A Night At Citi Field

I have lived an hour from New York city for 9 months but had yet to visit Citi Field. The promise of free tickets, a bonus to working with so many military people, drew me out last night to visit the stadium of my favorite baseball team. I did not have high expectations for the actual game, the Mets offense of late has been pretty horrid. Actually to call it horrid is an offense to the word, and any other part of the lexicon does not do it horrible justice. Just take a look at this:

(Mets fail via TSH @ TBL)

So I decided to take the stadium in and forget the Mets. The rain was threatening when we arrived into Grand Central but we figured the game would go on despite the threat. I had never traveled to the game by the train but I knew it was the number 7. Why? John Rocker. Yep, Public Enemy #24A in Flushing and his damning quote in Sports Illustrated over ten years ago reminded me of which train to hop on. Once we arrived I saw banners hanging off the light posts. On one side of the one I was looking at was David Wright, the other side had Tommy Agee. Right away you could tell there was a determined effort to remember the Mets and National League baseball in New York. The Jackie Robinson Rotunda was as great a tribute a stadium can make to a player that never played for the team. Upon entering the rotunda we were blessed with a surprise; a Mets lunchbox. Awesome! I am making that the method of conveyance for my lunch everyday to work from here on out.

Once inside we discovered our seats were 2nd row behind the visitor's dugout, drizzle aside it was badass. The view from inside the park is fantastic and the great thing is that when you walk around the park from the concession area there is always a view to the field. I was very impressed with the park and the asceticism actually convinced me to make it back soon.

Some of the highlights from the game:

- The most player jerseys I saw were Reyes jerseys believe it or not

- Philly fans were boisterous and I couldn't blame them. It must have been how the Mets fans were in Veterans stadium when the Phils sucked.

- Closest Phillie fan to me was a dude who looked like a chunky Adrien Brody, only way, way greasier.

- I overheard a Philly fan refer to the Mets lunchbox with the following when I was walking over the Shea Bridge: "Now I have a new poopbox." I am not surprised that people from Philadelphia crap in small metal boxes.

- Before the 8th inning to rally the Mets they played footage of the 1-2-3 Met hitters Reyes, Pagan and Wright set to The Smashing Pumpkins "Tonight, Tonight" to pump up the crowd. Even though that song was totally the soundtrack to my 1996, I found it lame because I knew the Mets would do nothing in the inning and they did not. In fact the Mets scored 2 runs the whole series.

Overall the stadium exceeded my expectations while the Mets met my expectations, because they blew. Bonus news from this afternoon, K-Rod injured his hand when he punched his father in law last week, he's out for the year. That's ok though, I will never disown the Mets, they remind me too much of my own inadequacies. As my favorite Mets sign said, "To err is human, to forgive is a Mets fan."