Monday, March 31, 2008

GAME 1 OF 162. [3-31-08]

Well, the quarantine succeeded, even with the MetsBlog party being literally down the street from my office. I overheard someone in the office informing someone in from the Omaha office that today was Opening Day, and promptly announced that I was in quarantine and that anyone who thought they might be talking game specifics would… well, let’s not get into specifics, but I obviously made my point. I brought headphones today but I cannot wear headphones and do my job effectively, but I changed my Google homepage from iGoogle to Classic, closed the RSS feed, and deleted every comment notification that came into my email. Opening day cupcakes in hand (what, you don’t have opening day cupcakes?), I arrived home around 7:30 to a lovely dinner and settled in to watch the first game of the year.

We can talk about how great Johan was, we can talk about David being David, we can talk about Jose hitting that nice one right down into the outfield and not out into the bleachers, we can talk about Marlon Anderson being The Best Pinch Hitter In The World and how Ryan Church may allow me to stop holding my breath every time a ball gets hit into right field… it’s still one game out of 162 and tomorrow is another day and all that.

To me, the sign of the season was during the team intros, the look on David Wright’s face as he stepped onto the field for the first time, fierce and proud and determined all at once, wrapped up in that glad-to-be-here Virginia farmboy smile. That said it all, and gives me confidence that he’s going to be setting some kind of tone, or doing his best to anyways.

And while hell yeah it was nice to win, more importantly, it was BASEBALL. The Mets. Again. Watching with TBF, him keeping score, me taking notes, the cat running interference. Tomorrow there will be more, and next week, we’ll be back at Shea for the last season.

Man, it’s been one long goddamn winter.

GLORY DAYS.

Per Adam Rubin:

BREAKING NEWS: Sweet Caroline, a Red Sox sing-along tradition stolen by the Mets, may be history. Fans can vote for a new eighth-inning sing-along song through April 4 at mets.com.

The choices:
Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morrison
Build Me Up Buttercup, The Foundations
I Love Rock ‘N Roll, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
I’m a Believer, The Monkees
Land of 1000 Dances, Wilson Pickett
Livin’ on a Prayer, Bon Jovi
Movin’ Out, Billy Joel
Sweet Caroline, Neil Diamond
I’ll Be There For You, The Rembrandts
Waitin’ On A Sunny Day, Bruce Springsteen

My comments, after the jump.

Click to continue reading GLORY DAYS.

OPENING DAY 2008!

Somehow I have to manage to quarantine myself until I get home from work, so we can make dinner (gourmet hot dogs), have a beer, and watch THE FIRST GAME OF THE YEAR together.

I have been gone since Thursday, so I have a little bit to catch up on. But, I can tell you that I am beyond THRILLED that we get a chance to get rid of “Sweet Caroline” for once and for all. (However, over my dead body will we sing a song by a bandwagon Yankees fan from Jersey at Shea in its last year.) More later.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

REPRESENT, YO.

PERSONAL to the guy wearing the David Wright t-shirt and Mets hat sitting dead center behind the stage at the Springsteen show in Portland, OR tonight: dude, you made our evening.

(I was going to wear my Johan Santana shirt to this show but TBF told me it would be a little obnoxious.)

Friday, March 28, 2008

GENDER PARITY COMES TO SHEA.

Or, lessons from the 2008 Media Guide:

TOILET FIXTURES ON CONCOURSES:

SHEA STADIUM:
568 - Total
1 per 101
217 Women (38% of total)
345 Men (61% of total)
6 Family (1% of total)

CITI FIELD:
646 Total (14% increase)
305 Women (47% of total)
327 Men (51% of total)
14 Family (2% of total)

I’m astonished. I actually originally read the figures in reverse and was about to get on the warpath, until I checked things again. And the thing is, Shea allegedly has a larger percentage of women’s facilities than most sporting facilities of its time (and we can thank Mrs. Payson for that).

Thursday, March 27, 2008

INVENTORY.

