I was there: Mets v. Yankees 6.14.09

I don’t know if there’s a lot to say about this game. 15-0. Zero? Really??? Let’s just say it was a pretty painful experience to be sitting around Yankee fans during this game. At least they weren’t awful. But that is probably because I was chatting up the one next to me for awhile, talking sports, spring training, PSL’s, etc. So he knew I knew my stuff. Ha.

We (8 of us) were tailgating before the game, but 2 of the crew had gotten stuck in traffic and didn’t arrive until noon. That meant we didn’t go into the stadium until about 12:45 and got to our seats just in time for the announcements of the starting lineups. Which also means that I didn’t really get to walk around at all. I probably could’ve wandered during the immense blowout, but felt the need to watch the train wreck unfolding before my eyes.

The stadium looks a lot like the old one. There’s some grass separating the bleachers from the section below. That’s different. Otherwise…..hmmm…yeah…looks the same. They do have a snazzy super hi-def and huge screen in the outfield, BUT my big complaint was that there was only one scoreboard which meant when any sort of fluff was showing, there was no place in the whole entire freaking stadium to see lineups/score/pitch count/etc. That annoyed me many a time.

Last week I had written that I was only going to get to watch “half” a game being that my official seat was in the lovely obstructed view section 236, Row 23, close to the wall. This means you can’t see 1/2 of CF, none of RF, and not even 1st Base! WTF! OK fine you can’t see the OF, but can’t see 1B?! Well, thanks to some *cough* “creative seating arrangements” *cough* my friend and I never sat there. Let’s just say sitting in the bleachers can have its privilege. We were crowded for the 1st inning, but after that everyone starting to get up, wander, go get food, beer, etc. and after the 4th people were leaving for good, so we had plenty of room in our “adopted” seats. I was just happy that I was able to watch the game, even if it was an entirely awful game to watch.

Clearly there is not much else to report because I didn’t eat any food there, didn’t wander, and the game was pretty much a non-event. The pictures are still on my camera waiting to be downloaded, so maybe in a few days some photos. Until then…

Book Review: The Yankee Years

Yes I disappeared. That’s what happens when you end up with 2 rounds of bronchitis that knocks you out, and bookends a weekend away for a wedding out of state. Anyway, being sick gave me lots of time to read, so my most recently finished book was in fact “The Yankee Years” by Joe Torre & Tim Verducci. In honor of this weekend’s upcoming Subway Series, I present my review.

This book can be summed up in one short sentence: It is a love-fest to Derek Jeter.

Seriously.

When I was reading it I did not count how many times there was something wonderful to say about “Jeet”, as he is oft referred to in the book, but when I was a bit of a ways into it, I should have started counting. Unreal. As much of a love-fest it is for Jeet, it is that much of an opposite feeling towards Mr. “A-Fraud”. I don’t think there was one nice thing said about him in the book. While I do not care for Stray-Rod, A-Roid, A-Fraud, whatever you want to call him, I do know at least that he can be super-nice when he wants to and not even for any kind of gain (at least no gain that I would be able to think of). I used to play volleyball with a girl who fell into working for the Yankees for a few years because her company was contracted out to provide their service for the team (yes I am being deliberately vague). After awhile she left that job with her company because she got tired of the antics of the players and hated to travel by plane (she would go on most every road trip). In her new position she worked with special needs children. One in particular always wanted to go play on the field at Yankee Stadium but because of his problems with his immune system, he couldn’t be around dirt, etc. Well she makes a phone call (not to A-Rod, someone else), gets a phone call back saying be here this day, this time and they arrive with the boy to find all the dirt covered up with tarps with Jeet and A-Rod waiting to play baseball with this boy. Needless to say, the only teensy tiny soft spot in my heart for A-Rod is because of this. Otherwise, forget about it.

This book could also be divided up into a “Volume 1″ and “Volume 2″ of sorts. Volume 1 would be the glory days during the years of winning all those World Series. Volume 2 would be everything after that. While most of the love is reserved for Jeet, there was a lot of love going around for all the other players during Volume 1. The “oh he’s such a great player” and “oh he was so focused” and “Oh he was a student of the game”. That all turns around in Volume 2 where basically everyone (except Jeet!) gets thrown under the bus.

