FEELING BETTER ABOUT THINGS

I'm happy to report that my second visit to Citi Field felt good. More like home. I feel a lot better about my relationship with the Mets right now...and it didn't hurt that they won the game.

A couple of items of good news as well:

1) The place can get loud when it wants to. When Francisco Rodriguez toed the rubber against Albert Pujols in the 9th inning it was better than anything I saw on Opening Night. I want to see what the playoff atmosphere would be like there.

2) Someone with the Mets must be reading my blog. Because in the middle of the 8th inning, the Mets no longer play 'Sweet Caroline'...they do a "Meet The Mets" sing-along. Awesome. Just what the new ballpark needs.

I'll have some new pics and other Citi Field updates next week.

ONE MORE GO-AROUND

I'm sure it hasn't gone unnoticed that it's been hard for me lately to keep up with '200 Miles From the Citi'. Part of this has been a busy home life, but I'm not going to lie - the Mets have been less and less inspiring to me as the season has gone on.

I think I'll address that another day. For now, I'm going to build on some feel-good momentum from last night and touch on a few topics that have been on my mind:

Last night, thanks to a class gift, The Wife and I were able to go to the Red Sox-Marlins game at Fenway Park. Despite the fact that the Red Sox missed the boat on building a new facility, there's always something special about watching a game at Fenway, especially at night, with the light towers. (Maybe because of 'Field of Dreams', I don't know).















It also helped that we had good seats, which is always a better viewing experience at Fenway.

As a nice bonus, last night also happened to be the 500th consecutive sellout at Fenway Park, so we received a commemorative baseball (on the way out the door; the Red Sox are not stupid) and other little giveaways throughout the night - we ended up with a free burrito. Rare giveaways at a place that doesn't really need to draw crowds with free items, so that was nice.

It made me think, though, that the Red Sox, while definitely successful between 2003 and 2009, have a bit of an advantage in that a sellout only needs to be 40,000 tickets sold (or less - 38,000+, I think). While that's more than teams like the Marlins and Nationals could dream of, I wonder how many other teams have had 40,000 for six straight years without being sellouts. The Yankees come to mind - even with their well-known troubles selling tickets this year, they are still over 40,000 a game. Just throwing that out there.

Some other things that have been on my mind:

Last night we happened to catch Brad Penny pitching for the Red Sox. With John Smoltz coming back into the Red Sox' plans for their rotation, rumor has it that Penny is expendable. (There are other options, but the Penny ones have caught my interest the most.) One of the teams rumored to be a destination for Penny is the Mets. I can't tell you how angry it would make me if the Mets traded for Brad Penny. They could have had him, on the cheap no less (unlike Oliver Perez and his 9+ ERA, high salary, and overall ineffectiveness), as a free agent. If they trade someone to get Penny, it might be the final straw that breaks the back of my already high level of frustration with the team.

Finally, you may remember a few years ago when I critiqued all of the Major League Baseball broadcasts. I didn't comment much on the Marlins guys, but I did mention that I was not a fan. They have not climbed the ladder too much in my view, and as I watch their 'sideline' reporter on occasion - I believe it's Craig Minnervini - they've dropped further. He creeps me out. One time in Arizona stands out in particular for me, when he leered at all of the girls in their bathing suits in a poolside interview. Well, that stuck with me, and it didn't go unnoticed last night when he made sure to introduce himself to Red Sox sideline reporter/former model Heidi Watney. Something tells me he doesn't go out of his way to make sure he gets to know the other male sideline reporters (which, it occurs to me, is not an extensive list beyond him) in the league.

So hopefully I'm getting back into updating the site more often. For some reason I hit the 5-year anniversary and maybe even a wall at the same time.

Again, I'll get into this more in a future post, but I'm feeling pretty upset with the Mets lately, though my enjoyment of baseball is still at its peak. Part of my issue is that it still feels odd for me watching the Mets play home games - I feel like I don't recognize anything.

Next week brings another trip to Citi Field. We'll see how things go after that trip. I'll have pictures and a new update on the new ballpark for sure by the first of July...but I will be updating before then as well.

CITI FIELD PART TWO

Too much to say about Citi Field to confine it to one posting:

I wanted to give you some visuals to illustrate what I was talking about yesterday. Here's the gate comparison I was talking about comparing San Francisco to Citi Field (maybe it's not entirely accurate, now that I see the pictures...incidentally, it was SBC Park when we were there. I kept calling it AT&T Park...I don't even know what it is now. And I've given you the side view of Citi - that's where these high gates are):













And then here's the field comparison I was talking about with PETCO ("Where The Mets Go") versus Citi Field, particularly with the outfield walls:















A couple of more comments about the experience:

-We parked in the lot, and were lucky enough to choose a spot near an exit (we got to the park around 3:30 for the 7:10 start, so we had our choice of spots), which turned out to be a direct shot right out the door. That was lucky.

-But it was great that we had the car there. Since we were there so early, we were waiting for the gates to open, and that's when one of the vendors right inside the gate decided to start selling the 'collector's edition' programs for the first game at Citi Field. (He kept looking over his shoulder like he was doing something wrong, selling them through the gate.) So after I bought the program, rather than carry it around all night, I was able to put it in the car and keep it in nice condition. I was excited about that.

