Ponderance: Someone’s got to know…

What’s the name of the song that Joe Smith has playing when he comes out of the pen? It’s familiar, I know I know the voice singing but can’t figure it out. Help!

I was there: Mets vs. Reds 5.11.08

Today’s game was surely….interesting

Ponderance: Recapping the Road Trip

The Metsies are now on an off-day after a road trip to Arizona and LA. Some thoughts.

Friday night I was out at the bar and they had the game on. Despite there being a lot of people there, apparently no one else was really paying attention to it. When David Wright made his spectacular diving catch in foul territory I was the only one who cheered. Imagine that!

Every time Eric Byrnes (Diamondbacks) came up to bat, I had to laugh at his at-bat music, “Lose Your Love Tonight”. It’s so….random. Not at all what you’d expect for at-bat music. Don’t get me wrong I like that song. It’s even on my iPod…on my running playlist at that…but still. Interesting choice.

My softball games Tuesday night didn’t end until 11pm so I got to listen to some of the game in LA on my way home. They were up when I went to bed. I didn’t think that they’d lose it after all that. So it goes and goes and goes.

I was home for yesterday’s game so I saw Angel Pagan’s “Rambo” catch over the wall in left field. That was pretty spectacular but pretty scary. It looked like he landed on his head, but of course there’s no camera angle into the seats so who knew what really happened. At least it’s only a bruised shoulder and not him ending up with a broken spine or something.

Today the Maine-iac himself is 27! Happy Birthday John Maine!

And congrats to former Met, Carlos Gomez who hit for the cycle last night in Minnesota. I saw him play on the spring training tour and talked to the Minnesota fan next to me who had a lot of good things to say about him. I think he’ll do well in Minnesota.

Game Talk: The Mercy Rule

Well yesterday’s game was certainly an interesting one.

Putting on Gameday and seeing “Delayed-Other” was really strange. I guess MLB doesn’t have “Water Main Break” in their database for game delays?

I know the feeling of a big bad blowout game like that though. Last year, the town softball league I play in decided to reorganize the women’s leagues from three to two. This meant switching gamedays, which meant my first team fizzled out since we didn’t have enough people available. Some of us moved onto a new team which happened to be placed in the top league. That was a mistake. There was one team made up of girls that had played HS/College ball and been playing together for ~20 years. Every time we played them it was a killing. We play with the mercy rule - if a team is losing by 15 runs after 4 innings they have a chance to get it to 10 or…game over. The league organizers learned their lesson with this experiment - they went back to 3 leagues for this year since each of the two leagues were so lopsided in ability.

What kind of lesson can the Mets take away from their 13-1 loss yesterday? Hm. First off, it’s too bad the water main break didn’t force a cancellation. Or that it had to happen before the game. Or that it should’ve broken again before it became an official game. Right. Next it’s too bad that MLB doesn’t play with a mercy rule, although that wouldn’t have worked either since they weren’t losing by 15 runs. Right. Maybe they can just move the whole team back to a lower league? No? OK. Next. The only lesson I can think of is this: Play Better!

I was there: NYM v ATL 4.27.08

Game 2 of the Shea Summer Sundays was yesterday. Some quick shots:

* It was definitely a double layer day. As in wearing Under Armor Cold Gear leggings and long sleeve mock turtleneck under jeans and a sweatshirt under my winter coat. Brrrr. I was comfortable though. Comfortable is good.

* It was foam finger day! I have no idea what I am going to do with mine though.

* Arriving off the train at Gate E where our seats are, there were crowds galore. What in the world was going on??? We were even there before noon! Turns out it was also Youth Baseball day and there was tons of kids and parental units going in for their “parade” around the track. A short walk to Gate D allowed us a much quicker entry into the stadium. Even still the right side of the bag check line was out to the end of the barricades. No one was on the left side. A bit more of a walk got us Zero wait time. Baa baa sheep!

