Final Home Opener At Shea

So yesterday I took the day off from work and went to Shea Stadium for the very last home opener there. It was pretty awesome to see how far along Citi Field is coming, and even more awesome to think about the prospect of not having to wait at least 15 minutes to go to the bathroom every time you have to take a leak. Seats were great. First base side Field Level between Delgado and Church.


Prior to the game there were ceremonies announcing the players, and retiring the name "Shea" along side the retired numbers, which was kind of a nice gesture, but also kind of didn't make any sense whatsoever. They then unveiled a countdown in the outfield, giving the number of games left to play at the stadium. This would have seemed a bit morbid, were Shea not such a complete and utter shit-hole.

The game started off well enough, Delgado crushed a monster shot to give us an early lead, and we got to witness no less than four fist fights at various times (none close enough to us for me to experience first hand, which was nice, since I'm a huge pussy). Our seats were also about five rows behind Gary Dell'Abate. This was funny for a few minutes, then quickly became old as numerous times throughout the game people were just yelling Baba Booey. Like, a whole lot.

Anyway, the Mets were unable to capitalize on a number of chances, and then handed the game over to their bullpen with only a 2 - 0 lead. As a Mets fan who has had to deal with a bullpen that is inconsistent at its best, there are just certain times when a reliever comes in and you know just absolutely one hundred percent know that you are doomed. When Heilman came into the game yesterday, it was one of those feelings.

Regardless of the outcome of the game, I was pretty excited when the 8th inning rolled around, I did not know when or how long the 8th inning sing-a-long song vote was going to go on for, and was curious to see whether or not they would get rick-rolled. They announced that due to an overwhelmingly large viral campaign, Astley's song won as a write-in, and won by a whole hell of a lot of votes. The Mets had been rick-rolled. At Deadspin, they have up a video of crowd reaction that seems pretty harsh. I'm not sure if it's just the horrendous audio quality of the video, or that whoever is taping this was booing with like, 3 guys around him or what. Or if maybe his section was booing? Down by where I was sitting I didn't really see a reaction one way or the other from anyone. Indifference seemed to be the overall mood of anyone anywhere near where I was, even though I had a good chuckle.

But then in a drastic double you tee eff moment, they announced they'd be playing not just that song, but all of the vote-able songs over the next week or so during the 8th inning, and it seems that whichever gets the loudest cheers will win for the season? I call bullshit, New York Mets. Shame on you. I bet Billy Joel's "Movin' Out" wins. Assholes. You allowed people to write-in, you made your bed. Deal with it.

Also - Professor Reyes is no more :(
They have two new segments: Maine Street USA, and The Wright Way.
Maine Street USA features (you guessed it!) John Maine giving us three clues in the form of street names, and then we name the city. Hilarity did not ensue.
The Wright Way featured an always dashing David Wright telling kids to always wear a helmet. I can't imagine they have 80 more installments of that...

Beer is now 8$ and pretzels are 4$ and hot dogs are 5$. I'm going to be going to another game in a few weeks that I got tickets to for 4.25$ It is more than depressing that the price of the ticket is, while ever so slightly more than a soft pretzel, it is still cheaper than hot dog and almost half as much as one 16 can of Bud Light.