{"id":2099,"date":"2012-06-02T10:38:37","date_gmt":"2012-06-02T14:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/?p=2099"},"modified":"2012-06-02T10:51:01","modified_gmt":"2012-06-02T14:51:01","slug":"does-it-get-any-better-than-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/2012\/06\/02\/does-it-get-any-better-than-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Does It Get Any Better Than This?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Congrats<\/a>Don’t answer that. I don’t care. \u00a0Because this is awesome. \u00a0It’s perfect despite it not being a perfect game. \u00a0It’s simply Amazin’.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The first truly great moment, of many to come, at Citi Field. \u00a0The first Mets moment in history in a while that instantly became a “Where were you when?” moment. \u00a0The last one was probably also Johan Santana<\/a><\/strong>‘s. \u00a0His amazin’ domination of the Florida Marlins on the second to last game of 2008.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was at a restaurant for my mother-in-law’s birthday. \u00a0A Hibachi steakhouse in Valley Stream, NY. \u00a0 Much like Johan Santana, this restaurant had recently been damaged and shut-down, only recently reopening. \u00a0My wife, among others, joke that I’m addicted to my phone and this bit of positive reinforcement certainly won’t help with that. \u00a0I fully intended to detach from baseball for a night. \u00a0I’d seen Carlos Beltran<\/a><\/strong>‘s first at-bat before we went to dinner, and figured I’d read the recap and watch the highlights later. \u00a0 I didn’t. \u00a0I finished my onion soup and peeked at the score. \u00a0After all, Johan Santana was pitching and we’d been there to see his last dominating start as a mere mortal last Saturday. \u00a0Game day told me of Duda’s 3-run home run and I smiled. \u00a0I did notice that there were no hits. \u00a0Of course I noticed. We always noticed. \u00a0It was early though, and we’ve seen that before. \u00a0My salad came and I started eating, and I drank my beer and ate some edamame. \u00a0All the while that nagging feeling in the back of my brain was tingling. \u00a0Internet addiction? Mets magic? \u00a0I checked the score. \u00a0I checked the pitch count. \u00a0I got worried. \u00a0These checks got more and more frequent, with a brief reprieve while the Mets were coming to bat. \u00a0They had a big lead and I was just hoping they wouldn’t prolong the time Santana had to sit and wait to continue. \u00a0 I fretted briefly over the ‘injury delay’. \u00a0 As we got to the 7th inning I started seriously checking the pace of dinner.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Would the guy behind the bar flip the tiny screen to the game instead of whatever race they were showing? \u00a0Was anyone really watching that? Maybe I would step out to the parking lot and use MLB’s At-Bat app for a live look-in. \u00a0Would 3G service be enough for that? Probably not. \u00a0The audio feed would probably be the way to go. \u00a0We’d finished ice cream and our waiter had disappeared. \u00a0Where was he? Run my credit card already! \u00a0Bottom of the 8th. \u00a0Someone finally showed up and processed it, and we could leave. \u00a0I got to the car in time for the 9th. \u00a0Instantly I was transported into the game. \u00a0It’s amazing how these events manage to do that. \u00a0I’d mentally pushed baseball down on my list of important things for the night, but it wasn’t having any of that. \u00a0Tonight was about Mets baseball. \u00a0I turned on the radio and Howie’s voice instantly filled me with all the jitters and emotions that we all know so well. \u00a0He called the game while I drove, which I don’t recommend in such situations..not that there will ever be a situation quite like that, and he called each ball in play with the urgency it demanded but also with a hint of terror that it was going to fall in. \u00a0Your brains, like mine, like Howie’s, probably ran through each of the billion ways it could’ve gone wrong. \u00a0It didn’t. \u00a0It so didn’t.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I parked, and everyone else went in. \u00a0I listened to the recap and interviews, grateful that they didn’t go to commercial and say “Back to talk about it in a moment”. \u00a0It was a great night. \u00a0It was a Mets night. \u00a0Baseball took over, and it was glorious.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Congratulations to Johan Santana, and Happy National Donut Day everyone!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don’t answer that. I don’t care. \u00a0Because this is awesome. \u00a0It’s perfect despite it not being a perfect game. \u00a0It’s simply Amazin’.   The first truly great moment, of many to come, at Citi Field. \u00a0The first Mets moment in history in a while that instantly became a “Where were you when?” moment. \u00a0The last … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Does It Get Any Better Than This?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1248,19,15,3],"tags":[1400,1070,315,753,2964,1126,2659,2660,14,2663,2661,2662],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2099"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2102,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099\/revisions\/2102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}