No Line for Shake Shack

After thoroughly enjoying Clayton Kershaw's performance in New York, I was back at Citi Field two days later.  Vin got tickets from work.  I've sat up high for almost every game I've been to at Citi Field.  Once I sat in the Pepsi Porch and once I sat in the Caesars Club.  These seats were in the Delta Club down on the field level between the Dodgers' dugout and home plate.

Our view of the game

We were hoping to see Zack Greinke.  The birth of his son pushed him back from his start on Friday.  Unfortunately for us, he got pushed back to Sunday.  Instead, Zach Lee made his first career start (the other possible title for this post was "The Wrong Zack/h").  Lee was the 28th pick of the draft in 2010, four years after the Dodgers took Clayton Kershaw in the first round.  Matt Harvey was on the mound for the Mets.

We were able to order food from our seats.  There were people taking orders, but I was able to just order on the Ballpark app on my phone.  So I was able to order a Shack Burger from Shake Shack and have it delivered.  Shake Shack is excellent, but the line is always so long at Citi Field.  I'm pretty sure the last time I had Shake Shack was at JFK before I left for England in 2013.  After I ordered, my phone said it would be 10-15 minutes for it to be delivered.  It took 18 minutes, but it was as good as I remembered.  Vin got fries from Box Frites, which I described as being like Huntington's European Republic, but not as good.  Vin agreed with that assessment.  Later in the game, we went into the bar.  There wasn't nearly as good of a beer selection as there should have been, but they did have Sam Adams Summer Ale so it didn't really matter.  But one of my complaints with Citi Field is that they have these bars/clubs that are way too exclusive.  I mentioned in my post about Comerica Park that they had a bar on the upper level that was open to everybody.  I was able to get in and out very quickly.  We were able to get our beers quickly, but there are lots of sections that we could have been sitting in where we wouldn't have had access to some of the bars at Citi Field (and we would have missed out on the perfect summer beer which I didn't see on the upper level on Thursday night).

They really should have another Shake Shack location at Citi Field.  I only got it at this game because I didn't have to wait on line.

The bar in the Delta Club

Anyway, the game was a disaster.  Zach Lee's first inning went like this:  walk, single, single, single, line out, single, single, double play.  He gave up four runs.  Now, one of those singles would have been a double play to end the inning if not for Zach Lee trying unsuccessfully to field a ground ball that was going right to Jimmy Rollins.  If he doesn't touch it, Rollins starts the double play.  Or if he fields it cleanly, he starts the double play.  It would have saved two runs.  You can't blame him, though.  It was a natural reaction that just ended up with the worst possible result.  Lee only lasted four and two thirds and gave up seven.  The Dodgers' bullpen gave up another eight runs in three and a third.  Kelly Johnson hit a home run in his first game as a Met.  Daniel Murphy hit one as well.  Lucas Duda hit two.  Michael Conforto got his first Major League hit.  He added three more (including two doubles), finishing 4 for 4 with an RBI.  Matt Harvey gave up two runs in seven innings and was 2 for 4 with a double and two RBIs.  For the Dodgers, Jimmy Rollins homered in his third straight game.  Joc Pederson hit his first home run in a long time.  And that was all the Dodgers got.  They lost 15-2.  It was the most runs the Mets scored in two years (I think).  Their 21 hits were the most in five years.

So yeah, not a fun game to watch.  But it was good to see Vin for the first time since he got married.  Thanks Vin for the ticket, definitely the best seats I've had at Citi Field.  At least I got to see Kershaw pitch a shutout two nights before.

Vin and me both wearing Brooklyn Dodgers hats

Happy Birthday Dad!

