15

Well this was a frustrating one. I guess as a diehard fan, you could say that every loss is a frustrating one: A blowout, a close high scoring game, a close low scoring game. But tonight's game was rough for a couple of reasons. For starters, the Mets offense couldn't get anything done! Walks, hits, small ball, utilize speed, nothing! And it's a tough pill to swallow as a fan because we just saw them sweep a very good team on the road, the Brewers. So all the fans were pumped to see the surging Mets continue their winning ways against the hated Phillies, especially with tons of Philadelphia residents in attendance. For a team that's won nothing, how obnoxious and arrogant are those fans? No joke, I heard an E-A-G-L-E-S chant in the 8th innning. I don't EVER want to hear Philadelphia considered a good baseball town again. Terrible. Who cares about football in the 8th inning of a very important September game. The football season hasn't even started yet.

Bret 'wife beater' Myers was incredible and struck out ten. It pains me to type this. I want to erase and rephrase the statement. But I will refrain from doing so because he shut us down. Case closed. Sure, we had chances but they were too few and far between. 3 hits in 8 innings. Tough to get momentum established that way. Daniel Murphy continues to prove he's already a big time hitter. 2 hits, both doubles. Already a fan favorite. I saw a guy wearing a Murphy shirt. That was pretty damn awesome. But nobody else could hit or drive him in. Ugh! On the defensive side, I got frustrated very early in the first inning, because of a seemingly harmless one out single by Shane Victorino (I despise that man). I knew that would come back to haunt us because Victorino plays like he belongs in Cooperstown when he plays us. So naturally, he stole second, and on the throw by Schneider in an attempt to throw him out, throws the ball in the outfield, allowing him to advance to third. A ground out later, and the jerk scores. 1-0 at 7:15 PM. Great! Pelfrey was amazing and as advertised. You won't hear me complain about him the rest of the season. He made one big mistake in the 7th with two out and two strikes, one man o., Gregg Dobbs (you gotta love these no names that rise to the occasion) hits a ball to right that just seemed to carry and carry. I really thought Church was going to find a way to grab that ball. He almost did. But after he jumped at the wall and crotched in anger afterwards, it took the life out of me, my friends, and the crowd. 2 run homer. 3-0 Phils.

The crowd was relatively quiet the entire affair until the 9th when Lidge got into a real jam. The bats came alive and fans, inculding myself, had the sense that this time was gonna find a way to get the big hits and win it. Two on with one out, one swing could tie it. Lidge was wild, giving up a couple of hard hit balls and losing the strike zone. Beltran, who's been on a bit of a tear was up. On a 3-1 pitch, he swings and flies out to left. Damn! Looking at the replay at home, it looked to be a ball too. I won't complain about his aggressivness though. Especially seeing Luis Castillo strike out looking 3 times! I'm usually calm about things like that, but I screamed after that 3rd one, 'Swing the bat!!" Seriously,, play Easley and A. Reyes, will you? Nobody wants to see him hit anymore. Then with two outs, Church hit the ball a ton, but right to...wait for it...Victorino. Mets lose. Phils now just two games back.

It's just one game but a few things bothered me. Wright is one of my favorite players, but his recent offensive slump is a bit of a concern. We all know how great he is, but I worry that he's trying to hard and pressing. We need him to be clutch if we want to win this division. If he doesn't relax at the plate, it's bad news. Now I'm thinking and hoping that he's just a bit tired and a day off will fix this (although the entire team had one off Thursday). We'll see. Second, as a paranoid Mets fan or just a paranoid person in general, I can't help but think back to last season and how we just let this team walk all over us. I don't want that feeling again! Please, for the love of God, just play this team like you've been playing them all season long. Time will tell if history will repeat itself...Duh.

The bullpen continues to be pretty stellar. Wow. Did I just say that? Keep it up Stokes. ANd Rincon, all you had to do was throw one pitch and you moved above Heilman in my list of options.

I wish I could throw some pics on here. I brought my camera and as I was about to take a shot of the new Citi Field sign displayed at the right side of the park, the batteries had run out. So I don't have pictures and I didn't bring the scorecard book tonight. But tomorrow's another day...Well probably not due to the rain.

I will say that I was a little disappointed with tonight's attendance. There was a good turn out but the entire left side of the upper reserved section was empty! How! This is crunch time people. September against the Phillies. Let's at least get 50,000 in there. Almost a year ago on a Friday night, the place was packed for a game against the Phils. Weird...Maybe it was the fear of rain or maybe the fans are just scarred.

Not so funny story, my friend and I bought the tickets on the Mets site for 30 bucks a pop because we were afraid of a big crowd. A few hours after purchase our friend calls us and has 14, yes 14 free tickets!! That didn't make me a happy man. Terrible timing. I should've known then and there it wasn't gonna be our night.

Typically I don't get food at Shea, due to prices and options. I frankly get tired of chicken tenders, soggy fries and hot dogs. And a beer?! Forget it. But I didn't eat all day and was forced to shell out the 7 or 8 bucks, who's counting now. I try to forget about the price and I think it's working. I did get free pudding out of it, but it wasn't very good. Too warm.

As I said, there were lots of Phillie fans in the stands. A few that sat right behind us. This is probably why I saw security working overtime tonight. Lots of ejections. Lots of explitives. Lots of idiots.

Well now it's time for My Shea Memories. I've decided to cap off the first segment with my first game ever at Shea (sort of). It was 1994. My friend and his parents took me for my birthday. I was just really getting into the NBA and the Knicks but this trip would give birth to an insane and epic era. It was a hot July day. Of course everyone remembers 94 as the year shortened season because of greedy people. But it was my first real taste of baseball. I believe I went to Shea earlier, when I was 5 but I don't fully remember. i could just be making that up in my head. Anyway, back to July 94. It was Old Timer's day and I got a free reprinted program of the 1969 World Series which I still have in my room. I don't remember too much about it, but obviously they were honoring the 69 Mets. Here's what I do remember. The Mets sucked that day. It's only fitting that my first game of recollection was a loss. A blowout at that. It was definitely a rude awakening. They played the Padres and lost something like 8-1, 10-1. I forget, but it was rough. I did get a picture of myself posing as Met and it was put on a mock baseball card. It's on the right side of the site. It was a great day. I came home to a mini surprise birthday my parents had thrown for me in our now cat infested backyard. My grandmother was in the hospital that month and passed on later that month so it was a very sad and eye opening time for me. But days like that picked my young spirits up and it stuck with me.
So there's memory number 1. Looking forward to writing 14 more! I have hundreds but let's keep the number small for now..

So the game tomorrow is in serious jeopardy. It's at 3:55 but the forecast calls for heavy rain all day until midnight so it doesn't look good. If it does rain out, I'll indeed be there Sunday for the day-night doubleheader. Always tough to sweep those but who knows. Pedro and Johan! I just really hope they don't jerk us around and call the game early. There's nothing worse than taking a 1.5 hour train ride just to see a goofy picture of mr. met on diamond vision with a sign that reads rain delay or postponement! FAK! Call it by noon please and I'll be happy.

In any event, I'll check in tomorrow. Tough loss but the 2008 Mets WILL get through it. I promise you this. Later.