(Ed. Note: slight grammatical and punctuational mistakes have been corrected from the original version, but no major content changes were made. An *(asterisk) means that there is a corresponding editor’s note at the end of that game’s capsule which is meant to clarify or expand upon Dan’s original work. All final scores are assumed correct, as well as any people noted as "In Attendance.")
4/1 Mon. afternoon, Shea Stadium
Mets 6 Pirates 2 In attendance- Sarah and Jamie
Opening Day! A freezing day. No, it didn’t snow like Opening Day 84 in Baltimore, but it felt like it might. This day was filled with so much promise. The Mets had gotten rid of the crappy offensive players and filled the spots with former All Star caliber players. Jamie and I returned from Maryland in the middle of the night and then had to return the rental car to LaGuardia. We were both operating on about two hours of sleep. After returning the car, we took a bus to the subway where we decided to get off in Jackson Heights and look for a place to eat breakfast. In much the same manner that no one could forecast how bad the Mets were going to be in 2002, neither one of us had any clue how hard it would be to find a greasy diner with eggs and bacon. We walked for seemingly dozens of blocks before we finally found a place to eat.*1
As far as the games went, Al Leiter was magnificent. Even though, the Mets didn’t do much, there were 161 more games to flex their new offensive muscle! The NY Times wrote, "The newcomers Roger Cedeno, Roberto Alomar, Mo Vaughn, and Jeromy Burnitz are supposed to add more life to the Mets’ offense this season, but they were a combined 2 for 17 yesterday." 161 more games to flex their new offensive muscle, I say!
Highlight of the game - I for some reason decided that the Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon should have a song about him to the tune of the Smudge song "Don’t Want to Be Grant McClennan" of Go- Betweens fame. The chorus of that song is "Don’t want to be Grant McLennan / Don’t want to be Grant McLennan / George Harrison / Paul McCartney / Ringo Starr / and John Lennon."*2 So Jamie came up with this amazing verse- "Don’t want to be Lloyd McClendon/ Don’t want to be Lloyd McClendon / Buck Showalter / Dick Howser / Butch Hobson / and Bob Lemon". Whether or not Jamie is equating these four fine managers with the Fab Four, you’ll have to take up with him. But, I will say this- only two of the Fab Four are still alive, just like two of the fab four name checked in Jamie’s lyrics. He is a genius.
*1 And even then, the waitress just assumed that we would order in Spanish, which is really funny if you’ve ever seen the two if us.
*2 The correct order of Beatles in the Smudge song is "Don’t want to be Grant McLennan……/Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and John Lennon". Why Dan couldn’t simply put the song in the CD player to make sure is beyond me.
4/13 Sat. afternoon, Shea Stadium
Expos 9 Mets 8 In attendance- Chris M, Marc, Mitch, and Jamie
Free sixty dollar box seats, Marc’s new digital camera, the discovery of the G to the 7, the children nearby stuffing their faces with blue cotton candy, the Mets erasing a 7-0 deficit to take a 8-7 lead only to lose 9-8 in 11 innings, Rey Ordonez making three errors, what a day!
Highlight of the game - Chris in his N.W.A. hat posing with Mr. Met outside the park before the game.
4/16 Tues. night, Shea Stadium
Mets 3 Braves 1 In attendance- Jamie, Marc, and Meredith
I had an awful cold in the middle of an April heat wave. My classroom does not have an air conditioner. When I left school for the day, it was 87 friggin degrees in my room. I stumbled home for a nap, woke up and realized I was running late for the free box seat night courtesy of Miramax. I headed to the recently discovered brilliance of the G, but I was too lazy to go all the way to the G. The path of least resistance was to take the C to the G.* No problem. However, when I screwed up and headed the wrong way on the G, I didn’t even notice until I had reached the end of the line. I contemplated going home, but how could I head home? The first place Mets were playing the hated Braves. I had to go.
I finally rolled into Shea in the 4th inning. The 9-5 Mets took a 3 ½ game lead over Atlanta with Pedro Astacio’s complete game gem. Oh man, times were sweet.
* The first immutable law of the subway: Never transfer more times than you have to. Just asking for trouble.