I was going to wait until after the Dodgers-Mets series and just do one blog post on the two games I'm going to, but Clayton Kershaw's performance deserved its own.  Last year, the Dodgers were 0-3 with me in attendance (in Los Angeles, New York, and Detroit).  Not surprisingly, I didn't see Clayton Kershaw pitch.  This was the first Dodger game I went to this year.  With the Dodgers in town for four, that meant there was a good chance of Kershaw pitching, except for the way the schedule worked out.  The first game of the series with the Mets was their seventh game after the All Star Break (with no days off).  If Kershaw pitched the first game after the break, he would have pitched the sixth game and then missed the entire series against the Mets.  And that's what the original plan was.  Then Mattingly decided to give Kershaw one extra day of rest after the All Star Game and he was on track to pitch the first game against the Mets, which happened to be my dad's birthday.  As soon as I was reasonably sure Kershaw would be pitching, I bought tickets on Stubhub.

This was the sixth time I've seen Kershaw pitch in person.  The last time was in Philadelphia in August 2013, which is also the last Dodger win I saw in person.  Check out that link for Kershaw's numbers with me in attendance after that game (I'll update them in this post).

We had a really rough drive into the stadium.  We left at 5:05 and didn't get there until about 6:45.  So there was no time for walking around the stadium or anything, but we were in our seats before the first pitch.  I had time to run and get food for my dad and myself before the game started.  I found a concession stand with no line.  I only had a hot dog since it was National Hot Dog Day.  Speaking of hot dogs, Dave Dameshek (who hosts a great NFL podcast) says that hot dogs are sandwiches and that it's okay to put ketchup on hot dogs.  I vehemently disagree on both counts.  The notion that a hot dog is a sandwich is silly, but he's been saying that we have the right to put ketchup on hot dogs.  And I do agree with that, this is America.  But come on, ketchup on a hot dog?  What is this, amateur hour?  And no yellow mustard either.  As Cosmo Kramer pointed out, that's bush league.  Put some spicy mustard on your hot dog and enjoy.

The Mets had Bartolo Colon on the mound.  Their lineup was horrendous.  Juan Legares was hitting .256 going into the game and nobody in the lineup had a higher average than that.  John Mayberry Jr. (.165/.229/.321 after this game) and Eric Campbell (.176/.299/.277) were their 4 and 5 hitters.  Yikes.  Believe me, the thought of a no-hitter did occur to me before the game even started.  And then the game started.  And Kershaw kept getting guys out.

Our view last night

After the second, I went to get a beer.  I had a Montauk Summer Ale since it appeared that they didn't have any Sam Adams.  It was fine, but nothing special.  I've come to the conclusion that very few breweries do summer beers particularly well.  I feel like you can find lots of good Oktoberfests, but if you want a good summer beer, you have to go with Sam Adams Summer Ale.  I missed one batter and was back in time to see Jimmy Rollins bat.  After spending most of his career with the Phillies, he got a pretty negative reaction from the Met fans.  And then he hit a 420-foot home run to right center to put the Dodgers up 1-0.

Kershaw kept getting guys out and so did Colon.  Through either five or six (I think six), neither team left anybody on base.  The Dodgers got three guys on and hit into three double plays.  I've said that after five, it's appropriate to start getting excited about the possibility of a no-hitter.  You're more than halfway there.  But with Kershaw, I say after three.  In the fifth inning, Kershaw struck out Eric Campbell on a curveball that got away from Yazmani Grandal.  Grandal made a nice play to get the ball and get the out at first.  It was a close play and the Mets thought about challenging it, but the call was right.  Kershaw was perfect through six.  I was definitely thinking about how awesome it would be.  It would be his second no-hitter.  Sandy Koufax threw no-hitters four years in a row.  This would put Kershaw halfway to that mark.  The only conceivable negative would be that Vin Scully wasn't calling it.

Curtis Granderson led off the seventh.  Kershaw got two strikes on him (I was starting to count the strikes he needed to strike every batter out for the rest of the game).  But then Granderson hit a solid single to right field.  On the one replay I saw at the stadium, it looked like a pretty good pitch that was down and out of the zone.  Oh well, he made it interesting.  But now it was suddenly a game since the Dodgers still only had one run.  Wilmer Flores (who killed the Dodgers in Los Angeles earlier this year) singled with one out.  Kershaw got a strikeout and a ground out to get out of his only jam of the game.  In the eighth, Lucas Duda had a lead off single and then Kershaw proceded to pick him off.  And that was all the baserunners he allowed.

