Sunday, July 29, 2007

YO NO SOY MARINERO. [7-27-07]

As I sit writing this on Sunday, thunder rings ominously over Brooklyn. Today will be the rainout, the Mets will escape having to actually show up and beat THE F’ING WASHINGTON NATIONALS today.

“it’s the NATIONALS, guys,” was my anguished cry on Friday night, at least for the first few innings, until I finally gave up. The regulars of Section 12 were sullen and listless. We didn’t have the energy to heckle, talk amongst ourselves, or get pissed and boo Jorge Sosa, unlike the other 99% of Shea. I could talk about Jon Adkins or Pedro not inspiring another verse of The Ballad of Pedro Feliciano, but why bother?

The other 99% of Shea on Friday night is kind of what I wanted to talk about. I had completely forgotten that Friday was Merengue Night, except when I got off the 7 train at 7:05 and had to sprint around the meandering masses to a gate that wasn’t swamped with people not understanding that IF YOU DON’T HAVE A BAG YOU DON’T HAVE TO WAIT IN THIS LINE TO HAVE IT SEARCHED, GO AROUND. And then be denied by security to head the quickest way up to my section because it would allow me to tread on the sacred ground of The Loge.

[More after the jump.]

I know that lots of people come to Shea on Merengue Night that normally don’t come to the ballpark, which is the entire point of having theme nights like this, and that some of these people might try to sneak into a lower section in order to have a good place to sit for the concert. But if the ushers and the security people actually DID THEIR JOBS, and weren’t so concerned about fishing for tips, this wouldn’t be a problem and there would be no need to herd the crowd like cattle.

I also find it very, very hard to believe that the profile of people coming to Merengue Night requires so many additional security people, including enough female guards to pat down all the female attendees. Has there been a problem with violence or people smuggling in weapons in previous Merengue Nights? I’m not talking about the post-game concert procedure, I accept that that might probably be different, I’m talking about the people who come to sit through the game. I’ve been to three Merengue Nights now, and I don’t remember there being particularly more fights than any other random Friday night. What is security so concerned about that we have to be treated like we’re going to Riker’s on visiting day?

I have friends who have second row loge seats (not box seats, loge proper) and they hate Merengue Night because people get up and walk around more than they do on a normal night and when you’re in the second row it really impacts your ability to view the game. One of them sent me a text message about how he hates Merengue Night and I made a comment back about security. His response was, “Oh, security is Defcon 4 down here.”

Um, is this really necessary?

The most notable difference between the crowd on Friday night and a normal Friday night crowd was when someone would hit a fly ball to the outfield. On a normal Friday night, about 30% of the people would get super-excited and jump up and start cheering, while the other 50% of us would sit there saying, “That’s caught” and the other 20% would go back to chatting with their friends, walking around the stadium and otherwise not paying attention to the game. On Merengue Night, at least 50% of the crowd was leaping up for balls that were so obviously going to be caught.  What that indicated to me was that most of these people don’t go to Shea Stadium very often.

Why would these people ever come back if their experience of it every time was being manhandled by Shea security? Especially if they do come back and the security level isn’t the same? What message does that send them? It’s not going to be the message of, Come back! We want you here!, now is it?

I liked the Spanish announcer, a lot. I liked the between-innings ads in Spanish on the scoreboard. But I also wondered, Why don’t we do that all the time? I mean, not just in Spanish, but why don’t they alter them between English and Spanish? (It’s like the ad for El Diario that they show from time to time; why on earth is an ad for the largest Spanish-language newspaper in NYC in English?) If the Mets are going to try to leverage their Latino players to build a stronger Latino fanbase and encourage them to come to Shea, why not start with simple things like that every night, not just on Merengue Night?

The bright spot on Friday night was The Jose Reyes Spanish Academy, which taught us a line from “La Bamba,” which the crowd loved, as did we.
“I had no idea those were the lyrics,” said TBF.
“Because you’re a white boy from Long Island,” I said.
“Says the white girl from Connecticut.”
Head on over to Zoe’s place to see what happens when Jose Reyes tries to teach another very white boy, Kevin Burkhardt, how to say “How big was last night’s win?” en espa&ntildeol.

—

I missed Saturday’s games because of Sonic Youth and Daydream Nation, which was performed in a venue a stone’s throw from my house, one of only three places in the world they decided to perform it in its entirety. I didn’t even pay attention to the 1pm game because I decided to just get some stuff done while TBF was at the game with his friend Carlos (“no. the OTHER Carlos. no, not that one either. the one from work.”) I got to the concert and killed time before the headliner with ESPN on my phone, only to get completely disgusted yet again at the Mets’ utter inability to get any hits. As my West Coast friends would say, the Mets were harshing my mellow, and I didn’t want to spend the concert pissed at the Mets.

I am not normally the biggest fan of Tony Paige on WFAN, but I turned on the radio at 2am last night as he started his show and his tirade about the Mets and how he just doesn’t understand what they are doing or what is wrong hit home. Mike over at Mike’s Mets wrote something very similar.

TBF and I were reviewing dates and funds last night, since there’s a strong possibility that the Springsteen tour ticket on-sale date is going to be around the same time we’ll have to pay post-season invoices. He believes that the Mets will make it to the playoffs—and to a certain extent I do as well, but I almost wish they wouldn’t because my fear right now is that they’ll get there and then blow it by playing the kind of baseball they played this weekend.

Coop and I are off on a short roadtrip to Milwaukee and Chicago Thursday and Friday. Neither of us have ever been to Miller Park or Wrigley, and we’re very much looking forward to it. I just hope the Mets don’t embarrass us too much.