Baseball is not dead

After the last Mets game on Sunday, I pretty much declared that the baseball season was dead to me and I really wouldn’t pay much attention to the playoffs. Well…

A bunch of my friends are going to Al-Yankzeera tonight for the playoffs, and when I was deciding what to wear this morning, my Twins sweatshirt that I had bought at their Spring Training Stadium was screaming out to me: WEAR ME WEAR ME. So I did. Now I am partisan and cheering for the Twins, at least for this series with that “other” NY team who-shall-not-be-named.

It’s Over

I got into my car after volleyball practice and was about to turn on WFAN to listen to the game, and then I realized….THERE IS NO GAME.

Despite that, as soon as I got home and walked in the door, I was about to go put on SNY to watch the game and….nope can’t do that EITHER.

There’s not going to be any playoff-watching in my house. I have shows on the DVR to catch up on instead. It’s going to be a long, cold winter…

I was there: Mets v. Nationals 9.20.09

When I was up at my Cooperstown jaunt, a woman that was also on the trip was sweet enough to give me her baseball bracelet. I told her I would wear it to Citifield now and forever, except when the Rangers come into town during those AL-NL times because, well, I can give the Rangers the luck. Anyway, I’ve worn this bracelet for my last two Sundays at Citifield and the Mets have won both times. Where was this bracelet in May or June?!

It seems that today the 80s called. Instead of the players’ usual at-bat music we were treated to a flashback to the 80s and had those songs playing instead. What a blast from the past.

I have a new favorite food at Citifield: the corn on the cob from the Taqueria. I don’t think anything there is better. Seriously. Corn on the cob w/ mayo, cayenne pepper, and cotillo cheese…divine.

We had a giveaway today – I don’t remember this being on the schedule even in August. I’m guessing they need more things to keep people coming to the game. There was a good amount of people there – more than I would’ve thought would’ve been there – but the crowd did thin out as the game went on. It seemed as if more people were cheering for the Jets updates than the game.

It looked super good for a win today. John Maine was back and took a no hitter into the 5th (I believe). The Mets scored 2 runs late in the game to have a 6-0 lead. But then it all started to go downhill quickly in the 9th. The Nats scored 2 runs, had runners on 1st and 2nd, and then in comes K-Rod (with a image of his bobblehead bobbing again on the big screen, haha) to shut it down and get the Metsies a win.

My personal record this year is 5-6 at Citifield. I have tickets to one more game, where hopefully I’ll be at .500 for the year. You bet that bracelet will be on my arm!

Play Ball With Nolan Ryan – Gameday!

An aside – last night I watched the Mets Weekly episode from two weeks ago which just happened to be a recap of the 1969 World Series 40th Anniversary Celebration. There was a lil’ segment on Nolan Ryan – crazy as that was airing as I was on the bus about to go PLAY with Nolan Ryan.

So about that bus – we drove from Albany out to Cooperstown and watched the 1999 HOF Induction Ceremony video. All morning it had been raining and the weather forecasters on the Albany stations had said the farther west you’d go, the better chance you’d have of staying dry in the afternoon. We didn’t quite know where we were going to end up. Turns out that Doubleday Field was “unplayable” thanks to all the rain, so we went over to an indoor sports complex and were going to play Indoor Wiffleball. No one was really keen on playing inside, and at the time it was just overcast so we convinced everyone that mattered that we were all willing to play outside, even if it meant playing in the rain. The infield on the baseball field there also had big huge puddles, so the keepers of the complex ended up putting down some bases on the soccer field and that’s where we played our softball game.

Despite it being a not-so-nice weather day, everyone had a lot of fun playing and chit-chatting. I think the SWA team had practiced or something because they killed us. Oh well. Apparently that is the way it seems to go every year. I didn’t get a hit, but I did hit a ball into RF that if we would’ve been playing “for real” probably would’ve been a hit. Since we were just playing on a big open field, we had everyone come in to play the outfield instead of sitting people out, so there could be 6, 7, or even 8 people out there at any given time. My “hit” to the outfield was picked up by one of these extra people and I got thrown out at 1st. Lame. I wasn’t running all out fast because the grass was wet (I don’t need to bust something up in a “for fun” game) and it was hard to see where the bases were since they were covered by grass. That is my story and I’m sticking to it.