* The french fries at Shea are really hit or miss. Sometimes they are good. Sometimes they are bad. This time? Perfection. Really. They were cooked just right and I think they were the best fries I’ve had at Shea in a looooong time.

* It was good to see Smoltz-ie implode and give up runs and get knocked out of the game. It was also good to see all those home runs!

* I like going to games. I like watching them from the park. I do not like not knowing what’s going on though. By that I mean the insane controversy that exploded almost immediately with Carlos Delgado’s non-curtain-call moment. I mean yeah, everyone was cheering and waiting but whatever he didn’t come out. Your point people?

* Three cheers definitely go to Ryan Church for his catch at the wall. It was very weird to see because everyone just sort of stood around watching. Whichever Braves guy that was on 2nd just stood transfixed there. The Mets sort of just stood around on the field. It was almost like…wait…did he catch it or did we just transport ourselves to an alternate universe??? Church got the Big Standing Ovation though. Well deserved. Excellent catch.

* Three boos go to the LIRR. No not the Mets. The LIRR. How can you say you are running “Extra Trains” when the trains are coming at their usual times? Usual times is not extra. We got to the train no later than we ever do. We always get on the first train. This time we had to wait a half hour for the next one. The people that they stopped up on top? They were going to have to wait AN HOUR. WAITING AN HOUR IS NOT EXTRA TRAINS! This is why I drive to Queens and take the train 5 minutes. Because seriously if I took the train that is closest to me, yesterday it would’ve taken 4 hours to get home. The first time I was stupid and took the train two years ago, it took me 3 hours. I learned my lesson. Still though - I am not happy about this latest turn of events with the train. Yes we are a captive audience, but GET REAL!

Stadium Review: Wrigley Field

First off, a lovely quote from Newsday today: “The Pope should’ve visited Shea Stadium - at least they already have a Church and an Angel in the outfield.”
GENIUS!

Anyway, in honor of the Mets being in Wrigley Field tonight and tomorrow, here’s a “review” on Wrigley Field. I was there back in 2003 so I can’t say that I remember lots of it and so it is not a “review” in the traditional sense. A better phrase is probably “remembrances” of Wrigley…

I was in Chicago the week before the All-Star Game was being held at US Cellular so there was signs everywhere for it. However, it wasn’t a trip to US Cellular in our sights…no…it was a game at Wrigley. We took the El to get there. It was neat to get the little peek-a-boo shot into the stadium from the platform (much like the old “Rotunda” for the train/subway at Shea)…see:

We were there to see a night game with the Cubs taking on the eventual World Series champ of that year - the Florida Marlins

That’s the view from where we sat. (I should say there’s not a whole lot of photos since this was pre-digital camera and I had to actually scan these in!)

What was really cool about Wrigley was definitely seeing the seats on top of the apartments. Now those would be some awesome seats to sit and watch the game at. Way awesome.

I remember it being insanely hot. The day wasn’t that hot, but there was nary a breeze to be found in the stadium. I think I had 3 bottles of water and 1 bottle of soda and I was still thirsty. It was crazy. I don’t think I have ever sweat so much at a game (not even at Florida Spring Training games!)

What was worse though was the craziness that was post-game trying to get back on the El. There was tons of people lined up all around the corner waiting to get through the turnstiles and onto the platform. The station was *so* small that there was maybe 5 turnstiles to go into the station and they opened up the “out” turnstiles and had people with handheld readers to let you in. The platforms were all crazy packed and it didn’t seem like they were running extra trains. Clearly it is necessary to have (1) more than one entrance and (2) more trains! Maybe it’s better since then since they have had 5 years to get things together since then. Boy I hope so.

Despite not really saying all that much about the ballpark, you really should go out there one day. Visit the “classic” ballpark. You won’t be disappointed! (Unless your team loses, of course!)

Memories of Shea Stadium: Old Tickets

Tomorrow starts another season of Sunday pilgrimages to Shea Stadium. In honor of this auspicious occasion, let’s take a look back at what tickets USED to cost back in the late 80s at Shea, shall we?