Two more things I find particularly interesting involve Bernie Williams and David Wells. Bernie, of course, lives in Volume 1 and thereby gets the love. Well he may have been a good baseball player and idolized by many, but that’s not exactly what I heard. One of my Yankee-Kool-Aid drinking friends didn’t even want to hear about it! And as far as Wells goes, back in the day he wrote a book fairly critical of the Yankee organization among other things and Torre was on Wells’ Punishing Bandwagon for sacrilege to the organization. Now, some years later, Torre is doing the same thing and being critical and throwing the Yankee organization under the bus. Hypocritical? You decide.

I realize this is Torre’s book, but I was surprised that he doesn’t take any responsibility for any part of the “downfall” in Volume 2. There’s the occasional “I fought for this player” or “I wanted that player”, but he really shirks any and all responsibility. He’s quick to put the blame on a lot of guys for not having the mindset of those guys from Volume 1, he’s quick to blame the Managing By Committee that was put in place as George’s health declined, he’s quick to blame Cashman, and he’s quick to blame everyone else. Yeah, maybe all those things had some contribution to the Yankees not winning a World Series since 2000, but what about him? I’m not saying he deserves ALL of the blame, but he was the manager, he was there, he definitely shoulders some of the blame as well.

In the end, if you care to read about the love-fest of Jeet, this book is for you. If you relish in the idea of the Yankees being thrown under the bus so to speak, this book is for you. And I guess if you are a baseball fan, you’ll find it interesting as well.

Coming soon (drum roll please): A review of what I’m currently reading – Selena Roberts book on A-Rod. Also next week sometime (hopefully) a post on what it’s like to watch half a game at the new Al-Yankzeera Stadium. I say half a game because this weekend I’ll be sitting in the dreaded obstructed bleacher section 239 where you can’t see half the outfield. What fun. (If I knew before today that’s where the seats were, I would’ve never said yes to going to the game. I would rather have just watched it on tv since that is what I’m going to be doing anyway!)

I Was There: Mets v. Pirates 5.10.09

Mother’s Day Game? Wasn’t that like two weeks ago? Well, when you’ve been laid up with bronchitis and then having to travel for college graduations, yeah, it was two weeks ago.

The Pre-Game Pre-Game – a friend of a friend of mine was at the Saturday game and parked over by the marina. Another “Real Genius” also parked in the marina and put their charcoal grill with the coals STILL HOT back into their car. Needless to say, the car and two others nearby caught on fire. At least the friend of a friend didn’t park near that guy!

The Pre-Game – Today was the day to do everything I haven’t done yet at Citifield. My friend & her company was coming in from upstate so they were aiming to arrive by 11. I’ve been to games before around 11 and there’s been a decent sized crowd already arriving, but today it was almost like a ghost town (“There’s a game here today??”) So, we were able to walk right into the Team Store on the main level behind the Rotunda and peruse for a bit.

Then we made our way out to the CF Food Court. There was ZERO, I tell you, ZERO line for the Shake Shack so I had my first ever Shake Shack meal. I wasn’t impressed. My refusal to wait on the ridiculously long lines for food there was pretty much spot on. The burger was super greasy. I actually preferred my black & white Shake to the burger, but that’s not something I’d get all the time either since it was a bit heavy. It’s not terrible food, but it’s a location that I’d only get food from if the line was minimal or average. Since it was before noon on Sunday, I couldn’t get the beer from here, so that will have to wait for another time.

Next stop was to see the old Apple. Here the line was minimal too. I like that you can look into the bullpens. A Pirates guy was throwing some and the obnoxious boys behind us on line were telling him how he sucked. (Is that necessary? I mean, it’s the Pirates. It’s not like it’s the Phillies or Yankees or something. Then I’d be ok with the guy being harassed. Heh.) We got our photos with the Apple although they didn’t come out so great because of the way the sun was shining through the deck. They’re satisfactory for now, but this means a return trip to the Apple later in the year when the sun will be at a different angle.

