9/21 Sunday afternoon, Shea
Expos 4 Mets 2
In attendance- Sujan
Tomo Ohka vs. Jae Seo locked heads early in a decent pitcher’s duel. The Mets scored their first run on a wild pitch. Pitiful. They had a late rally in the 9th- bases loaded, no outs, and only scored one run. They continued their tailspin and lost their 16th out of their last 17 games.
Cedeno is so bad! He misplayed ball after ball in this game. I uttered that he, Joe McEwing, and Timo better all be gone in 2004. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that is going to happen.
9/23 Tuesday night
Mets 1 Pirates 0
In attendance- Alex and Simon Bowles, Maura
The big baseball fan Alex Bowles decided to introduce the little game of baseball to his older brother Simon who was visiting from the Great Empire That Used to Be.
Simon just wanted to eat hot dogs, drink some beer, and learn a little about the great American sport- sort of like Alex. My British protégé has come so far in such a short period of time- so far that he even went alone to a midweek game at Shea over the summer. I can’t tell you how proud I am.
Alex redeemed thirty-two dollars worth of rainchecks from the Mets-Yankees game and exchanged them for four upper deck seats at five bucks apiece. Then the ticket seller gave Alex back twelve dollars and quipped, "You didn’t think I was going to be giving you money back, did you?" The whole night had a laid back feel to it, and why the hell not? The Mets were wrapping up another miserable season.
We easily snuck into the pricey loge seats (the stadium was empty and there were no ushers in sight) and starting explaining the game to Simon. Alex tried to equate the game to the game of rounders that they used to play in school to which Simon responded, "I never played that game. That game is for sissies." Two minutes later, Roger Cedeno was at-bat and Simon cried out, "Come on Sunshine!" Not sissy enough to play rounders, but plenty sissy enough to call a player "Sunshine." The British are weird.
Not only was it Simon’s first game, but it was also Maura’s first game at Shea too. It was fun sitting next to Firecracker and enjoying the specially priced two dollar Cracker Jacks. Everything was priced to go on this night.
Simon was itching for some sort of excitement during the pitcher’s duel. During the excitement of the Pepsi Party Gras where t-shirts are shot into the stands, Simon stood up and exclaimed, "Is there a fight?"
Al Leiter was magnificent and Kip Wells was almost as good. Again, Jamie’s chances of winning his first ever fantasy league were dashed when he couldn’t just win one more game from one of his pitchers. The Mets eight game losing streak ended.
Mets fans are starved for anything to cheer for these days. The biggest cheer of the night was when the video screen showed the Yankees loss in the 2001 World Series. A sad time to be a Mets fan at the end of the 2003 season.
9/25 Thursday night, Shea
Pirates 3 Mets 1
In attendance- Sujan
Sujan has a tradition of going to the first and last Mets home game of every season. So here I was finding myself at Shea for three of the last four home games.
This was Bob Murphy night- a tribute to the Mets great broadcaster since 1962. Sujan cried.
The kid who dressed up as Jason Phillips was the definite highlight of the game.
To throw Tom Glavine even more of a bone than they have already thrown him (the 10 million a year isn’t enough) they let use his no talent brother Mike play a couple of innings at first while Tom pitched. Mike even got his first major league hit. Hopefully in 2004, the Wilpons can find some playing time for Art Howe’s wife.
Piazza played his first inning at first base, but we had already left.
10/25 Saturday night, Yankee Stadium
Marlins 2 Yankees 0
In attendance- Brian
Mitch offered me two bleacher tickets to Game 6 before the World Series started. I told him that I would take the tickets, but I debated whether or not I would actually use them. After being at Yankee Stadium to see the Yankees win the 2001 Division Series against Oakland and the 2001 Championship Series against Seattle, I wasn’t anxious to see them win the World Series and have to cover my ears as "New York, New York" wafted through the autumn air. I even had a contingency plan if the Yankees held a 3-2 edge- the security guard at my school was going to take the tickets and go with his wife.
Alas, the Marlins held a 3-2 lead so I decided to go. The worst that could happen was that the Yankees would force a Game 7, but at least, I wouldn’t have to see them celebrate a championship. At best, I would get to revel in the Yankees eating crow. And revel is what I fucking did.