In the season ticket shipment, in addition to the obvious, we also had the following:

1. One (1) Commemorative Shea Stadium Keepsake Box: This is actually pretty solid and it’s tempting to mock it but I won’t. It’s nicely done and I will really treasure this in years to come.
2. One (1) Letter from William Ianniciello, VP Ticket Sales and Services, telling me that our entire organization looks forward to a return to championship caliber excitement in 2008. Me, I’d be satisfied right now if we aren’t looking forward to a continuation of championship caliber injuries.
3. Two (2) Pocket Schedules: there are not different versions of the schedule except for the ads on the back.
4. One (1) $15 coupon towards a $75.00 purchase at Dick’s Sporting Goods. Go get that kelly green Johan Santana jersey, because nothing says Johan Santana to me like a green jersey.
5. One (1) StubHub brochure, with an illustrated diagram of how you sell tickets on StubHub. Hey, guys, maybe they need that kind of help in the Bronx, I think we’re smarter than that.
6. One (1) 10% off coupon towards DHL shipments. You too can ship valuable tickets and not get the signature of the person you’re shipping them to.
7. One (1) pamphlet outlining Shea Stadium Security Procedures and Shea Stadium Parking details. The big change this year, no smoking at Shea, anywhere. There is also a note that no outside food is permitted, but the Mets web site doesn’t mention anything about that. Considering that many stadiums do ban outside food, and I maintain that’s something we’re going to have to look forward to next year when we move next door, it doesn’t surprise me - but it will make both of us really freaking angry if they’re going to try to get away with that crap this year.
8. One (1) Northeast Corridor Amtrak Schedule. This is actually kind of interesting, except that it’s not co-branded nor is there any kind of message explaining why it’s in our package: not a note that Amtrak are sponsors, not a “Hey, take the train to the game - to Philly or DC, and taunt the opposing team!” That would be neat, but this is just kind of bland and random.

All in all, nicely done. The gift is super-nice. So much better than that shovel pen from last year.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

SILENT MOVIE.

[the continuation after the jump]

Click to continue reading SILENT MOVIE.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

AHORA EN ESPANOL.

These caused me to walk all the way to the other end of the Greenpoint Ave. G stop. Can anyone translate? I get “Adios Shea Stadium” and I know “boletos” are tickets (this from seeing concerts in Spain). I am interested in knowing if it’s a good translation and if the slogans have the same spirit as their English counterparts, and/or if they make Spanish-speakers groan the same way we do at the ones in English.

Monday, March 24, 2008

THANKS, WILLIE.

TICKETS WE ORIGINALLY HELD:

• April 8
• April 11
• April 12 (Did I mention we picked up a Saturday plan? Um, we did.)

TICKETS WE BOUGHT SO WE COULD SEE JOHAN SANTANA’S FIRST START:

• April 10

Well, we’ve now got *really* good f’ing seats to see… John Maine’s first start of the year (which, under normal circumstances I would be quite happy about, and when we originally looked at the rotation, it looked like we wouldn’t get to see Johnny for a while, but we bought good seats so I could be in a prime location to photograph Mr. Santana).

Right now it looks like we’ll be at Shea FOUR times that first week. I am almost thankful that Passover obviates any ability to go down to Philly (hi to any random family members reading this).

On that note, anyone looking for good upper reserved seats for Saturdays, drop a line, there are some we won’t be using....

Sunday, March 23, 2008

METS WEEKLY 2008.

If you’ve spent any time reading MetsBlog recently, you can’t turn around without tripping over the hordes of commenters salivating over the new host of Mets Weekly. Julie Donaldson has headed off to work for NESNMWHDH in Boston, and her replacement (one Jocelyn Pierce) was causing one to slip in the puddles of saliva dripping from the mouths of some of the members of the community.

We like Mets Weekly. It became a Saturday ritual to watch the program together while eating brunch or getting ready to go to a game. How can you not love a television show that’s just about the Mets? We felt that it really did capture the “for fans, by fans” ethos most of the time, and even when it didn’t, there was enough interesting stuff that you could overlook the things that made your skin crawl. Last year, however, it started to wear a little thin. I realize it was hard to find anything good or interesting to say after the season’s ignominious end, but if I had to sit through that puppet one more time I was going to boycott the show forever.

Eagerly, we looked forward to the 2008 version of Mets Weekly. Unfortunately, the first show does not bode well for the rest of the season. More, as I ensure I will never ever again be invited on the program, after the jump.

Click to continue reading METS WEEKLY 2008.