Now it was after noon, but of course the Shake Shack line was ridiculous. However, the Blue Smoke line was short, so it was time for Beer Taste Test #3 – the Blue Smoke Ale. It was ok. My friend likened it to Blue Point Toasted Lager. I could see that. But from me it gets the #2 rating. (#1 – Sabroso Ale, #3 – Belgian Ale) We hung out in CF for awhile before it was time to wander upstairs to the Upper Deck.
Gametime: The people to my left were return attendees and I overheard the woman saying how she is the owner of those seats in the plan so my guess is she will be back. There is a very strange dynamic between her & her companion for these games (her son). Even more interesting is that she doesn’t really seem to understand baseball (“Why are they already pinch hitting for the pitcher, he only pitched to 3 people?”) so I don’t know what that is all about. Also for the first time this year the owner of the seats to the right showed up and she introduced herself. She seems nice. I was pleased to see the obnoxious 14 year olds that sat behind us the week before were nowhere to be found!

The game was ok. It’s always an adventure watching Murphy play LF, that’s for sure. Jeremy Reed in the 9th allowing a HR, some runs, ay carumba. For the top of the 9th we had wandered down to the field level to standing room by 3rd base to check out the end since it takes so freaking long to get out of the upper deck. It was an ok view, but you definitely lose the high fly balls. In the end, it’s a Mets win – and my first Mets win at Cifitield.

Review: Ron Darling’s The Complete Game: Reflections on Baseball, Pitching, and Life on the Mound

This past week I finished reading Ron Darling’s new book:

The Complete Game: Reflections on Baseball, Pitching, and Life on the Mound

. I liked it & thought it was pretty good. Every chapter of the book deals with a different “inning” and attempts to take you into the game and into the mindset of a pitcher. Most of the innings are one’s that Ron’s pitched, but there are a few in which he talks about other pitchers (mainly from the modern-day Mets staff).

My favorite chapter was the “Extra Innings” chapter where he goes through a playoff game between Yale (his school) and St. John’s. I thought it was really interesting when he says how leading up to the playoff game, most of the guys on the team didn’t even practice because it was finals week and it was Yale so they were studying. This was so different than say Josh Hamilton’s book where in HS he was trading grades from teachers for his autograph!

Last week at the Mets game, my friend I was with started saying she wonders what they talk about when there is a meeting at the pitcher’s mound. Well, Ron talks a bit about what goes on during those meetings in the book so I was able to answer her question, all thanks to reading this book! Haha. Of course, that doesn’t mean that everyone says or does the same thing but it is at least one person’s experience.

If you want to learn about what gets talked about on the pitcher’s mound, or are curious as to the in’s-and-out’s of a pitcher’s mind during a game, this is the book for you.

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I’ve got a bunch of books on hold at the library that are baseball related so reviews will be upcoming whenever my number comes up for those books. On tap: The Yankee Years (Joe Torre), Darryl Strawberry’s new book, and of course, the A-Rod “biography” written by Selena Roberts.

I Was There: Mets v. Nationals 4.26.09

Pre-game: This time my guest was a friend of mine who is (unfortunately) married to a Yankee fan. She had been at the new Al-Yankzeera Stadium the week prior so she was eager to compare the two. I’ll use her words for the comparison: Going to the stadium in the Bronx is like going to a professional baseball fan convention because everything is so serious and closed in (no open concourses there) while Citifield has more of a “fun” vibe to it. This she said while we were hanging out in CF before the game waiting for our other friend (who snagged her landlord’s season tickets for the day) to show up. We got an order of Box Frites to share – they were much saltier this week than last, but nothing that a vigorous napkin shimmy over the fries couldn’t solve. After getting some sun it was game time & time to head on upstairs.

Seats: No one around us was the same. Which means that either everyone around us that has partial plans is selling them off, or, the whole thing about all the Sunday partial plans being sold was a lie. Instead of the annoying older guys behind us this week, we had 2 of the most incredibly obnoxious 14 year olds sitting behind us. We weren’t sure if they belonged to the father-type sitting two seats over from them or not as a boy about the same age was sitting in between father-type and obnoxious kiddies and he was so quiet and behaving as one would expect someone to behave. Eventually one of the obnoxious kiddies behind us called the father-type “dad” so we were pretty amazed at his (lack of) parenting skills. It’s not like the father-type couldn’t hear what these kids were saying – they were pretty loud about it. Great. Hopefully they are not the real owners of those seats. I don’t know if I’ll make it a season without having to bust a cap on those kids.