-Interestingly, there was texting interference all night. Clearly I didn't have much trouble sending out texts, since I was able to update Twitter all night, but when I tried to send a picture of the big flag to the Southern Bureau to post on the blog, it wouldn't go through. Then, when I walked through the concourse later in the night, a bunch of texts started to pour into my phone that had been sent hours before. So if you texted me Monday night, that's why I didn't reply.

Finally, Justin in NYC sent this e-mail, which I'm not sure he meant for publication, but I will anyway. Not only is it a good point, but it illustrates how he keeps an ear to the ground for me from the NYC radio stations, which I appreciate:

"Johnny,

Lots of people were calling up and complaining to Francesa today about how they thought Citi Field tried so hard to embrace New York's national league history, that it was ignoring Met-specific history.

They were saying it looks like Ebbets Field and has the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, but none of that has any direct link to the Mets except that Wilpon grew up in Brooklyn. Your thoughts?"

I think this is an interesting point, because it's sort of what I'm getting at when I talk about the Mets Hall of Fame. At Shea Stadium, it was hidden outside the Diamond Club, which I didn't actually go into until last year, the final year of its existence. In other words, the casual fan never saw it. And I don't know where that is at Citi Field - but obviously it's not prominently displayed, because I didn't see it. I would love if it was in the Rotunda, but I don't think it is. (This is what the Arizona Diamondbacks did so well - they have their 2001 trophy front and center as you walk in - and they have zero history. It spices up an otherwise boring ballpark. In Pittsburgh, where there's a ton of history, there's not much visual evidence of it. One of the flaws of a beautiful ballpark.)

But we need to remember, when thinking about this, that the Mets represent National League baseball in New York City. The whole reason they are blue and orange is because of the Dodger blue and the Giants orange. So there is sort of a connection to those teams, and I think it's an appropriate connection to Ebbets Field.

Yes, I would have liked for there to have been a mention of the 40th anniversary of the 1969 champions (which I'm sure will be celebrated this year, but has been overshadowed by Citi Field), and I would love for the Mets to trot out the 1986 Mets every game. I also think the orange stripe around the outfield walls would look cooler on a blue wall, showing the Mets colors. But the championship banners are flying in the new park, and the exterior of Citi Field (you can see it a little bit in the picture at the top) has pictures of Mets from every era.

What history the Mets have is displayed. You just have to look for it. And there's nothing wrong with the Mets carrying the New York National League baseball torch. So long as, now that they've introduced the world to their throwback ballpark, they start putting more of an emphasis on their own history.

NEW YORK: CITI FIELD

I have a feeling this entry is going to come off in an "I didn't like Citi Field" kind of way. But it's not that at all.

It's just that this ballpark visit was different. It wasn't a visit at all for me...it was a test run. I could make snap judgments on Nationals Park and PETCO Park ("Where The Mets Go") because they were visits. One-time deals (though some of them I liked so much that I may go back in the future).

With Citi Field, I will be going back. Often. And I had to see how it fit, so to speak. Use whatever analogy you like - I was trying it on for size; I dated those other ballparks, this one I am going to marry (that's kind of a weird one). I didn't expect to feel that way - I was over-the-top excited about going. But once I was in the park I knew it was going to be a different kind of visit.

Don't know where else to put this, so I'll do it here, I guess. If you were following me on Twitter last night (which turned into a pretty neat summary of events in the end), you read that I walked past Fred Wilpon outside the park. I am terrible when it comes to recognizing famous people. But I notice when there's an important-looking older person...and we walked past an important-looking older person that looked a lot like Fred Wilpon. So I said to my dad, "Was that Wilpon?" We walked back in the direction we came from, since the other way was a dead end, and passed him again, talking to Mike Lupica. Hence, the picture. I would like to say I barged in there and shook his hand and said, "Congratulations on this fine-looking ballpark" (or maybe I should have asked his permission to take Citi Field's hand in marriage [if it's such a weird analogy, why am I continuing with it?!]), but I did no such thing. I did snap the picture, though, which is kind of an intrusion of privacy that I usually wouldn't do. So I'm getting there.

OK. Now to the park. First of all, there's no denying the park is beautiful. When you think about Shea Stadium versus Citi Field, it's obviously no comparison. Just look at it up at the top of this post. The exterior, modeled after Ebbets Field, reminds me of AT&T Park, as I wrote the other day, with its high iron gates and the curved-window look. I've never been to Coors Field, but the light towers at Citi Field remind me of its light towers. And it's funny the Padres were in town last night, because the outfield walls/dimensions/layout remind me of PETCO ("Where The Mets Go").
What I'm not buying, and I hinted at this on Twitter last night, are some of the biggest deals people have been talking about this whole time. All I've heard about is the overhang in right field, reminiscent of Tiger Stadium. Well, it's not that much of an overhang. Yes, it juts out to the field eight feet, but only where the wall suddenly goes back in right. So it's not the entire right field overhang. No one had made that clear before. And there's been all this talk of how fans can get right up to the visitors bullpen and harrass the opposing relievers. From what I saw, that's not true - there are a lot of barriers...or else you need a ticket for that kind of access that I didn't have.