In the top of the 7th, a total downpour occurred and we called it quits with the SWA team winning by something like 145 to 3. (Not really, but it felt that way!) We had time to get some things autographed (I got my gameday jersey signed, personalized to me) and were being stalked by guys who had followed our bus all the way from Albany. When we’d leave the gym, they were coming up to us throwing things in our face “Can you get this signed for me?”. Um, no, especially since you are just going to throw it up on eBay for tons o’ cash money anyway and not appreciate it. They must’ve had a lookout outside too because they took Nolan Ryan out a side exit and all of a sudden all the guys that had been inside were tearing out over to his car. It would not be the last we’d see of these guys.

We had a short amount of time at the hotel to clean up and look nice before we were back on the bus going to the HOF. Outside there was one of the autograph-seekers from the afternoon trying to look inconspicuous but instead looked terribly shady. We were taken to the Baseball Experience movie room where we watched the movie, and then everyone got to read their essays that won them this trip. We laughed, we cried, we were nostalgic.

Then we went down to the Plaque Gallery where it was all ours for the night. They had tables set up in the middle and a buffet down at the far end. There’s a window looking into the Gallery and people kept standing at it, watching us in the Fishbowl, until security would come and tell them to get a move-on. It wasn’t long before more people would come by and hover. It was amusing. I enjoyed this part much more than the game (one because I was dry and warm!) mainly because we got to hear a lot of Nolan Ryan’s stories from back-in-the-day and from now. Like which person would he most want to pitch to today (Pujols and Ichiro if you’re keeping count). One of the SWA guys also did an interview for the podcast “Red Belly Radio” so keep checking out their podcast site for that (when I checked yesterday it still wasn’t up).

I’m working on getting my photos up online (still), so here’s another preview photo – me up at bat against Nolan Ryan (who pitched for both teams).

Play Ball With Nolan Ryan – Pregame

This is the first of (at least) three installments of my weekend experience that only words could buy.

It all started back on a July day when I was looking for flights for my annual fall trip to Florida with my friends. On the Southwest site, I noticed a little box on the front page yelling at me: “Play Ball with Nolan Ryan”. Instead of going to search for flights, I ended up clicking the box to view the contest page. After reading the contest description and all, I thought to myself “I want to do that!” and I immediately knew the direction I wanted my contest entry to take. (Contest entry: Write a 150 word or less essay on why you should be picked to play. Entries judged on creativity, humor, uniqueness, etc. Go play softball at Cooperstown against a team of Southwest employees with Nolan Ryan pitching for both teams.)

Despite knowing what I wanted to write about, it wasn’t coming easy at first. The first draft was a dud. It was unique for sure, but not incredibly creative or humorous at that. My second draft was getting there. After some tweaks I had a winning essay for sure. I knew I did. I mean, how could the mysterious “they” not like it? Before I submitted it for good on the website, I was reading it one more time when one word popped out which immediately brought to mind another stroke of genius, and then I was golden. I was winning this contest. I knew that besides coming up with all the requirements, I had to inject some of Southwest’s “corporate culture” into it, but at the same time it had to have a flow and make sense. One of my friends suggested changing “love” to “LUV” (stock ticker, advertising) and I thought “How could I miss that obvious one?” Haha. My stroke of genius mentioned above came from reading the word “reward” in my essay. Well their frequent flyer program is “Rapid Rewards” and I only made the connection after letting the essay sit for the weekend without reading it at all, so in went a reference to “RAPID-ly REWARD-ing” me. Finally, the flight attendants like to sing songs with new words, and since this was a (soft)ball game, new words to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” were absolutely on tap. Perfection.

The other reason I knew this contest was meant for me was the fact that Cooperstown kept popping up into my life in July. A friend of mine got engaged early July and planned to have her wedding in Cooperstown next year. The current edition of Rachael Ray Magazine had Cooperstown as a featured destination. This contest was the third reference to it in one month!

The rules had said winners would find out if they’d won “on or about July 29”. When July 29 came and went I was not happy. What happened to my perfection? July 30…July 31…I wasn’t winning. I get home on August 5 and check my email and there is an email waiting for me with the subject line I had been waiting for. WINNER! I won! Well, I wasn’t an official winner yet, that didn’t come until I got my paperwork in, but Cooperstown, NY here I was coming!

