Friday, May 11, 2007

THANK YOU (FALETTINME BE MICE ELF AGIN) [5-11-07]

I *loved* tonight’s game.  I loved the excited hopping tiny adorable Little Leaguers lining the warning track before the anthem. I loved that it was Friday and the week was over and I got to meet TBF at 6:00 sharp and run down to the 7 train together. I loved that it wasn’t hot but it wasn’t cold and I didn’t need sweatshirts and wool hats and gloves and scarves and hand warmers. I loved “PLAY BALD” even if the joke is already old and tired. I loved that the stadium was respectably full, that there were no endless ‘YANKEES SUCK’ chants, and that only once did I have to yell at a moron with a cell phone to please not stand at the top of the tunnel while the Mets were up. I loved watching Delgado’s smile beam up at us in the mezzanine while Professor Reyes taught us how to ask for a napkin en español.

[MORE, and PHOTOS, after the jump. Click below to page 2!]

Most of all, I loved it because the Mets played well, because the other team played hard too, and because I never felt at any point like someone had given up or decided that this was one game out of 162 and no need to stress it. I loved that second just before we realized that David Wright’s hit was going into the bleachers, when Delgado did likewise, and then when Damion freakin’ Easley did it again (how is it possible he is #2 in number of home runs hit on the team? how? But I’ll take it). I loved watching the bald heads bobbing in the dugouts, Delgado and Reyes performing their peacock strut of a homerun dance with precision, and the smiles you could glimpse on the faces of Messrs. Wright and Delgado when they returned from their parade around the bases.

And I loved it, of course, because we won nicely, the only drama being Aaron Heilman (again). I loved it because the win felt good. It wasn’t a rollercoaster and we didn’t have to come from behind (although in many ways I love that too). Like Willie said about the second night against the Giants, “I like it when we win. I like it a little bit more when we win like this.”

And I loved that we were back in Greenpoint by 10:15, watching the highlights (again) while flipping between Mariners-Yankees, trying to find our friends in the stands. When we turned off the TV, TBF turned on the music, starting with the Sly & the Family Stone song that graces this post’s title, announcing, “This is going to be my ‘Mets Win’ song this year.” Hey Shea DJ, borrow a clue.

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MISC:

On the note of borrowing a clue, why on earth do the Mets not make these and either sell them, or find a sponsor and give them out as a promotion?

Note to Budweiser: the new scoreboard logo is BUTT-UGLY.

TBF is riding his bike to Shea tomorrow, while I head to Connecticut for Mother’s Day (we do it on the Saturday before, because my brother is a firefighter and it’s always easier to do it Saturday lunch).  We’re still debating if we’re going to see the pink bats in action, because we are already at Shea three times next week, and I have learned at this point that three is about my limit in a week. (Boo hoo hoo, say the rest of you, I know.)