Bartolo Colon went eight and only allowed the one run.  He was replaced by Sean Gilmartin in the ninth.  He gave up three straight singles to load the bases without recording an out.  Then Don Mattingly made a move that I disagreed with pretty strongly (and I think a lot of Dodger fans criticize him unfairly).  Andre Ethier was due up.  With a lefty on the mound, he sent up Alex Guerrero to pinch hit.  That only encouraged Terry Collins to take out Gilmartin, who hadn't gotten an out.  He brought in Carlos Torres, a righty.  So then Mattingly pinch hit for Guerrero with Alberto Callaspo, a switch hitter.  It ended up working out just fine as Torres walked Callaspo on four pitches.  But in that situation, you took out one of your best hitters lately for one of your worst hitters lately and encouraged the Mets to make a pitching change.  Let Ethier hit against the guy who hasn't gotten anybody out or the Mets might take him out anyway since he hasn't gotten anybody out and then you have Ethier facing a righty.  I know, I'm criticizing Mattingly for a move that worked out, but sometimes in baseball you do the right thing and it doesn't work or you do the wrong thing and it does work.  Yasiel Puig tacked on another run with a sacrifice fly.

In the bottom of the ninth Clayton Kershaw easily got two ground outs and a strikeout to finish the shutout.  In his two previous starts, he was the first pitcher in at least 100 years to allow no runs and no walks with 10 strikeouts in both starts.  And now he's done it three games in a row.  He also has a scoreless innings streak of 29 now.  He's amazing.  What was also important about Kershaw's performance was that the Dodgers didn't have a starting pitcher for the next three games.  Resting the bullpen was pretty important.  Zack Greinke was supposed to pitch tonight, but his wife had a baby yesterday.  Brandon Beachy's spot in the rotation would be Saturday's starter, but he got sent down to the minors.  And Brett Anderson got hurt in his last start.  So some guy named Ian Thomas is pitching tonight.  Greinke and Anderson could still pitch this weekend, but we'll see.

Kershaw got off to a rough start this season, but since the end of May, he's been as good as ever.  His ERA is almost twice as high as Zack Greinke (who has been absolutely ridiculous).  The Cy Young is Greinke's to win, but if he stumbles, do not count out Kershaw.  That would have seemed crazy on May 21 when his ERA was 4.32.  Looking at the numbers now, he's right in the mix now with Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom, Jake Arrieta, Francisco Liriano, and Gerrit Cole after Zack Greinke.

I've now seen Kershaw in person six times:  New York in 2009, Washington in 2010, Los Angeles in 2013 (against the Giants), New York in 2013, Philadelphia in 2013, and New York in 2015.  His numbers in those six games:  43 innings, 4-0 (the Dodgers are 6-0), 44 strikeouts, 0.84 ERA, 0.77 WHIP, 2 complete game shutouts, and 1 home run as a batter.  He's good.

The Best Ballpark in America

I recently blogged about my memories of Old Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium.  That leaves Fenway Park, whatever they call where the White Sox play, and Wrigley Field as the only Major League Stadiums where I've seen baseball games that I haven't blogged about.  Actually, I did blog about Fenway Park once, when I saw Notre Dame play Boston College in hockey there.  I'm planning on blogging about the Chicago stadiums before the end of the summer, but I'm tackling Fenway today since it was 20 years ago today that I went to my first game there.  I've been to three baseball games at Fenway Park.  Let's go through them:

