Queens: An October Kind of Place

Pitching. Defense. Two-run homer.

Mets baseball.

Learn it. Know it. Live it.

It’s one game. One game does not make a series. But better to win one game than lose one game.

We won. The Cardinals lost. A perfect equation.

And at Shea, all was good. We waited six years to rereach the NLCS and five days to get it started and I waited an hour plus a few pitches for my co-blogger to arrive with two out-of-the-blue-and-orange tickets he laid his mitts on just this very evening. It was, as I have to imagine a headline or two will say somewhere, worth the wait.

I love Queens in October. I love that where once I could stand in peace and wait for my blogger half I now have plenty of company. I love the flood of Mets caps and Mets jackets and Mets jerseys that roll off the trains in waves. I love that when I saw one or two splashes of red, they seemed lost in the tide. I love that the object of our derision tonight was in the building. It was Cardinals fans who elicited semi-good-natured implied comparative chants regarding rear orifices and such. It was Cardinal players whose abilities were derided, wrongly (Pujols) or rightly (Looper).

And Mets who were loved, by me and by 56,000.

I love the way we start and end double plays, how our defensive replacements defend, how our big-time free agents — Glavine, Beltran, Wagner — pay off, just like our spare parts — Chavez, Mota, Valentin on this night. It’s a team effort.

I love our team effort.

I love our team this time of year.

I love Shea Stadium this time of year.

I love my new Faith and Fear t-shirt and so will you who are part of the smart set who ordered one or more.

It’s a good night to be a Mets fan.

It’s a good month.