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.
Baseball Shell 