That may be the one party pooper rule I agree with. It sucks, but you know what, it’s better than having to end up drinking and driving. However, if you’re not driving, then just buy two right at the end of the half and your good for at least one more quarter.)
26) Gotta love the Pop Warner games the Giants have during the half. This is the advantage to not needing a zamboni drive around during an intermission. (What? Okay, Rick needs to just stop talking now.)
27) Seriously though, that must be a dream come true for those kids. I’ve been on the Giants Stadium field once for our high school’s football game. It was pretty amazing. (Well played, Giants. You don’t get many of those, but well played.)
28) That’s basically all there is to it. It was a preseason game, plus I had no notes to go by. The guys had a great time and I was glad to spend time with them. Here’s to more Giants games with the guys.
I know I did a lot of complaining early on about the parking situation, but it probably was for the best. That walk home did wonders for my sobriety. The bottom line is, however, they really need to not charge me $7500 a ticket for a Personal Seat License, which is the biggest scam and how they haven’t been brought up on extortion charges yet, is beyond me. More on this at a later date.
Tonight, it’s back to the Meadowlands for the rematch of Super Bowl XLII, minus basically every starting player from both teams. I’m taking my Dad tonight, who was at the Mets-Phils game in Philly last night. He’s having a me week.
I’ll be back later with a 7-Pack update and an update from Wrigley. I got a lot of catching up to do.
