Queens

On Resuming

Not Shea Stadium, 2025

Friday, May 10, 2025
Chicago Cubs vs. New York Metropolitans
Not Shea Stadium
National League
Queens, NY
7:15 PM

Outside the Game:
After a season's absence trying to organize my life situation to an acceptable degree, I decided to take the plunge and head back to the ballpark from my new, old place.

I dallied with the thought of driving to Queens for about two seconds, and then considered taking in the train, which would be too time inflexible coming home, or would involve me driving and parking in Hoboken (again raising the specter of driving), and then conceded to the inevitable and decided to try and take the bus right by my house to the stadium. This would end up right at Port Authority, where it would be a quick 7 ride to the park, and really, how bad could even the bus be on an early Saturday afternoon?

The answer is what made me largely abandon the bus as a means to commute. Firstly, on the weekend, NJ Transit combines two bus lines into one, nearly doubling the commute time, but that was factored into their scheduled timing. But even with that, the bus ended up arriving over twenty minutes late for no appreciable reason other than incompetence. No traffic, or accidents, or construction would justify it.

At any rate, the good news is that I was eventually and tardily dumped into Port Authority, where there is a direct connection to the 7 trains, which still managed to transport me to the park a half hour before gates opened. I took a quick walk around to see the receding of the chop shops to progress and the pre-game "Street Party" going on before attaching myself onto one of the longer-than-expected lines by the right field gate. I soon discovered this to be because of a bobble-head giveaway that evening. But at least I was in the shade while I waited.

Heading home was similarly disappointing, and not just because of the game result. After boarding a 7 train that the passengers were assured was an express, we soon found it to be a local, elongating the commute. Back at Port Authority, it took a couple of tries and nearly being locked in a gate--which was opened to enter but not to exit--to find the correct berth for the bus home, as well as a bonus miserable 20 minute wait in the muggy heat, thirsty and sweaty. But board the bus we did eventually, and it had the two-route path home as well, but I eventually was dropped off a block from my house, where I quickly grabbed a drink and a much-needed shower before bed.

The Stadium & Fans:

Center to home, Not Shea Stadium

In my involuntary one-year sabbatical, there were a lot of little changes to the Not Shea. The museum, for some reason, was ousted from its home to make more space for the already sprawling team store, with the Hall of Fame plaques relegated to pillars at the top of the main escalator, by the lineup board. The Shake Shack finally ousted Blue Smoke to take over the entirety of that center-field pavilion for itself. I'm not sure if it lessened the lines at all.

The restaurant on the club level was no longer reservation-only and was open to the masses, and to be honest, I can't remember which member of the cola wars owned the current Coca-Cola Porch the last time I was there. Mr. Met & his wife were taking photos as soon as gates opened now, and the aforementioned "street party" special event was a DJ, some food stalls (one run by Mookie Wilson's family), and merch. So, you know, whatever.

It was a good Friday crowd that kept faith until the end, but they went home without anything to cheer about.

At the Game with Oogie:

The first Shack in a while

I went straight in the right field gate to Shake Shack and landed my first Shack of the year, then did my normal bumming around and photography before shouldering my way into the team store and trying to track down what happened to the museum. I had a supplementary pizza & pretzel before the game started in the luxury level. I honestly can't be bothered to learn the new names anymore. Caesars? Smirnoff? Whatever. I had pizza.

My seat was on the third base side at the top of the bronze level. There was a lovely old couple sitting next to me, and a gaggle of Japanese fans in the row in front of me, clearly here to watch the Cub's Suzuki.

The Game:

First pitch, Cubs vs. Metropolitans

The Metropolitans, flying high for most of the year, of course started their first rough patch as soon as I show up for a game, contesting a match with the playing-over-their-heads Cubs. But you can blame anybody except Baty, who went 2-4 with five RBIs in an attempt to single-handedly win the game despite the ambivalence of the rest of the team.

The Cubs struck first and early. A leadoff single, an error on a stolen base attempt, a walk, a single, a walk, and another single brought home two runs, giving the North-siders an early 2-0 lead. New York went uninspiringly in order, as did Chicago and the Metropolitans in the second. The Cubs opened the third with a double and a single to extend their lead to 3-0. New York got an odd hit-by-pitch followed by a catcher's interference that went nowhere in their half of the frame.

Chicago lead off the fourth with a home run to pad the lead to 4-0, but the Metropolitans finally got something going with two singles and Baty home run to center to close the deficit to 4-3. The Cubbies only had a stranded single to show for the fifth, as did New York. Chicago finally went in order again in the sixth, while the Mets stranded a leadoff single that stole their way into scoring position.

