IGT 4/23, Mets at Gnats (and forum meeting ...

[Frayed Knot]

AN OUTFIELD RBI ... two of 'em even!!!

The streak is broken.

[TransMonk]

Nymr83 wrote: damnit transmonk! are you jinxing everyone tonight?

Sorry, you can have the Coke Fman owes me.

[Guest Triple Dee]

It's Alive!

[Frayed Knot]

KC wrote: *groan*

Bah-Dum-Ching!

[Fman99]

Time for Billy Big-lip to close the door.

[nymr83]

woohoo, a win!

[Frayed Knot]

Bily still hitless for the season: 26 batters faced, 2 walks, 24 outs.

[Guest AG/DC]

Nothing like a three run rally when you hit the ball a combined 100 feet.

Nice to see the team get some spirit back (particulary Castillo, but Beltran too --- did you see him getting around on Colome?). Two notable not-running-hard moments stand out though --- Santana doubling when he should have been tripling and Churchie singling when he should have been doubling.

All cylanders, men. All.

[Valadius]

Good game. Fun game. Fun win.

Nationals Park is BEAUTIFUL. I'll post some pics I took later. I'm sure our new stadium will kick its ass though.

Metfairy came by in like the third inning and we talked a while. It was great seeing you, metfairy!

We both could not find Edgy. Where the heck were you, man?

And I wasn't able to say hello to bmfc1 because the usher wouldn't let me through. Even in the eighth inning. You had some nice seats.

Additional highlights (and lowlights) of the evening:

Coming out of the Metro, some random Mets fan gave me a fist bump.

The fans behind me were extremely talkative. At one point, they said that Angel Pagan's name is an oxymoron and that he'd never get out of Mississippi alive. They also regarded the Milledge trade as horrible, because they miss Schneider's defense.

The service at the concession stands was HORRIBLE. I've never had to wait that long at a sporting event for food. I must have spent two innings standing there on line.

Overall, a good night, though I yelled myself hoarse.

[Guest AG/DC]

Service all over the park is sketchy. I had to ask four people where will call was, one of them twice.

I stuck in my seats until the second Santana double, and then squeezed down to join G-FaFiF and bfmc1. Yeah that old usher was a stickler, so I called Greg up, he came up and met us, and then we went over another section and slid down.

How about the black hole of $300 seats behind home plate? Nice job, Nats.

Why don't we just agree that every night is forever henceforth Jackie Robinson Night.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

AG/DC - "...Two notable not-running-hard moments stand out though --- Santana doubling when he should have been tripling and Churchie singling when he should have been doubling. "

I'm a big proponent of players hustling and playing hard. I didn't see the game tonight, but just on the surface, I must say that I'm okay with Santana settling for a double rather than possibly injuring himself trying to make a triple. The Mets can't afford for Santana to pull a hamstring or otherwise injure himself by trying to impersonate Reyes.

[Valadius]

He could have gotten a triple, but it might have been close. We'll never know, though.

[Elster88]

avi

[nymr83]

With regard to Santana i don't need the pitcher with the gigantic salary sliding into 3rd going for a triple.
With regard to church, i didnt see the play, they didnt mention it on the radio, at least last year they were usually good enough about mentioning things like "he should have been on 2nd" but i dont know yet with newbie hagan

[Guest AG/DC]

That's all fine and good. Accordign to bfmc, though, Alomar was angry with Santana.

[Valadius]

Nationals Park. Beautiful stadium.



The Capitol in left field.



Pagan takes his base.



Duaner gets ready to fire.



Double-play duo...



The best of buds.



Reyes at the plate.



David takes his cuts.



Castillo singles.



David stands in.



Carlos waits his turn.



Castillo steals second.



Carlos comes to bat.



David leads from first.

[Guest AG/DC]

The folks in the press booth could never get their act together at RFK.

Two notable flubbarinos that indicated the same guys came over were

(1) when Pagan batted and the scoreboard showed Mets - #18 - cf - Jay Payton. He was shown in his Orioles hat for a pitch or two; and

(2) when Duaner Sanchez recorded his first two outs with the scoreboard describing him as Unknown RH. He should have worn a mask.

[Valadius]

I noticed the "Unknown" flub. Didn't see the Pagan one.

[Guest themetfairy]

Val - it was great seeing you also. As well as Greg and bmfc1.

The park IS beautiful! The ushers were crazed, though. At the end of the game we wanted to watch from the outfield so we'd be closer to the exit, and the ushers there wouldn't let us sit in the empty section out there! I can understand the concept of not letting fans upgrade to more expensive tix, but not to let people sit in the cheap seats at the very end of the game? Crazy!

In any event, it was a lovely night to be at a game, and the good guys won

[bmfc1]

I was fortunate to enjoy the game with Greg (FAFIF). We also saw AG and friend as well as The Mets Fairy and family. I was sorry that we didn't see Vladius. Perhaps in August we can have a "meet-up" (how about a [u:e68a07d90f]MBTN [/u:e68a07d90f]book signing?). I think that Greg was impressed by the number of Mets fans. The pleasure of this game helped partially erase, somewhat, the pain from last September's games at RFK.

As mentioned by AG, Sandy Alomar waived Santana to third on his first double (when was the last time you had to say "first double" for a pitcher?). Santana wasn't watching him, or apparently Milledge slowly fielding the ball, so he pulled up at second. Alomar walked to the base and stared at Santana who looked back and pointed to his head (perhaps saying that it was his mental mistake).

[Guest AG/DC]

Sorry, I'll beat down J-Cap, my thieving friend. He'll be at tonight's game also, so he can cough up the goods.

[bmfc1]

Sadly, I won't be able to be there tonight as the Blake Bengals take on the Paint Branch Panthers in JV baseball.

[Frayed Knot]

Santana was hustling out of the box on his first double, he just got a bit indecisive around 2nd then didn't pick up the coach until it was too late and he had lost some of his momentum. He might have made it anyway had he re-kicked it into gear but pulling the parachute was probably the better idea by that point.

Didn't see whether Church was busting it from the git go - but his ball got out there in a hurry and bounced right back to the OFer.

[bmfc1]

"Didn't see whether Church was busting it from the git go - but his ball got out there in a hurry and bounced right back to the OFer."

My seats were just beyond 3B so I had a good view of both the ball and Church ("Churchy" to the locals). He was busting it--he wants to beat the Nationals very badly--and the ball, which was a real shot, bounced right back to the RF.

[metirish]

I want to give credit to Gary Cohen for a brilliant call of Beltran scoring from first and Church going to third on the wild Zimmerman throw , he was in his element.

[Guest AG/DC]

Nats fans are simply clueless, boing Church his first time up. A couple of bims behind me were calling Schneider a traitor. The guy loved playing in Washington. He was sent packing. What are you gonna do?

[Guest AG/DC]

New stadium is looking like a failure. Attendance was 32,780, with a brand new park, a division rival with a lot of out-of-town and expatriate fans, and a lovely night. It was their largest crowd since opening night.

When it's a sweltering August weekday game with Colorado, the place will be Deadsville.

[Benjamin Grimm]

The stadium will be more likely to succeed when there's a better team playing home games there.

[Guest AG/DC]

Yeah, sure, but even Pittsburgh got a few months of new-stadium novelty attendance boost while the team floundered, getting a 41% bump in patrons their first season, even as they won 10% fewer games.

It may be obvious to you that a new stadium is more appealign when a team wins, but it wasn't so much to the DC government who dropped over a half billion tax payer buckaroonies on this place.

Did I mentino my tax return?