July 21, 1995- My brothers were looking at colleges in Boston and I went on the trip with them.  We did a tour of Boston Garden and we went to the Friday night game at Fenway Park.  The Celtics and Bruins had just finished their last year at Boston Garden.  It was pretty cool to see where Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, Larry Bird, and a bunch of other Hall of Famers played and won championships for the Celtics.  For the game, we just drove to Fenway and bought tickets at the box office before the game.  I'm pretty sure I remember my dad asking a police officer where we could park and he suggested that we could park our car at the Star Market in a thick Boston accent.  Attendance was 31,124 so there were still some seats available.  I'm pretty sure we sat in fair territory in the Outfield Grandstand.  If you know Fenway, some of the seats in right field are ridiculously far from home plate, but it actually wasn't a bad view because you look out and you have the infield and the Green Monster in your view.  We just sat wherever they had tickets, but for the other two games I've been to since then, I've made a point of sitting on the first base side so that I'd have the Green Monster in my view.  Usually I like to sit high up behind home plate (what I think is the best view for a reasonable price), but at Fenway there aren't many seats high up and they're ridiculously expensive.  As for the game, the Red Sox won 13-5.  I remembered Mo Vaughn hitting a grand slam (which made it easy to look up), but they also had home runs from Troy O'Leary, John Valentin, and Mike Greenwell.  So all of their 1-5 hitters had a home run except for Jose Canseco.  Pat Meares hit a home run for the Twins, but the Red Sox were in control the whole time.  What's weird about this game is that despite the score of 13-5, there was a save.  Zane Smith started and went five and a third.  Joe Hudson pitched the last three and two thirds to get the save.

July 25, 2009- After that game, it took me 13 and a half years to get back to Boston.  I went up there for John's Christmas party in December 2008.  I had such a good time in Boston that I needed to get back to Fenway Park.  So I took an early Saturday bus up and stayed with John.  He took me on a Freedom Trail drinking tour.  I remember we went to a bar where you could drink a cold Sam Adams across the street from a cold Sam Adams (the cemetery where he was buried was across the street from the bar).  I had some New England clam chowder to go with my Sam Adams.  We checked out the cemetery.  I'm pretty sure Paul Revere and some members of Benjamin Franklin's family were buried there as well.  We also saw a memorial for the Irish potato famine and I think the site of the Boston Massacre.  John took my picture next to a statue of Red Auerbach.  For the game, I think it was John, Liz, one of John's friends from Boston, and me.  It was Jon Lester for the Red Sox against Jeremy Guthrie for the Orioles.  The Red Sox led 4-0 after two and enver looked back.  They won 7-2 with home runs by David Ortiz and Adam LaRoche.

Our view for the game in 2009

June 19, 2010- For the first 21 years that I went to baseball games, I never saw the Dodgers play a team other than the Mets.  I changed that in April of 2010 by seeing them beat the Nationals in Washington.  And in June, I went to see them play the Red Sox.  It was two days after the Celtics lost Game 7 of the Finals against the Lakers.  It would have been so much more fun if the Celtics had won that game.  (By the way, that game still hurts.  They Celtics were up by 13 in the second half (I think that was their biggest lead in the second half).  I can't imagine how much it would hurt if the Celtics had lost in 2008.  They need to win another championship before the Lakers do.)  I think it was just John and me for this game.  Manny Ramirez was in Boston for the first time since he was traded to the Dodgers.  It was Tim Wakefield against Vicente Padilla (what's crazy is that Wakefield was on the Red Sox when I first went to Fenway in 1995).  I didn't remember how good of a game this was.  The Red Sox won 5-4, but they never led by more than two.  The Dodgers scored two in the seventh to tie it 4-4.  Maybe I didn't think it was that good of a game because the Dodgers had six hits and five of them came from Manny Ramirez (who hit a home run) and Garret Anderson.  Victor Martinez and Kevin Youkilis hit home runs for the Red Sox.  The Red Sox won it in the bottom of the ninth (I didn't remember that).  Ronald Belisario got two outs, but left with runners on first and second.  Dustin Pedroia hit the game winning single off of Jonathan Broxton (one of my least favorite Dodgers ever).  If I remember correctly, this game also had the two guys that dress up like umpires and sit behind the plate and mimic everything that the home plate umpire does (I've seen them on TV at other places as well).