The Cubs went in order again in the seventh, while New York left a single and walk on the basepaths. The eighth heated up again as Chicago strung a series of walks and singles into two more runs to open up their lead to 6-3. In the bottom of the inning, the Metropolitans got a man on base for Baty to hit another one out, closing the lead again to one run at 6-5. The Cubs went meekly in order in the ninth, as the Mets erased a leadoff walk with a double play and couldn't get the batting order around to Baty again, ending the game at a 6-5 loss.

The Scorecard:

Cubs vs. Metropolitans, 5/10/25. Cubs win, 6-5

I was trying out the new Frixion erasable pens for the first time at a park, so I went to use the regular program scorecard for the first time in a long time.

Using the new heat-erasable ink actually went a lot better than I expected, and scoring the game involved a lot less paraphernalia, so this may be something I move to going forward, even if the cost of pens over pencils is appreciably higher.

The game itself had few things of note. An infield single in the top of the first was nearly a great 5-3 putout and was noted as such, and in the bottom of the third, an F-6 putout was erased on a catcher's interference, awarding the batter a base.

And that was pretty much it.

The Accommodations:
Clifton of my heart

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

Stand-Alone Trip

Queens

On Doing the Work

Not Shea Stadium, 2022

Sunday July 10, 2022
Miami Marlins vs. New York Metropolitans
Not Shea Stadium
MLB National League
Queens, NY
1:40 PM

Outside the Game:
I had a weird corporate four-day weekend that would have been more welcome under the circumstances if they had told us they were giving us a four-day a weekend more than a month in advance. As a schedule guy, it also screwed up a ton of schedules having two missed work days in there, but hey, free four-day weekend in July right after one for the Fourth. Sadly, I spent most of it dealing with real-world things, but I knew I was going to catch a game of the Metropolitan homestand somewhere in there. Saturday was the retiring of Keith Hernandez's number, as well as a bobblehead giveaway, so that game was sold out; I decided to go for the more sedate Sunday afternoon game, being sure to get tickets in the shade.

The third day into a three-day weekend I was pretty slow getting up, but I had gone to bed early enough that I was out of the house by nine-ish. But I clearly wasn't fully awake, as I remembered several blocks into Hoboken that I had forgotten my camera, so instead of going back, I decided to try out a game just with my camera phone. I took a leisurely walk the rest of the way to the Hoboken PATH station, grabbing a convenient train to 33rd, then up to the 7 and over. I didn't have too long to wait for any trains--a blessing on a lazy Sunday when mass transit can seem similarly sluggish--so I counted my blessings at this point. The 7 train was sparsely filled with eager-beaver Metropolitans fans such as myself, and we were disgorged in Queens with over an hour and half before gates.

I took my time walking around. I visited that odd little park that the Mets had installed next to the subway station; tried to figure out an angle to get a photo of the stadium, Seaver, and the original apple; and even took a trip out to the Shea infield in the parking lot. After walking a bit, I settled on the right field entrance again, with its welcome shade and short line. The gates opened, and in I went.

After being shooed out of the stadium by staff just looking to close up after the end of the homestand, I meandered back to the subway in time to sit on the 7 Express for a while before heading back. Two quick connections had me back in Hoboken, but I decided for a Lyft back home, where I sorted out my purchases and fixed the game bag before settling in for a long, dark Sunday evening.

The Stadium & Fans:

Center to home, Not Shea Stadium

The crowd at the game this day was a curious kind of exhale after the previous day, where Keith Hernandez had his number retired amidst a sold-out audience craving the ceremonial bobble-head given away in its honor. The crowd was big, but not over-eager or clawing at the doors, and it was a reasonably laid-back Sunday afternoon with no particular expectations.

The stadium had not changed much since the visit earlier in the year, with the exception of the removal of the protective fence around the Seaver statue. There was a sizeable crowd in place, but nothing extraordinary, and the between-inning events were nearly the same.

At the Game with Oogie:

Scoring away

As I was one of the first in the park through the right field gate, my beeline to the Shake Shack resulted in me being served the first order of the day, which was wolfed down in a shaded table in center field. My regular process followed, with a trip to the team store and museum, and then more ramblings around the park. I was hungry at this game wedged between lunch and dinner and managed to eat some pizza and an order of rice balls before the affair was complete.