Sujan was too nervous at the prospect of going so my uncle visiting from Seattle was the lucky winner of the ticket. It was his first game at Yankee Stadium since the 50’s and his first postseason game of any kind. Over the past few years, I’ve taken him to a couple of Mariners game while visiting in Seattle and he’s enjoyed them immensely. Little did he know that he was such a big Edgar Martinez fan. He has told me that if I would move to Seattle that I could easily convince him to become a baseball fan. Well, that isn’t going to happen, especially since he just moved to Philadelphia. But, now he is only two hours away and soon he will be caught up in Phillies Phever.
This was only the second World Series game I had ever attended, Game 3 of the 2000 World Series being the other.
Near misses of World Series games I almost attended:
Games 1 or 2 of the ’83 World Series:
My dad needed his sleep so he didn’t even try to get tickets. I probably would have rather been playing with action figures anyway.
Games 1, 2, 6, or 7 of the ’92 World Series:
I was all set to buy tickets to any of the games in Pittsburgh. Harrisonburg, Va wasn’t that far away and tickets probably would have been readily available. But, alas, Francisco Cabrera knocked in Sid Bream, Stan Belinda understood, and I didn’t get the chance.
Games 3, 4, or 5 of the ’97 World Series:
Lenny Webster, Armando Benitez, Marquis Grissom, and Tony Fernandez saw to it that I had no chance to see a World Series in Baltimore anytime soon. My dad and I had tickets to one of these supposed games.
Game 1 of the ’98 World Series:
Marc got a free bleacher ticket to see the Yankees play the Padres? Wha? Nothing was on the WB that night? Balgavy attended a World Series game before me?
Games 1 and 6 of the ’00 World Series
Mitch offered me a choice of a 50 dollar bleacher ticket for Game 1 or a free bleacher ticket for Game 6. I chose Game 6. Game 1 was an extra inning classic (although I’m glad I didn’t see the Mets lose in person) and Game 6 never happened (although if it did, the Hampton- Clemens rematch would have been a barnburner.)
Games 4 and 5 of the ’01 World Series
Dave Nelson was getting tickets to these games, but I was too devastated to go. He witnessed Game Four and sold his tickets to Game Five to a friend after being so disgusted with Game Four. I’m glad I didn’t see more Yankees glory as Byung-Hyun Kim suffered two meltdowns.
On this night, the fans were cocky as usual, but it seemed like false bravado. As Beckett warmed up before the game, the fans were merciless in their heckling. No matter, he stifled the mighty Yankees all night. The fans sat in stunned silence for every rally killing double play, every weak popup, every Jeter error, every runner stranded by Jeter. Man, it was beautiful. Truly a glorious night.
One fan behind us yelled out in the 9th, "You know what killed us tonight? Especially in the 8th? Derek Fucking Jeter crapping out!" Red Sox fans can have their Bucky Dent, but now maybe the Yankees fans can have their own profanity-laced shortstop.
As the game ended, the three Orthodox Miami Jews in their matching Marlins jerseys celebrated. And the Yankees fan who was wearing his "Marlins Suck" shirt, took it off, and ripped it up into tiny pieces in disgust. It was perfect.
The guy behind me was priceless. He was the loudest heckler of Beckett before the game and in the 5th, he screamed out how he couldn’t believe Beckett was still in the game. In the 9th, he was crying out, "We’ve got to get this guy on the Yankees." Which is the typical response to any Yankees fan in the face of adversity. If you can’t beat him, steal him from another team.
And a few months before I knew the dread of Alex Rodriguez on the Yankees, I was able to enjoy this asshole’s pain. But we all know who will get the last laugh. And it’s not me. My only hope as a Yankees hater each year is that somehow, someone stops them on their inevitable march to more glory. It has been three years of near misses for the Yankees, but it can’t continue, can it? Go Red Sox! Go Angels! Go Phillies! Go anyone else other than the Evil Empire. .
On this night, I didn’t worry about that other stuff. I had a few hours to enjoy the Yankees’ misery. And Brian enjoyed it immensely too. I might be creating a monster.
Goal for 2004: Snag a "No Smoking" Mr. Met sign from Shea.
