On the Games Mattering
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| Not Shea Stadium, 2013 |
Miami Marlins vs. New York Metropolitans
Not Shea Stadium
MLB, National League East
Queens, NY
1:10 PM
Outside the Game:
I had bought my tickets for this one the first day they went on sale. The Metropolitans have an incredibly above-average Opening Day record as long as I don't attend, so I always opt for Opening Day Weekend. And so it was the case here. Work again was making great inroads against my sanity, and the best cure I've found for such things is an afternoon at the ballpark.
The weather had finally been getting a little warmer, and with Friday's temperatures in the 50s, and Sunday threatening to hit the 60s, it seemed as though it wouldn't be a "huddle and freeze" on Saturday. Of course, at this point, I knew better. Not Shea is always 10 degrees cooler than the surrounding world, and in the shade, you can knock another 10 degrees off the chart, so I had on about three t-shirts and two pairs of socks, as well as bringing along the Mets fingerless "texting gloves" giveaway from last year.
Given my recent bouts with not sleeping well due to my inability to identify the mystery beeping in my bedroom between 4 and 6 AM every day, I was up, showered, and out of the house by 9:15. A long, if uneventful, subway ride later dropped me at Not Shea just shy of 11:30. For no appreciable reason, Cirque du Soleil had set themselves up in the right field parking lot at Not Shea and were having a show that day. I can't think of a worse place to hold a circus than a ballpark parking lot (especially this windy monstrosity), and I can't imagine how much worse the traffic and parking situation was with most of a lot covered by tents that needed parking of their own. But the Wilpons aren't hurting for cash, folks, really. We promise. This was a strictly cultural decision.
Those selfsame Wilpons continued their asinine policy of trying to show some value to season ticket holders by only letting them in 2.5 hours before gametime. But people with even more expensive club seats get to pound sand in the freezing cold until the regular gates open up. I wasn't able to sneak in to the early line, so I got on the commoners line and waited in the blustery cold for a half hour. Behind me in line were three Japanese fans dressed head to toe in Mets gear. My Japanese has gotten really rusty, as I only got about a third of their conversation. It looked like they might have had season tickets, so I tried to tell them (in English) they could go to the other line to get in, but they had the standard embarrassment about not being able to speak English well, so I didn't press them on it. And I couldn't get enough Japanese together to tell them in their own language, so we all humped it until the gates opened up and let us all (to be fair, quickly) in.
After the game, even I had to spend some time in the Caesar Club to warm up. Apparently, I had lost contact with some extremities that became re-acquainted with each other as I stopped at a counter to continue writing out my scorecard. After five or ten minutes, I made my way to the subway and got a seat on the Manhattan Express 7 and settled in to proving the card on the way back. I stayed on the orange down to 14th street to stop off at Forbidden Planet to pick up some magazine poly bags, and then bought them (and a bunch of other stuff, because that is the danger of going in there -- though I did have the fortitude to avoid going to the Strand next door) to the PATH and home.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home plate to center field, Not Shea Stadium |
Except for the addition of the circus in the parking lot, Not Shea hadn't changed a whole bunch from last year. There were now signs everywhere touting the upcoming All-Star game in July, but they weren't changes per se. There's a new steak sandwich concession out in center by Shake Shack and Smoke, but since I went to the back early, I got my grub at the lineless Shake Shack. There was some martial arts exhibition before the game, and a bunch of other little stuff. They were promoting "opening week" a lot more than last year. I got my visit with Mr. Met before gametime and then went back to get AIS.
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| Casey |
The crowd was a little sparse, but it filled in as the game went on. Eventually, everyone who could was sitting out in the sun trying not to freeze to death. There were a few Marlins faithful in attendance, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why.
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| Crazed gunman |
At the Game with Oogie:
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| First Single Shack of the Year |
As always, I got seats in the Caesar's Club. Thanks to the downward price adjustments due to the Mets' recent performance, I decided to get tickets right behind home plate, as they now cost as much as the third-base tickets last year. What I didn't realize is that those seats would literally be right in front of the broadcast booth. There was just a cameraman between me and Gary, Keith, and Ron. Before the game, and during the quiet moments of the game, I could hear them talking. I really need to go and listen to the game broadcast to see if the viewing public could here me during my more, um, enthusiastic moments during the game. I took a couple of pictures of them, and eventually some people did call for their attention, which they gamely acknowledged. I know they are working, so I didn't try and bug them, but man, was it weird being that close to them.