I was smartly seated in the shade of the bronze club level of whatever sponsor has the naming rights this year, just shy of third base, even though it has been nearly a decade since David Wright has departed. It was pretty packed in that day. There was a family to my left, some younger folks in front, and an older couple next to me. For all our close quarters, there wasn't much discussion until towards the end of the game where the father next to me and I were both bemoaning the sate of play and trying to identify what exactly was happening in the late innings.

The Game:

First pitch, Marlins vs. Metropolitans

The first-place Metropolitans were squaring off against the lowly Marlins this Sunday, but the Marlin's Cy-Young-Candidate ace was on the mound in the last game of a four-game set, facing off against Walker for the good guys, so it was going to be quite the pitcher's duel. There were high hopes, but no offense.

The Marlins managed just a one-out single in the first, erased on a double-play, while New York went in order. Miami then went in order in the second and third, while the Metropolitans went in order in the second and had their own one-out single erased on a double-play in the bottom of the third. Both pitchers had given up one hit and faced the minimum at this point.

Both teams saw some life in the fourth. The Marlins started the inning with a hit batsman and a single, but a double-play and groundout ended the threat. New York staggered two singles with nothing to show for it in their half of the inning. Miami went in order in the fifth, with the Metropolitans stranding a single. The Marlins again went in order in the sixth, but New York had a leadoff error and walk erased on a double play and a fly out to no avail.

Miami had a leadoff single and a walk in the seventh, but stranded them on three straight outs. The Metropolitans had two, two-out singles stranded in their own half. The Marlins went in order in the eighth, and New York stranded another lone single. We limped out of regular baseball with Miami going in order, and the Mets stranding a reached-on-error.

Extra baseball went quickly. The Marlin's ghost runner stole third and scored on a wild throw. Three more singles followed between outs to plate the first runs of the game at 2-0, Marlins. New York's offense continued to sputter. The ghost runner made it to third on a fly out, but died on the vine despite a walk getting the tying runner on base. The Marlins won, 2-0.

The Scorecard:

Miami Marlins vs. New York Metropolitans, 07/10/22. Marlins win, 2-0.

I used the scorecard in the Mets program. There were no changes from the one earlier this year, so no need to go into the details.

For most of the first nine innings, there was nothing of note, for the most part. Both pitchers were throwing a gem, and both had faced the minimum through three. In the top of the fourth, Lindor made a great diving stab that started a double-play that was worth a gem (!). In the bottom of the fourth, there was a collision between the Marlin's left fielder and shortstop that resulted in the shortstop being removed from the game the next inning.

Then we get to extras. The damnable "ghost runner" starts on second, so I used a dotted line to get them there with an "EI." The Marlins put in a pinch runner for their ghost runner, just to make it even more ridiculous (he stayed in an played left). He stole third, and the catcher threw it into left for an error to score the game's first run. The jiggering into the bottom of the tenth had a new pitcher coming in and batting for himself, though he never got up. Alonzo stopped being DH and played first in the tenth, while the previous first base slot became the pitcher. This apparently is becoming common now, and I just hate everything about it.

The Accommodations:
Home, sweet Jersey City

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

Stand-Alone Trip

Port St. Lucie

On Seeking Karmic Justice

Clover Park, 2020

Friday, May 10, 2020

Houston Astros vs. New York Metropolitans

Clover Park

Grapefruit League (Spring Training)

Port St. Lucie, FL

1:05 PM 

 

Outside the Game: 

After another early night to bed (or, as it is known in Florida, "going to bed at the regular time"), I was up before 9 AM again, even losing the hour at the end of Daylight Savings. I showered, dressed, and grabbed my stuff to leave. The drive up to the park with my dad went quickly, but for some reason, my father just would not stop the car to let me out so I could go to the training area. He kept driving and driving until I eventually just left the car when he hit another red light. I mean, really.

The ballpark had undergone yet another renaming over the winter, now sporting a "Clover Park" moniker after yet another sponsorship deal. (The Clover wasn't luck this year, was it, gentlemen? WAS IT?)

I took some pictures of the new features outside (more on that later) and went out to the still ramshackle entrance to the training area. Thanks to my father's recalcitrance to dropping me off, I only had under ten minutes before they started closing up. I took my pictures and went on my way directly to the team store before the big crowd from the training area got back. The store was much improved and enlarged, I made my misguided purchases and got on line to get in.

Thankfully, there was shade on the line, and I occupied myself reading a Stengel biography on my Kindle. Eventually, the gates opened up, and I was quickly inside the complex.

