IGT - 9/10/13 -- Nats @ Mets

[bmfc1]

Apparently TC forgot that Hairston killed left-handers last season.

[Frayed Knot]

We've had warning track power tonight.
They haven't.

[Frayed Knot]

I have no particular reason to dislike Raphael Soriano - but I do.
Maybe it's just that sour puss look on his face all the time.

[Edgy MD]

Tying run d'Eck.

[Zvon]

That Hairball homer knocked the wind out of my sails. lil bit.

[Zvon]

Keith says in his wrap: "..just too much hitting by the Nats." Ha, yea.

[Fman99]

September stinks.

[Vic Sage]

just got home from the game; wow, what a total snooze. never felt like we were in it, even after the DenDekker hit got us to 4-3.

TC over managed us right out of it, too -- why take Francisco out, with 1 out in a close game? He brings in Byrdak to pitch to some guy named Brown? WTF? Francisco doesn't have some huge platoon differential, i don't think. He was throwing all right. If he brings in a LOOGY there, you KNOW Davey is going to counter with Scott "all i can do in this game is hit lefties" Hairston. And kaBOOM. gee who didn't see THAT coming?

I had good seats at least. And the lack of any other human beings within spitting distance was both pleasant and disappointing. No line at Shake Shack! No traffic, no trouble parking. I tell ya, it reminds me of all those enjoyable outings in the late 70s; we sucked but it sure was easy to get tix, to get in and out, to get concessions, to get to the bathroom. All you had to do was put up with them trading away Seaver and watch Willie Montanez play 1b.

[MFS62]

Clap for Jayson Werth.
No.
Not Applause.
I hope he gets a case of it.

Later

[Edgy MD]

Even more grave than the notion that all Hairston can do is hit lefties is the notion that all Byrdak can do is pitch to lefties.

I mean, Byrdak isn't just a lefty --- he's a 40-year-old, BS-dealing, journeyman, junkballing, good-quote spewing, briefly effective in his senior years, lefty specialist coming off a year of rehabbing. He was meat for the likes of Hairston --- even the interstate-hitting version of Hairston.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I do believe Hairy was summoned to PH for their guy after Byrdy came in to get their scheduled lefty. I think. I dunno. Of course that ruined the Brown-PHing-For-Qunitanilla-Walkoff-HR we were all hoping to get in the bottom of the inning.

I did however predict that Hairy HR (as well as LaRoche's HR earlier, just ask my friend who was there with me).

We began up in 519, spent an inning behind the foul pole in the 400s, caught the rally from the bridge and would up in center field where I caught up to others I knew. The usher guy tried denying us entry there initially. DO NOT ENTER THIS SECTION WITH 300 EMPTY SEATS AND 15 OCCUPIED ONES EVEN TO SAY HELLO TO A FRIEND.

We just don't represent any kind of threat to anyone, and we're back down to 15 under .500 again, so we've officially undone the good work since June.

I like Lagares but Brown should be in right field.

[Edgy MD]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: We just don't represent any kind of threat to anyone...,

A statement that could refer to the Mets' offense, but NOT to JCL trying to enter the center field seats.

[Edgy MD]

You know, it strikes me that buying $50 seats and moving after a few innings to some $100 ones that are unpurchased, unoccupied, and unloved is dyamic pricing, and teams who are little bit strategic about allowing it could win at the marketing game. They probably had been winning all along and never knew it.

I mean, you kind of feel stupid and lonely and ripped off if you're the only ones sitting alone in a gated community. Sure, let some of the rabble in, as long as they don't abuse the upgrade with obnoxious behavior.

By the way, my experience from two games with DGWPhotography at a relatively packed Shea tells me he is the king of the free upgrade. Spotting a group of seats the exact same size as our party through his telephoto lens, and finding an approach that bypasses any ushers, and we're rooting from the sweet seats for the next seven innings. And the camera was a great diversion, because if we did run into any 108-year-old staffers, they'd give his a little shit about his camera and forget to check our stubs. WIN!

[G-Fafif]

Paid $12.70, fees included, for the first row of Promenade behind home plate, 516, on StubHub. Flashed my Citi card and received the Tuesday night $10 card for concessions. So $2.70 for a very good view of a slightly not altogether awful ballgame. Couldn't beat the weather. I enjoyed the glimpses of d'Arnaud and den Dekker doing their respective things and extrapolated their potential in my dreams. I admired Gee not totally falling apart when he could have, Feliciano coaxing a DP, Black with a scoreless inning, Francisco finding his way back...I didn't even really mind Hairston's home run, exactly, as I kind of knew it was coming and its landing spot reminded me of the one he hit the day of Dana Brand's Shea-marker memorial (we sat in LF Landing then and he hit it practically right to us). I'll give most ex-Mets a pass for one HR upon return provided it's not killing us or it's not hit in MFY gray. My buddy Rob and I extended our streak of at least one game a year attended together to 19. Seems most years lately we wait until September to put it in the books. Certainly allows for quiet during which to conduct conversations.

