Saw this guy at the ballgame last week. He was in the perfect spot for a picture, so I obliged.
Pictures From Last Night’s Mets Game
I told you yesterday I’d make sure they won..
More photos after the break. The game started an hour late but looked to almost finish at a normal time before Frankie got a hold of it.
Going to the Game to Make the Mets Win
Headed out to the game tonight alone. Which means I’ll be roaming around the park aimlessly watching the game from all over the place.
I’m thinking of hanging around the outfield tonight. Checking out the pitchers warming up, watching the game from the Shea Bridge, and maybe climb up to the Pepsi Porch for an inning or two.
The Mets really need to win tonight. They’ve had one bad week every month that keeps them from getting above .500. In May they got to .500 and then lost six of seven. They got back to .500 again last week in Atlanta, lost a crushing game and have now lost four of their last five. If they can minimize that damage and start the climb again now, they’ll hopefully be able to climb above .500 and keep going. Maybe Bay is going to start being Jason Bay again after a big game last night, and maybe Wright and Davis get good news this week and make their way back to the team. Otherwise this Mets season feels a lot like Sisyphus.
Move Along, Nothing to See Here
I was going to rant and rave and vent and fume, but it looks like Jason Fry basically covered all the angles over there at Faith and Fear in Flushing so I’ll just throw in a little pointer here to there.
Ugh. After which we never, ever spoke of it again.
So let’s remind these American League teams that are coming to Citi Field why National League baseball is the way to go. Let’s laugh at their pitchers trying to hit, and laugh at the managers that may botch a double-switch. Let’s read all the Moneyball references made while the A’s are in town and watch the Mets play, and win, some baseball games at home. It’s been a long road trip, and a successful one, so let’s go out to the park and watch Jose Reyes be Amazin’.
The Citi Field Beer List
This is late in coming, but just in time for the latest and longest homestand of the year. Here is a list of every beer available in Citi Field. I count 60 distinct beers right now, although I suspect I may have a mistake or two that you can certainly help me out with. Snap a picture or let me know if you see a beer somewhere that I have not properly cataloged here.
Obviously It’s sad that the Brooklyn Brewery drafts are no longer available at Citi Field, but recently Sixpoint brewery started canning their beers, and I can only hope those beers find their way to Citi Field in the near future.
Eating With Bloggers: A Citi Field Food Tour
Monday night I, and many of your other favorite bloggers, was invited out to Citi Field for a Mets game, and a pre-game tour of Mets concessions and clubs with Scott Kleckner, Resident District Manager, Sports & Entertainment for Aramark. It did not disappoint. We ate. A lot.
Obviously the Keith’s Burger that I wrote about earlier in the season was included. We learned that it’s doing very well, and will likely become a permanent fixture in the future much like the Pastrami sandwich (which we also sampled) was tested last year. I love that the Mets and Aramark are trying out new things and never satisfied with the status quo. At Shea the most exciting change you could look forward to was if they changed burger suppliers.
Here’s a shot of the bloggers enjoying a slice of Margherita style pizza at Cascarino’s.
Cascarino’s was chosen in part because it’s local. It’s right there on College Point Blvd and so local that if you could get pizza delivered to Citi Field, Cascarino’s is close enough to do so.
Speaking of local fare, I brought up the departed Brooklyn Brewery beers. Without getting anything explicitly confirmed, it was made pretty clear that Budweiser can exert a ton of pressure financially over what beers are available. It was also suggested that Brooklyn Brewery may not be gone forever. (besides the cans of lager that remain) Right now the only true local beer available to the masses is Blue Point Toasted Lager at Catch of the Day. There’s also a tap of Sixpoint Sweet Action (and some Ommegang. Honestly, given it’s Cooperstown affiliation, EVERY ballpark should have some of it) in the Delta Sky Club, but that’s obviously a limited access area.
Perhaps the best thing we ate all night: An eggplant parmigiana sandwich. It was delicious: perfectly breaded with tasty sauce and excellent bread. I highly recommend it if you have a chance to be in the Delta Sky Club, or if they end up offering it elsewhere.
We also sampled the new fried chicken sandwich from Blue Smoke, which was my second favorite taste of the day. I’m not a big seafood eater, so I passed on the Po’Boy and Flounder at Catch of the Day, but everyone else liked it. I did have a handful of popcorn shrimp, which were definitely tasty but I’ll second Rob Castellano of Amazin’ Avenue in wishing there was some dipping sauces with them. The final thing we tasted was a new appetizer in the Delta Sky Club. It was some hot dog bites, basically a small hot dog dipped in panko breading. It was good, but nothing to really write home about.
