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!

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.

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.

I was there: Mets vs. Astros 8.24.08

The Mets lost in 10 innings. Boo. Some tidbits:

* Keith Hernandez was at the countdown sign today bringing us to 17 games left at Shea. He got a rousing applause.

* David Wright is rolling out to some new music. Wonder why? Today it was the clapping part from “The Uh-Oh” song (I don’t know the real name of it…)

* I think this was the first extra innings game I’ve been to all year. Hmmm…

* I randomly ran into one of the girls I play softball with on the train platform which was strange because all of a sudden I heard someone calling my name, but I didn’t think it was for me. Ha.

* Lil’ Nicky made a fabulous running catch out in left field today. Fabulous.

* Ryan Church made a cameo appearance as a pinch hitter and got lots of applause too. It’s really too bad he’s missed so much time this season.

* We got giveaway shirts today. They are pretty nice – the Gulf logo only appears on a patch on the sleeve so it is somewhat unobstrusive.

Funny stuff: “I’m not gonna name no Mets”

My friend that I went to visit in Houston is originally from Pittsburgh so she cheers for the Pirates. She knows enough about the Mets though too from me to hold her own. She’s also a big 311 fan. A few days before I went to Houston for the visit and the Mets/Astros game, she went to see a 311 concert. In the parking lot before the show, she spotted what she thought was a kindred spirit – a guy wearing a Mets hat. Clearly this guy was not quite the kindred spirit, hilarity ensued, and she had enough foresight to take some video for me. This video cracks me up to no end every time I watch it. So, now in honor of the weekend series of the Pirates & Mets, here I bring you the video “I’m not gonna name no Mets”

Editor’s Note: This video was taken the day BEFORE Jason Bay was traded from the Pirates. Just so you know.

I was there: Mets at Astros 8.1.08

In the end the game was a total bust, but it was still somewhat fun being at the game on Friday. I had carefully plotted my visit to one of my friends for the same weekend that the Mets would be in town and it worked out well this year. (Not so well last year, but so it goes.)

Prior to the game, we went to a local watering hole called The Flying Saucer. The placed was packed with a mix of people heading to the game (including some people with Mets jerseys on, yay!) and people out after work. If you like beer, this is definitely the place for you. There are more beer options than food options. The beer menu is a tri-fold menu and had to be in 8pt or less font. After partaking in some food & drink, we were off to the stadium.

Altogether there was 7 of us plus one 2 year old. We had gotten the Coke Value pack seats which sets you up with 4 tickets in the mezzanine in RF, 4 hot dogs (the vegetarian of the group was able to get a pretzel), 4 sodas (bottles no less, I was expecting fountain sodas), and 2 hats all for the price of $75. Not too shabby. The hats were of good quality too, better than the giveaway hats that are usually at Shea. Our seats ended up being in the last section practically in CF in row 4. Of course when we got there, people were sitting in our seats (grrrr) so we took the available seats in rows 2 & 3. No one moved us out so that is where we stayed. It was a good view back into the field with no obstructions or corners not visible. Overall I liked these seats.

The inside of the stadium is super nice. The main entrance is marble (?) or at least marble-like. The lower level concourse is spacious with all kinds of food choices. Choice is good. I even spotted a sangria kiosk. Mmmmm, sangria. Out in RF by our seats was a big party room with tons of flat screens and stuff. I don’t know if it is always used as a party room, but a fraternity was having some sort of reunion gathering in there during this game. While they do sell standing room tickets, it doesn’t appear that there is all that much room for standing around, especially once you get the Little Pumas and Los Caballeros (or whatever they are called) out there.

Before the game we ran into a friend of my friend who is in the military and was one of the people holding the flags on the field before the game. That would be way cool, but he must’ve done this before because he was way too nonchalant about the whole thing. I also spent about half the game with the 2 year old on my lap because I had a better view of the orange train from my seat than his. At times I would cheer & clap for good Mets plays and he’d look to the train and point at it waiting for it to go. I guess he associated the cheering with it moving the first time, so he was ready for it to go again…only it wasn’t. Oh well.

