Last night was an amazing experience; The New York Mets invited me, and a score or so other bloggers, to Citi Field, gave us field passes to watch batting practice from the warning track in front of the dugout, excellent tickets to the game, the chance to talk to players, and even a $10 gift card.
I didn’t interview any players. I was just awestruck and honored just being there up close, watching them prepare for a game. Walked up to the edge of the grass, watching the Mets take infield practice, batting practice, play catch, and chat and joke with each other. I could see the players, hear the players clearly, and make out individual blades of grass. I saw Angel Pagan take throws from Ike Davis at second base. I saw Albert Pujols swing at BP pitches. I saw Tony LaRussa play first base. (yes I did!) I was within inches of Jose Reyes and other such players as they walked by me into the dugout. It was a surreal and wonderful experience.
I met (or re-met) a lot of fellow bloggers, and that was also a very cool experience. I had a beer with Rustyjr of The Real Dirty Mets Blog, and Kerel Cooper of On the Black at McFadden’s before we went in and I ate “dinner” with Kerel, Shannon of Mets Police and Joe Janish of Mets Today in the Caesar’s Club. I had conversations with a half dozen other fellow bloggers and I don’t even remember them all!
Watching the game next to and in front of half my Twitter feed was a lot of fun, even if I felt in the 20th century for not having a data plan to tweet live as many of them were doing. Sometimes they were even tweeting back and forth to each other from five feet away. Why yes, we’re all basically baseball nerds. I just enjoyed the level of understanding and knowledge of the game going on around me, the discussions about bullpens and usage and over managing. It’s nice to watch a game with people that truly understand what’s going on more than the average shouting half-drunk fan. Although we did have plenty of that, as one rather vocal fan to the left of us wouldn’t shut up the entire game. Anthony De Rosa of Hot Foot dubbed him Will Ferrell.
The game itself was a roller coaster. It was fun to see the Mets fight back, and if they hadn’t been struggling and weren’t falling too far behind the Braves, it’s a game you’d shrug off as a tough loss but one with a lot of plusses. We’re past “moral victories” at this point in the season however, I’ll take a “should’ve lost” game like the one in San Francisco over this any day at this point.