Mike had picked up a couple sets of Mets tickets a few weeks back and invited me to a September 17th game between the Braves and the Mets. I’ve been trying to hit as many new ballparks as I can and I was excited because I had never been to Shea before. My only experiences with Shea in the past had been through watching Mets games on MSG, reading about Zack Hample snagging a gazillion balls there and reading reviews on the web. The web based reviews from ESPN and Sports Illustrated weren’t too kind so I wasn’t expecting a mindblowing experience or anything. Still, I was very excited to see a new (to me) ballpark.
I left the house at about 6:45am anticipating traffic and the normal horrible road conditions that New York and Long Island had to offer. The drive to Mike’s place in Douglaston took about 1 1/2 hours and I arrived at about 8:15am. Mike was awake by then thanks to a warning call I made to him 15 minutes earlier and I checked out his decorating job on the house. Very nice. After the quick tour I had a banana and some cantaloupe and then we headed over to the park to play some tennis. I had brought by 15 year old Wilson Pro Staff tennis raquet with me and I played fairly decently considering the amout of times I have played in the last 10 years (2). We hit around for about 45 minutes and then played a quick game that I lost 6-2.
I was hoping to head to the ballpark right after tennis but Mike ended up snoozing for 30 minutes and then showering. We didn’t leave until 12:00pm and sadly that meant no batting practice and no baseball snagging.
We arrived at Shea at about 12:20pm. Parking was easy and quick and a standard $12. I parked the car near the G2 sign and we walked to Gate C. I got my bag checked quickly and then we headed in. I wanted to see the field level so we snuck past a ticket checker checking for field level tickets and go to spend a couple seconds there before an usher kicked us out. we walked past the field level concessions which were loaded up with good choices (sushi, cubano’s) and then out towards the ramps so we could get to the loge level.
The ticketing system at Shea is the weirdest that I’ve ever seen with very cryptic row, level, section and seat numbers. Most ballparks just have a section number, a row number and then a seat number making it fairly easy to see where you are sitting if you have a simkple seat map. Shea has multiple field levels, Loge box and reserved levels and million other levels. I had no idea where we were sitting even though I had my tickets and a seat map. We showed our tickets to the usher and he directed us down, down into the very front row of the Loge level, 2 seats away from the edge. Basically they were the best seats in the loge level as far as I was concerned. The 2 seats next to us were unoccupied so I took those so I could peer into the Mets bullpen right below us. Awesome.
Next it was time for food. I wanted to head back and grab that cubano that I saw before. We tried to get back into the field level and we were stopped cold. Only rich people with good seats get to eat cubanos. We on the other hand were stuck with standard fare such as hot dogs, burgers and pretzels. I grabbed a dog and a knish while Mike got a chicken sandwich. I offered Mike a bite of my knish and he mumbled something about ‘too many carbs.’
I ate my dog and about half my knish and then leaned over and watched Steve Traschsel warm up in the bullpen. Bullpen catcher Dave Racaniello walked by and I gave him a wave. He waved back. I then saw catching coach Tom Nieto walk by with a catcher’s mitt with 3 balls in it. I decided what the hey and started yelling his name. “Tom! Tooom!” He looked up and yelled, “What??!!?” “Can I have one of those balls please?”, I politely asked. He looked at the balls and then walked away. Oh well.
I settled back into my seat and talked to Mike while waiting for the game to begin. I made friends with the guy behind me who came by himself and got those loge seats on a crapshoot. We were remarking about how great they were. A mother and her two kids were also behind us making fun of reliever Bradon Looper. It was nice to sit by people who were knowledgeable about baseball.
The game started with a very very long 1st inning as Atlanta scored 3 runs in the top half and had 8 batters at the plate. In the top of the 2nd the people next to us had arrived so I had to give up my next-to-the-bullpen seats. No big deal I thought.
My opinion of the latecomers who had those seats changed in the bottom of the third inning. You have to give it up to dumb luck and skill I guess. Cliff Floyd was the 3rd batter that inning and on a 3-1 count he ripped a high drive to deep right field. I saw it coming towards me and then Mike started yelling out, “Yo Ming! Yo Ming!!” The ball was heading to my right and I could tell it had the distance. I stuck out my glove and…. nothing. I looked around to see who got it. Was it the guy behind us? No - the guy next to us had the game ball and started high fiving everyone. Mike had seen the catch and it was a good one we had to give him credit as he barehanded it. I swear that the ball tailed at the end and I cursed my short reach. had I been a lefty of used my hat to catch it instead of my gloved left hand I might have had a better chance. As it was I was inches short. I will probably never come that close to a home run ball again, I lamented.
I spent the rest of the game hoping something would come near or that one of the bullpen pitchers would toss me a ball. No dice. The game was great and the Mets kept it close although they ended up losing 7-4. We left the stadium after Victor Diaz K-ed and then walked outside the outfield wall to get to the car. I called Debbie to see how she was doing and then we sat in the lot for about 15 minutes waiting to get out. Finally we hit the LIE and were on our way to TriBeCa for ResFest.
Mike had bought a weekend ResFest pass and had asked me to grab tickets for the 6:00pm shorts show and the 8:00pm Beck Video Retrospective show. We left Shea at arounf 4:45pm and made it to a nice street parking spot at 5:50pm. The meters ended at 7:00pm so we started digging for quarters. We needed 6 to make an hour. I only had 4. Mike ran into the Vietnamese restaurant we went to last year after ResFest and ordered an iced coffee in hopes of getting 2 more quarters. They only had one left so we took our chances hoping the metermaid wouldn’t come by in the last 10 minutes.
ResFest wasn’t too packed and the first shorts show was pretty good. The shorts are always hit or miss but I think these hit more than they missed. After the show we hung out in the courtyard for a bit and then headed in for the Beck Retrospective which was really, really great. Since MTV refuses to show videos anymore I hadn’t seen 90% of them. My favorite was the one for Beck’s song “Lost Cause” and the video for his most recent song which features a real-life Mad-Magazine fold in special effect.
After Res we were starving so we decided to head to St. Marks place for a place called ZEN. ZEN features half-price sushi and it was awesome. I had an Orange Dragon roll, a Rainbow Roll and a spicy tuna roll all for about $13 bucks. Miek also ordered up soething called AgiTofu or something and it was great.
We hit St. Alps for bubble tea afterwards and then I had to drop Mike off at Penn Sation by 12:22 so he could catch the LIRR back to Douglaston. It was about 11:55pm and since it was Saturday night traffic going uptown was slooooooow. Mike didn’t think we’d make it and it was in a way, sweet revenge as Mike has gviven me about 5 rides to Penn Station with a strict deadline and not once did I make it in time. I told him that I would get him there with plenty of time to spare. At about 29th street traffic opened up and I got him to the station at about 12:16am and he made it. Then I cut out for the Lincoln Tunnel and made it home an hour later.