The bullpen area (that's it above, through the gate), seems to need some work. From what I could tell, it had one of the nicer-looking entry points into the park, but it was really empty. I got the impression from a couple of places that the Mets didn't quite know what to do with them yet. This was one - there are picnic tables set up, as well as the old apple from Shea (new apple also shown at right), where people can take pictures. But it was kind of empty. No concession stands...so I guess you have to carry your food to these tables.
Speaking of concessions, all anyone had been writing about was the centerfield food area, so that was mobbed (I like how they kept the skyline there above the restaurant...not sure if that's the actual skyline from atop the Shea scoreboard). Luckily, quick thinker that my dad and I are, we figured everyone and their brother was in center field...other concessions were probably empty. They were. I had a chicken sandwich, which was good...but everything was very expensive.

The opening ceremonies were nice, but I would have liked some more history. I heard there were old-timers in the building - they should have been introduced and trotted out. Seaver to Piazza was good, and I liked the continuance from the end of Shea...but there could have been more.

(Incidentally, just to throw out a prediction, I bet the Yankees do something involving the old Yankee Stadium when they open the new one Thursday. Like walking across from one to the other. It's still standing...and that has to be by design - they can't possibly be that behind schedule. I'll have some (not-so-great) pictures of those two parks later in the week. )

I feel like I'm throwing out way too much information here, but I have a lot on my mind about this park. So here it continues:

My biggest flaws with the park are:

Someday the Mets will buy out the surrounding area and put in some restaurants and make the area surrounding the ballpark an enticing place. Like Pittsburgh/Baltimore, with their fan walks. They can't exactly duplicate San Francisco's exterior because San Francisco has the water right there, but anything other than junkyards and scrap heaps would be a better backdrop.

Another problem, though I didn't look much for it, was I don't know if the Mets Hall of Fame is displayed any more prominently at Citi Field than it was at Shea. I'll look into that more over the summer.

I already mentioned that there were a couple of places in the park that seemed not-thought-all-the-way-through - the bullpen area was one, and the area above the Rotunda is another. It seems like a usable space, but not a lot is there right now. Maybe that's a good thing...it's not too crowded.

The exits were terrible. Perhaps that's because no one really knew where they were going and it was the first time 40,000+ were trying to leave at the same time - but I didn't see anything other than some crowded stairwells trying to leave the upper sections of the park.

One last complaint (for now, I guess), is that when you come out of the rotunda in the front, you don't walk right out and see the field. There are walls there (some sort of restaurant or the press boxes or luxury boxes are in the way, I think). One of the best things about the park in Houston, and Fenway Park first and foremost, is when you walk out of the tunnel and see the field. I was hoping the field would be right beyond the Rotunda, but it wasn't. You have to walk a bit to get that view at the right - and then the overhang is so low it made me a bit claustrophobic. I didn't love that.

I did love the Jackie Robinson Rotunda - very unique, very appropriate, it's something that sets Citi Field apart.

I loved that there was organ music all night long. My dad made the excellent point that at no point was there blaring music - and the organ played "Meet The Mets" before the game - nothing beats that.

I loved that the first hit at the park for the Mets was a David Wright double. I love that the Mets have a home park that people won't be making fun of. I didn't mind the billboards - people are saying it's too corporate - I think it adds a minor-league-type feel to the park. It feels more throwback that way.

I love that I'll be able to keep going back to this place and find out new things and get more comfortable there as the years go on. I love that this is the place my children will go when they go to Mets games, and I'll be able to compare it to Shea Stadium the way my dad was comparing it to the Polo Grounds for me last night.

Despite the fact that I left the park last night thinking it wasn't perfect (and therefore had no shot of living up to my expectations), I love Citi Field. Like Shea Stadium was for the first 30 years of my life, Citi Field is going to be a sort of home away from home for me. I had 30 years to get acclimated to Shea. I've only had one day at Citi Field.

I can't wait to go back.

TODAY'S THE DAY!!

Follow "johnnymets" on Twitter for constant updates from Citi Field.

I'll be there before 4pm, probably, with the updates starting shortly thereafter. Game starts at 7pm.

BUMMER: I just read that Harry Kalas died this afternoon at the age of 73. One of my favorite broadcasters - loved listening to his voice. I hope the Mets make an adjustment to their plans tonight and do the right thing with a moment of silence in memory of the Phillies broadcaster.

And knowing nothing about Kalas other than what he did for a living, I'd have to think there couldn't be a more appropriate place for him to go than a ballpark.

A SNEAK PREVIEW INSIDE CITI FIELD (UPDATED)

A couple of reasons this is unusual:

1) Two postings already before noon on a Sunday (and I wouldn't be surprised if the Southern Bureau posts before the day is out).

2) An image of Citi Field that wasn't taken from a moving car.

As mentioned earlier this week, the sister and the brother-in-law got to go to the Mets open practice at Citi Field this morning - she sent me this picture, for which I'm grateful.

Is it possible to be in love with a building? If so, I am.

UPDATE - My sister sent three more pics:




The significance of this last picture is that my sister used to spend Mets games at Shea counting the airplanes flying overhead. Her Citi Field count has started, I guess.

A PAINFUL REMINDER

Ah, Valentine's Day. A day some spend appreciating what they have, while others pine for what they don't. Or just ignore completely.

