Sunday, September 06, 2009

IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT. [9-6-09]

Today was everything that yesterday wasn’t: yesterday I got a sunburn, today we never saw a sunbeam anywhere near our section. Yesterday I sweltered in jeans, today I wore a skirt and had to wrap a tshirt around my legs to keep warm. And, of course, yesterday the Mets lost, and today, improbably, we won.

When single game tickets went on sale in April, it seemed like a good idea to buy these tickets. It was the only series we didn’t get as part of either of our plans, and it was Francisco Rodriguez bobblehead day. Of course we should go. (For the record, I’ll also point out that it seemed like a good idea to head to the doubleheader in Philly next Sunday, which, thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster, is a plan we never took action on. But you gotta give us credit for being optimists.)

As we approached the right field gate (praying that we were in time for bobbleheads), we see some Japanese fans pouring out liquid from a metal water bottle. The guy who searches bags at that gate has a great future with the TSA. There is also only one person searching bags, so in combination with Mr. TSA’s diligence and the lack of backup, there is usually a line. I am standing there feeling bad that the Japanese fan is going to lose his water bottle, but then I overhear Mr. TSA say, “No, you can take it in and fill it up at a water fountain.”

What???!!!!!

I think I am hearing wrong, until the couple in front of us is told the same thing: “I can’t let you take in an open bottle, but you can dump it out and fill it up inside.”

I am going to take some credit for this development.

We were in Section 513 today, in that row of seats just above the tunnel entrance. TBF thought it would be an awesome seat, and while it did have its advantages, this was my viewpoint if I sat back in my seat:

If I leaned forward, I still had to bob and weave back and forth. Since I generally need to do that to take photos anyway, it was fine, but I answered with a vehement “NO!” when TBF asked how I would like having these seats as our plan seats.

We were on the board early, thanks to Daniel Murphy. I realize that Irish people are really proud of their heritage and all, and that the fact that we have an Irish guy on the team means that there’s yet another color that the Mets can make a shirt in and sell a boatload of them, but I am expecting them to get the Pepsi Party Patrol to dress in shamrock costumes and dance on the dugout next year, the way they push it sometimes. However, if Daniel Murphy keeps having these career highlight games, I will gladly volunteer to be one of the dancing shamrocks.

I will confess that neither of us had particularly high hopes for Pelfrey today. Don’t get me wrong, we like Mike Pelfrey just fine, and want good things for him - but as you all know, it can be quite torturous to have to actually sit through a Pelfrey start. So we were happy when he seemed to be doing fine.
“Is it because the Cubs suck, or does Pelfrey have it together?” TBF asked me round about the 5th inning.
“I’d like to say he has it together, but I think the fact that the Cubs suck so mightily has to have something to do with it,” was my response.

This was another game where they gave something away inbetween every single inning. Jerseys, gift cards (no more Mets Money!), you name it, they were giving it away.  Instead of hiding in the tunnel waiting for the t-shirt launch to start, Mr. Met came out and signed autographs and posed for pictures. No sooner did I say, “Hey, remember when he used to come up to the upper deck?” I spotted him on the other side of the field, doing the same thing for the Promenade. There were players signing autographs and posing for photos out near the Bullpen Gate before the game. Heck, they even had a video where David Wright said, “Thanks for hanging in there with us this year,” with the closing shot saying THANK YOU, METS FANS. TBF was impressed. I am too cynical to be impressed. I don’t believe them. I believe that they will forget all about this and start treating us like dirt again the minute that they can get away with doing so, and this is all too little, too late.

Maybe I would feel differently if we had been the fans getting free stuff, including another fan who was given a large handful of Rolling Stones merchandise, just like yesterday. And, just like yesterday, I am indignant.
TBF: “Honey, this isn’t a referendum on who is the biggest Rolling Stones fan in the ballpark. It’s just random.”
Me: *grumbling*
TBF: “Do you really need any of that? You have all of it. Several copies, in fact.”
Me: *more grumbling*
TBF: “Do you know what it was like to sit here when they gave away Bruce Springsteen tickets?”
Me: “Oh, god. How did you stop from going completely crazy?”
TBF: “Well, remember it was September of 2003, so I really wasn’t going to that many games. But also that they were giving away crappy upper deck seats that were worse than what I already had bought.”

Cubs fans. Once again, you don’t see how many there really are until they do something good on the field and then you HEAR them. The problem is that with the blue, they kind of blend into the crowd, like they are wearing camouflage. A woman came up the stairs blatantly wearing blue and red and TBF made a comment about her being Mets-centric without wearing anything that said METS.
“That was blue and red,” I said.
“That wasn’t orange?”
“Turn around. Red. Very red.”
“Well, forget her then.”
I understand why Julie, who lives in Chicago and is a Mets fan, wears orange shirts all the time.

It wouldn’t be a Cubs game if Lou didn’t come out to argue a call:

He walked back to the dugout so slowly he should have been fined.

And then Frankie came in, and we all cheered, thinking that we actually might WIN A SERIES, that he might get the save on his bobblehead day, that a giant invisible vulture didn’t swoop out of the sky and injure our last remaining players who are not injured, and of course Frankie has to make it interesting. This was agonizing not just because it was agonizing, but because I cannot even let off steam by yelling, “Fer the love of God, Frankie, stop fucking around,” because there was a small Orthordox boy of about 8 or 9 standing in the tunnel below us, and I am moved to watch my language since his mother is letting him wait until the last out but she might start hustling him along if the heathens start being profane.

And then OMG the Cubs get another run on the board, and then OH GOD THE GIANT INVISIBLE INJURY VULTURE because it seems like every member of the team is on the field checking on Frankie, I recount my grey hairs, and then Kosuke Fukodome (TBF: “He has ‘suck’ in his name!”) grounds out to Daniel Murphy and there is no Frankie pointing to the sky, just high-fiving and then hugging Omir Santos, and the game is over.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable game to be at. There was offense. There was defense. There was Cory Sullivan executing a catch I better see on SportsCenter tonight. John Maine even surfaced and showed his face, and Carlos Beltran is clearly getting better. You could beat yourself up and say things like “Where was this all season?” but there is no point. That line of thinking will only cause frustration and pain. Just enjoy the fact that we won a series for the first time since July. The Cubs suck, but we still beat them, and it doesn’t matter except that it does, you know? It does.  My only goal for this year is to be able to wear my Maine-tallica shirt to a game at which he actually starts. If I can do that, I will be a happy camper. Otherwise, I will just save it for Spring Training.

Thanks to the idiotic ticket plans, we are back on Tuesday and Wednesday, where I will hurl every epithet I can come up with at the detestable Marlins, whom I have still not forgiven for their post-game behavior on 9/28/08.

—
Photoset from 9-6-09 game

p.s. Our sunscreen was not confiscated today, and not to beat a dead horse into the ground, but I heard from a reliable source that they spotted both aerosol cans (in the Mets’ defense, it does say no cans and no aerosols on their web site) and tubes of sunscreen on security tables. Given the fact that they have a new Official Sunscreen Of The New York Mets, and advertised it on the video board multiple times during the game, I would not put it past them to think for two seconds that they should start confiscating it as a new profit center, but I really, really, really want to believe that the Mets are just not that idiotic. (I would be interested in hearing if you did have your non-aerosol can sunscreen confiscated, however.)