Sox snag a fan from Mets

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Sorry to be late on this - we had cable modem issues the last couple of days.

Anyway, enjoy the Sox. I generally pull for them, except where Oakland is involved.

[Guest holychicken]

]The reason for the Sox' lack of defensiveness about their team is obvious: they're the only game in town.

I don't mean to be confrontational, but I disagree with what you find so obvious. I live up here in Boston and get to Fenway as much as I can and have been doing so for the past 5 years. . .and even went to games sporadically for years before that.

Fenway wasn't always the way it is now and what changed was not the fact that the other team in town left, but that they won a Championship. There is a VERY distinct difference this year than last year and even last year was good because there was a lot of hope based on the fact that they improved as a team and got rid of what they thought was the problem: Grady Little.

Alll I have to say is that it is MUCH easier being a NYer in fenway this year than it has in the past. Even as a Mets fan, there was some bitterness for obvious reasons but that has been all but eliminated by the recent success of the Red Sox.

[Guest holychicken]

Oh, BTW, you suck for two reasons.

First, I was at the 12-8. . .that totally sucked.

Second, I have "Sweet Caroline" stuck in my head now.

Thanks :)

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

Wish I'd a known you were a Boston chicken--I woulda suggested meeting. We were staying at a South End hotel, at WP's kind suggestion.

I live for confrontational--gopher it. I realize the mood at Fenway probably picked up some after the Championship--but I've been at dozens of Fenway games over the last thirty years, and it's not like the difference in color between Kansas and Oz, either. It was always a good baseball town, with good informed fans.

I was hoping to see Payton in CF (day game after a night game) but Damon's a player. Now THERE's an example of a dumb-as-a-rock Met for ya....He made Reyes look like the head of neurology at Peter Bent Brigham (I know, I coulda picked any hospital--I just like the idea of one named after a deformed penis.)

[willpie]

This many posts and not a single "Don't let the door hit you in the ass;" that's love, baby.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

It's still early.

Another thing that happened at Wednesday's game was the sheer number of great former players on public display. I've seen more old players at Shea but only on old-timers day or some other special occasion--this was (near as I can tell) just another mid-week day game vs. an out-of-division rival, yet the Sox had Bob Feller (85-year old HOF Cleveland star) throw out the first ball (he wimped out and had his 13 year old grandson do the throwing, which disappointed the hell out of me, as I'd hoped to add Feller to the list of pitchers I have seen throw a pitch live) and they showed Johnny Pesky on the screen sitting in the stands waving to the crowd, and they had Frank Malzone signing autographs in a special autograph spot before the game.

I may be giving the Sox too much credit here--maybe this was a rarity for Fenway as much as its equivalent would be at Shea--but I dug it, and the crowd seemed to really respond to these guys' presence in a big way. (The only classless part was that they IDed Malzone as a shortstop for the Sox in the 50s and 60s--I promptly said "Bullshit, he was a third baseman, a terrific third baseman" to my kid.)

Oh, and after the game, they let fans walk onto the warning track to view the World Series rings. Again, maybe this was a one-time only thing at Fenway, too, but I got more special treats in a single afternoon than I can remember getting in the last decade at Shea.

The other thing they seemed to do right was displaying stuff on the outfield fences--they allow ads on the Green Monstah, but they're all color coordinated, so it doesn't seem as vulgar as in other parks, And the retired numbers on the wall--about 6 or 7, I think, counting number 42 (my first thought "They retired Mo Vaughan's number?") --seemed a nice balance between the scarcity of Mets' numbers (really there's only one player's number up there, 41) and the utter lack of discrimination at Yankee Stadium, where the retired numbers look like the working-out of pi to a hundred decimal places.

Look, I'm not putting the Mets down here--if Fred wanted to do any of this stuff, I'm sure he could buy a shuttle ticket and get the Sox owners to comp him, too. For some reason, they either dont think this stuff is half as cool as I do, or they think it's too expensive, or they think it would be wasted on Mets fans. I don't know why they don't do more of this classy stuff, but they don't. Maybe I was all googly-eyed, like KC says, all blue-and-red-eyed glassesed about seeing this stuff. I'm just saying, I liked it.

A lot.