While I'd love it if the third category applied, since I'm not a fan of February 14th, and I do spend a lot of time doing the appreciative thing, today I'll focus on the middle category - sort of love lost/never had.

And I really don't think words do as good a job as the pictures, so I'll get right to it with the only disclaimer that my dad asked if I wanted them for any reason, and I said, "Maybe I'll put them on the blog."
There's also this, just for those gluttons for a little extra punishment:

WEIRD

On the scale of weirdest things ever, this doesn't rank very high. Perhaps it just reflects how little attention I've been giving these types of things lately.

I thought Opening Day of Citi Field was:

1) Tuesday, April 13, 2009
2) in the afternoon
3) against the Phillies.

It is:
1) Monday, April 13, 2009
2) at 7pm
3) against the Padres.

I'm not sure why I thought the first set, but I do know that it's a lot more appealing than the second set.

A Monday nighter makes it more difficult for me to attend, though I'll try to find a way. It also will probably be a lot colder. But I'll deal with that too.

Just thought I'd bring that up. I was quite surprised when I finally got the facts straight tonight.

TICKET INFO

I'm always proud to say that my dad has had Jets season tickets for more than 40 years. I always thought it might be worth something - impress someone.

Apparently it's worth nothing, and doesn't impress the Jets. And I fear my days of being able to say my dad has been a season ticket holder for the Jets for more than 40 years may be coming to an end.
When the new stadium opens the season after next, there are all sorts of issues. My dad's seats in the current stadium are in the upper deck (they were in the upper deck at Shea Stadium too, and were moved further back when the Jets went to Giants Stadium), so they won't be hit with the Personal Seat Licenses (which declare that you own a seat for every event at a stadium....except when the other team that shares the stadium with you is home....and when there is another event that goes up for grabs between the ticket-holders who share the same seat, I guess).

The fact that you would pay thousands of dollars for this PSL to not have complete ownership of a seat is a crock, in my opinion. Then there's this:

After being told seniority would be honored when it came to seat preferences, and thinking my dad could move his seats towards the front of the upper deck as a result, the Jets have recently come out with paperwork that says seniority would only be considered from 1977 on.

I have a feeling they're not going to go giving my dad his money back from 1965-1977. Way to reward loyalty. It really makes me mad. 1977? Why? The Jets didn't move to Giants Stadium until 1984. This makes no sense to me.

They're probably trying to force people out of long-held season tickets, especially in the upper bowl, where no money is to be made off of bogus PSL's. Then they can knock some people off the waiting list, advertise the fact that they have a shorter waiting list, and then make more money off of charging people an annual fee to get onto the waiting list.

It's disheartening, really. And it's another reason I try to avoid thinking about the business side of sports. And it's another reason I'm rooting so hard for this to be 'the year' - at least this year I have a shot at Super Bowl tickets....in future years I don't know that I'll even have a chance at playoff tickets.

ON A RELATED NOTE: Since my dad has had part of a Mets season-ticket plan in recent years (most recently a Tuesday & Friday deal), the Mets contacted him about the release of ticket plans for next year at Citi Field. Partial plans include 40-game and 15-game packages.

I haven't gotten down for Mets games as often as I wish I could in the past few years, so I told my dad that 15 games would even be too much, unless he could make use of them. And only one of the 15-game packages has Opening Day, which is just about the only game next year that means anything to me right now. If he can somehow get that package (which I'm sure, by virture of its inclusion of Opening Day, will be the most popular of the ticket packages), that would be it for me. That would make my 2009.

Because next year, there's Opening Day at Citi Field, and there's every other game at Citi Field. If I don't make the first game, any other game is just another game at the Mets' new ballpark. Somehow I have to get tickets to that game and I have to get the day off from school. The ticket sale for season-ticket holders starts this week. I have my fingers crossed.

PERHAPS A LITTLE TOO CONFIDENT

The following message was e-mailed to my dad the other day, from the Jets, under the heading "Playoff Ticket News" (and which he forwarded to me with his message, "They sound confident".):

It has come to our attention that there is some confusion with this years Playoff invoices. This week you will be receiving Playoff invoices in the mail. The invoice is also available online. The invoice will contain prices for the Wildcard, Divisional, and Championship games. As a season ticket holder you should ONLY pay for the Divisional and Championship events. These events are 08DIVIS, 08CHAMP, 08DPK, 08CPK. Full payment is due on or before December 15, 2008 in order to secure your playoff ticket request. If you are paying by check your playoff payment should include 2 games, the divisional game and the championship game, and any associated parking. If you are paying by credit card the invoiced amount is correct. If the first game is a wildcard game instead of a divisional game, a credit will be issued to your season ticket account for the difference.

"If the first game is a wildcard game instead of a divisional game....." I understand there's a business aspect here, and it's better to collect more money (for a more expensive divisional game, I guess) than less (for the first round wildcard game), and better to pay people out than to go collecting again...but I'm not entirely comfortable with this.

I'm secretly hoping the Jets host two playoff games. Every time I write about it, though, I couch it with the words like, "If the Jets do what they are supposed to do the rest of the way, and win the games they should....." Because the Jets don't always do what they're supposed to do.