SWA doesn’t fly direct to Albany from either Islip or LaGuardia so I actually had to leave New York to come back to New York! The popular question other winners asked me up there was if I drove. In theory flying (even with connecting to BWI) would take about the same time to drive. Notice I say “in theory”. There was a bunch of weather delays at BWI on Friday that if you would’ve started the clock from the time I left my house in the morning to the time I got to the hotel in Albany, I could’ve driven to Albany and back in the same amount of time. Oh well. Weather isn’t something anyone can control and the flight was free so no complaining. There were a lot of winners on the flight from BWI-ALB. I kept overhearing people’s conversations with “Nolan Ryan” creeping in a lot.

Eventually we are at the hotel, and we all got a (Southwest) backpack (the ergonomical kind) that was full of swag – a game jersey, a hat, credentials (we’re official!), two blow-up Southwest planes, and some pamphlets on Cooperstown. The only thing missing was peanuts (I kid!).

That night we had dinner at a local restaurant and we got to meet the people who had arrived (some were still in transit). The largest contingent was from Texas, which is a given since SWA headquarters are there and Nolan Ryan is a Texan and all. Otherwise there were a few people from California, and one from Florida, Kansas, North Carolina, & Virginia. I think that covers everyone.

Pretty soon it would be time for bed. We were leaving to Cooperstown for the game in the morning, and the weather forecast was not looking good…

Stay tuned for Part Two – The Game. To leave you wanting more until then, here is a photo of me & my team “The Flyers”. I’m standing at the right.

He’s ba-ack!

Oh how great it was to see DW back in the lineup where he belongs tonight! I missed going to games and hearing “Batting third and playing 3rd base” (pause) “Number 5″ (pause) “Daaa-Vid Wright!”

The new improved helmet makes him look like a bobblehead come to life though. Whatever works I guess to protect your head (rather be alive than dead that’s for sure), but still, it totally gives him the bobblehead look. Poor David.

Now to go figure out if the “Wright Rules” (unlike that other team’s Joba Rules Revision F) will allow David to play this Sunday…

In other news, I’m working on the post for my “special baseball experience”. It was super fun. Here’s another clue: I was in Cooperstown this past weekend. Hmmmmmm……

I was there: Mets vs. Phillies 8.23.09

I tried hard to sell these tickets – everything I tried fell through. I was running my first ever 10k race in the morning and really didn’t feel like rushing around. In the end, I did have to rush around, & left home an hour later than I normally do for a game. It was almost for the best – because we were there by 12:30 so we still got the giveaway AND they had just opened up the pre-paid lot to cash customers so I got “Princess Parking” right by the JRR. After a quick stop for some food, we were up at our seats just prior to the National Anthem. Great timing!

It was back to the “usual” seats for this one and there were no obnoxious Silles fans around me this time (thank goodness!). It was a crazy game though. Ollie! (Need I say more.) Pedro’s back in NY (with some crazy red uni on). Two three run HR’s in the first inning. The first ever inside the park HR at Citifield. (Thanks Vicky!) A disputed catch call – I watched Fast Forward at home, that catch was so obvious so I’m glad it was overturned. The Mets are rallying! They’re mounting a comeback! And then….it was over just like that. To be fair, they should’ve had two outs already before the unassisted triple play, but they didn’t and that triple play hurt.

In the “Call the Waaaahmbulance” front – someone is seriously messing around with us Mets fans. When I heard Frenchy torn a ligament in his thumb, my heart broke a little. Not necessarily for him but more for me and that fact that it seems like every single person on the team is getting hurt. Then Santana and Elbow-gate. Ugh. A lot of people are joking about how there is a curse on Citifield, and you know while I don’t necessarily agree with that, at the same time its very easy to believe it. The number of injuries is just staggering. Truly staggering.

What’s upcoming: Stay tuned some time next week for a full update on my Very Special Baseball Experience. Here’s a hint: it involves a member of the 1969 World Champion New York Mets!

I was there: Mets vs. Phillies 8.21.09

Every year there’s a bus trip or two to a Mets game at work. I was rather annoyed this year that all these people who just wanted to go to see the new stadium showed up and bought tickets that by the time I went over to buy my own (the same day they went on sale) they were already sold out! A lot of “regulars” on this trip (true Mets fans!) got shut out and we were all lamenting our sad fate.

