An interesting proposition, another baseball blog to be put out there in blogger-land? Yes. Sorry.
Why are you starting so late in the season? Is there a better time to start really? And do I wait, start never, start next year? Never is a good time and now is as good as any. Plus maybe I’ll have more free time now (ha. right.)
So my favorite team is none other than the New York Mets. I’ve been a fan since as long as I can remember really. I can remember when I was like 4 and 5 years old, watching Mets games on tv on Sunday afternoons on Channel 9 back in the early 80s. Since I had zero concept yet of what a season meant or anything like that, whenever the Mets lost, inevitably I would end up crying my eyes out. And since this was the early 80s, the Mets lost a lot. Hence I was crying a lot. People telling me that it was ok, there’d be more games for them to win didn’t really help me out because they lost *today*. Thankfully I grew out of that phase.
I also grew out of baseball for awhile as a result of the baseball strike. That year I fell in love with college basketball, namely the Duke Blue Devils and a young lad named Bobby Hurley. Eventually I got back to baseball and summers are therefore now for baseball and winters (and March) for basketball.
I thought last year I went to a lot of baseball games, but that is nothing compared to this year. I did a whole big Spring Training Tour (10 games in 8 days!) and bought a Mets Sunday plan, and went to a bunch of other games which put me on track for 20 regular season games this year and a still-to-be-determined number of postseason games if all goes well! Needless to say it’s been a very baseball-filled summer.
Favorite Players?
My favorite Met is of course, Mr. David Wright. (Find me one girl who doesn’t like him and I will smack them upside the head and ask them what in the world is wrong with her.) I actually got to meet him last November. Needless to say, it was amazin’. I should note though that I was fond of DDubs heading back to the 2005 season when the Mets, well, sucked, and before the big outpouring of love for him. Yeah, I missed 2004 love, but I was ahead of the game! I am also a Maine-iac. Last fall before Game 1 of the NLDS I was talking to a co-worker saying how I had total faith in Johnny boy. My co-worker disagreed. It was fun to come into work the next day and say “I told you so!”
There are some non-Mets players that I enjoy too. First on that list is that Salty boy with one of the longest, if not *the* longest, last name in baseball who is now in a much better place (Texas). If that just doesn’t give it away, then you don’t know Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Love for him is mostly because he hit a ball that I snagged during spring training when I was at the Braves-Tigers game. The guy sitting next to me told me to take a picture of his name up on the scoreboard because I’ll never remember that name. Well I did take a picture of it and I still remember him.
That’s him still in his bat after hitting one foul to me! 
I have ZERO love for that team that plays in the Bronx in a place I like to refer to as Al-Yankzeera Stadium. However, I do have a fondness for the one, the only, pr0ff3ss0r_f4rnsw0rth. Not so much because of who he is, but because of the wonderful writings of the guys over at The Dugout. Read my two favorite “episodes”, The Papelbowl or Rich Harden: Atomic Superman or really any other Dugout clip to begin to learn why such fondness exists for a Skankee.
OK Kyle, calm yourself.
Anything else?
Well yeah, I enjoy playing sports almost as much as I like watching them. This past summer I was on three different softball teams resulting in playing four games a week. I also play in beach volleyball leagues. When winter shows up, I move the volleyball playing indoors and play on two different teams. I swim a mile a week. This past May I picked up a new hobby in running. I still have a love-hate relationship with that. When I am towards the end of a 5 mile run I am cursing myself for willingly putting myself through the torture willingly but when I’m not running I sometimes can’t wait to get out there. I’m currently signed up to run a half marathon in 2008, and you’d think that would be enough time to clear my schedule but I just learned of something else that may require me to be in Cali on that day so we will have to see about that.
I’m not a wimp. Meaning I’ve been at games when it’s been cold and when it’s been raining and I sit there in the cold and the rain as long as the guys are on the field. Here’s me after a very cold April ‘07 Friday night game against the Nats.
Bundle up kiddies!
And here’s a much better picture during a game in July about 30 minutes before it started raining. I have no luck sometimes!
I have a partner-in-crime in all of this. Her name is Yummy. She’s a plastic bear who loves the Mets too and can normally be found wearing a beer-koozie Mets jersey. She’s a world traveler in her own rights. Spot me at a Mets game and Yummy can’t be far behind.
To close this fine intro, I say Lets Go Mets. And let’s kick it in September shall we?