I think mostly of 1993, when at halftime of a Jets-Dolphins game we were at I had the stupid idea of saying to my dad, "How do we get Super Bowl tickets? This is awesome!" I brought it up because the Jets were leading 24-6, in a game there was no way they were going to lose that would put them alone in first place in the division. Then Dan Marino brought the Dolphins back, culminating with the fake spike that ruined the Jets season. They went from 6-4 to 6-10.

All I'm saying is that these things happen to the Jets. And don't think someone like devious Bill Belichick hasn't gone and gotten a copy of this letter and secretly mailed it out to the Jets' remaining opponents, especially the Bills and Dolphins.

I hope, hope, hope I'll be sitting at a divisional playoff game at the Meadowlands in January, and dare I say it, an AFC Championship Game...but I'm not going to talk about it. I hope the Jets' business office doesn't say much about it anymore either.

BACK TO THE MEADOWLANDS

A good win for the Jets on Sunday, beating the Bengals, 26-14. It was a good win, because by all rights, they should have lost that game. Brett Favre had a horrendous game, fumbling on the Jets' first possession, which the Bengals defense returned for a touchdown. He went on to throw two more interceptions inside the five-yard line that cost the Jets scores.

It's all well and good that this happened against Cincinnati, because the Jets won 26-14. Had it been any other team, the Jets would have lost 37-26. (Their defense wasn't great, and the offensive line was pretty terrible, with the amount of times Favre was pressured.) Had the Jets done what they should have on Sunday, they would have won at least 40-7. But they won, 26-14, and a win's a win. So that's that. They just need to look sharper in future weeks.

I'm here to revisit with you, though, the dopes in my section at Giants Stadium. You may remember that this put a damper on my last Jets game experience - please re-read the link to refresh your memory. We're talking about some of the same characters, but this time I have pictures.

The paper airplane guys featured prominently in Sunday's action. I'm saving them until last because there's a long story attached.

Let's start here...I forget if I ever mentioned it, but if I haven't it's time for a reminder. The Jets give the visiting team tickets about three sections to the left of mine. So in the drunken upper deck that's like a festering ground for fights. No different on Sunday - though things were pretty tame as far as fights. This picture was taken before the game, during warmups, so there's only a few Bengals fans, but they're there. The other thing that's notable is the girls in the front rows of this picture are all wearing Ryan Fitzpatrick jerseys, so I can only believe they must be family. Because who else has a Ryan Fitzpatrick jersey?
Item number 2: Fireman Ed jumped the shark when he started appearing in NFL commercials and stuff. But that stuff only happened when they started putting him on the big scoreboard at Giants Stadium. When I was growing up, it was cool that this guy got the whole stadium to cheer. Now any dope can do it.
Item number 3: Case in point - this is our section's "any dope". This guy (the one up front, with the "Sec. 337" jersey), for about the past 20 years, tries to lead our section in the "J-E-T-S" chant. I say he tries, rather than he does, because less than 50% of the people respond. Here's another thing - he blows a friggin' whistle any time he wants people's attention. No one should be allowed to bring a whistle into an NFL game - he blows it at inappropriate times too, like right before the ball is snapped.
Item number 4: The Jets now have cheerleaders. Notable because the weather was warm and they were dressed like cheerleaders you might see in San Diego or somewhere. I've only seen them live once before and it was in the middle of winter. They never show the Jets cheerleaders on TV, though, I wonder why that is.

Item number 5: I don't have pictures of this - after the Jets score, they shoot off fireworks at Giants Stadium. Here's why I don't have pictures - you can't really see fireworks in the daytime. I know that. The Jets don't seem to know that. So after the Jets score, there's just a huge 'boom'. I say only use fireworks during night games.

Item number 6: OK. Now the paper airplanes. So you can see in the picture below, I circled the middle-aged man's stack of white paper that he brought from home to make paper airplanes out of (click the picture to see it better):
They get to the game, and right away start with the airplanes. A guy one section over goes up to them, asks them pretty politely to stop. He says, "I once got hit in the eye with a paper airplane, I'd appreciate it if you stopped doing that." They pretty much laugh at him and curse at him. It was a nice effort by the guy trying to get them to stop, but it was sort of made laughable by the fact that while he was talking to the dopes throwing the planes, tons of airplanes are flying around the stadium, because everyone does it.

It would have been nice if it ended there, but it didn't. The old guys (paper airplane throwers) cursed at the dude (person who tried to stop them). The dude called them children - "What are you, 7?" They cursed back and forth. The rest of the game they pretty much ignored each other, and the old guys continued to throw planes.

Until the final five minutes, when the old guys decided to leave. One of them gets up, and wags his middle finger in the face of the other guy, who responds by (ironically, I thought) throwing a piece of paper at the guy. A couple of people stepped in to make sure there wasn't a fight. Then, and this was infuriating, the old guys pointed out the dude to security. Thankfully security did the right thing and didn't take the dude out, but the old guys got booed out of the section. Just horrible, though, that this is the type of thing that sticks with me after the game.
Item number 7: Finally, above is the bus lineup outside the stadium....or at least, about 10% of the line. My dad and I took the subway to Manhattan, then the express bus from Port Authority to the stadium, to avoid the mess coming out of the parking lot. It was pretty good going to the game - 1 hr., 15 mins. door-to-door. Going home, we spent 45 minutes just in line, waiting for the bus, before the bus and subway rides themselves (bad traffic in the Lincoln Tunnel skews the bus ride numbers). Total travel time, 2 hrs., 25 minutes.