Late Thursday afternoon I got an email telling me that one person cancelled, would I want the ticket. Well now, I’m not opposed to going “by myself” and I knew that I’d probably know some people on the bus anyway, and it was a David Wright logo-ed sports bag giveaway night, so I took the offer.

Friday found me on the bus heading off to Citifield. We passed through the darkest rain clouds I have ever seen. It turned late afternoon into night. Of course we had to sit through a rain delay, but I used that time to wander a bit. Even before I went into the stadium, I went and found the bases from Shea in the parking lot. No cars were there, so it was free & clear for walking and photos.

Since I was using someone else’s extra ticket, I got stuck in the middle of the row out in the Pepsi Porch. Someone else on the bus took my ticketed seat (boo) because up to the point where I was coming, it was the middle seat of 3 empty seats and of course he wanted his space. Now I was stuck between two guys who were total duds (not cheering or anything) and right behind 2 rows of the most obnoxious (and pretty trashy if I do say so myself) Sillies fans I’ve ever seen. Of course when the Sillies scored their first run, the comments from the group were all “YEAH WE’RE WINNING”. Well, only because WE haven’t had a chance to get up yet. The tone changed pretty quick when the Mets scored and most of them were pretty silent, except for one jerk. His commentary changed to “Well, we’re still in first place” and “Well you’ll never catch us” and “Well you’re still 14.5 games out”. I wanted to say something so bad, but I realized it was not worth wasting my time on him. However, a guy in our row (not with my group) didn’t think it was a waste of time and before you knew it, they were threatening fighting, the security guy was calling for backup and coming to yell at them, etc. etc.

It was at this point that I had to decide what to do. I really wanted to “experience” the game from the Pepsi Porch, but this was not the manner in which I wanted. After a quick trip up to the bathroom, my choices were either go stand and watch from the field level, or move down to Row 1 where there were 4 empty seats at the end of the row. I chose a seat in Row 1. Eventually the normal security guard came back from his break and I knew he knew I wasn’t supposed to be there so when he said to me “That’s a great view isn’t it?” I made sure to say “Yes, and it has the bonus of being much quieter and farther away from those Phillies fans”. He rolled his eyes and said “I know” and I knew I was good, especially since I was (1) by myself without an entourage and (2) not bothering anyone and (3) not sitting in anyone else’s seat. We had some chats every now and again, all good in the hood. Sitting in Row 1 was pretty good. I don’t know that I’d want to sit in the upper rows of the Porch, but I’d take Row 1, even if it meant that I’d miss some plays back by the wall. I still like the Big Apple seats better though….

Poor Frenchy got a bad “out” call when he was stealing second (I watched Fast Forward on Saturday – he totally was robbed that play wasn’t even close!). When he was coming back out to RF after that play, he was shaking his head the whole way. Aw.

The Sillies fans left at the middle of the 8th inning and all was right with the world again, meaning, it was so peaceful and quiet. I don’t mean that there wasn’t cheering and stuff, but some of them would just not shut up. Even sitting in Row 1 I could catch a conversation here or there and it was just annoying. The Metsies pulled out a win just in time to meet our “bus curfew” of 11:30 – our bus had to leave at that time and the game finished at ~11:20. And so, it was hooray for a Mets win.

I was there: Mets vs. Braves 8.18.09

This was one of those quintessential nights where I sit at the ballpark and say “This is why I love watching baseball”.

I was on a bus trip for “Polish Night” at Citifield. These ethnic nights are such a ploy for ticket sales, but hey, they gotta do what they gotta do. A half hour dance & song pre-game performance gets a bunch of people in the house – well that’s what we’ll do!

Our seats were out in the Big Apple section and I have to say I enjoyed these seats thoroughly. I totally forgot about bringing my better camera thinking it wasn’t going to do my any good, and I just brought my point and shoot, but I could’ve gotten some good pictures from that vantage point. D’oh! I liked these seats much better than my “usual” upper deck ones, that’s for sure. I don’t usually like the deep outfield “bleacher” type seating. My friends have had bleacher seats at Al-Yankzeera I and II for a few years now and whenever I’ve picked up one of their extra tickets, I was never impressed with the view. I think the Big Apple seats (at least in Row 10 where I was) are closer to the field than the Bleachers at Al-Yankzeera. So that helped. I would totally swap out my upper deck plan seats for seats here all the time in a heartbeat. Unfortunately that’s the designated “group area” (at least for this year) so that’s out.

