Opening Day... Memories of Shea

Pull the road jersey out of the closet...




Practice middle reliever stare...




IT'S OPENING DAY!!!!!!!!

Mets @ Florida Marlins 10:10 p.m. local time in Kassel...

say it with me, MOC'ers...


LET'S...


GO...


METS!

(Ruffin, Selmo, I can't HEAR you...)

Last year, knowing that we were headed out of New York for the foreseeable future, I made sure I got to a gang of games at Shea Stadium... A bitterly windy Opening Day behind the left field foul pole with Karl (Mets win! and I can't feel my feet anymore), Mets-Yankees with the Brothers Wurst and Marites (Mets win!), Mets-Cubs with Quito (I'll humor a Cubs fan... Cubs win!), Mets-Reds field trip with Pearl, Gregg, Kathy, Karl and Erick (Mets win!). Money quote: Pearl declaring, while "Sweet Caroline" blared over the loudspeakers, "Baseball is SO CORNY!" Maybe she isn't aware of the Bobby Womack version.
Also, a photo op on the shadowy ramp...



And in the last days before we fled the city, Mets-Braves with Lily, Isadora and Joe (Mets lose)...

Most of these trips to Shea were coupled with visits to the amazing Sripraphai Thai restaurant in Woodside, Queens. Sublime eats.
This is the Mets' last season in Shea Stadium, before heading across the parking lot to a new ballpark named after a bank. Sigh. The sightlines will be better, the action closer, and the ticket prices painfully high. Here's a great Article from the Times about Shea and what a dump it is.

Not to mention the Mets have the lamest mascot in baseball history...


Mr. Met is just a guy with a baseball for a head. Hell, I coulda thought of that.

So why love the Mets? I tell you, it isn't rational. I blame/thank Karl, who got me hooked when I moved to Brooklyn in 2001. Since we didn't have a TV in New York, I would usually click on the little clock radio in the kitchen to listen to the games while I worked around the house.

Last year, after moving to Germany, I could only follow the games on the internet, which was a safe distance, as the Mets staged an epic collapse in the last month of the season, falling out first place on the last day of the season and missing the playoffs.

Not this year... Not this year...

This year we paid $15 to listen to radio broadcasts streamed on the web. Most of the games will start in the middle of the night, but we'll be able to listen to east coast day games and if I set my alarm, catch night games from the west coast. Not perfect, but as Lily said to Jason last night, "listening to baseball on the radio gives me heimat feelings."