Could've been worse, I guess. The Jets could have lost.

OFF TO THE JETS GAME

For the first time in a long time (maybe two years...actually I think I was at the playoff clincher against the Raiders in 2006), I was able to build a trip to New York around a Jets game. Lots of new mixed in with my trip to Giants Stadium today:

1) After much thought, I'm pretty sure I've never seen Brett Favre in person.

2) My dad and I are going to take the express bus from Port Authority to the stadium. Usually we drive, but we hear it's a terrible mess with the construction of the new stadium going on. So we'll give this a shot.

3) I've never seen the Jets wear anything other than green (they're going with the blue and gold Titans uniforms again today).

4) Rarely have I attended an October game in shorts. Closest I can remember was a late September game (I want to say September 29, but I could be making that up, and I think it was in 1994, when the Jets were also wearing throwbacks, but the green-and-white kind) against the Chicago Bears. It was a Sunday night game, it was hot, and I think the Bears won, 19-7 or some such score. The highlight was Johnny Johnson ripped off a 90-yard run for the Jets, but ran out of gas and was tackled inside the 10-yard line, so he didn't score.

I'll recap the game on Monday, along with the rest of the NFL recaps. I'll also give an update this week on the new stadium progress, as well as what Citi Field is looking like these days.

I'VE BEEN TO YANKEE STADIUM, TOO

I've spent so much time this year reminiscing about my visits to Shea that it wouldn't be fair for me to not touch on Yankee Stadium. I've spent nowhere near as much time at Yankee Stadium as I have at Shea, but I lived 10 minutes from Shea - that made all the difference.

I wish I had been to the old, old Yankee Stadium...any old ballpark, really. I like the idea of an expansive outfield that actually had monuments and flag poles in play. I'm in the camp of those who aren't too sad to see Yankee Stadium go, because it really went when it was renovated in the mid-1970's.

A couple of visits to Yankee Stadium stand out - I went to a Yankees-White Sox game in 1996, the day I got my driver's license, which got rained out in the 7th inning, tied at 1. My uncle, who I went with, drove me home, and then his car stalled out in a flooded road in Flushing. In 1997 I went to one of the first Mets-Yankees interleague games, sitting in the bleachers for a near no-hitter by David Cone. But the ONE stand-out memory of visiting Yankee Stadium is even less pleasant than those:

The Wife, back before she was The Wife (even before she was The Fiancee), thought it would be nice to bring both of our families together for a Yankees game. So she bought a bunch of tickets to see the Yankees and Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. Seats in the upper deck. Had I known she was making this purchase, I would have suggested she either A) not get upper deck seats, or B) not get tickets to a Red Sox-Yankees game. But she did, so on July 20, 2002, we went.

I'll keep this relatively short - it was a hot, hot July day, and this was a typical Yankees-Red Sox game. In other words, it took forever. So people had lots of beer, in the hot sun, and sat out there for a while. That led to a woman sitting in front of us throwing a peanut at the head of a Red Sox fan a few rows down.

He swung around, and immediately locked eyes with the Yankee fan who had been razzing him all day about five rows behind us. He goes up there, they get in each other's face, and then there's a full-out brawl. Punches are thrown, and less than 5 seconds into the fight, they're tumbling down the rows of the upper deck. Naturally, they come to rest right in our laps. Literally. A friend of The Wife's got pushed down two rows. The brawlers tumbled over the head of my future mother-in-law. I actually ended up in the middle of the two antagonists, pulling on one's shirt to make him stop punching. It was the most awful thing I've ever been near at a ballpark.

Great credit goes to the cops, especially the short, red-haired female cop, who were on the scene pretty quickly to break things up.

This fight overshadowed the exciting ending to the game, where the Sox took the lead in the 9th, but the Yankees came back to win in the bottom half. And the overall experience - we met in Manhattan and ferried to the Stadium - something I had never done before. (On the way back, though, the water level was too high for the ferry - we all had to stand in the front of the boat to get it to duck under an overpass. That was pretty ridiculous.)

I haven't been back to Yankee Stadium since. No desire to, really. One day I'll check out the new Yankee Stadium. But I'll make sure we have better seats. And it won't be a Red Sox game.

SHEA MEMORIES: BIG GAMES

The fifth in an occasional (OK, you caught me, weekly) series. I'm not going to sit here and try to defend Shea Stadium as one of the best ballparks of all time. I can honestly tell you, though, that I never walked into Shea and thought, "This place is a dump." The bottom line is, Shea is where the Mets play, and for me, it will always be special. I realize these are pretty individual memories, but I hope reading them stirs up something in your mind about some place that you may take for granted.

I've been thinking a lot about the big games I've attended at Shea through the history we have shared (me and Shea, that is). I mentioned last time the playoff games I attended. I've also written about one of the most exciting games I saw there, which came in the midst of a terrible season - the game where Anthony Young broke his losing streak. But I won't write about that again.