The Mets were down quickly 4-0, but then the bottom of the 4th rolled around and it kept going and going and going. It was impressive. Even Ollie got in the act with a nice hit out to RF. Before we knew it, the Mets were up 8-4. I will admit that I was nervous about the Braves coming back – with this team, how can you not be!

I finally got to complete my Brooklyn Brewery Specialty Beer taste test of all 4 beers that the brew especially for Citifield. I waited on the ridiculously long Shake Shack line to finally get the Shackmeister Ale. I’d rate this one 2nd of the 4 offered. Good enough to drink, waaaay better than the awful beer that exists at the Box Frites. It doesn’t beat the Sabroso Ale from the Taqueria though. There’s just something about that beer that is darn good. Congratulations Sabroso Ale, you win the taste test.

Other random musings:
Frenchy’s country music for his at-bat songs make me laugh. It’s so out of place here in NY. The fact that country music is being played in a big stadium in NYC boggles my mind and I giggle every time.

I never noticed it before, but Ryan Church has some serious OCD out in the outfield. (I still love you though Churchy!) He was always bending over and fiddling with either his left pant leg or left shoelace, over and over again. Even my dad commented on it (“What’s he keep doing?”) He was pretty much right in front of us in CF so it was pretty distracting. (“He’s bending over again?”)

And so the Metsies pull out a good win.

But then “disaster” struck. The timeline:
(1) Game Ends
(2) I turn around to take a picture of the “Mets Win” sign on the scoreboard
(3) I feel about 4 drops of something on my left arm only
(4) I’m mad that some jerk is throwing around a beer/water/beverage and start looking for the culprit
(5) An announcement is made “A severe thunderstorm is in the area. Please everyone evacuate the seating area immediately
(6) Ushers run around yelling “Move move move!”
(7) It starts raining
(8) We get under the overhang out in LF/CF on the field level and look into the field and there is utter chaos – total downpour. The wind is blowing. It looks like a monsoon.
(9) Looking out to the parking lot, there are lightning bolts all over the sky
(10) A wind gust comes and knocks over two garbage cans full of garbage (they had to be pretty heavy, so you know the wind was strong
(11) We wait for the rain to subside a bit before running out to the bus

The timing of this storm was seriously impeccable. I’m sure the powers-that-be were sitting watching the radar thinking “come on come on, get this game over with!”

I was there: Mets vs. Diamondbacks 8.2.09

I know, I know, I’m horribly behind the times here (it’s a week + a day after the game), but that’s the way it goes!

This game was best summed up by one word: Rain. Despite the fact that when I checked the weather forecast at 9am and it said there was only a 20% chance of rain at 1pm and 2pm, then increasing to 50% at 3pm, it was pretty much the exact opposite. It started raining while we were eating our chicken mole tacos from the Taqueria at a table under the overhang, and continued until just before game start. My friend called the game starting at 4pm. I said 3:30. We split – the official start time was 3:45.

As my seats are conveniently under the overhang from the top of the stadium, we went up and sat and watched the rain fall. Then there was a lightning bolt across the sky and the sign out on the tv board changed to “Please make your way to a covered concourse for your safety”. They also made a verbal announcement. Despite all this, a lady about 3 rows in front of us took this moment to open an umbrella that had about a 3-4 inch metal spike on the top of it. We were debating if we were close enough for the fallout if she got hit by lightning, when they decided that they were going to move over a section to move further back under the overhang. Whew. We were safe.

This game was super poorly attended. It was great to have space all around us and no one sitting in the row in front of us so that we didn’t have to sit leaning forward the whole time to be able to see. That was about the only good part.

Of course, it was another loss, this time 5-2. While we were sitting during the rain delay, they were flashing a bunch of random trivia facts, and at that time the Mets record on Sundays was 5-10. Great thing I have the “Somewhat Sunday” plan because I only saw one of those 5 wins. The best day is Saturday when they are 11-5, so all the “Somewhat Saturday” planholders are actually getting a good deal!

Coming soon: I know I’m awful about updating, but definitely come back in September for some hopefully good stuff. I recently found out I won a contest that gives me an epic baseball experience that any baseball fan would love to be a part of. It is sounding like it is going to be a ton of fun!