After two consecutive nights of watching up close and personally as the Nats bashed eight home runs, I have to admit I'm impressed in a gawking at the carnival manner at how hard they're hitting the ball. I don't endorse it, but it's actually objectively impressive. Can't get too worked up over Torres or Gee giving them up given their recent track records. Greg Burke on the other hand can return to his submarine at any time.

Noticed airplanes overhead almost nonstop, as if they were waiting for the US Open to clear out before they knew they wouldn't disturb anybody. It was the most planes I can recall flying directly overhead at Citi Field. Kind of a Shea throwback, if one is charitable.

More discordant, noisewise, was that there was a cover band concert going on inside the ballpark for most of the game. Reminded me of the cheerleaders in Bring It On deciding to use their school's football games as practice for their own competitions.

Waiting in Section 109 of Citi Field Tuesday evening, 17-year-old Sydney Schizzano admitted that she was pretty nervous. She and 13 other students from Rock and Roll University in Hauppauge were about to join a list that included Dave Matthews Band and Sir Paul McCartney. �It�s the waiting that�s the worst part,� said Schizzano, of Smithtown. Not only was the group about to perform an 8-minute concert before the start of the New York Mets game versus the Washington Nationals, but Schizzano, one of the oldest in the group, had also been tapped to sing the national anthem. Schizzano has been singing since she was 6. Her first gig was providing vocals for her uncle�s cable TV show, �Kid Fitness,� and she�s performed at numerous showcases and events with Rock and Roll University during the past two years. �This venue is definitely the most exciting and threatening at the same time,� she said. Meanwhile, the group�s youngest member, Brandon Niederauer, 10, of Dix Hills, kept cool by eating ice cream out of a bowl shaped like a Mets baseball cap as he waited. Although Niederauer, who goes by the nickname �Taz,� only started playing guitar a few years ago, Bill Mignoli, Rock and Roll University�s music director, said he is a natural talent. The fifth grader has already performed at the House of Blues in New Orleans and with members of the Allman Brothers Band. Although the school, which opened in the summer of 2011, has more than 200 students of various ages and experience levels, Mignoli said the group selected to perform Tuesday is �the absolute best of the best.� The opportunity to play at Citi Field came after Mignoli, 52, of Hicksville, received a call from a group ticket sales rep for the Mets. Mignoli said he told the rep he�d consider a group tickets package for his students and their families only if the school could perform on the field. Weeks later, he said he was surprised to learn his proposal was actually accepted. �Many of the things I have done in my life that have turned out to be successful have been on a lark and this was one of those things,� he said. With both teams in their respective dugouts and a few thousand people in the stands, the group performed four songs � Journey�s �Don�t Stop Believin�,� Stevie Wonder�s �Higher Ground� and �I Wish,� and Guns N� Roses� �Sweet Child O� Mine� -- on the field minutes before the game. Their sound included electric guitars, keyboards, drums, saxophones and a trombone. Then, after Schizzano sang the anthem, the band reunited on the Pepsi Porch that overlooks the outfield, where they played throughout the duration of the game for family, friends, fellow students and Mets fans. �We got out there and killed it,� said guitarist Anthony Sexton, 17, of Lake Grove, who is both a student and instructor at the school. �We rehearsed for months, so all that hard work paid off.� Niederauer described the experience as �awesome� and �once in a lifetime.� �It was just really fun,� he said. �What kids get to perform at Citi Field?�

Only truly sour note (besides the final score): The "This Date in Mets History" feature on the video screen reported Jim Hickman drove in the winning run in the nightcap of the sweep that put the Mets in first place for the first time ever in 1969. Neat trick, given that Hickman was on the Cubs by then.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I also noted the plane traffic overhead, quite a throwback.

[Frayed Knot]

Which was louder, the planes or the band?

[G-Fafif]

Sitting diametrically opposite the band, I'd have to say the planes. But the band was persistent in its obliviousness to what was transpiring on the field.

[Vic Sage]

kudos to the kids for following their dreams... but, man, did they suck or what?

and the unofficial seat upgrade thing... i never could get the hang of it. I'm always either refused entry or kicked out soon after. I think they can smell my fear. And even when i'm not kicked out, i'm constantly looking around, wondering if the ushers are coming for me or if the guy whose seat i'm in has shown up yet, and not really focusing on the game. Its a distracting way to watch a game; i'd just as soon sit in crappy seats that i know i have a ticket for than put up with that sort of emotional insecurity.

And last night, when i so obscenely overpaid for my behind-home tix, i think i would've been more than a little pissed off if folks who paid $10 for upper deck seats sat down next to me. Not that i begrudge them the right to try, and not that i deny my own feelings about it could generously be categorized as petty and small, but that's how i'd feel. I guess i should just take it up with my therapist.