The Mets ended their 32-year winless drought in Oakland [1], to say nothing of a more pedestrian three-game losing streak, Thursday afternoon. I dared to confirm it on television, even. But why take my word for it when we had a special correspondent on hand to bear witness?
My oldest friend in the world (oldest in the Kranepool and not the Stengel sense) Joel Lugo is an expatriate New Yorker and world-class song parodist [2] now based in Northern California. He, his brother Anthony and his nephew Joshua decided it would be great fun to meet the Mets in unfamiliar surroundings. He filed this report Thursday evening so I don't have to.
Just got home from the 24-hour traffic jam that is the whole of the San Francisco Bay area.
It was a glorious day at Anti-virus Stadium…glorious that is if your idea of a perfect day is spent getting cold and wet in Shame Stadium West watching the Mets continue the slow eating out of my kishkas. At least until the fellers finally decided it was time to score a week's worth of runs in one inning and change my dreary, wet afternoon into a happy, wet afternoon.
I can report that Mets fans comprised approximately 20% of the fans in attendance, wearing Mets apparel from the '70s, '80s, '90s and present.
In baseball action, it really made me homesick for Shea when the many Mets fans in attendance joined me in loudly cursing the awful performance of the aptly named Mr. Graves. He was getting hit so hard I thought he was pitching underhanded for a while. Dear God. Sure glad we included an option year in his contract.
My Met compatriots' faith in Mr. Looper was also not off the charts, as he once again got the outs he needed while looking like it could easily have gone the other way. All in all, a nice comeback win and hopefully an awakening of their long slumbering bats.
I'm gonna get under the blankets now and thaw out.