Friday, July 31, 2009

“TO THE MOON, ALICE!” [7-31-09]

Mets v Dbacks
7-31-09

This is where it gets tough. What to say about this game, this team, this point in the season? I have spent the last two hours trying to think of something, anything to say.

Oddly, I would like to take some kind of promise from tonight’s game. I know, that seems odd and impossible. TBF was stalking the 7 train platform after the game, insisting that this was the same team from earlier this year and that nothing had changed, except that maybe Daniel Murphy was getting used to playing first base. I don’t know that he’s not wrong, but I don’t feel as completely dejected and hopeless as I did earlier in the season.

We were at Citi Field at about 5:30. I know, I know. But TBF had the day off work and I am still on sabbatical and he wanted to wander the ballpark and see the things he never gets to see because we show up at 6:45 on game days and are never there on the weekend (and no, we are not investing any more money in Mets tickets than we already have, despite the 30 gazillion ads they rudely and insultingly blast us with at every game). I was coming with originally to see what I could shoot at BP. Of course, there was no BP, and the only walking around we did was under cover. I can report that the Shake Shack had a line, even in the torrential rain.

The highlight of our pre-game activities was me getting stopped by Todd Walsh from Fox Sports Southwest, who liked my shirt so much he enlisted me to play his trivia game. The question: What happened the day after the Mets won Game 6 of the 1986 World Series? The answer, of course, was - a rainout. It was the Dbacks first time since the demise of Shea, and given the weather, hence the question. I won the 1986 box set (which I already have, so I promised it would be a giveaway here on the site at a future date) and a DVD of two games from 1986 and 1969.

This is the shirt in question, thanks to Paul Lukas:

The Mets also welcomed Mike Massimino, the astronaut who took a home plate from Shea into outer space. I thought that was awesome. The home plate is going to go into the Mets Hall of Fame. It’s just a shame that no one seems to know where that is.

It was Fiesta Latina night, and given the rain delay, the post-game concert (at least I think it was supposed to be a post-game concert) changed into a between-innings concert, except that it’s tough to condense your songs into 90 seconds. I thought they were terrible, but also pointed out that as a white girl from Connecticut, I was hardly qualified to judge. I was assured by someone who actually knows something about Latino music that they did, indeed, suck. The players were announced in Spanish, and there were the usual ‘interviews with the players in Spanish on the video board where they talk about how beautiful their home country is and how much they miss it and how proud they are to represent them’. I’m not trying to disrespect the sentiment, it’s just that they do this every year and it is BORING. Never have I more fervently missed the Jose Reyes Spanish Academy.

It was empty tonight. This made the videoboard exhortations to “LET’S GO METS” or “GET LOUD” really pathetic. On principle we rarely respond to the “FAN NOISE METER” or the “HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE METER” (with “measurement in fan noise”) because it’s insulting, and it teaches people that they don’t need to make noise, that you’ll tell them when to make noise, and they can spend the rest of the time sitting on their hands.

I am not going to talk about Angel Berroa. The fact that he was put in when Livan was only at 81 pitches is not the fault of Livan or any player on the roster. I believe someone pointed out on Twitter that at that point in the season, Livan had more hits than Berroa did.

I couldn’t even rally any enthusiasm to photograph much tonight. I am tired of the same distant angle.  I am tired of not capturing anything worthwhile. I am tired of seeing empty seats on the field level while the promenade is full (although to be fair, there wasn’t a row in the ballpark tonight that was completely full).  I am tired of not having much to photograph. Those are all probably lame excuses, but it was why the camera sat largely in the bag tonight. I was just uninspired. Yes, the two home runs were awesome. One of them is captured above. Woot.

I guess I could say something like “the play on the field was uninspired” but you could probably write that sentence about almost every game this year. It was uninspired but it moved quickly. We were in the 6th inning at 9:30. To be honest, I was praying for extras. When we were still tied 2-2 I noted to TBF that I was glad we had purchased our overpriced $32 long sleeve shirts (because it was, like, 100 today, and even with the rain, neither of us imagined for a second we would be grateful there were still handwarmers in the baseball bag, because it was frigid up in the Promenade) because I thought we were going to go to extras.

Even in the end, there was a little luck on our side. When that ball went up and came back down and Mark Reynolds went to catch it, I said, “Maybe he’ll drop it?” We got the luck. We got it. We just can’t capitalize on those situations, and this is where we end up failing, even though, again, I want to take some kind of promise from tonight’s game.

Don’t get me wrong - I don’t think this team has a snowball’s chance in hell to achieve any meaningful October baseball. If some odd grouping of circumstances were to arrange themselves and we managed to get a Wild Card berth we would immediately blow it, because of precisely the factors above. Of that I am completely convinced. The players are not seasoned enough - don’t quote me MLB service, it doesn’t matter, they’ve shown that they can’t seize small breaks (or even large ones) and turn them to their advantage. I don’t want to say something like “It’s not their fault” but, jeez, as TBF put it tonight, Jeff Francoeur is not Albert Pujols or something, and despite his presence and his production he is not going to save this team or this season. I do not believe it to be salvageable. Of course, you are free to disagree, but this is not right and wrong, because no one knows until it happens.  And don’t tell me Player X is coming back tomorrow / next week / next month because given the number of setbacks we have had so far with the injuries, only a fool would be hedging their bets in that fashion. When they’re physically back and healthy and playing, let’s chat.

There was just something I saw on the field tonight that didn’t make me totally hate them. Yes, the passed ball was abhorrent. But it followed a double play that this team would absolutely not have executed this year. They would have thrown to the wrong base and they wouldn’t have thrown it in time. And Tuesday night there were a couple other plays like that. Those are the kinds of things that at least make me not totally hate New York Mets baseball in 2009.

Back at Citi again on Tuesday. At least we get to see a Johan start.

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