I finally got to my first baseball game since Dodgers-Mets 648 days earlier. My dad and I went to see the Mets and Braves last Monday. I hope I never have to wait that long between games again. I’m fully vaccinated, New York’s positivity rate is the lowest it’s been since the pandemic started, the attendance restrictions were limited at Citi Field. It was time to get back. I didn’t realize when I bought the tickets that it was the first game without any limits on attendance at Citi Field. I decided to go last Monday because it was a doubleheader. I got two games (sort of) for the price of one.
It was Jacob deGrom against Kyle Muller in the first game. It was cool to see deGrom, who had come into the game hitting .423 and had driven in more runs than he had given up (the DH is so stupid). It was an easy first inning for deGrom and then he was checked by the umpires for illegal substances after the inning. Since this was the first game of umpires checking pitchers and this game started at 5:10, this was the first game where umpires were checking the pitchers. The Mets scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the first. I was rooting for the Braves since the Mets had a better record, but with the Mets taking an early lead and deGrom looking great, I was rooting for the deGrom no-hitter that wasn’t a no-hitter since the game was only seven innings. After getting the first eight batters out, deGrom walked the pitcher. I was happy about this because I was fine with the no-hitter that didn’t count, but I didn’t want a perfect game that didn’t count. But the no-hitter wasn’t to be either. With two outs in the fifth, deGrom gave up a long, but very catchable, fly ball to left center that fell in between Dominic Smith and Albert Almora Jr. There was a runner on first who would have scored, but the ball bounced over the wall to save a run. The Braves ended up not scoring and deGrom was done after five innings. Dominic Smith doubled with the bases loaded in the fifth to give the Mets a 4-0 lead. Ozzie Albies homered to cut the lead in half, but that was all the scoring and the Mets won 4-2.
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| Jacob deGrom throws the first pitch of the first game. |
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| Jacob deGrom gets checked for illegal substances. |
Game 2 was Jared Eickhoff against Ian Anderson. Eickhoff got in trouble in the first, but he was able to get out of it without giving up a run. He ended up pitching four scoreless innings. Ian Anderson pitched five and a third scoreless. Ronald Acuna hit a solo home run in the fifth off of Miguel Castro for the only run of the game. The Mets threatened in the bottom of the seventh. Two singles and a hit by pitch loaded the bases for the Mets with one out. Kevin Pillar lined out to the third baseman who stepped on third and the runner was called out for a double play to end the game. But the Mets challenged and won. But with the bases loaded and two outs, Brandon Drury popped out to end the game and the Braves won 1-0.
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| Jared Eickhoff throws the first pitch of the second game. |
According to mlb.com, attendance was 18,698. That’s what was listed for game 2. They didn’t list attendance for game 1, but it was a single admission doubleheader so official attendance should have been the same. The box scores said it was 82 degrees for game 1 and 77 degrees for game 2. They also said that the wind was blowing out to left. We were looking right down the first base line and the wind was right at our backs. And it was strong. Despite the warm temperatures, it was kind of cold. A sweatshirt definitely would have been helpful. I think the wind died down a little bit for the second game. I didn’t know if we would make it to the end of the second game, but we did. I noticed that the flags out in right field were not blowing wildly. So the wind probably depended on where you were in the stadium.
This was the third time I had tickets for a doubleheader (the first time that I bought tickets after it was decided that it would be a doubleheader). The first time was in 2010 for Dodgers-Mets at Citi Field. That turned out to be a forgettable Dodgers team (the only Dodgers team in the last 15 years to finish below .500) and the Mets swept the two games by a combined score of 14-5. Between the poor performance by the Dodgers and the cold weather, I think we made it no more than halfway through the second game (of course, both games were nine innings back then). I also had tickets for a doubleheader in Hartford in 2017. The minor leagues had already started seven inning games for doubleheaders by then. They played the first game, but then it was looking like a thunderstorm was coming and they delayed the start of the second game. Since it was a minor league game that I didn’t particularly care about and I didn’t know how long the delay would last and I didn’t feel like waiting around in a thunderstorm, I just left after the first game. So this was the first time that I got to go to a doubleheader and see both games. But it was really a game and five-ninths since they only played 14 innings. They did a fifth inning stretch in both games. For the Braves, it was two doubleheaders in two days. For the Mets, it was the first of two doubleheaders in one week (Monday and Friday). Unlike most of the rule changes under Manfred, I was okay with seven inning games in doubleheaders because of games getting cancelled with the pandemic (unlike the magical runner that appears at second base in extra innings and the DH in the NL, which are atrocities). And this was a traditional doubleheader so I got 14 innings for the price of nine. But the previous day, the Braves had a split doubleheader so it was two separate admissions. If I had tickets for a game and then it turned out to be seven innings for the price of nine, I’d be pretty upset. With life getting back to normal, I really hope they go back to nine inning games in doubleheaders next year. But if they don’t, they need to stick with single admission doubleheaders so that fans aren’t getting cheated out of two innings.
I had been waiting a long time to get to a game and have a hot dog and a beer. I don’t always have a hot dog at a baseball game. If there are other options that aren’t outrageously priced, I’ll definitely consider getting something else. But for my first game back, I had to have a hot dog. I’m looking forward to more games with better hot dogs and better beers. I’ve had a lot of hot dogs at Citi Field over the years and I know I’ve had better ones than the one I had last week. The beer was a Braven Bushwick Pilsner, which was quite forgettable. I went with that because the craft beer selection was not good. I’ve definitely had better beers at Citi Field in the past. But this time, the craft beer selection was pretty much all IPAs and pilsners and there was one brown ale from some upstate brewery. I probably would have gone with the brown ale, but I wanted to drink a Brooklyn beer at my first game in almost two years. I’m not completely against IPAs, but that’s not what I’m looking for at a baseball game. And although it was the first games where attendance wasn’t limited, the experience was like attendance was still limited. Many concession stands weren’t open. Everything was credit card only. There were no fixings bars open, but at least they did give me enough mustard packets and it was real mustard, not yellow mustard. I’ll be back at Citi Field for at least one more game this year so I hope it’s a more normal experience with better hot dogs and a better beer selection.
