Not everything about Friday’s night trip to Citi Field was terrible. Let me make a list of things that did not, in fact, suck:
1. It was nice spending an inning on the Shea Bridge with two old friends: longtime Faith and Fear reader Charlie Hangley (who’s now a pretty fair blogger in his own right over at Mets 360) and his wife Sarah, making her first-ever visit to Citi Field.
2. The night was gorgeous — perfect temperature, next to no humidity. Then, in the late innings a full moon that was so beautiful it looked fake rose majestically behind the stadium for us to ooh and ahh over.
3. I got to enjoy three hours in the company of my lovely, wise, baseball-mad wife.
4. El Verano Taqueria is always a good thing. Plus we’ve hit upon a winning strategy: three orders of carnitas for two people. One order isn’t enough; two orders is too much. “Genius” is sometimes an underutilized term.
As for everything else, “terrible” would actually be an understatement — it was a total suckfest. The Mets couldn’t field, betraying R.A. Dickey on two double-play balls that led to five runs. The Mets couldn’t hit, particularly with runners on base. Ryota Igarashi couldn’t pitch, which isn’t news — when he went 2-0 on John Mayberry Jr. I groused to Emily that “here comes the meatball,” then was out of my seat and stalking off before Mayberry arrived at second base. (Figures Igarashi was the Japanese hurler who got an extra year for his Omarpalooza gift, while the actually useful Hisanori Takahashi decamped for Anahaim.) The end result? We’re one bad weekend from being more than 10 out in the wild-card hunt, which essentially means a Do Not Resuscitate order for our playoff hopes.
A loss wasn’t a great way to start the second half, but not all losses are created equal. This one alternated being boring and being annoying, with most of the offense a side effect of inept defense. Only Angel Pagan’s catch of Ryan Howard’s deep drive and Carlos Beltran’s uncatchable homer were plays you’d conceivably want to see again, let alone things that could lead you to wax rhapsodic about baseball’s majesty. For the first couple of innings I was happy because there was baseball again and I got to see it up close. For the next few innings I was bored. Then I was pissed. And then I went home.
Sigh. Did I mention the moon?
Seems your attention was on most everything but the game..The Mets did not show up last night! They better find some way to score some runs or a sweep is imminent. I would hate to see all the recent good work they have done thrown away..Why cant they win at home? Why do they seem more comfortable on the road? Are you going to blame the unfriendly confines of Citi Field? Is this place even our home yet?
Rich P
I’ve said this before, but bears repeating. Anyone who wants Beltran or Reyes need not send us anything back, but they must take Jason Bay off our hands. He is absolutely useless.
Don’t look now but I think we have seen the best (If you can call it that) of the season already in the rear view mirror.
The 2nd half schedule is brutal and lets face it, the Mets have been playing over their heads.
A few more losses or a Philly sweep should take away the notion that we are a wild card contender, which we are not.
I’m not sure that a Philly sweep might not be a good thing. Who are we kidding?
We have already started. Lets get the 2012 rebuilding project underway.
That game “Hurt” to watch!
As Howie pointed out last night ( I was listening in the back yard, the Moonshow was much more pleasing than actuslly watching the bumbling Mets), they were of course much better off last year coming out of the break. And even after thier West Coast swoon, they were still only 7 1/2 out of the Wild Card and the season was officially shot. Now they’re 8 1/2 out. Game Over. I like the idea of “if you want Beltran, you gotta take Bay”.
You left out one thing that that sucked and two things that didn’t:
It sucked that I ended up eating two cold, overcooked Nathan’s hot dogs because the lines to all the great food stands were three innings long and I actually wanted to watch some baseball. (Of course as it turned out, most of it was eminently missable and I would’ve enjoyed a Shake Shack meal more.)
It didn’t suck at all to have Doc, Darryl, Jesse et. al. in da house to count down to the fireworks. And it’s always good to get to view the ‘Let’s Go Mets’ video on the big screen without having to suffer through a rain delay for the privilege.
Hey Jodie,
You’re right — I did leave out distinguished visitors. Darryl and Rusty Staub showed up in the stands to shake hands with winners of trivia questions. This is one of the cooler things the Mets have done in some time, and I hope they’ll keep it up.
Verano Taqueria line actually moves very quickly even when it looks long. Shake Shack, OTOH, whew. And honestly I think the Shackburgers aren’t as good at Citi Field as at their other outposts….
Jace,
Great — as always — to see you & Emily, as well. I have always enjoyed our conversations, even when the subject matter tends to be eminently putrid…
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