Sunday, August 20, 2006
of mr. met, 1986 and the upper deck
I saw this activity announced at Workout Day, and was fairly tiresome about it for a while. Even though TBF insists that he wasn’t putting it off, it wasn’t until I posted on here about it (or rather, until he read about it on here, because he didn’t know about this blog for a long time) that the phone call was made and the reservation set. As he would insist to friends, “*She’s* having breakfast with Mr. Met. I’m going to check out the Mets Hall of Fame and the World Series Trophies.”
Riiiight.
When we arrived, the waitress walked over with a toy - an edible cookie featuring Mr. Met that you can color with edible markers - “I’ll just leave this here,” she said, once she realized there were no children present. It wasn’t until we arrived and were seated that we realized that this was an activity aimed at families and children.
Oops.
That aside, the breakfast buffet was outstanding. And you definitely get your money’s worth from Mr. Met. He arrives about half an hour into breakfast, sits at tables, visits each group individually, definitely accomodates as many photos as you like. For the kids, he signed postcards. Once he’s done that, people finish eating, and he comes back one more time, this time with one of the mets.com Fan Photo photographers. They hand out t-shirts (the crappy t-shirt launch ones), and you also get to have your name on the scoreboard! The staff treated everyone warmly and with good attention.
I don’t know what it cost, since it was a treat, but TBF repeatedly assured me it was worth the money (and not just because I had a grin from ear to ear the entire time).
After breakfast, we had time to check out the World Series trophies. I noticed this last night: it’s a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, but it’s certainly more impressive in person.
Today was our first game on our recently-acquired Sunday plan (having missed the first one because we were in Seattle). Since the object of this purchase was entirely post-season rights, we went for the cheapest option, which was upper deck boxes. We’re a little closer to home plate than we are on my tickets, but it’s a fine view and the stadium was not full so we had room to spread out. We got today’s rain last night, with the result that it was pretty hot upstairs today, to the point where we had to head up to get some shade at about the 6th inning. The lemon ice guys were not coming around enough, that’s for damn sure.
Thoughts on the game:
- I have always been an El Duque advocate (okay. ‘always’ being a relative term here.), but I enjoyed his performance today. I would be happier seeing him third in the lineup in the post season than Trachsel.
- The 86 uniforms: I have always kinda dug these aesthetically, in a retro way, and was pleased to see blank ones in the Clubhouse Shop - only to find out that there’s no way it was going to be attractive to anyone who might have hips and curves.
- Seeing the 2006 Mets in those uniforms was a little odd. It didn’t seem strange on TV last night, but in person, the piping on the side (that Keith went on and on and on about last night) just seemed stupid.
Much of the beauty and the detail of today’s game was lost to me in the heat. Things I saw and thought, “Oh!” have faded away. Either we bring too much water, or not enough.
Finally, the news about Mr. Glavine is, well, unfortunate.
Wait, let me try that again:
When I walked out of the shower this morning and was greeted with this news, my first response was along the lines of “OH $#@!. We’re toast. That’s it. Poor Tommy.”
“No, we’re not toast.”
“Who is our starting rotation in the post-season?”
“Pedro--”
“Right, Pedro.” (We had a discussion with some random guy Friday night who avowed that we should just activate Pedro after the All-Star break. I’m seeing a lot of sense in that thesis.)
“Assume he’s healthy.”
“Again, right, Pedro.”
“Pedro, El Duque, Trachsel, we go to bullpen by committee.”
“We’re toast.”
I am worried. TBF is stoically insisting that we’ll be fine.
CONTEST WINNER
Kota Nozawa was the first one in with a correct response today. Congratulations and thank you for calling.
(The answer to the actual trivia question in that bunch , which obviously came from TBF: Randy Niemann and Ed Hearn.)
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