Lefty Specialist wrote: Speaking of occupation, Lefty Jr reports that there were indeed unidentified armed and masked military thugs outside the park tonight. 'Murica! Gross. We noticed, at least early on, that there were a surprising number of empty seats down front. I wondered if this was a factor in that. I don't understand What do you mean? Edgy I am sorry to hear about your Parish friends. That is awful. I should have said that I noticed this on the TV broadcast, that in the early innings, there were lots of empty seats at field level. Usually the Mets draw a better crowd than that with so many transplanted New Yorkers living in the capitol area. My wife ruminated on the possibility that conditions in the DC area, with all of these fascist military and para-military people actively roaming the streets, may have kept more of those fans home. Later on in the game it looked to have filled in a bit more. Could have just been traffic or weather related, too, for all I know.