Instead, I'll tell you the story of what might as well have been a playoff game, since it was a do-or-die situation. It had everything - last-minute drama, everything was on the line - and it may in fact have been the biggest game I ever attended at Shea Stadium.

It was October 3, 1999 - a Sunday. Last game of the regular season, against the Pirates. This was after my college graduation, a month before I was regularly employed. Actually, at the time I was flat-out unemployed. And I was in New York to attend a wedding on October 2nd. I remember specifically that I planned only to be down for the weekend, so I only packed a suit for the wedding, and my jeans and gray t-shirt for travelling back on Sunday.

Well, when things shook out on Saturday the way they did, the Mets could face a win-and-get-in the playoffs situation on Sunday. So at the wedding, a couple of friends and I decided to pull some strings we had and go to the game on Sunday. I'm fuzzy on who I was with - I'm pretty sure there was a group of 3 or 4.


We had great seats - behind the plate, about ten rows up. I was on TV throughout the game, right behind the batter from the center-field camera.

The game itself did not match the excitement level (or the intensity) it deserved, considering the situation. The Mets played the Pirates, and the game went to the 9th inning tied at 1. (Ironically, future Met Kris Benson pitched for Pittsburgh that day.) In the bottom of the ninth, the Mets got back-to-back singles with one out, and with runners on the corners, the Pirates intentionally walked John Olerud to face Mike Piazza with the bases loaded.

Of course, we couldn't believe it - that's exactly who we'd want at the plate in that situation. The place was going nuts. So what happens - the pitcher throws a wild pitch, Melvin Mora scores, and the Mets win. Pretty anticlimactic...and, it turned out, the Mets would have to play the Reds the next day in a one-game playoff to decide the wild card (Al Leiter threw a two-hitter in Cincinnati), and I forget if we knew that at the time, but it was still a wild celebration at Shea, since we knew the Mets had kept their season alive.

A personal note: This was the game where while waiting for our tickets at the Will Call window, some older woman kept making passes at me. Turned out, she was Richie Hebner's wife - he was a coach with the Pirates at the time, and spent one season with the Mets as a player in the 1970's.

More importantly, though, that gray t-shirt and jeans turned out to be very lucky. I ended up staying in New York almost the whole week - I watched the Mets beat the Reds on Monday night at my parents', and then went to a Rangers game with my dad later that week - still wearing my gray shirt and jeans. Then the gray shirt and jeans were lucky for the Mets' win over the Diamondbacks in the first round of the playoffs, and it's what I was wearing when Robin Ventura hit his walk-off grand slam/double while I was interning at Channel 7 here in Boston. (OK, not really interning, since I had already graduated and basically just hung out and logged games...That was a great day though - I was watching the Mets in extra extra innings, and the U.S.'s dramatic Ryder Cup win all at the same time.)

The lucky outfit, which began its string of good luck on that Sunday afternoon at Shea, finally ran out of luck a few weeks later. I hate to end this story on such a down note, but the moment involved Kenny Rogers and Andruw Jones.

BOSTON: FENWAY PARK

It occurred to me recently that when I write about the new stadiums that I visit, there are a bunch I have been to before the blog existed that I've never written about. Part of the reason is because there's really no reason to review the ballparks, since they've been around for many years....but it's also not fair to them (as though they had feelings).

Fenway Park is one of those parks that I've gone to for years without singing its praises. I'm very lucky to be able to go every once in a while - every time I'm there I get a little bit of the same thrill that I got the first time I went.
Sure, the seats are small, it can be uncomfortable to sit for long stretches there, and it would have been nice to live so close to a new ballpark had they not chosen to renovate, but it still is a special place.
Friday night I had the opportunity to go with Justin From NYC, Dave in Brighton, and the Southern Bureau (thanks to the Southern Bureau's dad), and decided I'd take pictures to show on the blog. There's another thing about Fenway - from certain places in the park, it's impossible to take a bad picture. The other neat thing about Friday night's game was that it was the first for Jason Bay in a Red Sox uniform (the Red Sox acquired him at the deadline Thursday in exchange for Manny Ramirez plus much more). He got a huge standing ovation, which you can see below.
The one thing I couldn't capture in picture is how awesome the view is coming out of the tunnel to get to your seats at Fenway. I remember getting chills the first time I did, seeing the Green Monster in person for the first time, thinking about Gary Carter hitting two home runs into the screen in Game 4 of the 1986 World Series. I tried to recapture that feeling, but when I came out of the tunnel on Friday, it was way too crowded, and all I got was this:
The first time I went to Fenway was 1995. We drove up to see Red Sox-Twins. It came a few months after we saw the second-to-last regular season game at Boston Garden, which was on Patriot's Day in 1995. We drove up to see Celtics-Nets, and on the way we went on a tour of Boston University, which turned out to be my future college. Since BU was so close to Fenway, we stopped by the ticket office and bought tickets for later that summer. The Red Sox game was very hot and pretty uncomfortable, but I was so psyched to be there that I didn't notice much. I've been many times since - definitely more to Fenway in the past decade than to Shea or Yankee Stadium combined - and the same is true now as it was then - even though it has its faults (which in a ballpark that is pushing 100 years old makes it 'charming', I guess), Fenway is a great place to see a baseball game.