[metsmarathon]

"(The only classless part was that they IDed Malzone as a shortstop for the Sox in the 50s and 60s--I promptly said "Bullshit, he was a third baseman, a terrific third baseman" to my kid.)"

i've just got this feeling that if the mets had done something like that, it would have been considered to be indicaive of some systematic balh blah blah.

also, mets let kids and old folk run and walk the bases, respectively (tho i doubt they'd push along a slow kid, or trip up a feisty geezer), and i've gone around the warning track of shea for prolly hte past 4-or-5 years now. and today at shea, they had a gen-u-ine hero out there getting some recognition - a real live WW2 medal of honor recipient, NYC's last surviving, apparently, and teh first pitch was tossed by a former ticketbooth guy turned NY's Finest who stopped a robbery at a dunkin donuts while off duty and got stabbed for his trouble (raising the pair of questions - 1. who would be so stupid as to rob a dunkin donuts? and 2. who knew cops went to dunkin donuts while off duty, too?)

i guess it all matters on what day you get there.

hope the grass stays greener for you at fenway.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

"i've just got this feeling that if the mets had done something like that, it would have been considered to be indicaive of some systematic balh blah blah."

Well, as you know, I live to make sweeping and inaccurate remarks about the Mets, which neither reflect reality as I see it nor as any of you view it, just so long as it pisses you off. You, of course, may have "feelings" about things, and may express them freely, while if I were to dare express my own subjective opinions, I get called a whining self-victimizing attention whore, or "Ms. Met." whichever one is worse.

I didn't say the Mets never have deserving people throwing out balls at Shea--they've done it every time I've attended a game. But you know and I know that everyone in the stands goes --what was your expression?--"balh blah blah" while Miss Orange County or the oldest surviving postal worker in the tri-state area or the Executive Vice-President of BankAmerica throws out the first pitch, as they would never do if the Mets honored. say, Warren Spahn AND Ron Hunt AND Donn Clendenon on the same mid-week day game. (I know Spahn's dead--I was just trying to think of an equivalent to Bob Feller.) But if you don't want to take my point, and prefer inventing points I haven't made to mock them, I can't stop you.

Now you may claim that I'm dissing WWII medal winners or that I'm insisting the Mets have never had a former player appear at a game. It's fascinating to guess at your willful misconstructions of my posts--I'd really hate to give up this hobby.

[Guest KC]

>>>Well, as you know, I live to make sweeping and inaccurate remarks about the Mets, which neither reflect reality as I see it nor as any of you view it, just so long as it pisses you off. You, of course, may have "feelings" about things, and may express them freely, while if I were to dare express my own subjective opinions, I get called a whining self-victimizing attention whore, or "Ms. Met." whichever one is worse.<<<

Don't forget caustic fucktard. I still spit up coffee over that one.

Sal, er, Bret, check your work email or pm me a summer email address if you
aren't using that.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

KC wrote: Don't forget caustic fucktard. I still spit up coffee over that one. Sal, er, Bret, check your work email or pm me a summer email address if you aren't using that.

Forget it? I'm trying to find a way to add it permanently to my name. You know, where yours says "admin"?

I last checked my work e-mail six minutes ago. Nothing from you on it.

[Willets Point]

Where's the original "caustic fucktard" post, I missed it.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

Willets Point wrote: Where's the original "caustic fucktard" post, I missed it.

As Henry James was informed (you know the anecdote, of course, WP), "Ye're in it."

Dickshot's followup response on page one of this thread.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

For those who don't know the anecdote: http://www.yougotstyle.org/archives/000055.html

[Willets Point]

Ah, but say it with love:

[soupcan]

Bret Sabermetric wrote: For those who don't know the anecdote: http://www.yougotstyle.org/archives/000055.html

Yo Bret - I want those 3 minutes of my life back please.

[Guest KC]

Re-sent email, please lmk if you don't get it.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

soupcan wrote: ="Bret Sabermetric"]For those who don't know the anecdote: http://www.yougotstyle.org/archives/000055.html Yo Bret - I want those 3 minutes of my life back please.

I'm just overly fond of anecdotes where a wordy gasbag gets sent up.

[Willets Point]

I'm looking forward to Bret returning to proclaim his newfound love for the Chicago White Sox.