Every Friday night is Fireworks night at the park. They open up the roof and shoot them off just beyond the LF/CF wall. There is always some brief entertainment in between the end of the game and the fireworks starting. We were entertained by a Guitar Hero battle between a Little Puma and a Caballero. Except the Caballero failed after like 3 notes. (Rhetorical question: Who fails on Guitar Hero after 3 notes?) The fireworks were pretty awesome for ballpark fireworks. There were some going up that were such a pretty shade of purple. They were about 10 minutes long too which was unexpected.

One of my friend’s friends tried to convince me to go with him to Sunday’s game. I think he was pleased that a girl would willingly want to go see baseball games. However, we already had BBQ plans for Sunday (that he was invited to as well) so I had to decline even though it was especially tempting. However, (1) the BBQ was at my friend’s place so it would not be polite to bail, (2) I did need a ride to the airport early on Monday and would not want to get her mad, (3) I wouldn’t have gotten a chance to play Rock Band had we gone to the game, and (4) the Mets lost anyway so I would’ve been more annoyed. At least at the BBQ we had fun playing cards and Rock Band. 🙂

Photos soon, once I get them onto my computer!

I was there: Mets v. Rockies 7.13.08

If there is one statement that can describe last night’s game, it would be this: Fun is back at Shea. What a difference even when comparing it to Friday night’s game. Everyone was in good spirits, smiling, cheering – it was like the good old times. The usher in our section was chatty and cheerful. Even the crowd in the field box level joined in on the wave multiple times no less. The only booing that occurred was in the top of the 9th when the fans wanted Pelfrey to come back out to finish up the game but he didn’t. Sheer joy permeated the place last night. What a difference a few weeks make!

Even the Mets seemed to be enjoying themselves. Prior to the game, DW and Wags were presented with their All Star Game jerseys and DW was TOTALLY cheese-ing out. He’s definitely thrilled to be in the game no matter how he got in (*cough*being robbed by Corey “I Wear My Sunglasses at Night” Hart*cough*). Lil’ Nicky continues his own personal hit parade against the Rockies with 2 singles and a sac fly. Big Pelf not only gets the job done on the mound, but gets down two most excellent bunts AND gets a single to LF (he was erased on a DP, but hey, he got the single!) Home runs. Good defense. What more could you ask for? OK, we could have asked for a Phillies loss on Sunday, but not much you can do about that now…

I was also highly amused by the people around us last night. It was foreign tourist night in my section for sure (or at least in two rows). To the left was a guy & girl speaking Spanish. The girl had a NY license, but the guy had some sort of non-US ID that he used to buy beer. They knew baseball and cheered at the appropriate times so they weren’t amusing to me, but they fit into the foreign embassy times going on around me. In front of us sat three guys in their late 20s/early 30s – an Italian ex-pat currently living in NYC and his two friends who are in the States from Italy studying English for the next month and a half. My friend was talking to one of them after the 1st inning. It was his first game (as well as the other visiting Italian) and he was having a grand old time. The ex-pat seemed to understand the game and was explaining things to them the whole time. They were really enjoying themselves though and it was fun to watch.

