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And The Winner Is..

Mets on a rollConor Coen wins the seatcrew.com Mets tickets! Enjoy the game!

 

And the Mets win the ballgame!

 

That’s a five game winning streak to put them at 5 games over .500 for the first time since just after the All-Star Break in 2010.  It also puts them inches from first place. (And in solid Wild Card position) It’s a sweep of the defending division champions and not just a sweep but a sweep that including them pitching their two best pitchers.

 

With the Knicks eliminated that’s one less team for people to distract themselves with and not notice that the Mets might actually be pretty good.  Off days with the Mets on a winning streak are the best type of off days.

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Waiting On Line (Not Online) For Mets Tickets

Mets keychain handed out on the line for buying tickets before the 2000 seasonIt was winter 2000 and New York was in the middle of a freezing cold stretch of weather.  Wind chill estimates had the temperatures at subzero on the day that the Mets started selling tickets.  This was before you could buy them online, and me and a couple of friends decided to camp out at Shea Stadium to buy tickets for the 2000 season.

 

We bundled up with blankets and layers and thermoses of coffee and hot chocolate and drove to Shea Stadium.  We made record time since it was the middle of the night, parked, and got on line.  We were by no means first; there were dozens of people already there, maybe as many as 200.  It was frigid and we were basically standing around shivering with hundreds of dollars in our pockets because you had to pay cash.  The warmest part was when you got to move a little bit to use the bathroom.

 

Handed out on the ticket line before the 2000 season

Eventually they moved most of the line inside.  It cut down on the wind a little bit, but it wasn’t any warmer.  As it got closer to the time tickets were actually on sale a couple of players, and manager Bobby Valentine, came out and were shaking frozen hands and signing autographs as the line started to move.   Someone, presumably with WFAN, was handing out the keychains in the picture here.  Eventually we were able to purchase our tickets, which included tickets to the epic 8th inning comeback against the Braves on Fireworks Night, climbed back into the car, blasted the heat and drove back home and fell asleep.

 

Nowadays online ticket sales have done away with this camping out, which is definitely a good thing for those of us that aren’t 17 anymore with free time to wait outside a baseball stadium for hours, but there’s a certain nostalgic machismo to having braved the elements to root for your team.

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Let’s Keep It Rolling Rolling Rolling..

Well that was fun wasn’t it?  After a ridiculous amount of games without a grand slam, the Mets hit two in one trip through the lineup last night.  Jose Reyes had ANOTHER 4-hit game, his second in as many days and he’s reached based nine of his last 10 appearances.  Bay had one of those grand slams, Dickey gave the team length and the Mets climbed above .500 baseball on the season.  They remain five games out of a playoff spot, but there is a lot of baseball yet to be played.  Jose Reyes has as many triples as 17 other major league clubs and still hasn’t gone two consecutive games without reaching base. 

What’s not to love about this team right now?  The Mets schedule is still tough in the immediate future, but they have a chance to put .500 behind them for good.  The way they’re playing, I believe they can do that no matter who’s in the other dugout.   Being able to add David Wright to this mix is going to be a nice bonus as well. 

Whereever this team is going, the ride sure is fun!

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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.

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Why The Mets Have the Subway Series Advantage

The Yankees have righted the ship a little with a three game winning streak, but I still like the way the Mets are playing lately over the Yankees.  With the exception of the battering the Yankees gave the Orioles last night, they really haven’t been hitting the ball very well.  It took them 15 innings on Wednesday to score a second run and they’ve got a lot of aging players that aren’t quite hitting like they did in their prime.

 

The Mets are without three of their starting lineup, Angel Pagan, Ike Davis and David Wright.  So far Justin Turner has really provided the Mets with some good production, and Ruben Tejada and Jason Pridie have filled in pretty well.   They’ll be bolstered by playing in the hitter friendly Yankee Stadium, and if Jason Bay can have a nice hot streak, the Mets lineup can still score plenty of runs.

 

So what about the pitching?  If I had to pick the three pitchers in the Yankees rotation I’d want to face, I got them.   The Mets miss C.C. Sabathia and Bartolo Colon.  Friday night is the briefly a Met Freddy Garcia versus R.A. Dickey.  Garcia pitched well to start, but he’s got a 4.63 ERA over his last four starts and a very high WHIP.  Dickey is due to have a good game, having recently reduced his walk total.  However, he has struggled with a high home run to fly ball ratio, and if he doesn’t get the break he needs on the knuckleball, Yankee Stadium might be cruel.  If you’re not going to the game and would rather be close to Citi Field, check out the Apple’s half priced drink special at McFaddens.

 

Saturday the Mets have Chris Capuano going, who has been pretty solid and consistent for them.   The Yankees have their own personal version of Oliver Perez in A.J. Burnett who has his own definition of effectively wild.   He’s due for a high walk game and the Mets have been a pretty patient team.  This is definitely a winnable game, even if we have to suffer through Fox announcers for it.

 

The finale features Mike Pelfrey against Ivan Nova.  Looks like a mismatch on paper, although Nova has had the occasional gem.  Pelfrey has looked great lately, although he has given up a bunch of solo home runs.  If he can work the sinker more effectively and keep the ball out of the air, he should have no problem dominating the fly ball happy Yankees.

It’s time to have some fun.  The Mets are capable of having a better record than the Yankees after the weekend is over, and depending on the results of the other games, they could be closer to first place as well.  The Mets have been playing good baseball, and there is no reason for them to be dismissed as a chore for the Yankees.  Don’t believe people when they say it’s a lose-lose for the Yankees because they’re “supposed” to beat the Mets.  They’re just being curmudgeons.  Both teams are supposed to beat the teams on their schedule, regardless of the proximity of the other teams fans.  If the Yankees fall to 24-21 or 23-22, and more importantly fall further behind Tampa and let the Red Sox and/or the Blue Jays past them in the division the criticism and panic will be all over the place, regardless of the opponent.

 

Likewise the winning team will gain some legitimacy.  The Yankees would be keeping pace in a tough division, the Mets would have shaken off a rough start and injuries to get back above .500.

 

The people that say the Yankees are “supposed” to beat the Mets are under the illusion that the Yankees somehow deserve to make the playoffs, deserve to be the best team in the city and the other teams exist only as farm teams for their pennant run.   If the Mets were to beat them, which is certainly possibly and perhaps even likely,  they’ll remind everyone that they deserve equal footing and discussion in this city and that cuts into the divine right the Yankees have to dominate the back pages with their petty arguments about which steroid-addled aging star bats in which position in the batting order.

 

So here’s to a fun Subway Series weekend where everything in the city is about baseball and every player anyone wants to see is on the same field together.  I like the Mets chances, and can think of no better way to get back above .500 on the season than to beat on the crosstown rivals.

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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.