Great, great win tonight. A 4-3 walk off win, and by walk off I literally mean "walk". It is nice to see the Mets show a little fight when they are down a few runs going into the later innings. Tonight I went to the game with my friend Jason, who as you may remember from past posts is a Yankees fan and a clown, enjoy:
Let me get one thing out of the way first... I'm a Yankees fan. But before you start the "YANK-EES SUCK" chant... let me say that I'm not the typical Yankees fan. I am a baseball fan above all... and I actually root for the Mets too. I grew up watching both teams and going to both stadiums... and I actually went to more games in Queens last year than in The Boogie-Down Bronx. So... I think I'm in a good position to answer the big question in Flushing...
What do you think of the new stadium?
It's impressive. Very impressive. It's big. It's beautiful. And it's brand spanking new. It's a great place to watch a game. It doesn't seem like there are many bad seats. You definitely feel more like a part of the action than Shea. I love the standing room areas. The views looking out of the stadium are amazing... the city... LGA... Jamaica Bay. There's really not many bad things I can say about it as a baseball stadium.
But... as a METS stadium... it is lacking a little something on the inside. An identity.
If you were to walk into that stadium on an off-day when it's totally empty, you might not know what team plays there. Sure, there's the "Mets" logo painted onto the grass behind home plate and onto the roof of the dugout. But from where I sat in the upper tank in left field, you can't see that. There was nothing. When you are in your seat, you can see more Subway, Pepsi and Budweiser ads than interlocking NYM insignias.
Yes, there is plenty of Mets signage around the stadium... from the pictures of old timers to the team stores... to the logos on the garbage cans... I even noticed the silhouette of Endy Chavez above the left field entrance.
But once I got to my seat... nothing.
I've been to the new Yankee Stadium and from the second you walk in the place, there is absolutely zero doubt who plays there. I'm not saying the Mets need to imitate the Yankees... but they could take a few hints.
I'm not going to pretend I noticed this all by myself, although I think I would have anyway. But my die-hard Mets fan friend Andy asked me to look for it... because he wanted to know if it was just him who felt this way. I have to say... he's dead on.
As for the game itself... it was one of the fastest games I ever remember being at. Pelfrey pitched well. The Amazin's made some amazingly bad base running blunders. Chipper physically cannot do anything wrong in the city of New York. The "should you bunt with David Wright" argument is a tough one, I could make convincing pitches for both answers. And Beltran picked up the team on his back not once... not twice... but three times.
He made a great catch at the wall to save a run. The catch itself actually wasn't that spectacular, but to see how far he went to get the ball was incredible. He stole third in the 9th to set up the game tying sac fly (for the record, just seconds after I said to Scott... he needs to steal third). Yeah, he might have been out. But after all the breaks the Braves seem to get against the Mets... it was time a close call went the other way. And then he won the game... with his eyes. That's why he gets paid all that money... if only he could do that every night.
Oh... I almost forgot... From my seat in the first row of the upper deck I was inches away from catching a t-shirt fired from the field. The girl with the launcher fired it right at me... and it was just out of my reach. If my feet were tied down, I definitely could have caught it. But I'm not risking my life for a shirt that probably won't fit right anyway.
And then... there's this guy. I got to see the first home run ever hit at the new Yankee Stadium (even if it was pre-season). At CitiField... I got to see the first streaker. There's a joke in there somewhere... but I don't think I need to explain...
http://www.tmz.com/2009/05/13/
I am excited to go back and enjoy CitiField again as a baseball fan.