Thursday, August 20, 2009

WELCOME BACK. [8-20-09]

Mets v Braves
8-20-09

This game was only tolerable because we were joined by the delightful Coop and Julie, she of Chicago Mets Fan, and in for her first game at Citi Field. TBF helped find her a Promenade ticket for $10 at the bottom of the 7 stairs, and we were in business.

The ballpark was full tonight. It was also full of Yankees fans, Braves fans, and my favorite, the guy wearing a Yankees jersey and a Braves cap, who spent most of the game walking around and talking on his cellphone (shocker). I cannot imagine why Yankees fans are coming to Citi Field. Their team is winning. Their team was playing important games. They should be saving their money to buy playoff tickets. But yet, instead, they spend their cash on walking around in our ballpark watching our crappy team play. (People wonder why I am so down on Yankees fans, this is the kind of behavior that illustrates exactly why.)

Oh, yeah, the game.

It wasn’t Johan’s best night, and the same team that got 8 hits in one inning seemed to have forgotten how to hold their bats. There was the Gary Sheffield drama, which didn’t surprise anyone so much as make everyone wonder what took him so long to start acting like Gary Sheffield. There was Cory Sullivan - who turned 30 tonight! - in the lineup.

[I almost cannot even be bothered to talk about the game. I am tired.  I am overheated. I am worn out. I have been to Citi Field THREE TIMES this week because we had these tickets and we didn’t even try to sell these (well, one game, maybe), but of course there is no resale value, and we would rather go to the game than sit at home and think about all the money we spent on tickets. That’s something the media doesn’t understand. They reprimand us for showing up to see games that WE ALREADY PAID FOR as though we should just sit at home and light our ticket books on fire. We go on the cheap. Most games we don’t spend any money inside Citi Field. (At least this year when we do spend money on food, it’s GOOD food, and not Aramark crap.)]

I’m sorry, I meant to talk about baseball.

TBF saw Wagner warming up in the bullpen before I did, before it was on the video board, before most of the crowd had noticed. And then WARMING UP FOR THE METS: #13 BILLY WAGNER flashed, and I think there was some applause, although it was hard to tell because yet again morons were doing the wave and cheering that loudly. But then “Enter Sandman” came on the PA and I stood up, and we stood up, and other people stood up, and Billy Wagner ran onto the field at Citi Field for the first time to rousing, genuine applause. (I heard some booing, but it could have been Yankees, Braves or even some random Phillies fan up for the night. Who knows.)

And he didn’t suck. Not by a long shot.

We weren’t down by that many runs, you know? It was possible to win this game. It was possible to have taken a lead at ANY POINT during the game. It’s not like they were throwing Cy fucking Young out there or something.

“Wait,” TBF said. “They didn’t just put Wilson Valdez out there, did they? Yes, they did.” He dutifully enters him on the scorecard.
“What was that boat?” I asked. “Oh! It was the Exxon Valdez.”
“There’s a joke there, somewhere,” TBF said, not looking up.
“Like, ‘Now batting, shortstop and torture advocate, Alberto Gonzales,” I say.
Julie cracks up. “Why did that never occur to me before?”
“Or my myriad Brian Wilson jokes,” I say. “Or, ‘Now batting, second baseman and fifth Rolling Stone, Ian Stewart.”
Luckily Julie finds this funny. Usually we have to make these jokes to amuse ourselves. Especially these days of bitter losses, when the sadness feels like it’s seeping from our pores.

It all would have been okay, you know - I mean, not really, but it would have been tolerable, or at least we are used to it by now - if there hadn’t been a passel of Braves fans doing the tomahawk chop AS THEY ARE WALKING THROUGH THE JACKIE ROBINSON ROTUNDA.  I was livid. I was furious. I was walking very carefully because I was so angry I was afraid I would fall down the stairs, and since they were behind us I wouldn’t even have had the satisfaction of taking a few of them out as I fell. (I have already informed TBF that I cannot see any way we can ever visit Turner Field because I will go postal when that anachronistic racist excuse for a victory chant starts.)
They exit the rotunda, and start applauding.
“YAY, RACISM!” TBF yells in their direction.
“They don’t get it, that’s the problem.”
“They’re just not very smart.”
“I hope they get mugged by… by—the Latin Kings on the way home,” I offer.
“Because there are no Native American gangs?” TBF says.
“Well, there should be.”

As an antidote to this ickiness, I offer you Johan Santana doing handshakes in the dugout. He even has handshakes for the ballboys. This is the kind of thing that cheers me up. I am going to guess that if you are a regular reader of this website, that it will also do the same for you.

We are not at the ballpark this weekend. We did not get tickets to the 1969 festivities when they went on sale, and the offerings were too pricey. (We are, instead, in Boston for the Springsteen show.) We are not back in Flushing until Labor Day, when I get to go with a friend on Saturday and then we are there for FRANKIE RODRIGUEZ BOBBLEHEAD DAY FOR ALL FANS that Sunday. Stay tuned for a Cubs preview with Julie from A League of Her Own, in which we discuss why our respective teams suck more than the other. It should be an interesting debate.
—
photoset from 8-20-09 game

P.S. On August 25, 2009, I will be a guest reader at the next Amazin’ Tuesday, hosted by Greg Prince and featuring myself, FAFIF co-author Jason Fry, and Mets Fan author Dana Brand. I am excited. You should come.