Two games. That’s all that’s left. The 7-Packers can sniff the finish line. Our latest installment of the plan brings the Atlanta Braves to town, in the last time the 7-Packers will ever see Larry and Crew in Shea Stadium. Wow, that sounds so sentimental when I say it like that. Uh-oh….I’m getting verklempt…..Talk amongst yourselves…
This matchup couldn’t get any better either, Pedro Martinez against Mike Hampton. Oh, it’s gonna be a fun night. I’m glad J-Nic’s driving….
1) Just as a preface, just two days after this game, I’ll be at Wrigley Field. (This is a Rick Briamonte baseball weekend.)
2) As a bonus, Wes (remember Wes from the 2006 season) has returned for one night only, in place of Danny Wo. (We must really be closing the stadium. It feels like we’re bringing everyone back for a final goodbye tour. Good to have Wes back with us. Danny Wo and Christian were missed though.)
3) Today marks 20 games remaining in the season. The big 20 on the outfield wall makes me think of HoJo. (There is no other Met to wear 20 in my mind.)
4) Here is tonight’s homerun game lineup: Tara – Delgado; Mike – Tatis; Me – Nick Evans; J-Nic – Delgado; Alex – Wright; Caron – Tatis; Jeff – Reyes, of the Jose variety; Bruce – Castro, “Dad has Shrek”~Mike; Wes – Beltran; Rich – Jose; Laura – Jose (Whoops, my bad. I booked 3 Joses); Kerri – Wright. (Okay, I’m sure I’m gonna hear about screwing up Jose Reyes. Spoiler…he didn’t hit a homerun.)
5) Not for nothing, but whoever the Braves coach is that brought out the lineup card, his name looks like “Stinker” (You hadda be there.)
6) The Mets are coming out to “Stronger” by Kanye West. The Giants also came out to this song at Super Bowl XLII. It definitely has a message this team can relate to. (Can this be a sign? You know what? I’ll just stop now.)
7) Wow, 1 pitch and it’s 1-0 Braves. “You know what I usually do when that happens? RESET BUTTON!”~Me
8) “This is my second Pedro start in four years. The first didn’t go so well.”~Mike (That’s not a good sign.)
9) We just spotted a dude in a Rickey Henderson jersey. (I don’t think he was joking either. Dude, it’s just too soon to call that awesome.)
10) “Stay up! Stay up! Stay up!” ~Me “That’s what she said.”~Mike (Well played. And yes, the ball stayed up.)
11) While we were chanting “Let’s Go Mets” the Crackerjack guy got jacked up and chanted, “CRACK-ER-JACKS!” (Nice marketing ploy. Hope that works out for ya.)
12) An AirTRAN plane just flew over head. (For those who have seen Mets games on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball over the last 4 years, you get the joke.)
13) Good point made by Mike or Jeff, I can’t remember which…could you ask for better weather for an August baseball game? (So true, somebody is usually sweating through their t-shirt by this point during the August game….FORESHADOWING!!!)
14) It’s only the third inning and we have our first Favre Jets jersey sighting. (I’m cautiously keeping my mouth shut.)
15) “You know what they need to start showing here?” ~Me “Porn?” ~Mike. (The sad thing is, I don’t remember what I actually said they needed to start showing. DAMMIT! I SSSSTINK!!!)
16) Somehow, I stopped paying attention and said something stupid. That cost me a 5-minute major. (7-Pack penalty charged to Rick Briamonte, 5 minutes of silence for not paying attention. That’s Briamonte, 5 minutes of silence for not paying attention. Time of the penalty, 8:37.)
17) “Rick, if you’re not a d0uchebag, say something…ANYTHING in the next 4 minutes.” ~Mike
18) “I’m likin’ this. It’s nice and quiet over here.” ~J-Nic
19) Mike: No texting, you can’t speak
J-Nic: Yeah, you violated it
Mike: No writing either.
20) 8:40………………………………………………
21) 8:41………………………………………………
22) 8:42…………………………..out of the box. Thank God, I can speak again.
23) Okay, I’ve already been beaten to buy the first article of Mets clothing for my future Godson, as my co-Godparent, my cousin Jami, also a Mets fan, bought Junior his first Mets t-shirt, so I’m off to get him a Mr Met doll. Alex will be taking over the scoring. (Wait, no he won’t, C-Ron takes over.)
24) On my way, I decide to stop for a beer. (Where are my priorities.)
25) So, the beer stand in our section sells 16 oz bottles of Miller Lite for $8 and 24 oz cans in a cup for $9.50. Time for a math lesson for all you non-accountants out there. SHUT UP! IT’S COOL TO BE AN ACCOUNTANT AND HERE’S WHY!!! A 16 oz bottle of Miller Lite that costs $8 equals 50 cents an ounce. A 24 oz can that costs $9.50 comes out to 40 cents an ounce. Multiplied by 16, that means that a 16 ounce bottle at 40 cents an ounce should cost $6.33. That’s almost $2 less per beer!!! If you have 5 beers, that’s almost 10 bucks, that’s almost enough for parking, or will buy you an order of chicken fingers and fries. “That makes good financial sense, good advice…” (Come on, somebody name the movie. In fact, the first person to name the movie to me either through email or in the comments section gets a prize from me.)