Our view in 2010

Me and John with the Green Monster in the background after the game.

We have two classic stadiums left.  It's really hard to compare them to the new stadiums because they have nothing in common with the new stadiums other than the sport that's played there.  Fenway and Wrigley are both over 100 years old now.  They both have something that makes them unique (the Green Monster and really weird dimensions for Fenway and the ivy for Wrigley).  I went to Wrigley in 2009.  I did like it, but I give Fenway the edge for the atmosphere.  It's almost always full and the fans really care about what happens.  I might get to a game there in August (not sure yet).  But Notre Dame plays Boston College in football at Fenway in November.  I applied in the lottery and lost, but I still plan on going.  My hotel room is already booked.

What Am I Missing?

The closest Major League stadium that I hadn't been to more than once was Oriole Park at Camden Yards.  I made my first trip three years ago.  I planned to go to a game there on my first day of summer vacation, which was this past Saturday.  Jon is living down in Baltimore for a little while longer so I got to see him for the first time since Kyle chipped my tooth and I got to another game in Baltimore.  Actually, I spent the same weekend with Jon three years ago in Pittsburgh.  Now that I've been to a second game in Baltimore, PNC Park takes over as the closest stadium that I haven't been to more than once (349 miles away from my house, SkyDome is 362.3 miles away according to the Ballpark app on my phone).  PNC is great and I would love to get back there, but I don't think that's going to happen any time soon.

We were supposed to go on Saturday night, which was Buck Showalter Garden Gnome Night, but the forecast was terrible.  The game was cancelled by about 2:00 in the afternoon.  So we hung out for a little bit, Jon took me on a little driving tour of Baltimore, and then we went to a bar and had an early dinner.  At night we went to see the Entourage movie.  If not for the fact that I've seen every episode of a few MTV reality shows (I miss the old email chains I had with Jon and Kyle about The Hills and Jersey Shore and whatever other terrible MTV shows we watched), Entourage would be the worst show that I've seen every episode of.  The movie was pretty much what I expected.  Ari was great.  The rest of the characters aren't exactly likable.  It won't go down as a cinematic classic, but I'm glad I saw it.

I got up early and went to mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is America's first cathedral.  It was pretty nice.  There's a statue of St. John Paul II inside and there's a prayer garden with a statue of him outside that we walked by later.  On my way back to Jon's apartment, I walked over to Baltimore's Washington Monument.  It's a cool monument, but it has a mistake.  It says that he became president of the United States in March 1789.  He was inaugurated in New York City on April 30, 1789.

St. John Paul the Great

Baltimore's Washington Monument with the Marquis de Lafayette in the foreground

We got breakfast and then took a water taxi to Fort McHenry.  The defense of Fort McHenry saved Baltimore from burning like Washington DC did during the War of 1812 and inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner."  Actually, he wrote the poem "Defence of Fort M'Henry" and the first stanza was set to a drinking song and became our national anthem.  We spent about an hour there.  There's a little museum, we watched a video, and then checked out the fort, which is not very big at all.  They were flying a 38-star flag, which I was able to figure out from this website.

Fort McHenry

After that, we took Uber to the stadium.  I had Oriole Park ranked much lower than most rankings on my list.  Jon said I had it "criminally underrated."  I wanted to see it again to see what I was missing.  Recently, the New York Post ranked it number one (I'm skeptical of any list that has Tropicana Field anywhere other than 29 or 30).  Thrillist had it number three (although their rankings of Tropicana Field and O.Co Coliseum are even more questionable than the Post's).  AOL had it at number 2.  So I'll get to my verdict after going through the game.