Game: This game should’ve been brought to us by the letters ‘W’, ‘T’, & ‘F’ because seriously it was that type of game.

Poor Daniel Murphy trips on his own two feet while turning around and gets a hearty round of boos. He did make up for it with a good catch against the wall later on. And then when he was about to make a diving catch/stop for a ball later in the game I swear it was like the feeling was “noooooooo” but thankfully he did keep the ball in front of him so all was well, as much as it could be well. (Addendum: Anyone watch Kid’s Clubhouse this past Saturday and see the little league footage of little Daniel Murphy? I’m guessing at some point in his baseball career he learned that one runs through first base on a single and that you do not need to start skipping the last two steps?)

I wonder if Daniel sees the ball hit at him and says “OH NO” in his head. I know I do. For 7 seasons I played either 1st or 2nd base in both of the softball leagues I’ve been playing in. Last year, I got converted into an
outfielder thanks to an influx of people who can really only play infield and don’t have the speed to cover ground. It was a bad time for me too to move out there thanks to my busted knee (which I eventually got surgery on), but even with the busted knee I could run better. Go figure. I have no issues with catching the long, lazy line drive type balls that come into the outfield. The hardest thing for me was to figure out the depth of the ball when it is one of those high arcing balls – I would always start running in when I should’ve been running out, or running out when I should’ve been running in, so you can guess what happened to the ball… Towards the end of the season I was starting to figure it out a bit – or at least going in the correct direction from the start. But some of the guys we play against can aim the ball where they want it, so of course they aim for The Girl in the outfield and everytime the ball would come my way, it was an immediate “OH NO!” I feel Daniel Murphy’s pain. I do.

Poor DW looking lost at the plate, striking out over and over and over again. That was painful. It reminds me of an Onion article, “Kitten Thinks Of Nothing But Murder All Day”. There’s hope though considering yesterday he shaved his head, got a triple and all. Keep that hair short!

Beltran not sliding while stealing a base. I couldn’t figure it out at the time. The throw was on, but really high. If he would’ve slid, it would’ve been a pretty close play. But he just…stopped. I think whoever it was playing 2nd base was shocked because even though Beltran was
standing right there, the guy still went to tag him on his leg. Of course we now have the hindsight of him saying he thought he heard the bat hit the ball – but you know that is a REALLY distinctive sound. I didn’t mistakenly hear anything of the sort at the time. Plus if he’s stealing, wasn’t there probably signs being shared, oh he’s going to take this pitch, you steal or something? And if it is a hit and run there should be an attempt at a swing to make contact to protect the runner. So strange this aversion to sliding. So strange.

Eventually, the Mets lose to the Nationals 8-1. That makes 3 losses for games-viewed-in-person for me this year. That is about 2 too many.

License Plate Shenanigans

This morning on my way to work, I was behind a car whose license plate was:

GKR 4EVR

My thought?
Gary, Keith, and Ron forever? SURE!

I was there: Mets v. Brewers 4.19.09

Pre-Game
I was sitting on a planter between the train stairs and the Rotunda waiting for my friend to get in from the city. Suddenly I noticed two “suits” standing about 5-6 feet apart from one another. I quickly ascertained that they seemed to be playing the role of security and thought that someone of importance might be rolling through. Then I focused on the area in between them and noticed that Fred Wilpon himself was wandering around the plaza looking for someone/ something. NO ONE even noticed him standing there! It was unreal. All these people were passing by him oblivious to what was going on. Normally when “someone” is spotted in a crowd, you will see reaction – hands up to the mouth to cover what they are saying, pointing in the direction, a large amount of heads turning back to look, photograph taking. NADA. I was astonished. (Rhetorical Question: What does that say about a fan base when they don’t recognize a team’s owner?) I watched them as they walked around the planter, the suits staying about 3 feet away from him at all times. When he got around to the other side of the planter, someone finally recognized him and went to shake his hand and everyone carried on. But still *NO* reaction. Eventually he walked away out of my view, seemingly not finding what he was looking for.