4/18 Thurs night, Yankee Stadium
Yankees 8 Orioles 4 In attendance- Me and my dreams
Dave Nelson told me before the season that he was contemplating banning Yankee Stadium from his agenda this year unless the Birds were in town. I scoffed at the idea at the time, but the more I thought about it, it made more sense to me. Why go to a place that makes me miserable? The last few years, I have been to way too many Yankee victories. The Birds, the Mets, or bust I told myself. And I lived up to it. Only two Orioles games. I didn’t even go to the Mets game that I had tickets for in June because I almost passed out from being sick on the subway platform before the game. Yankee Stadium sometimes has that effect on me.
I was pumped up from seeing the Rookie earlier in the afternoon so I felt like I had no choice but to go to this game. Jeff Conine’s early homer made me happy, but Shane Spencer’s* three run homer brought me back to reality.
* You suck, Shane.
4/27 Saturday afternoon, Shea Stadium
Mets 2 Brewers 1 In attendance- Sarah, Mitch, Marc*
I spent the pregame partying down with some of my third graders as they celebrated a birthday. For the second time within a couple of weeks, I was able to get within a few feet of Mr. Met! We again had free 60 dollar seats and we were amused by the guy a section over dressed as the Lone Ranger for the entire game cheering on the Mets. Astacio threw a no hitter for 6 1/3 innings. Sarah was sad about her beloved Brewers losing again. There was a car on fire in the parking lot right over the outfield wall for many innings.
The majority of the subway trip home consisted of Mitch doing his best imitations of the NY Times ad. She heads straight for the Arts and Leisure. I check out the mag-a-zine.
*I thought I might have been at this game, as I remember the whole "making fun of the NYTimes on the subway" stuff, but that must have been another time. We got a lot of mileage out of that ad campaign. I have a ticket stub from April 28th but no recollection of going to that game at all.
Dan responds- I think Jamie was indeed there. But, I’m too lazy to get up and check.
Marc responds – I just checked my webpage…Jamie wasn’t at this game.
5/ 5 Sunday afternoon, Camden Yards
Orioles 3 Royals 2 In attendance- Dad, Mel, Jeannie
The first game of the year with Stone Groove himself - Matthew Raphael. We sat with his pal Mel and his wife Jeannie. Mel was a nice guy, but he had some strange baseball habits. He couldn’t go to a game without betting on pretty much everything an Oriole hitter does. I was offered to be part of it, but I politely declined. The way it works is this: my dad had hitters 1, 3, 5, 7 in the O’s lineup. Mel had 2,4,6, and 8. If your hitter struck out, you had to pay the other guy one dollar. If your hitter got a hit, the other guy paid you a dollar. If your hitter hit a homerun, the other guy paid you two dollars. There was constantly money changing hands. It was absolute chaos.*
The Orioles trailed 2-1 in the 6th. Before the O’s hit, I predicted that they would take the lead in this frame. Sure enough, with one out and a runner on, Jeff Conine hit a 2 run homer and the Orioles were able to close the deal. After this game, the Birds were a game over .500.
Mel recently passed away from cancer that was diagnosed in July. He was a great guy and I’m glad that I was able to at least spend a few moments with him over the years.
*I know, I know. In an average game, there’s maybe 12 strikeouts and 2 or 3 homeruns. That’s 15 transactions in 3 hours, or one every 12 minutes. And that’s if you include both teams hitters. Man, it must have been like being on the floor of a Stock Exchange.
Dan responds- If Jamie had bothered to read the whole thing before getting all snooty, he would have realized that money changed hands after every single hit- not just homeruns. Just because you score an 800 on the PSAT ten years ago doesn’t mean you can skip reading things carefully. Geez, I get enough of that with my third graders, Paquette.
5/7 Tuesday night, Shea Stadium
Giants 5 Mets 1 In attendance- Jamie, Jim, Marc
Free box seats again! This game kind of summed up many of the games I went to. There was about 90 seconds worth of excitement. In the 7th, the Mets were trailing 5-1 with the bases loaded and only one out. John Valentin pinch hit and he already had hit a few big pinch hits in the young season. The crowd was really getting into it. On the first pitch, Valentin hit into a double play. Typical Mets.
Highlight of the game - A guy wearing a Spiderman suit climbing on the skyline above the scoreboard.*
* This wasn’t just some random guy looking for attention, it was actually some stupid publicity stunt for the movie. I recall it being quite lame actually, so the actual game must have been really boring.