We got to the stadium about 25 minutes before the game.  Jon showed me the marker on the warehouse for a home run that Ken Griffey Jr. hit in the home run derby.  We had a beer at a bar in the warehouse.  I had a Dead Rise Old Bay Summer Ale (made by the Flying Dog Brewery).  It was fine, but Sam Adams is still the undisputed Summer Beer Champion.  I did have a Sam Adams Summer Ale later.  We watched the top of the first from right field, pretty close to the foul pole.  It was Trevor Bauer for the Indians against Ubaldo Jimenez.  The Indians had three left-handed batters to start the game and we were definitely in home run territory, but the Indians went down 1-2-3 on a strikeout and two ground outs.  Then we headed up to our seats.  The tickets I had the night before were good for the second half of the split doubleheader, but I was heading home that night.  So I sold my tickets on Stubhub and bought new ones for the afternoon game.  I ended up getting tickets that weren't as good, but my original tickets were pretty close to where I sat three years ago.  So I guess it was good to watch the game from a different part of the stadium.

Our view for the top of the first

Around the fourth inning or so, I got Chesapeake fries.  They are waffle fries topped with crab dip.  And they are excellent.  The only problem is that the line was too long.  A woman in front of me asked the guy working there if the Chesapeake fries were good and he had a funny reaction.  It was like, "Don't you see all these people standing on line?  That's what they all want."  And it was true, but if that's the case, they need to produce them more quickly.  I think twice when I was on line, the line pretty much came to a halt because they ran out and they were waiting for a new batch of fries.

Yeah, the Chesapeake fries are really good.

As for the game, Ubaldo Jimenez was excellent.  He pitched eight, gave up four hits and no walks, struck out seven, and gave up no runs.  Jimmy Paredes liked the number 2.  He was 2 for 2 (a double and a home run) with 2 walks, 2 runs, and 2 RBIs.  Manny Machado also hit a home run.  The Orioles won 4-0 in a game that took two hours and 21 minutes.  It was a good crowd of 45,675.

A panoramic shot from our seats

So what did I think of the stadium after a second time there?  I would say I had it a little underrated, but most people have it overrated.  The food is good, but the lines were too long.  There's a good beer selection.  It has a good location.  It is visually appealing.  But I really don't like not being able to see the field as I walk around the stadium (an architectural concept that goes back to 1962 with Dodger Stadium).  Let's take out stadiums built before I was born because they really are hard to compare.  Fenway Park and Wrigley Field have very little in common with other stadiums other than the sport that's played there.  That also takes out Dodger Stadium and Kauffman Stadium (which I think are excellent) and Angel Stadium (which I haven't been to yet, but hopefully next month) and O.Co Coliseum (which I have no interest in going to).  So let's just compare Oriole Park to the other 23 stadiums that have opened during my lifetime (or at least the decent to good ones).  How is it any better than PNC Park?  How is it any better than Petco Park?  How is it any better than AT&T Park (and I hate the Giants)?  How is it any better than Safeco Field (which I think I had underrated the more I think about it)?  I think I'll move it ahead of the two New York stadiums because it really is better than both of them in just about every way other than being able to walk around the concourse and see the field.  It's really very similar to Busch Stadium, but the atmosphere at Busch Stadium is better because the Cardinals have been so good for the last 15 years or so.  The only edge I could give it over Citizens Bank Park is the location (and it does have a big advantage there).  People don't like Nationals Park, but I don't really see how it's worse than Oriole Park.  And I really liked Great American Ballpark, but I guess I could see the argument for Oriole Park ahead of it.

So there, I admit I had Oriole Park at Camden Yards underrated, but not by much.

A Lovable Dump

When I last ranked the stadiums, I had the following stadiums behind Shea Stadium:  Coors Field, Miller Park, Chase Field, Progressive Field, Turner Field, Minute Maid Park, Marlins Park, US Cellular Field, and SkyDome.  Objectively, all of those except for maybe SkyDome are clearly better than Shea Stadium was (yes, even US Cellular Field).  But Shea Stadium was the stadium that I grew up going to.  I attended games there over the course of 20 seasons, from 1989-2008.  I might not have gone to a game every single season, but most seasons I probably went to more than one.  I would guess than I went to an average of at least two games per season.  That would be 40 games.  There were definitely seasons when I went to more than that, possibly four or five, but there were also probably seasons where I only went to one game or even none.  My guess is that I went to something like 50 games at Shea Stadium.  I wish I had a complete list of games I went to.