Food
My friend wanted to try the new food and since we got in later than usual (~12:15pm) the lines out in CF were in full force. At some point I want to see what the big deal is about Shake Shack (I’m pretty sure it won’t rock my world – therefore I do not wait on its ridiculous long line) but since the lines were long, we settled for tacos (again for me) and we split an order of the Box Frites. It is also my mission to eventually try the special Citifield-only beers and so I got the Blanche de Queens this time from Box Frites. I’d have to say the Sabroso Ale from the taqueria was better. We sat at the picnic tables across from two guys. Turns out that of all the seats that exist in Citifield, those two guys sit one row behind us at the opposite end of the section. Should I bust out singing “It’s a Small world”?

Gameplay/Atmosphere
For the second time in a week, a fan who is now much “closer to the action” reached over the wall and caught a ball destined for Daniel Murphy’s glove. Thankfully the umpires called it an out, but really, how’s that “Fans closer to the action” working for ya now Wilpon? Is this what you wanted?!

I definitely felt as if the place was much quieter than Shea ever was. There was still a lot of people in seats later in the game when the Mets had runners on base yet it never got very loud. Even when the Mets got out without scoring runs after either the 7th or 8th inning, there was no music playing. It was like an eerie silence. The open air architecture does us no favors here either.

There was some other good gameplay moments such as when Corey “I Wear My Sunglasses at Night but not in the Daytime” Hart totally misplayed a ball out in right. The triples. All for naught though as the Mets lose this one 4-2. The highlight of the day was seeing Ramon Castro on the Main Scoreboard singing “Welcome to the Jungle”. It was funny. You had to be there.

Seats
This was my first time sitting in my “official” seats. I don’t like them. I think the seating design is extremely poor. People do go to a game to watch the game, right? I don’t care about all the amenities because what type of food is being sold in CF is superfluous. First priority should have been sightlines. More and more it seems like that was the last priority. Everyone in support of the new seating sightlines say “Well at Shea you couldn’t see X from Y seats.” My response to that is “That is correct, it was an OLD stadium. One would expect at a NEW stadium, these sorts of issues would be remedied, not propagated.”

I’ve mentioned before that the reasons I picked my seats up in the Prom Infield was because I’d rather be higher up and see the whole field than in the LF Landing and not see whatever % of the outfield. I was leery of the Prom Boxes because the only thing that was available for plans was way out in LF, and I was concerned about the view & seeing the scoreboard. It is ridiculously hard to pick seats sight unseen as we were made to do. Plus there was all this talk about how the upper deck at Citifield is so much better than the Upper Deck at Shea. Now that I’ve sat there…the Upper Deck is still the Upper Deck. I only sat in Shea’s upper deck a few times between 2006-07 (and not at all in 08) and I really think that my Row V seats for the NLDS ‘06 were about equivalent to where I’m sitting now in Row 14 (of 17). I definitely see everything (which is good) but the height….oh goodness. It’s not very roomy either. The woman sitting next to me was an average sized woman yet I felt like she was crowding me the whole time.

After the people packed up all their stuff and left at the end of the 6th (I thought for good, really they were gone for 2 innings), I went to move over to the seat on the other side of my friend for some more room. There was something dirty on the seatback and so I went one more seat over. The guy who was sitting in the row immediately behind me now threw up his hands in disgust that I went and sat in front of him and blocked his view. (Never mind the fact that he had done the same thing and moved over once the people at the end of *his* row left.) He made a big production out of moving over another seat. Despite the fact that I had to move back to my real seat once the people came back, I have to say I did secretly get a kick that now there was nowhere for the guy behind me to move to. I’m guessing that all the people around me have the Sunday plan, although I don’t know if they will all be “regulars”, but if they are I have to say it is going to be a looooong season.

