Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah: Camp Day IGT 7/24

[Centerfield]

Like he said, lots of gay porn today.

[Guest themetfairy]

Mets Fast Forward won't have to skip ahead much in this one - running time of today's game was 2:18. Very quick by today's standards.

[Benjamin Grimm]

The Phillies must have been very eager to get out of first place.

[Guest AG/DC]

As much as tack-on runs, I like when an IGT has tack-on pages after a win.

[G-Fafif]

Maybe not as epic as breaking the MGIM streak, but I do believe bmfc1 was in attendance today, up from our nation's capital for the final time, sons and father in two, three generations of fc's (as it were) in their last game at Shea. And what a game they chose!

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: The Phillies must have been very eager to get out of first place.

No shit. If we don't manage to give away a near-certain victory in the opener here, we'd really be dancing on their graves today.

As it is, 9 outta 13 for the good guys. This is really starting to resemble last year in reverse.

[G-Fafif]

Billy after the game on the potential irony of Jimmy Rollins standing in the way of the Mets.

"He's not Barry Bonds. He's Jimmy Rollins."

The assembled multitudes around his locker gave out and "oooh..." Wagner didn't flinch.

[Benjamin Grimm]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: No shit. If we don't manage to give away a near-certain victory in the opener here, we'd really be dancing on their graves today.

I know. I'm trying not to dwell on that. If not for one miserable inning, the Mets would have a three-game lead.

[G-Fafif]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: ="John Cougar Lunchbucket"] No shit. If we don't manage to give away a near-certain victory in the opener here, we'd really be dancing on their graves today. I know. I'm trying not to dwell on that. If not for one miserable inning, the Mets would have a three-game lead.

OR...the Phillies regroup after playing dead Tuesday night, sweep the next two and have all the momentum.

You never know how these things are going to go. Two in a row after what happened is the reality. And it's quite pleasant.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Exactly. Baseball is full of might-have-beens. As things stand right now, more of them have gone in our favor this year than haven't.

[Guest holychicken]

Since the win today I have been going back and forth between the "damn it! We could have been 3 games up!" and the "WOO HOO! After that first game I figured we would be lucky to finish this series only one game back!"

[Valadius]

I'll take it. Now hopefully the Marlins will pass the Phillies and the Phillies will keep collapsing.

And is it just me, or is the Rollins = Jeter media comparison similarity score going way, WAY up?

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Valadius wrote: I'll take it. Now hopefully the Marlins will pass the Phillies and the Phillies will keep collapsing. And is it just me, or is the Rollins = Jeter media comparison similarity score going way, WAY up?

Does Rollins have an Edge ad yet?

[Guest holychicken]

metsguyinmichigan wrote: Does Rollins have an Edge ad yet?

Nope. But he did just contract herpes.

[bmfc1]

As G-Fafif was nice enough to mention, I was at Shea today w/my father and two sons. I paid way too much to sit in good seats as it was probably our last time at Shea but we got every pennies worth. As I looked around, I thought about going to Shea with my friends in '69 (as a parent, I can't imagine letting an 11 year old go with his friends and no parents to a game, but times were different); about paying ushers to get into better seats; about my old friend Seth Sevin who fell down the stairs in the Upper Deck and lost some teeth (we were about 13); about being at Shea for Dwight Gooden's one hitter against the Cubs; about being there when Gooden set the rookie K record; about our year with season tickets in '87 and the guy two seats over who brought a different date each time and gave each one a plastic drink tumbler.

We stopped by the Diamond Club to see the trophies and Mets HOF'ers, and then a real life star walked by, Ron Darling. Our seats were as comfortable as Shea seats can be but Shea looked beautiful to us. The game was, as you know, fantastic. When Bruntlett was announced as a late replacement for Rollins, I said to my son that he would probably get three hits. Ding! There were a lot of Phillies fans near us on the 3B side but they behaved as well as they can, given their rooting interest.

The atmosphere was like a playoff game. I got a T-shirt in the T-shirt launch (it was thrown in our direction). The operative view has to be that our guys are resilient, and, unlike the '07 team, can "take a punch", rather than "if Wagner was healthy, they would have swept."

As we left, I looked around at the maze of ramps, listened to the excited fans ("We're number 1!" "Yankees suck!" "Phillies suck!"), I hugged the boys and said "thanks" to Shea, one last time.

Edited July 24, 2008 by Guest

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

sniff

something in my eye

/wipes

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

It's great to return home from work read through such an enjoyable IGT.

Glad the three generations of fc's had a great time. Nice to go out with a win.

[soupcan]

holychicken wrote: Since the win today I have been going back and forth between the "damn it! We could have been 3 games up!" and the "WOO HOO! After that first game I figured we would be lucky to finish this series only one game back!"

2 of 3 is what you want going into any series. That's what they got. Be happy. Balls could've bounced a number of different ways today or last night.

Nice read bmfc, I'm glad you got a win today.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Just watching the replay now. Romero made two excellent plays there against Reyes and Chavez.

Hate that bunt there just the same.

[Guest themetfairy]

bmfc1 - I'm glad that you and the family had such a great day

[Guest Mendoza Line]

I took the day off from work and found myself in the next to the last row of the mezzanine (just to the 1B side of home plate), getting the mail-slot view of the field.

It's really not a bad view...all you miss are the Diamond Vision replays and some really high pop flies. It's definitely a better view than what I would have gotten from Gameday at the office.

Mr. Met stopped by to visit our section and tossed around a few t-shirts. After some thought, I decided it was probably best to keep my 43-year-old butt in my seat rather than compete with the kiddies for the shirts. Gotta admit it was tempting, though.

My section must have been better behaved than bmfc's - I heard "Phillies Suck" chants, but no "Yankees Suck" chants, and none of the chanters were specific as to what it was that the Phillies sucked. There were a lot of red and white t-shirts in the stands, but the Phillies phans were generally well-behaved, as Phillies phans go.

Hope the kids enjoyed the Shea experience.

I'm now running a three-game winning streak at Shea. Celebrated by walking around Flushing for a couple of hours with a big smile on my face.

About the game -

Given that there wasn't much hitting going on today, I wasn't virulently opposed to bunting in the bottom of the 8th. But if the bunt had to be on, why not let Reyes swing away and bunt Endy and his weak OPS? Sure, there's some risk that Reyes hits into a DP. I'll take that risk, all day, every day if it means that Reyes gets a chance to hit rather than Endy.

Of course, if Evans/Chavez had been at the bottom of the order where they belonged, Endy and his weak OPS wouldn't have been an issue.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Sometime soon you hope Jerry realizes these sac bunts are all huge favors to the opposition and don;t help his guys too much.

There must have been 5 in this series alone that didn't work as intended.

[metirish]

When the Mets are going great like in the '06 season I didn't really care to hear the yankees suck chants that were nearly a nightly occurrence at Shea , I think after a while it was embarrassing in a way . We were so far in front with the division in hand and every now and then during a game I would hear the chant coming from the telly.

But they do suck.