On the way out, we had a big wait for my father again, who had to go before we went while the bathrooms were overflowing with people waiting to do the same. As it turned out that this was the tenth year we were doing these Spring Training trips, we got together in a dugout photo op outside the park and took a picture. My father would eventually send it to me a week later just as the lockdown started, and it was a weird reminder of the world that was.

I napped on the way back to the condo, showering and packing when we arrived. Just my parents and I went out for a Sunday dinner again at a local Italian place that liked to serve up lots and lots of food that was acceptable enough. Back to the condo we went, and I watched some TV on my tablet while finishing up packing and going to bed early again for the flight the next day.

The Stadium & Fans: 

Home to center, Clover Park

So the newly renamed Clover Park was the latest in the carousel of names the Mets' Spring Training facility has had over the years. The newest one is the naming rights for a point-of-sale company, and the "clover" name didn't turn out too lucky, but we didn't know that at the time.

In the off-season, in addition to the name change, the park has had a bunch of improvements, both cosmetic and structural, and it really did invigorate the old concrete lump of a stadium as much as is probably physically possible.

Starting on the outside, the entrance to the training facility was moved from behind left field to behind right field, and was slightly more pleasant than before. The training facilities themselves got a bit of an upgrade, with some photo points added in, and most of the fields getting some TLC besides.

Outside the park got a big renovation as well. The largest was the consolidation of all the entrance gates into one big entrance right behind home plate, no doubt to accommodate the now-mandatory metal detectors. The old gates in left and right field are gone, and now the home plate entrance dumps out into a largish-plaza area with a stairway straight up the main promenade.

The outside of the park underwent other upgrades and changes. The 9/11 and other memorials were moved a short distance, and the outside was clad in orange and blue banners showing players and luminaries both past and present, with the home run apple added to the elevator spire. The team store was moved and renovated from its claustrophobic former self into a two-story space that had entrances both outside and inside.

Once inside, most of the interior was gussied up and changed, mostly for the better. The walkways have all been mostly wallpapered with logos and slogans from years past, as well as things like 1969 World Series' tickets and scorecards, and rather clever mixed photos of old and new players together, such as Tom Seaver and Jacob DeGrom holding onto Cy Young awards. Members of the Mets hall of fame are on banners affixed around the park, as well. For a team that usually does really poorly with its history, this was a nice change of pace. All the victory pennants and the like are now houses on the press box deck behind home plate.

The left field area was complete redone into the Budweiser Terrace and the Jim Beam Bourbon Bar, with stairs leading down into the Training Complex. The right field berm was re-christened the SunCoast Sun Deck. It wasn't all good, as most of the concessions stands were standardized, and things like the UltiMet Grill were moved out to the outfield--a shadow of its former self--and all the other specialty food stands seemed to have been removed.

Let's get this out of the way: It was the first Spring Training match-up with the Metropolitans and the Astros after the cheating scandal of the year before. (Can I even remember when it was really important?) People were starting early and often banging on the trash cans around the field in mockery of the Astro's cheating signals of previous years. Pretty quickly, the staff asked people to stop banging on the trashcans. This led quickly to something they couldn't really prevent, which was banging the plastic chairs, which sounded almost as good, and there was certainly a lot more volume through so many people doing it.

The Asterisks were booed the entire game. Every single guy who came up got booed pretty unmercifully, and since it was a split squad game, there weren't even that many regulars there, but Verlander was pitching, and he got it both barrels until he was pulled. It was a nice mob justice moment, but it was ultimately blunted by the fact that it didn't achieve anything except piss the Astros players off--but really, that is all we could have hoped for.

At the Game with Oogie: 

The last of the spring scoring

As mentioned, this was the yearly game with my family down in Florida. I had my parents call everyone and warn them that the clocks moved ahead that morning. They ended up mostly showing up before the end of the first, but it was everyday issues that caused the delays, not the clocks.

I was all by myself for most of the pre-game. I walked around to see all of the improvements to the parks, take my pictures, and get some chicken tenders and fries from the Ulti-Met Grill, which had inexplicably moved around the stadium as well. I took a run through the team store that was open from the inside of the park, as well, before settling into my seats and waiting for everyone else to show up.

We got into the cheering and booing as much as anyone. It felt a little cathartic to have our moment of hate for the Astros, and it really did seem to bother the players, which made it even better.