When I bought these tickets I bought them on a probationary period of sorts; a one year experiment to see if I’d like the seats. After sitting in them, they are definitely not worth renewing for a second year. They’re fine for one game when you have no other choice, but I’m not pleased with having to sit in them for a whole season. During the season I’m going to take a walk around, see how the view is from Prom Boxes around the stadium and if it’s not worth it to try to upgrade or if it is impossible to upgrade, I’m done as a planholder (until I can get something better). The list of cons are getting way out of hand. Let’s review the list
Pros: (1) I like going to baseball games
Cons: (1) The seats are too high, can’t spin the fact that the Upper Deck is still the Upper Deck even if you call it the pretentious Promenade.
(2) No guaranteed playoff tickets
(3) Weekday games included in a weekend plan (the Mets inability to sell weekday games shouldn’t be my problem)
(4) Super slow exiting down staircases too small for the flow of traffic causing me to…
(5) miss getting onto the train and having to wait for the next one making me travel home even longer

Yesterday I missed the first train out by inches. There was 4 people in front of me before they declared the gates closed. I was not pleased. In the past two years on the occasion when this has happened and the LIRR folk declare there will be “extra service” there never is. It’s like a statement meant to placate the mob. Every time the next train has come a half hour later when it is scheduled to. Can I say for the first time in two years, there actually was an extra train! (I think there was a glitch in the matrix.) Of course we had to wait to fill it up and we left 10 minutes before the next train would arrive, but that was still an extra 20min of waiting. From the moment the game ended to the time I got to my house was 2hr10min. That’s a really long time.

I’m not happy that the seats available for plans were so limited. It reminds me of a story one of my friends told me. She used to work recruiting college interns for Big Company. The students who were really excited about coming to work for Big Company were given not-so-desirable jobs because they figured they would come work there no matter the job. Those that were on the fence were given Very Desirable jobs because that would be the carrot on a string to get them to come work for Big Company. That’s sort of the way the Mets dealt with plan seating. Sure, you guys can have seats in the last freaking rows of the stadium. Hahaha, you’ll buy them up! Buy them up we did. Only this year for me though…only this year if nothing better crops up. Instead I’ll take that money and put it towards next year’s Spring Training trip where $20 buys me tickets in the 2nd row and everyone is up close and personal.

Dr K. Autograph-gate
I really wish I knew about this before I left the stadium yesterday. Because while I was walking down the inefficient staircases to get out of the stadium, there really was graffiti tags across a whole beam in the stairwell, and I would’ve taken a photo of what REAL graffiti is. Are the Mets going to clean that up as fast as they “clean up” Doc’s autograph? I bet not. If a former Dodger had signed the wall, would the Mets keep it? Way to screw something else up here people.

Stadium Art 1964-2009

Forty five years ago on April 17, 1964 Shea Stadium had its grand opening. Since I love to come up with random rhetorical questions in my head – I think about if people that were in the stadium for its grand opening ever thought that 45 years later, the lot they had parked their cars on would be part of a new replacement stadium. Or I have a photo of me & some friends out in the Shea parking lot with the Stadium behind us from about 2002 (?) – we were standing on what probably is now 2nd base at Citifield – what would we have thought if we knew this lot wouldn’t be here “forever”. Thinking too much can make your head hurt so instead I’ll move on to some art. I was in the bridal party for a friend of mine’s wedding a few weeks back. One of my thank you gifts was this snazzy piece:

(Is it wrong that I find it humorous that I as a bridesmaid got a present that most people would probably associate a groomsman getting this type of gift?) A photo of Opening Day complete with a replica lineup card and short news blurb. It’s pretty cool and hanging in my “Mets Room” where the random Mets things I have (planholder gifts, game giveaways, etc.) go to be displayed.

Speaking of Shea Opening Day, there’s a guy on Baseball Fever who is making a to-scale stadium model of that grand day. It’s really awesome and you should go check out the link & the photos. My favorite pictures are when he takes it outside to photograph it with natural light and shadows.
Check it here

Another thing on Baseball Fever that I found really awesome is this guy’s Mets Room. Check it:

He got his closing day ticket blown up on canvas. It looks really awesome and I would be so tempted to do the same thing with my closing day ticket…if only I had the space for it. Oh well, maybe some day when the basement gets finished off…

Finally, I know I posted a photo of the canvas of my Shea Stadium art before, but now I have a photo of it actually hanging on the wall. I think it looks like I could just go sit down in my seat. If only…

Citifield: Sightlines

There was a lot of hullaballoo about sightlines at both Citifield and Al-Yankzeera once people started being allowed in for tours, etc. It quieted down for awhile, but now that we just had the official Opening Day at Citifield and people have had a chance to sit in “their” seats for the season, all that ruckus is back. Really, I can’t blame anyone for complaining. It’s a brand new stadium! Brand new! It’s already broken!

