http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/index/ one girl. one team. one city. en metsgrrl@gmail.com Copyright 2008 2008-08-19T17:08:00-05:00 http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/random-search-queries/ http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/random-search-queries/#When:17:08:00Z Yes, it’s time here at MetsGrrl to fall back on that tried-and-true content strategy of all lazy bloggers everywhere, a list of recent search queries. To be fair, I’ve never done this before (except the one time people without any sense of irony were looking for what was on Barry Zito’s iPod), and to be honest, TBF and I do this at home all the time for fun. But it’s a busy week, I’m not going to make it to the game tonight, and we’re getting ready to go to St. Louis and Kansas City on Thursday, so this is what you get for fresh content today. what can’t you bring into shea stadium can you bring wine into shea stadium beer garden near shea stadium where to stay when going to Shea stadium things to do around shea stadium nyc places to drink near shea stadium bringing children shea stadium balboa versus the earth slayer* *Not to get all Pozterisk or anything, but this one is all my fault. I used the title of this obscure Springsteen song as a headline for a John Maine outing last year ago. It popped into my head as I was watching, because I was thinking of David and Goliath which seemed cliched, so I went for what I know. Everyone is searching for it now because that song was the song that Springsteen’s former manager wanted him to sing at the Super Bowl in the 70’s, right about the time he was on the covers of Time and Newsweek. Now that Bruce is actually appearing at the Super Bowl, it’s getting mentioned in a few articles. Since the song was never released and there are very few circulating live versions, people are out looking for it on the internet. If I had it, I’d probably have hosted it somewhere just to get the search queries off my site. 2008-08-19T17:08:00-05:00 http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/iron-city-houserockers/ http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/iron-city-houserockers/#When:16:56:00Z Pittsburgh worried me, just like the Nationals worried me. These are the games that the 2008 Mets would typically lose, the games against the less-than-stellar teams who suddenly decide to sit up and fight because they are playing the Mets. The Mets, of course, not expecting this attack, are ill prepared. And lose. Badly. Except this time, it was the Mets who decided to sit up and fight. Against the Nationals. And the Pirates. Brian Schneider decides to be a studmuffin and hit TWO two-run homeruns (and that PNC Park HR was not cheap). 2008-08-18T16:56:00-05:00 http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/havent-used-this-in-a-while/ http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/havent-used-this-in-a-while/#When:02:54:00Z That’s more like it. Let’s win the games we can easily win and save our fight for when we need it. It’s hard to think that there has now been a game where Mr. Brian Schneider is the official Boyfriend of the Game, but I think a 2-run HR qualifies. 2008-08-15T02:54:00-05:00 http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/friday-night-mezzanine/ http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/friday-night-mezzanine/#When:14:53:01Z A little bit of an experiment: . mezzanine, shea stadium, friday night from caryn rose on Vimeo. Now you will understand the technical difficulties. Feeding 300 photos into iMovie and learning how to use iMovie and then encoding for the web took a little longer than I expected. I’m hoping this is the kind of thing I’ll be really happy I bothered to document in five years. I am considering buying a Flip for the last month. 2008-08-14T14:53:01-05:00 http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/because-we-hate-you/ http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/because-we-hate-you/#When:23:56:01Z Scott McCaughey, rock dude, super sideman and leader of The Baseball Project did a Q&A on ESPN today. Most of it sucks, frankly, because the majority of people asking questions were European R.E.M. fans who had no idea what this chat was about - just that it was happening - and asked a bunch of idiotic questions that had nothing to do with baseball. (In that way I guess it wasn’t much different than your average ESPN chat, just more international.) The reason I post about this at all this here is because of THIS: Steve R. (Brooklyn, NY): So who’s your favorite all time player, and your favorite current player? And could you see writing a song about either one? SportsNation Scott McCaughey: (6:17 PM ET ) Willie Mays is my all-time fave probably, and he got a song on Volume One. Current player, I don’t know, I’m still probing and examining them. Aaron Heilmann maybe? Go ahead. What would you call a song you wrote about Aaron Heilman? (The title of this post is the title of a Young Fresh Fellows album, so it’s already taken.) 