 

The Game:

First pitch, Astros vs. Metropolitans

This meaningless Spring Training contest between the Metropolitans and Houston Asterisks only gained meaning in that it was a fight of good versus evil, and good won. Also, Verlander and Thor were starting.

The Asterisks went quietly in the first in order, while New York stranded two singles. Again falling under the power of Thor, Houston again went in order, while the Mets stranded only one single this inning. The Asterisks started strong in the third, stringing back-to-back doubles into a run, while New York went order for their half, with Houston at a 1-0 lead after three.

With Thor out, Houston managed a lone double in the stop of the fourth, while the Mets did their darndest not to score. A leadoff walk was erased on a double-play, while a double was followed by a single, with the lead runner getting gunned down at home. The Asterisks went in order in the fifth, but New York got going with a single and two doubles turning into two runs, to give them a 2-1 lead. Houston stranded a walk and a hit in the sixth, while the Mets went in order.

The Asterisks only had a leadoff single to show for the seventh, while New York stranded an error and a single. In the eighth, Houston went in order, but the Mets started their half with a homer to left, ending their half with a now 3-1 lead. The Asterisks repeated a Mets achievement from earlier in the game in their half of the ninth, with a one-out single getting gunned down at the plate on the double that followed, securing the Mets pointless--but upstandingly moral--3-1 victory.

The Scorecard: 

Astros vs. Metropolitans, 03/08/20. Metropolitans win, 3-1.

The scorecard was the centerfold in the $5 Spring Training program. Disappointingly, it was still on glossy paper with colored backgrounds, making it the worst for pencil scoring and erasing. For no good reason, a quarter of the top of each side was wasted with generic baseball pictures, though there was white space around the edge of the card for notes. Scoring tips and rules and regs took up another 10% of the bottom of the card, leaving only about half of it for the scorecard.

The scorecard itself lacked pitching lines. I added them in an unused box at the bottom of the lineups. The scorecard featured 17 player lines, just enough to not have space for each player and a replacement. The player lines were number, player, and position, and had 11 columns for innings, ending in at bats, RBIs, runs, and hits. Each column had a split, presumably for runs and hits per inning.

There weren't a lot of plays of note. In the bottom of the first, a hit was ruled a single when it was really an E6. In the bottom of the fourth, a runner on second tried to score on a single and got caught at home CS 9-3. Similarly, in the top of the ninth, there was a runner on first trying to score on a double who was cut down CS 7-6-2. The only other noteworthy event was in the bottom of the eighth, when a hitter got a single to left against the shift that I thought was worth of a word or two.

The Accommodations: 

Back at my parents' condo for the evening before my flight the next day.

On the Coming Storm and Amazing Symbolism

Airports, always too early

Monday, March 9, 2020

Jersey City, NJ

 

Outside the Game:

Those of you keeping track of dates will notice that this is the Monday of the week when everything got shut down. As you'll remember, the country, the government, and especially Florida were largely ignoring things as infection numbers started to go through the roof.

I had bought a seat upgrade the night before for a window seat and premiere boarding, so I got up this morning with little concern, showered, and finished packing before the short drive to the airport. Except when we got to the airport, it was was anarchy: police everywhere, backups, check points. Our beloved leader was coming down to golf again through West Palm Beach Airport, no doubt thinking of the decisive action he was going to take on the pandemic that was raging around him. I eventually got dropped off at the terminal with time to spare, but the security line took longer than at Newark and I got the gate just before boarding was to start. I ran next door to get a Croissanwich from the Burger King and ran back just to hear that boarding was delayed.

It was short, however, and we boarded close to on time. I was in a row with an old lady, and we had a seat empty in the middle of us, which, in retrospect, was probably a good thing. There were people who were freaking out and wiping down everything in their seat area with cleaners and disinfectants, but I thought it obsessive at the time. The airlines were already cleaning the planes. Wiping down your tray table wasn't going to save you from this thing when we were all crammed in together otherwise. No one at this point was wearing masks.

I spent most of the flight asleep, and we got off at Newark after another small delay, related to the president flying out earlier in the day, so Trump got me coming and going. I called a Lyft and went home to unpack and do laundry and other things necessary before the return to work on Tuesday, though it would only be for two days...

The Accommodations: 

Back in my apartment, which I would become intimately familiar with over the next several months...

POSTSCRIPT:

I hope everyone out there reading this is safe and sound with their friends and families. This isn't a hoax and shouldn't be political. Wear your goddamn masks (even you, Karen) and stay distanced, and we'll get through this all.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2020 Spring Training