Upper Reserved Section 19, Row M, Seat 8 cost $6 on August 20, 1987!

A seat in the Loge Section 30, Row G, Seat 2 cost $9 on August 31, 1988!

A seat in the Loge Section 32, Box 454B, Seat 7 cost $11.50 on August 12, 1989

Upper Reserved Section 14, Row H, Seat 9 only cost a whopping $6 on September 24, 1989! (No price increase from 1987!)

I think there should be a “throw back” day this year at Shea where the players wear old school uniforms from some year and then the prices for that game should be rolled back to what they were that year too. Wouldn’t that be fun?? My one ticket in the Mezzanine Reserved for Sundays costs anywhere from $27-47 depending on the game. I could’ve bought 4 tickets in the Loge Boxes in 1989 for that price!

Ponderance: Fashion Emergency!

Keith has an interesting outfit on today.

Purple jacket, orange vest, blue tie.

I think he looks like Willy Wonka. All that he’s missing is a top hat.

Second Supersized Spring Training Tour of the Grapefruit League: General Commentary

A full park-by-park breakdown with occur at some point. But, for now, some general commentary about the Second Supersized Spring Training Tour of the Grapefruit League:

*You know you’ve driven way too many miles and been at way too many places when at the 4th game in two days, your traveling partner-in-crime starts talking about the game you were at in the afternoon, and you have no clue as to where you were in the afternoon! Yes, that is what 1,234 miles driven will do to you (although at that point we were only at about 600 miles logged).
* The Hertz website LIES. Do not believe them when they say that you can “reserve a make a model” of a car in certain collection and that is what you get. Needless to say a nastygram has been sent to Hertz and I am not happy with them.
* That said, after only, oh, an HOUR of tooling around the Hertz lot, we finally drove away with a 2008 Chrysler Sebring Convertible. We had an ‘07 Sebring last year and the two are pretty different. There was at least a lot of trunk space in the ‘07 as it folds into a well above the trunk. The ‘08 model has a whole hydraulic system and all that jazz and it fold into the trunk. This makes the trunk insanely heavy to close, but also takes away a ton of space. You take 2 girls and 8 days in Florida - you have a lot of stuff. This year both suitcases had to ride in the backseat.
* Also, the ONLY way to do a spring training road trip of any sort of large amount of mileage is with a convertible. I’m sure we got some strange looks when it was overcast and we had the top down (yes we had to pull over when it finally started raining). Or when it was 60 degrees and we had the top down (to be fair, this was the day we were driving the three hours to Ft. Myers and knew it would warm up, but we also wore sweatshirts and pants and had the heat blasting on our feet for some time). We did draw the line when we woke up Tuesday morning in Sarasota and it was a “crisp” 45 degrees. The top stayed up then. I’m also not sure how I feel about being honked at by motorcyclists and truck drivers. However, it was totally worth it when we drove into parking lots with the top down and everyone else in their family cars and minivans checked our car out. haha.
* There is no comparison between the right/left field bleachers and the outfield bleachers at Chain of Lakes Park, Winter Haven (Cleveland Indians). Unless some team moves into their digs next year (as the Indians are moving to AZ), this isn’t something one needs to be worried about anymore
* Tradition Field is as always, the home away from Shea Stadium home. We made two visits there this year and this time I actually walked through the concourse a bit more. We had seats in the same row both times, and in the same section as we did last year.
* Hammond Stadium in Ft. Myers (Minnesota Twins) is a nice stadium with a big fountain outside the park. I love fountains, and so therefore I loved this touch. Here we also got to see former Met, Carlos Gomez rock it out.
* Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota (Cincinnati Reds) is interesting in its layout and if it is raining you are basically screwed (it wasn’t raining when we were there). Food was pretty good though. The best was getting to sit in the first row in shallow leftfield. That was pretty sweet.
* Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland (Detroit Tigers) was a re-do for us as we went there last year as well. They are really a class act though when it comes to autographs. Unlike every single other park, the players here sign autographs right up until game time. And I’m not talking about their bench players - its their regular starters that continue to sign. This year it was Magglio Ordonez, Andy Van Slyke (ok, he’s a coach but still), Jacque Jones, and Gary Sheffield. Plus after every single home game, kids 12 and under can go out on the field and get autographs. I’m not really sure who stays to sign here since we left, but it is a nice touch. Kudos to them.
* Speaking of autographs, I finally saw a totally unscrupulous professional autograph seeker at work. I was pretty disgusted. The first game we were at in Winter Haven, I saw this guy walking around with a duffel bag, similarly sized to what I use at the gym. In my duffel bag, I usually have some clothes, a large cosmetic bag with toiletries, sneakers, iPod, running watch, a heart rate monitor chest strap, gloves, a hat, some sheets of paper with different workouts, a jacket, and maybe other small miscellaneous things. Imagine all that piled up and then imagine that same duffel bag, instead of being filled with gym stuff, filled with baseballs! Yes this guy had a whole duffel full of baseballs and worse, he was wearing cargo shorts and had a few more stuffed in the pockets. This shady man was hanging around in front of us trying for autographs and seriously, I was so ready to bring the NY attitude and scream out “DON’T SIGN FOR HIM” if anyone came over.
* Most of the people we sat by were nice. Twice we were bombarded by people who like to hear themselves talk. One was at the Twins game where this guy behind us (who didn’t belong there and seathopped his way to a better seat) talked to the woman also behind us about his whole entire life. I didn’t need to hear about his kids, the drive from MN, the beach, restaurants, real estate, life in NJ, his wife who was at the beach, etc. Too much noise pollution! At our 2nd game at Tradition, a lady was behind us who was a total “know-it-all” as in despite the fact we were sitting on the visitors side continued to yell at her grandkids down in the first row to stay there because when the Mets see them sitting there of course they will come over to sign autographs (yeah, no they won’t). Once the game started we got commentary on every single player whether it was a Mets player or a Marlins player. Half the time she was wrong about what she was saying so it made me annoyed. I just wanted to turn around and tell her that maybe if she stopped talking and actually paid attention she might get some of the things she said correct. I was nice though. I didn’t do that. Hooray for only getting two noise polluters on the whole trip.
* It was good to have a day off for the beach. I was able to get a pretty good tan to make everyone at home jealous with.
* Fort Lauderdale Stadium is nothing particularly to write home about, yet it has the Shea feel as there is a private airport right behind it. Therefore, during the whole entire game there was private jet after private jet taking off and flying over the field. A guy sitting next to us was talking to someone in front of him and declared how much he likes to come to this park because it is so nice. I disagree and clearly he hasn’t been to many other stadiums in the Grapefruit League because there are much nicer and much better laid out stadiums there. Also the fence behind home plate has to be one of the thickest gauge fences ever. It made my eyes batty.
* Dolphin Stadium was home to a Marlins exhibition game vs. the Yankees so we got to go there too. We sat in the club level which is uber snazzy. I had a good time walking around inside looking at all of the memorabilia and stuff. Plus there are tv’s galore in the concourse and they play the radio broadcast inside so you never miss a moment.

To follow behind the cut, my Top Three Photos of the trip…

Call the Waaaaaambulance: Martinez

Day 2 of the season and we are already down one man: Mr. Pedro Martinez. Out probably 4-6 weeks. Man that just sucks. We just saw him Friday in Ft. Lauderdale vs. the Orioles. He was hamming it up as usual in the dugout, and then he pitched a bit off the mound while tons of people watched (including Wilpon). Rather than turn this into a sad sob story, I will share some photos from “the good times”. GET BETTER SOON PEDRO!

Smiley Pedro

Pedro pitching while Fred Wilpon (with his arm around Perez) and Oliver Perez look on