My last couple of trips to Citi Field were disastrous from a traffic perspective. So for the Dodgers game, I packed a bag and drove right from the office to the stadium, only changing my t-shirt. I had vowed that if I was running late, I would change into shorts, while driving. Thankfully, it never came to that.
There was a lot of confusion surrounding this game. I had it in my Outlook Calendar as Wednesday, July 8. Mike and I had talked about how painful it was going to be to be at Ollie’s first game back. Hirxey was coming with us and we were making plans for Wednesday. Then he texted me Tuesday night and asked if the game was the next day. So confident, I said yes and he said that Mike had left him a message to call him to plan for “Thursday’s” game, but when Hirxey called him back, he never picked up. I said Mike probably had it wrong, never looking at my ticket to confirm.
The next morning, Hirxey left me a message saying the game WAS in fact Thursday. I already had packed a bag with clothes and my ticket. It was then that I confirmed that I was wrong. It turns out we would have been better off seeing Ollie pitch the night before…
1) Arrived at the stadium in plenty of time and was told to change into shorts because I looked retarded wearing a t-shirt and khakis.
2) This just in, Hirxey’s unborn child may share J Schiblè’s birthday. (God help that child.)
3) Our buddy Ryan was also at the game, on different tickets, but still came to hang with us at the BBQ.
4) Oh, the inappropriate Michael Jackson and Steve McNair jokes are flying. Ryan, ladies and gentlemen. Ryan.
5) Just dropped trou in my car and it felt great.
6) So I’m wearing blue plaid shorts. Immediately, Hirxey, Mike and Ryan are all over me. Whatever, they’re not cool enough to wear shorts like these.
7) C-Ron and I had a nice conversation, since we hadn’t seen each other in quite a long time, as we walked into the stadium.
8) Walking along the field level concourse, we noticed that they had posted the lineup over the concession stand with the poster cards of each Mets player. It looked the same as the night before. Then we noticed Ollie at the end of it. Whoever is in charge of that did a bad job there, Mikey. Bad job.
9) The entire group has been broken up on the walk in, this makes for a tough time trying to get ourselves in gear to start the game. By the way, we’re sitting in the last section in centerfield in the Left Field Landing. Manny won’t be able to hear or reach us.
10) Livan gives up a lead off double to Furcal and I’m immediately taken out of my game.
11) Manny drives in a run with a single and the cleanup hitter attempts to bunt. Joe Torre managing in the National League.
12) Speaking of Manny, there seemed to be a lot more boos than in the past couple of games. Good. He deserves it all.
13) Just like that, it’s 4-0 Dodgers and I have no will to watch this game.
14) Laura is not pleased with my negativity. I warned everyone that given the state of the Mets the last few weeks, they were going to see a different side of me at this game.
15) “We don’t need Orlando Hudson! We got Castillo! We don’t need Randy Wolf, we signed Ollie for 3 years!”~Mike
16) Mike: This whole team sucks. I don’t like them at all
Hirxey: The Mets?
Mike: No, the Dodgers. Furcal, Wolf, Manny,
17) Between the 1st and 2nd innings, the entire Dodgers bullpen staff slowly walked from the dugout to the bullpen. They took their sweet time getting there too. “What is this? A field trip to the bullpen?”~Mike
18) Tonight’s homerun game: Me-Church, Tara-Santos, Mike-Evans, Alex-Sheffield, Hirxey-Tatis, Jeff-Sheffield, C-Ron-Tatis, Lauren-Wright, Rob-Church, Bob-Wright, Laura-Evans, Rich-Santos, Kerri-Cora. Good luck to all.
19) “If the Mets are still out of it by the 5th inning, do you wanna go down and heckle weaver until we get thrown out?”~Mike. Let me think about that. Um, YES!
20) Laura made a good point, if the Mets don’t hit a homerun, we may have to come up with a new game. I agree.
21) Mike has a feeling Nick Evans 1st homerun of the year, you know, the one Mike dropped, is going to be his only homerun and it’s gonna eat away at Mike.
22) So Tony D, the beer vendor comes down and Dan says, “Tony! Remember me from last night?” Tony D. replied, “Dan, what’s up? I remember you.” Dan and Laura were at the game the night before. Laura is pretty much in utter shock that the guy remembered him.
23) There’s just cash flying everywhere. Tony D. is struggling to keep up.
24) Okay, I’m just throwing it out there for everyone (Laura) who thinks I shouldn’t give up on my team. This is NOT my team. MY team gave up on ME awhile ago. What we watched that night was NOT my team. Therefore, I haven’t given up on my team, because my team apparently doesn’t exist in the first place. So there.
25) Me: Are we still happy we didn’t sign Manny?
Mike: Nope.
26) That’s it, I’m starting a “Fire Omar” chant. Mike corrected me, it’s “Fuego Omar.”
27) Given the bitterness of our group, Manny is lucky the Wilpons are rich, greedy bastards who allow this tiered pricing resulting in our normal tickets doubling in price, shifting us up one level. If we were sitting in our normal seats, someone would have been thrown out by now.
28) Livan has a better batting average than Argenis Reyes, who got the “He’s not MYgenis, he’s not YOURgenis, he’s ARRRRRGENIS,” chant, yet Jerry felt the need to make a change. By the way, the chant doesn’t have the same effect when it’s not Benitez.
29) Laura is fired up, she is not happy with the effort of the pack, namely me, tonight.
30) Everyone left. It’s 11-2. This is embarrassing. I cannot believe this has happened. All that’s left are Kerri, Jeff and me. At least we have each other.
31) Me: Remember when the Mets were good?
Jeff: No.
Me: Remember when they were competitive?
Jeff: Vaguely
Me: Remember when we liked them?
32) “It’s like a sellout in
33) What happens if a Church hits one out here, do I have money coming to me next game?
34) Guess we’ll never know.
35) The crowd is really getting delirious now.
36) PLEASE END THIS SUFFERING!
37) Thank you.
It was a long, painful and lonely walk back to my car. At one point, I sent Pepsi Girl a text apologizing for her having to go through this. I can’t imagine what that must be like right now. As I was walking out, I heard a fan explain to his son, “You can’t run a car on three tires. The Mets only have one tire.” Wow, truer words could not be spoken right now.
Of course, as I walked down the steps of the Rotunda, what do I see walking up the steps, but two nuns wearing Dodger caps? Somehow the Mets need to get God back on their side and soon.