2008-08-13T23:56:01-05:00 http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/i-dont-want-to-go-home/ http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/i-dont-want-to-go-home/#When:20:45:00Z Here’s our current schedule for The Last Week Of Shea: Monday, September 22 vs. CHC - Upper Deck 12 ($5!) Tuesday, September 23 vs. CHC - Mezzanine 12 Wednesday, September 24 vs. CHC - Upper Deck 14 (again, $5!) [Deliberately skipping Thursday.] Friday, September 26 vs FLA - Mezzanine 12 Saturday, September 27 vs. FLA - Upper Deck 8 Sunday September 28 vs. FLA - still looking at options. People on StubHub are still smoking crack. Are we the only ones this insane? We were going to wait to buy the tickets for the Cubs series but, well, we couldn’t. 2008-08-13T20:45:00-05:00 http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/on-top-of-the-sky/ http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/on-top-of-the-sky/#When:13:30:00Z It is unfortunate that the weekend I decide to do some photo-heavy posts is the one I run into technical difficulties, some of which I am still working through. The challenge with being a baseball blogger is that no one really cares about what you have to say about the game two days later. I could write the best piece in the world about a game three days ago and the attention span would be zero. Saturday we got to the game early because I had some photos to take. Last year at some point, I toyed with getting the domain lastdaysofshea.com and doing a photo essay just of the stadium. Obviously that didn’t happen, but I’m trying as hard as I can to take as many photos as I can, even of what seems like the most insignificant things - as well as the significant ones. I am taking endless photos of Mr. Met. I am still trying to capture our favorite beer vendor and our favorite nut vendor. I still have to find a night when the Mets are on the road to go out there with a tripod and do my photos of the neon. 2008-08-12T13:30:00-05:00 http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/technical-difficulties/ http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/technical-difficulties/#When:13:42:01Z The photos from the weekend are on a new memory card...which doesn’t work in my old reader. Actual Mets content coming tonight. Please stand by. :) 2008-08-11T13:42:01-05:00 http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/the-ballpark-at-arlington-review/ http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/the-ballpark-at-arlington-review/#When:00:26:00Z I will qualify this review by saying that aside from the tour, the entire time we were in Arlington it was 100 degrees and I was a little bit dehydrated, despite having purchased a case of water when we landed in Houston. It’s just hotter than us New Yorkers ever, ever have to deal with. So if it is not as lengthy or detailed as other reviews, I apologize. For example, we didn’t make a point of entering the stadium from the home plate entrance. I can’t even tell you what it looks like. We just entered the closest entrance we found because we were hot, tired, thirsty and wanted to sit down. The Ballpark at Arlington is about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Houston. So if you’re in town for a series, why not skip a day, rent a car, and drive to this suburb of Dallas? Even if the team isn’t in town (which happens, the same way the Yankees aren’t at home when the Mets are) there would still be enough to make it worth your while. It’s located in the middle of nowhere. There are no stores or any kind of commerce in its immediate vicinity. We did find it easy to find and abundantly signposted, and there is commerce about a 10 minute drive away. It is across the street from Six Flags, and on the other side, the new football stadium. There are a couple of hotels in the immediate vicinity. (We chose to drive an hour back after the game so we didn’t have to do the entire drive the next morning.) The parking lots for those who aren’t season ticket holders or Lexus owners are very, very distant. They do run shuttles, but be prepared for a lengthy walk. There’s a parking lot map on the web site; it would do you well to study it and know where you want to park. ballpark reviews 2008-08-11T00:26:00-05:00 http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/minute-maid-park-the-review/ http://metsgrrl.com/index.php/site/minute-maid-park-the-review/#When:21:31:01Z Minute Maid Park is located in downtown Houston. By “downtown” I mean it’s one of those areas that was formerly neglected, the original center of the city, and that the city is trying to revitalize. There are some residential buildings, but it’s mostly commercial, government, entertainment and hotels. Aside from after the game, the only people we saw walking on the street were the people who clearly were going to work at the businesses in downtown. We never felt unsafe - we had multiple offers of help the one time we stopped to doublecheck something on a piece of paper - but it does have a bit of an odd, semi-deserted feeling in spots. The home plate entrance to the park is through Union Station. The park was built on the location of the old railroad terminal, so instead of just tearing everything down, they kept the station to function as a public space and an entrance to the park. It is one of two places in the ballpark you can still see the Enron logo: Union Station is also where you will go if you are taking any of the ballpark tours, and is the location of the team store. The most important part of the review is right here: You cannot bring ANY food or drink into the park. No water, no snacks. The guards aren’t searching your bags for contraband, they are looking for granola bars. If you think I am kidding, I watched a security guard confiscate a package of Twizzlers and a quart ziploc of homemade popcorn. It’s unconscionable that in Texas you can’t bring a bottle of water in - even in air conditioning, you need to hydrate. Rant over. ballpark reviews 2008-08-07T21:31:01-05:00