There really was nothing all that special about Shea Stadium except for the home run apple.  The seats were these awful colors.  The field level was orange, the loge was blue, the mezzanine was green, and the upper deck was red.  The whole stadium just should have been blue.  I even would have put up with blue and orange seats just because those are the Mets' colors, but the four different colors was pretty silly.  I definitely sat on every level.  I wish I knew where I sat for my first game, but I have no idea.

So let's get to some memories of games at Shea Stadium:

September 4, 1988- This could have been my first game.  It was a Sunday and we went to the stadium, but the game was rained out.  The Dodgers went 1-10 against the Mets in the regular season, but they beat them when it mattered.

August 18, 1989- I've written about this before.  It was my first game.  David Cone against Orel Hershiser.  Eddie Murray hit the first home run that I saw in person, but it wasn't enough as the Mets won 3-2.  The one thing that I remembered wrong before looking this game up was that I thought both starters threw complete games.  Hershiser pitched an eight-inning complete game, but Cone only pitched eight before Randy Myers finished it off.  It was a 7:35 start.  When did they switch from 7:35 or 7:40 to 7:10?  Because that was a good move.  Attendance for my first game was 46,143.

At some point in the early 90s, I definitely walked the track for a Banner Day, but I have no idea when that was.

September 4, 1996- I'm pretty confident I went to this game and sat down low down the left field line.  It would have been my first day of seventh grade.  I didn't remember any of the details of the game.  Apparently the Mets won in 12 innings.  Also, John Franco blew a save in the eighth and pitched two and a third.

July 24, 1999- I actually remember this one pretty well.  My dad and I went to see Sammy Sosa.  The only runs in this game were scored on solo home runs.  Sosa hit one for the Cubs.  Edgardo Alfonso and Robin Ventura hit home runs for the Mets.

April 8, 2000- I'm fairly confident that I went to this game.  I definitely remember going to a Mets-Dodgers day game in April.  My dad and I went, but not my brothers.  They would have been in college for this one, so it makes sense.  We sat up high and it was really windy and cold.  This seems like the only possibility.  The Dodgers won 6-5.

June 22, 2001- I think I went to this game.  I remember going to a Mets-Braves game with my brothers and some of their friends and it was supposed to be for Aaron's graduation, but he didn't come.  I also remember it being a night game, so this seems like the only possibility.  The Braves blew the Mets out.  I remember that when they were doing that thing where they shoot t-shirts into the stands, they shot one right over my head.  I was sitting down eating something.  If I had been standing up, it would have hit me in the chest.  Paul was mad at me for not catching it even though he was not a Met fan.  I definitely also went to another game that season that was a day game where they gave away Mets 2000 NL Championship hats.  I think it was late spring/early summer because I remember talking about how I achieved my goal of finishing second in the Honor Society presidential election and hence becoming vice president (there were four people running).  But I have no way of figuring out which game that was.  They did have a weekend series with the Dodgers from May 18-20.  It could have been one of those games.

August 18, 2002- I'm not sure about this one.  I remember going to a late summer Mets-Dodgers day game somewhere in the early-mid 2000s.  This would have been the weekend before I left for college.  The Dodgers won 2-1.

I don't think I went to any Mets-Dodgers games in 2003.  They played in early May when I was finishing up my freshman year of college.  I might have gone to some other game that year, but I don't remember.

August 28, 2004 and/or August 29, 2004- These are other possibilities for that late summer Mets-Dodgers day game that I'm pretty sure I went to.  The Dodgers won these two 4-2 and 10-2.