LAST PLAY AT SHEA: THE REVIEW

If you're getting tired of me writing about Billy Joel and concerts, well, this is it. I won't be writing about many more, because I don't think I'll be attending many more live musical events. The reason is, I just don't think anything could top what I saw on Friday night at Shea Stadium.

I can't believe how lucky I was that a) this show that I so badly wanted to see my brother was able to get tickets to, b) when he did get tickets, it was to the Friday show (the Final Last Play at Shea), and not the Wednesday one, and c) that this show was better than I expected.

This was no ordinary concert - it was an event. It was a huge event. I can't believe how awesome it was.

First of all, the set-up was pretty cool. It was pretty neat seeing the stage set up in center field, with the video boards surrounding it, with Citi Field looming over the stage, and the bowl of Shea surrounding everything. I took these pictures with my phone, just to give you an idea of what it looked like, before the show:














Then there was the performance itself. Mohegan Sun was less than a warmup compared with this show. This was Billy Joel in his prime, when a Billy Joel concert was huge. It was 3 hours, five guests, and 30+ songs. It was awesome.

I was dead wrong about Elton John showing up. I don't know why he didn't...but that's OK. Tony Bennett joined Billy Joel again for 'New York State of Mind', and then Garth Brooks did 'Shameless', Steven Tyler came out and did Aerosmith's 'Walk This Way', Roger Daltrey did 'My Generation' (as Billy Joel smashed a guitar), and the rumors about Paul McCartney turned out to be true, as he showed up at the end and played 'I Saw Her Standing There' and 'Let It Be'. It was huge. Huge.

The only thing that made me the least bit wary the whole night was the weather - it was about 95 degrees, and Billy Joel busted it - to the point where he couldn't catch his breath in between songs. I was worried for his health.

But he made it through, and I can't believe how Shea rocked out to Billy Joel. We were in the mezzanine (the green level - third one up), and the stadium shook more than I ever felt it before. Keith Hernandez always talks about how the Mets can feel it when the stadium shakes like that - I've never felt it before...it wasn't even like that in the 2000 playoffs when I went. But it was like that on Friday night - I could feel our section moving, and I saw the upper deck bouncing. Just tremendous.

No better way for me to say good bye to Shea Stadium.

Here's a list of the songs that were performed, if you're interested:

1. Star-Spangled Banner
2. Miami 2017
3. Prelude/Angry Young Man
4. My Life
5. The Entertainer
6. Summer, Highland Falls
7. Zanzibar (with Shea Stadium highlights playing on the video screens)
8. Allentown
9. Ballad of Billy The Kid
10. New York State of Mind w/Tony Bennett
11. Root Beer Rag
12. Movin' Out
13. Goodnight Saigon
14. Don't Ask Me Why
15. This Night
16. Keeping the Faith
17. The Downeaster Alexa
18. An Innocent Man
19. Shameless w/Garth Brooks
20. She's Always A Woman
21. Captain Jack
22. Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)
23. River of Dreams
24. A Hard Day's Night
25. Walk This Way w/Steven Tyler
26. We Didn't Start The Fire
27. It's Still Rock 'N Roll To Me
28. My Generation w/Roger Daltrey
29. You May Be Right
30. Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
31. Only The Good Die Young
32. I Saw Her Standing There w/Paul McCartney
33. Piano Man
34. Let It Be w/Paul McCartney

LAST DAY AT SHEA

As part of our vacation, The Wife and I made a pretty much last-minute decision to go to the Mets-Giants game last Thursday, thinking it would be our last chance to see a Mets game at Shea Stadium. (For her, it definitely was, for me, I'll be going to see Billy Joel on Friday, and I'm holding out hope that even after the new baby comes in September I'll be able to sneak in a playoff game.) It also allowed us to take The Baby to her first and only game at Shea. The trip gave me my first up-close look at Citi Field. I can't wait. There's not much more I can add to that.
Unfortunately, in order to park in the very limited parking spots that are available near Shea, we had to get there very early - so we were there around 11:20am for the 1:05pm start. This did not make it a pleasant experience for The Baby. She was pretty worn out by the time the first pitch was thrown, so we didn't last very long.

The good news, though, is that most of the stuff to see was before the game. I got to take the pictures of the new stadium that you see here.
I also got to see one of the Shea Countdown numbers come off - this day marked 39 games left at the stadium. With all due respect, I was less than thrilled by the person who changed the sign - Joe Pignatano. Sure, he was an original Met and coached with the team for many years, but I was hoping for someone I could more closely relate to. I was occupied with The Baby at this point, but The Wife snapped an awesome picture:
The Mets won the game, 7-3, their sixth game in a row as part of their current nine-game-winning streak. John Maine pitched for the Mets, this is him in the first inning, throwing one of his too-many pitches. We left in the third or fourth inning...and one of the bonuses of my parents' house location is that we made it home in the same inning. Great souvenir by the way - I bought a souvenir soda and it came in a Shea Stadium Final Year cup. That's just a great idea by the Mets. (Although I rarely use these souvenir cups I get, I am gathering a nice little collection.)

ALL STAR GAME ROUNDUP: I wasn't feeling 100% last night, so I think I might post multiple times today. Keep checking back, if you don't mind. I'll have at least an All Star Game roundup, but I also plan on doing a look-ahead for the Mets.