To our right sat a group of 6 visiting from Spain. They were clearly at their first ever baseball game as they pretty much tried to figure out the rules by committee as the game went on. To their credit, they picked it up pretty fast for the most part. Once someone would figure something out, they’d tell the rest of the group what’s going on. For example, after the first walk the guy next to me tells the others “4 balls and you go to the base”. When Beltran hit his home run, they all stood up and cheered excitedly right along with the crowd. The lone female of the group noticed the Home Run Apple go up and was frantically trying to get everyone to check it out. Rockies outs were punctuated by “Eliminado!” At one point I think during a Quintanilla a bat, he was fouling off a lot of balls with 2 strikes. The guy next to me asked the others how come he wasn’t getting out because he should have three strikes. I wanted to explain to him, but they didn’t seem to know very much English (enough to get by in my estimation though) and there’s no way I can communicate baseball terms in Spanish (“Como se dice ‘Foul Tip’?”). Life went on though. Prior to the game, they were taking pictures of each other from all angles – with the outfield in the back, straight ahead, with home plate behind, etc. They make my paparazzi photo blast look silly (well ok, maybe almost silly). I had eaten before I left to go to Shea, but wanted a hot dog so I flagged down a vendor early in the game. They all looked on with interest with the process. Later on though, they were flagging down vendors with the best of them. Even though they don’t know it, I had a great time sitting next to them and the other newbies and watching their excitement.

I’d also like to thank the Metsies for putting away the Rockies in a very time efficient manner. I hate the late Sunday games because it takes me two hours from end-of-game to get home (from walking to the train, waiting for the train, riding the train, driving to the carpool location o’ the day, then driving home) and I have to wake up. I already had said if the game wasn’t close, I was out at 11 to make the train…10:45 game over. Muy Bueno!

Photos behind the jump

I was there: Mets v Rockies 7.11.08

Before I get into Friday’s game, I just want to comment on what interesting times its been this past week. I mean, we’re at 8 wins in a row for the first time since 2006. There’s been plenty of bad calls going against the Mets any of which could’ve ruined the “Old” Mets like a 3 hour rain delay that would’ve been called if the Mets had been on the losing end, a home run that wasn’t a home run, a safe call with the runner running out of the basepath. Boston has “Manny being Manny”, the Mets have “Moises being Moises”. We’ve got Ryan with “Migraines being Migraines”. (I’m no doctor although I like to play one sometime but I’ve gotten migraines since college and while they knock me out for the time being, they never last for days on end…anyway…)

Friday’s game was a bonus of sorts – a bus trip from work. It was definitely a rowdy bunch this time. I was quite amused that our seats were across the aisle and two rows up from the Sunday seats so it was like being in the “usual” locale.

It was a tough game. Ollie taking a no-hitter to the fifth and promptly giving it up to a HR. The Mets battled to tie it up. Then it was a tight one until the Metsies pulled it out in the 8th for a 2-1 lead, and the final score. Most excellent.

I’m soon to be off to the game tonight too. Hopefully, by the end of the night it’s 9 in a row! And hopefully ARI holds off PHI – a 2-1 game in the 6th inning.

Game: Of Ballgames and Blowouts

Tuesdays is doubleheader softball days. We lost our first game last night to a team that we definitely should not have lost to. You could tell everyone was not happy with this and in the 1st inning of the second game we scored 10 runs in the first inning. Going into the 4th inning, we needed one more run to make the score 15-0 and invoke the “mercy rule” (losing team has to get it within 10 run deficit to continue). Well, we scored one alright…and then 16 more to make the score 31-0. We couldn’t make it a shutout, but we did win 31-1.

Our games finished early enough that I quickly turned on the radio, but discovered the game was already done. The first thing I heard was that the Mariners got 15 hits. Never a good thing. Then I heard “Oliver Perez…derailed” and knew this game was all kinds of not good. They lost Monday to a team they shouldn’t have really lost to….where was there fight in the second game? (And no, I’m not talking about verbal fighting with umpires here.)

At the very least the Metsies are currently winning thanks to two two-run HR’s by David. Bring on the fight guys….bring it on.

I was there: Mets v. Royals 6.15.08

Well, I was trying to get some time to upload photos for the game before I posted this, but I’ve been crazy busy with 5 (!) softball games this week, and that along with bad thunderstorms rolling through that required power shutdown to save my computer…well…no photos are uploaded still so they’ll have to get a bonus post this weekend.