26) It’s the Mr. Met with the beany butt and 3 Mets onesies for Junior. I sent a text to my sister saying, “Consider your son Metsmerized.” (He will NOT be a Yankees fan.)
27) People are starting to wonder where in the world is Rick? (Yeah, I just got the theme from “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” stuck in your head. And if I didn't then, I just did now. Enjoy that.)
28) I have returned and I’m ready to open the peanuts. (No comment.)
29) David Wright is a Braves killer and I love every single nanosecond of it. (4-3 Braves.)
30) In the bottom of the sixth, I turned to Mike when we were down 4-3 and said, “Bottom of the 7th is our inning. We’re gonna score in the bottom of the 7th.” Mike’s response was, “We’ve scored one run in every odd inning, so we’ll score one in the 7th and one in the 9th and win 5-4.” (Foreshadowing.)
31) As we hit the 7th, I took notice to the fact that we as Section 11 had not really gotten into it yet. That’s when I took over. (I got Section 11 fired up. We got loud.)
32) Delgado delivers again!! (Somebody’s hot.)
33) WICKED Proud of Section 11.
34) That Delgado RBI single driving home Nick Evans, who doubled, was ruled his 4th hit of the game. It should have been ruled an error, but hey, I’ll take it. (By the way, that’s one run in the seventh, tie game. We’re on pace.)
35) This just in, Pedro’s coming out to pitch the 8th. (I would NEVER have guessed this.)
36) After giving up a lead off single, Pedro’s night is done. (Well played Petey. Well played.)
37) Castro, Reyes and Easley just combined on a nasty bunt double play. (I got so excited, I ripped my nut bag!)
38) PEANUTS!! What were YOU thinking???
39) After a walk to Larry and a single by McCann, enter Luis Ayala to preserve the tie. (All it took was one pitch for Omar Infante to fly out to center. This was the same Omar Infante who in the bottom of the 7th caught Fernando Tatis’ long fly ball to left that we thought was a homer off the bat, and then turned to taunt the fans on the other side of the fence behind him. I found this out when watching the highlights after the game. MORE FORESHADOWING!)
40) We go to the bottom of the 9th, still tied. Bobby Cox just woke up from his nap and has called upon Vladimir Nunez and his 6+ ERA to pitch the 9th. (I sense the prophecy starting to come true.)
41) After a Nick Evans fly out, D-Wright doubles. (He really is a Braves killer.)
42) Uncle Bobby decides to pick his poison and elects to walk Beltran to face Delgado, who’s 4 for 4 with 2 RBI’s. Both RBI’s coming with 2 outs. “You don’t wanna face Carlos Delgado! You don’t!” ~Me (Listen to me, I’m an accountant!)
43) They started him off with two pitches away. (You do realize that he’s been murdering that pitch, right? OkAYYY)
44) On the third pitch, Delgado smoked a line drive to left (going with the outside pitch). D-Wright took off, before getting ¾ of the way to third before realizing the ball was about to be caught. Infante had him dead to rights at second. Somehow Omar lost the ball, fell down and the ball dropped for a hit. Wright took off for home and scored the winning run, sending the Shea faithful into a frenzie. There was basically a pile on in Section 11. It was madness. We beat the Braves in our last time seeing them at Shea on the pack. (What a fitting end.)
So, in case you weren’t paying attention, the Mets scored one in the seventh and one in the ninth, winning 5-4. Mr Infante needs to take Karma 101 next semester. And as far as the foreshadowing about sweating is concerned, stay tuned for the
Oh yeah, and uh, if you still haven’t figured out where the movie quote came from, you need to brush up on your 80’s movies featuring Rick Moranis.
And so, we’re down to one game. Mike won’t even be there. What’s worse, the guys sitting behind me mentioned late in the game that the Mets will not be offering any pack plans in the new stadium. This is heartbreaking news. So much so, that it lead me to write this email to the Mets’ ticket office:
As a lifelong Mets fan, I'm very sad to see Shea go off to the big stadium heaven in the sky, yet I'm excited to see what Citi Field has to offer. The place looks great. I've been part of a 7-pack plan for 4 years now and it's probably the best decision, from a Mets fan perspective, that I've made. I was at the Mets-Braves game last night, August 21 and I heard from a fellow "7-packer" who has sat behind us all year that the 7-packs will not be offered in Citi Field. Please tell me that this is just a rumor. The 7-pack allows the average fan a bit of continuity and gives them a chance to make new friends along with having so ma ny memorable experiences. I could not ask for anything more. Please, I implore you. Do not drop the 7-pack from the menu. To some, this is all they can look forward to as Mets fans. Do us, those who make the long drives, sit in traffic, pay ridiculous prices for tolls, parking, tickets and food, to stand and cheer for this team a favor, please, do not get rid of the 7-pack.
Sincerely,
Rick Briamonte
The interesting part is they actually did respond and although it was a generic response, the email did say that they were exploring all options, so that gives us some hope. Anyone who reads that actually has or would like to have a 7-pack, may I suggest following in my footsteps. Let’s get the word out to the Mets that the 7-pack needs to stay. Until next time, have a great Labor Day Weekend!