5/11 Saturday afternoon, Shea Stadium
Mets 4 Rockies 1 In attendance- Sarah
While the rest of the crew was playing kickball, Sarah and I headed to see some baseball. Mike Hampton pitched for the Rockies and he was booed consistently. But the boos were loudest as he rounded the bases after hitting a homer. But, Joe McEwing’s 3 run homer off Hampton gave the Mets a satisfying victory. Hampton had a typical Hampton-esque meltdown as he was taken out of the game.
Highlight of the game - The kid one section over with his Mets wiffleball bat kept experimenting with using the bat to spread water that he kept spilling intentionally. He intently watched the water as it crept down stair by stair. His dad kept yelling at him to come back to his seat, but Junior kept ignoring him. This is at least the fourth or fifth time I’ve seen this kid do the exact same thing with water at a game.
5/25 Saturday afternoon, Shea Stadium
Marlins 6 Mets 5 In attendance- Jason
The Mets go O fer Jason Curtis. He has never seen the Mets win in person. Granted, we are only talking about five games, but still… This was an ugly, ugly game. The Mets put up probably the ugliest defensive inning that I have ever witnessed. The Mets took a 4-1 lead into the 7th, but after the carnage that ensued, the Marlins led 6-5. So here’s the mess with some help from ESPN’s write-up of the game. With one out, Mike Lowell hit a high fly to shallow left field. Rey Ordonez appeared to have a play on it but deferred to left fielder Timo Perez, who lunged and dropped the ball after a long run. The play was scored a double. Mistake one. After a single, Eric Owens hit a bullet to Burnitz who misplayed the ball and let the ball get by him. 2 runs scored. Mistake two.
Then the worst - The Mets appeared to be out of the inning when Luis Castillo hit a hard grounder to second, but Alomar booted the ball for a run-scoring error that tied the game. Mistake 3. Andy Fox followed with a dribbler down the third-base line for an RBI infield hit. Edgardo Alfonzo's throw to first was wide and went into foul territory. First baseman Mo Vaughn retrieved the ball but hesitated before throwing home, allowing Castillo to score from first on Alfonzo's error. Mistakes 4 and 5. Vaughn just stood there with the ball as another run scored. It was truly unbelievable.
Mo Vaughn made the last out of the game and was hitting .228 with 3 homers. Rumors of Piazza’s sexuality circulated through the stadium. For the first time, the boos were deafening for Vaughn and Alomar. For the first time I heard this heckle of Alomar - "Come on, get a hit Alomar! You cocksucker!" Maybe this fan has some inside information that Piazza isn’t the gay one after all.
Miraculously, the Mets remained in first place after this game.
5/27 Monday afternoon, Shea Stadium
Marlins 5 Mets 3 In attendance- Mitch
This was a beautiful kind of Memorial Day. The kind of day where Mitch takes me into the game on his Major League Baseball producer’s shoulders. The kind of day where we can sit wherever the hell we want to sit with his official badge. However, that doesn’t always work, now do it? Last year in Pittsburgh, a John Nash like paranoid usher told us that he was being watched by a knowing "they". Today, Mitch’s face was actually spit on by a surly usher who told us that we couldn’t sit in his section. Nice.
As far as the game goes, the Mets looked awful as usual. They left tons of guys on base. Mike Piazza allowed seven stolen bases and some of the fans even began to heckle him. After one of the many stolen bases, Mitch quietly uttered "Vance Wilson." In effect, saying get that clown Piazza out of there and put in my fantasy baseball catcher Vance Wilson! A second later, a guy a few rows behind us yelled the same thing, but much more loudly. Some other fans started yelling back at that guy because he was disrespecting the god Piazza.* He stood up, held up his arms and yelled, "What? I’m not supposed to come to the game because I speak the truth?" Mitch turned to me and said, "You’ve got to put that in your write-up."
Mitch also spent the game complaining about pinch hitters swinging at the first pitch all the time for the Mets. He claims Jay Payton is the worst culprit of this grievous offense. In the 5th, Mark Johnson did it. In the 7th, Joe McEwing did it. In the 9th, Roberto Alomar came to the plate as the tying run with 2 outs. I remarked that if Jay Payton was up, he would definitely swing at the first pitch. Mitch replied, "Well you better hope Roberto isn’t wearing his WWJPD wristband." Man, Mitch was on fire this game!
* I was in a bar the other day that had a picure of a shirtless Piazza holding a bat. He’s a god all right. A Greek god. If you catch my drift.