Check out some of these other write ups while you’re at it, and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter.
http://www.ontheblack.com/2011/05/17/video-diary-citi-field-food-beverage-operations/
http://www.amazinavenue.com/2011/5/17/2174894/citi-field-food-mets-eat
Mets Fans at Last Night’s Giants Game
At least, it felt like that didn’t it? The truth is there weren’t that many Giants fans at Citi Field, but the Mets fans had very little to cheer about. There were a lot of isolated groupings of Giants fans, and pretty much all of 302 in the Pepsi Porch was loud and cheering, as well as a group behind the visitor’s dugout. The few times the Mets fans did get some chants going when the game was still tied, the Giants fans were drowned out.
Initially we boo’d, or Lets Go Mets’d, over the Giants cheering, but by the end of the game a lot of people had left and we were cold and there just wasn’t anything to cheer for. Cowbell Man seemed awfully pitiful with very few people joining in.
The game was cold, it felt like April, or San Francisco. Even with the Giants and Tim Lincecum on the mound, it felt like a poor showing of fans. Mets Police did a little digging and found that a local bar sponsored a Giants Fan trip to Citi Field. If the Mets continue to flounder I imagine you can expect more of these types of events becoming affordable for groups.
I’m tired of Willie Harris. He hit two double play balls and failed to even get a sacrifice in a key spot. He’s quickly approaching Gary Matthews Jr levels and I hope he’s quickly off this team. I know some have soured on Jason Bay, but this game would’ve been a lot different if he’d been in the lineup. I don’t begrudge him the paternity leave, but the Mets missed him.
In all three games against the Cy Young award winners lately I felt like the Mets have done a good job, but really they failed to get the big hit when it matter. Key walks, singles and long AB to drive up pitch counts are nice and all, but if you don’t capitalize, it’s all for naught. I really miss Johan Santana. Get well soon Johan.
Still, Tim Lincecum is quite good. 
I do feel like the Mets will win the finale. I sense a seven inning Pelfrey performance in which he gives up merely two runs on a double after a walk and a hit. Izzy, K-Rod, game over. 5-2 Mets.
Statistics Rising
You can make yourself crazy over-analyzing baseball. A week ago the Mets rotation wasn’t pitching deep into games, the bullpen couldn’t get anyone out, and people were all set to write the Mets off. Now they’ve run off a stretch of five wins in a row, the pitchers have pitched well from rotation to bullpen, and they’re scoring runs in all sorts of ways from home runs to errors to simple clutch hits.
The last time a major New York sports team other than the Mets won a home game was last Sunday the 17th when the Rangers and Yankees did it. Since then the Rangers and Knicks both got bounced from the playoffs and the Yankees are 3-3 including dropping the last two home games against the White Sox with each of their two closers, Mariano Rivera and Rafael Soriano, blowing saves.
An aside on the Yankees: For a team as old as they are, it has to be a little worrisome that they’ve postponed so many games already doesn’t it? They’ve played far fewer than anyone else, and in fact only played four games last week. Those three games will have to be made up, and it’ll eat into days off and rest time for some of these veteran players.
You could make excuses about the quality of the Mets opponents, but I could make excuses that they were a bloop or a lucky bounce away from winning some of those games they lost too. Regardless of who is in the other dugout, the Mets are playing good baseball right now. When this team is playing well, they’re capable of beating anyone. The question has always been if they’re going to stay healthy enough to have the chance to play well, and can they sustain the success longer than the slumps they might go through when guys are struggling?
Also worth noting is that if the only reason the Mets are winning is because they’re playing bad teams, why can’t the Phillies beat the Diamondbacks?
It Gets Windy At Citi Field
The wind played havoc on the baseball last night, and I saw Shannon at Mets Police retweeting a couple of people at the game talking about how windy it was.
To give you an idea of how windy it gets, I’ve got a video below. This was taken in the cup holder in dead center field behind the Big Apple seats.
Keith’s Grill And Custom Made Burgers
Keith’s grill, which I wrote about earlier this month, was featured on SNY the other night.
There are two different types of burgers that Keith Hernandez helped create, and both come with kettle chips and a Tootsie Roll pop. You get whichever is the next flavor to come out of the box, although I’m sure the cashier wouldn’t be _too_ annoyed if you asked for a different one.
Right now they’re only set up to do one burger at a time, but they said they’re hoping to have both available for the next homestand.
On Wednesday I had the Mex Burger, and while I’d still give the edge to Shake Shack, it was a pretty tasty burger. I look forward to trying the Gold Glove Burger when I get a chance.