Who knew that Sunday would be the last time we’d see Willie at Shea?! I’m sure *some* people knew. Cough, cough. But, back to the story at hand…

Buy one, get one free. That was the motto for Sundays’s single admission (!) doubleheader. I’ll admit on Saturday I heard Gary Cohen mention Sunday would be a single admission doubleheader, but it wasn’t until he said how Saturday’s tickets would not be honored that I really comprehended the situation. This is the first “real” doubleheader in a loooong time and obviously it’s a money losing situation for the team since they don’t get two sets of captive audiences. I was not complaining though!

Of course, a doubleheader required some additional planning especially since it turned out I had a 12 hour day (left the house at 9:30am, returned at 9:30pm!). First, an extra large bottle of water to last the day as opposed to the smaller one. I will not be paying $4.50 for a bottle of water, thanks for asking though. Secondly was food for lunch. I usually do buy some type of food at the stadium, but I was not about to eat stadium food for both lunch and dinner. Therefore my choice for lunch was a bagel from Panera. Now, granted at 350-450 calories for a bagel, that isn’t really a healthy alternative either but given the following (1) it is not greasy or fried like other stadium offerings, (2) costs $1.99 plus tax it was a worthy and portable alternative. Of course, when I went to get my dinner of chicken fingers & fries I nearly fell over on the floor when I saw that the menu board has calorie contents and said chicken fingers & fries were 1014 calories. In text-speak: O! M! G! I knew that they were probably a lot but never really stopped to consider it, but now knowing that it is 2/3 of a daily calorie allotment in ONE meal, I think I may be making an early morning stop at Panera from now on. Yikes!

It did not look good in the beginning…rain started falling and even though my seats are under the overhang, the wind was blowing in my direction and we were getting sprinkled with water. Thankfully it passed quickly and stopped by the time the game was about to start.

We got treated to a softball home run derby by the Long Haul Bombers pre-game. One of the guys was just hitting bombs, literally, over and beyond the picnic area. Being a softball player myself (although not really a home-run hitting softball player), I was impressed. Starting in the 2nd inning of the first game, the guys were in the kids area to sign autographs and stuff. Maybe neat for kids, not so much for me.

This game was the first time it was really crowded in my section. I didn’t like it. Every game before this, my whole entire row has been pretty much empty with maybe two other people sitting in it. It was full up yesterday except for the two seats on the end.

What can be said about the on-field play…well…they were losing then coming back then losing worse then made a valiant effort at the end to get within one…but no cigar. The majority of the crowd left during the 8th inning and I was eyeing seats in the front row of the Mezz Boxes to move down to. We already knew that a great majority of people would not stay given that it was a holiday and all. Some of the regulars even stated their intentions of leaving because they already had plans. We saw some people already starting to seat hop down into the boxes during the top of the 9th, so we moseyed on down and had a good vantage point for some excitement at least.

The placed pretty much cleared out, more than I had even expected, and so in between games we started eyeing Loge Box seats. Hey, no one was down there really so why not? We spent the first two innings in the Mezz while eating our dinner and made our way down to the Loge during the 3rd and got front row seats right above the clock in RF. They were pretty sweet seats (aside from the couple sitting one box over who used their seats as their own personal make-out box. Whatever). Hardly anyone was down in the RF Loge sections. Maybe 30 people by the end of the game. It harkened back to the end of the 2005 season which I attended the last Thursday game of that year when there was no one around. We saw a much better consistent effort through the game and while they still left too many people on base, at least it was a winner.

This past week I saw on tv that the seats immediately behind home plate have small tv’s in the wall. WHY?! They are right behind all the action! Yesterday I learned that the StubHub seats in RF, you know, those leather reclining ones, also have flat panel tv’s in front of the seats. WHY?! The ultimate in luxury? I’ll take some luxury sometime, come find me!

The bonus of sitting in the Loge was that it took no time at all to get out of the stadium and up to the train, with just a few minutes to spare before we were “all aboard”. That was pleasant to be able to get out and on a train pretty much right away.

Next game up will be Sunday’s Subway Series. I am glad ESPN did not take that for the night game. I hate when they do that.