Tuesday, April 15, 2008

THIS THURSDAY:  METSGRRL + METS BY THE NUMBERS.

I’ll just quote from the website:

Thursday, April 17, 7:30pm:
Jon Springer, author of Mets By The Numbers: A Complete Team History of the Amazin’ Mets by Uniform Number and Spike Vrusho, author of Benchclearing: Baseball’s Greatest Fights and Riots, moderated by Caryn Rose of metsgrrl.com.
Beer and snacks will be served.
Word, 126 Franklin St., Brooklyn 11222

[Here’s a map.]

It is a 5 minute walk from the Greenpoint Ave. G stop or a 15 minute walk from the Bedford L. Be there or be square.

Monday, April 14, 2008

D.WRIGHT REMINDER.

[There’s some kind of Al Pacino joke here, with the Mets or DW. I just can’t figure it out right now. Anyone else?]

Saturday, April 12, 2008

OUTSHINED. [04-12-08, pt. 2]

Mets v. Brewers
Santana v. Sheets

So I was not here for the other great acquisitions, the other legendary starts. I wasn’t here at Piazza’s first game or Pedro’s first game or Seaver coming back in 1983 (although I have to admit that it kills me to think about all the baseball I could have seen, if I had only known better at the time. I will hold my father responsible.). There is nothing I can do about any of that.

However, I am here right now, and this is the first time that the Mets have acquired a player that I really, truly knew something about. I probably knew more about Johan Santana on a day-to-day basis than even TBF. If I could have snuck into the press conference or watched it live I would have. This has been a big deal to me, and while I realize that it’s also a big deal to most of the rest of you, I really took the acquisition of Santana to heart. Maybe because I understood what was going on and understood the value beyond just two-time Cy Young and the best pitcher in baseball. It was like, hey! this is my guy..

I realize this sounds silly, or an attitude better befitting a 12 year old in their 5th year of Little League, sitting in the upper deck with their team, hopped up on cotton candy and soda. Perhaps in some ways I’m closer to that kid than I am people my own age, in terms of fandom. But I was excited about today, anxious that it might get rained out, inconsolable at the thought that I wouldn’t see Johan Santana’s first start at Shea. When we got home last night and checked the weather, I formulated an entire game plan. Our Saturday plan seats are in the upper deck, which are not great for photographic purposes. I knew there wouldn’t be BP, but the pitchers would have to warm up. We would get there early, I would stake out the bullpen, and I could get some decent shots of Santana the day of his first start at Shea.

Well, we already know how well that went.

Click to continue reading OUTSHINED. [04-12-08, pt. 2]

LOOKING CALIFORNIA. [04-12-08, pt. 1]

Mets v. Brewers
Batting Practice

The plan, as my devious mind conceived of it, was to get to Shea early enough to stake myself out in the loge near the bullpen. Being an old habitue, I knew there would be no BP today (day game after a night game), but I also knew the pitchers had to warm up. Everyone would head to the field, while I would head to that corner of the loge near the bullpen. Genius, right? We got to Shea at 11 (no, seriously, 11am), and giddy as a schoolgirl, made a beeline for the loge.

We got a smile out of Nelson as he was finishing his long tossing and walking towards the bullpen: “Nelson! Brooklyn, REPRESENT!” He signed autographs for every single person who wanted them today (No, seriously, every. single. person.) and who could blame him?

Click to continue reading LOOKING CALIFORNIA. [04-12-08, pt. 1]

THEY DO EXIST.

FOUND: in the new team store tent-thing out near the subway stairs - THEY DO EXIST!!!

(A nice touch is the Shea 1964-2008 logo printed on the sleeve.)

Funnily enough, yesterday I had written a whole rant about how there need to be John Maine shirts, and was going to start this whole campaign to get the Mets to manufacture them. Oh well.

They have OP shirts, too, but I am still vacillating. It will break my heart when we lose him.

Friday, April 11, 2008

CONEY ISLAND BABY. [4-11-08]

I’ll confess that I didn’t want to go to the game tonight. We had actually talked about getting rid of the tickets, and had tried to get rid of the tickets, but who on earth wants to spend $50+ to go to Shea in April on a Friday night to see Nelson Figueroa, especially with Santana starting the very next day? It had been a long week, lots of early starts for me, and we were heading right back to Shea on Saturday, weather gods permitting. It would be okay, right, to skip this one, sit it out? Maybe send TBF out to Flushing with my ticket and if he got rid of it, great, if not, well, we’d already paid for it. It would be okay, it would be understandable. It is April baseball. I am tired.

That was the thought pattern in my head when I crawled out of bed at 6:20 this morning, and yet, at 4:30pm, I am on the phone with TBF discussing food options and meeting places and times and by 6pm we were on the 7 train out to Willetts Point. When we got on the train at Bryant Park, I was completely in afternoon commuter mode, barreling down the stairs and into the train and letting him hopelessly follow me. And then by Grand Central I was apologizing, and by Vernon-Jackson it didn’t matter too much, and by the time the express was speeding by Sunnyside, I was laughing and making jokes. The closer the train got to Shea, the better I felt.

Click to continue reading CONEY ISLAND BABY. [4-11-08]

TWO DAY FORECAST.

This is not looking good. I don’t much care about tonight (we could use the rainout credits), but I do care VERY VERY MUCH about tomorrow.

And moving Santana to start the next day will not help me. I have a family event on Sunday.

If I miss Johan Santana’s first start at Shea because I was trying to be a good sister, I will not be happy.

I am a horrible person.

FRIDAY MUSINGS.

Why are none of these rants about girls sitting in their underwear in their parents’ basements, writing about baseball? Nevermind, don’t answer that. [FJM]

Why don’t we get a parade for Opening Day?? [Church Of Baseball]

Where is the Mets counterpart to this??? [Center Field]

Thursday, April 10, 2008

IDLE HYMNS OF PRAISE. [04-10-08]

These are the games we remember. 2006, sitting through frigid April baseball, extra innings on a Tuesday night, wishing that they didn’t stop selling beer at the 7th inning. I left work around 6pm tonight and as people clad in orange and blue got on the train at 5th Avenue and then again at Grand Central, it made me think about calling TBF, telling him to ditch the errands, get on the train, and meet me out in Flushing. But, duty called, and I came home, via a lovely stroll across the Pulaski Bridge.

Pedro Feliciano has every right to have a song written about him.
I take back every terrible thing I have ever said about Scott Schoeneweis.
And TBF called Angel Pagan saving this game… okay, several innings earlier, but he called it.

What a beautiful game. What a soaring feeling. Jose smiling, Delgado smiling, Damion f’ing Easley coming through like a champ, Santana running out of the dugout at game’s end as gleeful as any kid just up from AAA.

See you tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

SO NOW CAN WE STOP SINGING IT?

Attention Mets AV Team:

How much more evidence do you need?

xoxo,

MG