I was in a section that was almost exclusively dads and their sons at the game, which is fine and how god intended things to be. Most of them bailed back to the heated Ceasar's Club during the game at some point. Most of them mentioned by incredible/crazy reluctance to leave my seat during the game.
The Game:
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| First pitch, Marlins vs. Metropolitans |
This one didn't look like it was going to be a good one for the home team, but the Metropolitans managed to pull it out late.
The Marlins wasted no time in getting started, with a leadoff single to center in the first. Neise looked like he might get out of it, with two quick outs, but on the second out (a flyout to right), the runner advanced to third, and he was promptly driven home by a single to left before the half-inning ended. The Mets showed some surprising resiliency with a leadoff walk and two one-out singles to load them up. A sacrifice fly to right brought in the tying run before a fly-out to short ended the inning, 1-1.
The game sped up considerably after that. Both pitchers calmed down and got 1-2-3 frames in the second, and the Marlins scattered a walk and single in the third to no effect, while the Mets ditched a leadoff single in a double-play with nothing else doing in their half. The Marlins squandered two-out, back-to-back singles in the fourth, while the Mets had only a walk to show for their side.
The Marlins pulled ahead in the top of the fifth with back-to-back, one-out singles. A grounder to second started a double-play, but the Mets' Tejada threw the ball away, letting a go-ahead run come in. The Mets went in order in the fifth, leaving it 2-1 Marlins. The Marlins threatened again in the sixth, with a leadoff single followed by a walk. Neise managed a double-play ball to erase all but one of the runners, and then struck out the last batter to end the half.
The Mets bats finally woke up (or warmed up, given the day) in the bottom sixth. Back-to-back one-out singles were followed by a double from catcher John Buck to bring them both in and give the Mets the first lead of the day at 3-2.
That lead lasted a half-inning, as the new Mets hurler gave up a leadoff single, and the runner then moved over to second on a one-out ground-out to the pitcher.
Then was the most inexplicable play I've ever seen. The Marlins first baseman was up with two outs and the runner at second. He slapped a clean, hard single to right that sent the runner from second home. The throw from right was off-line, completely missed the cutoff man, and drew the catcher up the first base line. As the throw came into home, the batsman made the break to second, and the catcher, not having a play on home due to the speedy runner and the off-line throw, was preparing to throw to second. The scoring runner didn't slide, kept running--and plowed the Mets' catcher over as he tried to throw to second. This is clear interference, but since the interference happened after the runner had scored, the only person left to call out was the runner at second. In watching the coverage after the game, it wasn't just me who had never seen this before -- literally no one else had either, including the home plate ump. Nevertheless, we were all tied up again at 3-3.
Perhaps inspired by the play, the Mets went to work in the bottom of the seventh. After a fly-out to center to start it off, there was a walk. The runner stole second and the throw went into center, leaving him at third. The next batter tripled to bring him home, and a single after him scored that runner in turn. The was another steal, and another throw to center that left a runner on third with one out. The batter was then intentionally walked, and Joe Buck, the game's RBI machine and victim of the interference call the previous half inning, hit another sacrifice fly to bring in the runner from third. A ground-out to second ended the inning with the Mets up, 6-3.
The Marlins only got a single in the eighth, but the Mets tacked on one more with a two-out solo homer to make it 7-3. Parnell got the Marlins in order in the ninth, and the Metropolitans earned the win at that score.
The Scorecard:
Marlins vs. Metropolitans, 04/06/13. Metropolitans win, 7-3.
I bought a $5 program, but I went with the superior BBWAA Scorebook for my scoring. The story of the day, of course, was the runner's interference call in the seventh. ("INT-2 (9)" for those wondering. The catcher, as the interfered party, gets the put-out. I put in the number of the player who actually did the interfering, since the baserunner was the victim of the indiscretion.) That was the first interference call that I ever got to score. It was also so complicated that I had to put an explanatory note in to make sure I got the details right.
There was a failed appeal on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh that I also made note of. From a strict completeness sake, I also scored just about every way you can get to first or get a hit in this game (single, double, triple, home run, walk, intentional walk, fielder's choice, and error). I'm pretty sure I'm only missing catcher's interference (though I did have a runner's interference), hit by pitch (though there were a couple of close calls), and a ground-rule double. It was just that kind of game.
The Accommodations:
Homeboken
2013 Stand-Alone Trip
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