Originally, I wasn’t going to buy any plan. My friend that was good for coming to half of the games on my plan had told me she wasn’t sure how many games she’d be able to come to since she moved off LI and to upstate. It had been easy to find a 2nd person to come with me for 6 games, but now I’d have to find a 2nd person for a lot more games. Then when they announced that “Sunday” plans would have weekday games attached to them (when does a Monday = Sunday?) and the fact that guaranteed playoff tickets were going the way of the wind, I really wasn’t feeling buying a plan. Going to a game during the week is pretty much impossible for me. If I left after work I wouldn’t get there until the game started and then it would be about a ~2 hour process to get home. Five hours of sleep? No thanks. Not worth it.

There was good things about my seats that I used to have in the Mezzanine. We were under the overhang, safe from rain. The bathroom was right outside our section, making it easy to run there before there ever got to be a line in between innings. We were close to the train when leaving. The only thing I didn’t care for was that we couldn’t see anything in the RF corner. The only way to know what was going on was to either listen for the cheers/jeers or watch the replay (if there was one) on Diamondvision.

When it came time for ticket buying for this year, I decided that if I was able to get seats that theoretically should have a full view of the field that I would buy them. Think of it as a one year experiment. I figured that it’s the first year of the stadium and maybe it would be easier to sell those darn “Sunday” (aka weekday) games. I ended up with infield seats just on the 3rd base side of home plate. Logical guesses would declare that I’d get a full view of the field, and since they were only selling partial plans at the top of the stadium, I was hoping I’d have an overhang to save us from rainy days again. So I bought the “Sunday” plan.

I was pleased when the 3D seat viewer came online that my seats did in fact appear to have a full view of the field. Even better when the Mets released their seating charts and had real photos I could see there was no obstructed views from railings, LED boards, plexiglass, etc. The proof that they weren’t bad seats came when I ran up alllll the stairs from the field level to the upper deck and up more stairs to my seats saw that yes, I would be under the overhang and the seats had a decent view (people on the field being tiny nonwithstanding).

Back down on the field for the exhibition game in the snazzy 12th row up from the field, I was dismayed when the first ball hit into left field disappeared from my view. WHAT? I even said to my friend how ridiculous this was. These seats are normally prices $105 for a VALUE night – a random “Sunday” (ahem, weekday) in April against the Nationals!

One of the big reasons why this comes to pass is the lack of foul territory. Getting the seats closer to the field causes more of the field to be blocked. Simply geometry, you know like 2x + 3y = 20. Find x.

A friend of mine is using my “Sunday” tickets this Thursday so I’ll have an update on the real view during a game before I go again this Sunday. Hopefully I’ll be ok.

Citifield: Opening Day (this time it counts!)

Tonight’s the big night – the first game at Citifield that will count for something! I think some of the excitement (for me at least) is tempered by the fact that while it’s Opening Day for the regular season, I already feel it’s “baseball” because of the Red Sox game in the beginning of the month. Unfortunately, I won’t be at the stadium or able to watch it in real time, so the DVR is DVR-ing. I have no hopes for watching it anytime soon though – since I was at the last game at Shea, I DVR-ed it to watch the game and the ceremonies later mainly to hear the commentary and stuff. It’s still sitting on the DVR, completely unwatched. One day I’ll get to that, and to Opening Day, but for now…

When I first saw the season schedule out, I had to go consult with my volleyball league schedule and discovered that we’d be in the throes of playoffs today. As the season progressed, the only match my team lost was when I was on vacation and not able to make it. I’m not saying that my presence would’ve changed matters (although it might’ve helped!), but playoffs and bragging rights for the rest of the summer until next season starts in October is more important to me than Opening Day. So I’ll be on a volleyball court fighting away during the Opening Day ceremonies tonight. Hopefully, the Metsies will be fighting their own good fight tonight!