July 22, 2005, July 23, 2005, and/or July 24, 2005- I must have gone to at least one of these games, but I don't remember any of them for sure.  July 23 is my dad's birthday and it was a Saturday.  I'm guessing I didn't go on July 22.  That was a Friday and I probably went to some camp party.  The Dodgers won that one 6-5.  The Dodgers lost on my dad's birthday 7-5.  The Dodgers lost 6-0 on July 24.

In 2006 the Dodgers came to New York in September.  I was at Notre Dame for my final semester.  If I went to any games at Shea Stadium that year, I don't remember them.

April 20, 2007- What I remember about this game is that we were in the bleachers out in left field.  It was pretty cold.  The Yankees were playing in Boston and they were leading for most of the game.  Right as we were leaving the game, the out of town scoreboard showed that the Red Sox had either tied it or taken the lead against Rivera.  I was able to figure out which Met game I went to by looking up that Yankee-Red Sox game.  The Mets lost 7-3 against the Braves and the Red Sox beat the Yankees 7-6.

April 24, 2007- Stubhub used to let people auction off tickets.  Somebody put up two tickets for this game with a minimum bid of one cent each.  I put in a maximum bid of one dollar each.  Nobody else ever bid, so I got the tickets for one cent each, but the fees made the total cost about $8 each.  It was scoreless after nine.  The Rockies took a 1-0 lead in the 10th.  Damion Easley tied it with a home run with two outs in the bottom of the 10th.  Endy Chavez drove in the winning run with a bunt single in the 12th.

August 24, 2007, August 25, 2007, and/or August 26, 2007- I probably went to at least one of these games.  Why wouldn't I have?  I don't remember anything about them if I did go, though.  The Mets won the first game 5-2 and the second game 4-3.  The Dodgers won the last game 6-2.

May 29, 2008- This was Joe Torre's first game back in New York after being run out of town by the Yankees.  I remember Blake DeWitt hitting a home run for the Dodgers.  Apparently Jeff Kent also hit one and David Wright hit two.  The Mets won 8-4.

My view for Joe Torre's first game back in New York after managing the Yankees

June 1, 2008- My last Dodgers-Mets game at Shea Stadium (also everybody's last Dodgers-Mets game at Shea Stadium).  Johan Santana against Hiroki Kuroda.  We sat up high.  It was a Sunday night game.  I also remember that it was the night that Game 7 of the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals would have been if the Celtics hadn't won it in six.  I was ready to skip this game to watch the Celtics, but fortunately they took care of business in Game 6 (and then they beat the Lakers and it was wonderful).  Santana was excellent and the Mets won 6-1.  I think this game tied the all-time series between the Dodgers and Mets at Shea Stadium, but I can't find that anywhere.  Attendance was 50,263.

My last Dodgers-Mets game at Shea Stadium and my last time in the upper deck

July 12, 2008- I had forgotten about this one.  I found it when I was going through pictures on my old camera.  We sat in the left field bleachers.  The Mets won 3-0 against the Rockies.

This picture is pretty much the only reason I know I was at this game.

July 27, 2008- My final game at Shea Stadium.  I went with my brothers and my dad.  There was a rain delay, but they played.  We sat in the last row of the loge, where you couldn't see fly balls because of the overhang (I guess that was good with the rain).  Kind of appropriate for my last game at Shea Stadium.  It was Johan Santana against Kyle Lohse.  Santana pitched a complete game.  David Wright, Fernando Tatis, and Ramon Castro hit home runs for the Mets (so Castro's was the last one I saw at Shea Stadium).  Santana also hit a ball off the wall that went for just a single because he didn't run.  The Mets beat the Cardinals 9-1.  Attendance was 53,691.  I knew that would be my last game at Shea Stadium.  It got a little dusty as I was leaving.

My view for my final game at Shea Stadium

So that was Shea Stadium.  It was a dump, but it was the dump where I grew up going to baseball games.  Citi Field is much much nicer, but I doubt I'll ever feel the same connection to Citi Field that I felt to Shea Stadium.

Shea Stadium.  1964-2008.  Rest in Peace.