Two Fourth Place Teams and Other Thoughts

After seeing the Dodgers at Citi Field back in July, I was hoping to get to at least one more baseball game this summer.  Vin invited me to a Met game so we saw the Mets and Pirates at Citi Field.  It was two teams that were not going anywhere, but it was good to see Vin and I’m always up for going to a game in the summer.

I took the train to the game and met Vin at Citi Field.  The Citi Field Long Island Railroad station looks like it was built as a giant Eagle Scout project 45 years ago.  It is very dilapidated.  It’s not handicap accessible and it’s definitely in need of a fresh coat of paint.  You walk up the stairs from the platform and then you walk across a bridge that goes over the train tracks.  The bridge is made out of very uneven wooden boards.  So yeah, they could definitely rebuild that and make it nicer.

Anyway, we both arrived early for Edwin Diaz Bobblehead Night.  Can Timmy Trumpet play a sad trombone?  Before the game we went to the DeltaSky 360° Club and got spicy chicken sandwiches.  Then we got Sam Adams Summer Ale.  It was my first Summer Ale on tap of the year.  I usually have a local beer at a baseball game, but I don’t feel obligated to follow that rule in New York since I live here and I can get beer from around here whenever I want.  And since I hadn’t had a Summer Ale on tap all year and it might have been my last opportunity to get one, it was an easy choice.  Every Major League stadium should have Summer Ale on tap as it is the perfect outdoor beer when the weather is good.

The starting pitchers were David Peterson and Bailey Falter.  The Mets took a 1-0 lead on a lead off home run by Brandon Nimmo.  He just missed a lead off home run at the last game I went to (his lead off double ended up being the only hit for the Mets).  The Pirates tied it with a home run in the second.  That was all both starters allowed.  Peterson only lasted three and two-thirds because he walked six guys.  Falter lasted five and a third.  It was 1-1 until the 7th.  The top of the 7th did not go well for the Mets.  Jose Butto got one out and allowed a walk, a double, and another walk.  The Mets brought in Grant Hartwig with the bases loaded.  He walked the first batter he faced, hit the second one, had a run score on a passed ball, and gave up a two-run double before he got an out.  After getting an out, he gave up another run on a triple.  So the Pirates led 7-1.  The Mets had back to back home runs in the bottom of the 7th to make it 7-4.  And that was all the scoring in the game.  Attendance was 35,439 and it was 78°.  There was a threat of rain, but that held off until after the game.  The game ended up going three hours and 12 minutes (the Mets walking 10 batters had a lot to do with that) so that was probably the longest game I’ve been to this season.  We both left early.  Vin had to get back to Manhattan and then get a ferry to New Jersey.  I had seen enough after seven innings of two bad teams.

It's been a while since I sat this close at a Major League game.

After the game, both teams were 54-66 and in fourth place.  The Mets are paying $376 million (including luxury tax) and the Pirates are paying $93 million for the same season.  Pittsburgh is one of my favorite cities and they have a great stadium so I wish they would spend more money and put together a better team.  I have mixed feelings about the Mets.  I do hope that they win a World Series someday for all the Met fans that I know.  And baseball is more fun in New York when the Mets and Yankees are good.  But I also like when they’re bad so that I can get cheap tickets when the Dodgers are in town.  This Mets team is pretty much my worst case scenario.  They’re really bad, but tickets and everything else (parking, food, etc.) are really expensive because of how much money they’re spending.

Thanks to Vin for the great seats and the food and beverage.  The last time we had gotten together was before the pandemic.  It was the Big East Championship Game in 2019.  It had been far too long so it was great to see Vin.  We talked about the Jets and Vin was very optimistic about the season.  It has to be better than this Mets season has been, right?  Right?  I hope so.

Summer is coming to an end.  It’s been an excellent summer for the Dodgers (pretty much starting right after I saw them in Kansas City).  Hopefully they can continue that into the fall.  And now I’m starting to think about other sports.  The NBA released the schedule for the in-season tournament the day we went to this game.  The in-season tournament is the dumbest idea Adam Silver has ever had.  Winning the in-season tournament would be like the NBA version of winning the Pinstripe Bowl.  Am I supposed to be happy about that?  Why would fans care?  The only reason to care is that the games count in the standings.  But they count exactly the same as every other regular season game.  So yeah, I hope the Celtics win those games, but I don’t care about them because they’re part of a tournament.  Actually, the one game that doesn’t count in the standings is the championship game (because it’s the 83rd game for those two teams).  If the Celtics get to that game, I definitely won’t care.  The players might care about the money that they get for winning.  The money will matter for some players, but it definitely won’t matter for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.  If I was Brad Stevens and Joe Mazzulla, I would sit all the highly paid players if I got to the championship game.  The game doesn’t count and those guys don’t need the money.  Say to the other guys, “If you want the money, you go win it.”  And if the Celtics do win it, I would be angry if they hung a banner.  It means nothing.

College football starts on Saturday.  Hopefully it will be a year of growth for Marcus Freeman.  He had two really stupid losses last year.  He did some good things too.  I thought we might be headed for a 5-7 season or something and he was able to avoid that.  The Clemson win was fantastic.  We should get much better quarterback play this year so we can’t have any more of the stupid losses.  Hopefully we will win at least two of Ohio State, Southern Cal, and Clemson this year and not lose any stupid games.  It’s the last year of college football before some really stupid changes with realignment and it’s the last season before a really stupid 12-team playoff will greatly diminish the importance of the regular season.  So I’ll try to enjoy this season as much as possible.  I'm pretty excited about Notre Dame playing the first game of the season in Ireland (we were supposed to be the first game of the season three years ago, but that got cancelled).  I was there the last time we were in Ireland and that was fun.  This weekend is supposed to be the largest influx of Americans into Europe since World War II.  I won't be there this time, but hopefully we'll win by 40 and it will be our first win on our way to an undefeated regular season like it was in 2012 (but hopefully we'll get a better finish this time).  Go Irish!