Let’s start here…
Whoa dial it down London Series Programme Writer! Who told you LGM is tongue-in-cheek? Not true. The writer did mention all our big time Comedian Fans, but probably should have mentioned that they only attend games the first two weeks of April when the Mets are 5-2 before the comedians go back on tour.
I’m at Heathrow right now, and by the way Heathrow has its act together. If you work at an American Airport you should hire the #2 guy from Heathrow to run your airport right now.
I attended both games of the London Series. On Saturday I sat in the outfield, 200 metres from home plate as those of us in the Central Line Expeditionary Force like to do. Sunday I had some pretty snazzy seats. You can’t even see the netting.
THE STADIUM: Just fine. Like if you took a 1970’s multipurpose stadium’s idea of a stadium and built it for the 2012 Olympics. It’s not Wrigley Field but it’s not bad. Perfectly fine. Sightlines were fine. Easy enough to get to. A bit crowded leaving but no worse than leaving any event with 60,000 people.
Speaking of the netting it went all the way to the top ring of whatever the proper term for sun shade thing is. That said, THREE balls managed to get over that netting and come down on poor baseball fans. Potentially very dangerous. Even more netting now! Even putting the netting to the top of the stadium was not enough!
The park played fine…I don’t know if it was the heat+astroturf+385 feet to center field…but you saw the score. The endless foul territory wasn’t bad, and even from a sightline perspective was not awful.
THE CROWD: On Saturday the singing of God Save The Queen revealed that there were either lots and lots of locals or just people who prefer to sing that over the Star Spangles Banner. SSB was performed first in case you are curious. Sunday in the expensive seats was 90% Americans.
We immediately noticed lots of fans of all MLB teams. We eventually saw all 30 teams plus the Expos being represented in jersey form. There were also a decent amount of Mets guys. (I also have a pic of a Piazza guy somewhere. I dunno, I’m at the airport man and used three camera and didn’t get to sort the pics yet. )
I repped the London Mets! When I travel internationally I like to lay low, and when I attend Yankees games I like to lay low….this disguise worked well as some people congratulated us for the fine job “we” at the London Mets do. Yes, cheers mate!
THE BUZZ: Don’t believe what TV told you. Don’t believe what MLB tells you. There was…I cannot say this loudly enough……ZERO BUZZ on this. You know the amount of buzz a Brooklyn Islanders game has on a Tuesday night as you went about your business (drat I can’t compare them to the Nets now – oh and please stop pretending you have always been a Nets fan. You haven’t.) – anyway the amount of buzz a Brooklyn Islanders game has…or maybe an NYCFC game…..LESS buzz than that. Unless you were at the event, and the event was like having it in say Floyd Bennett Field…..ZERO visability. Not a sign. nothing. NOTHING. ZERO. I cannot stress this enough. NONE.
And last night at the pub….overheard a conversation about Kevin Durant.
London Tourism sure did well. There were definitely a lot of people from Boston and New York around, but no, baseball did not take over the city AT ALL.
Here’s one – Dan and I wanted to go to the Pop-up store. Maybe we could buy some merchandise. Here’s the MLB DOT COM link to an address and I used Google maps from MLB’S LINK. This is not me being stupid.
When you follow that map you come to….
A jewelry store! Great job MLB.
On-site…not all that much merch. A bunch of boring tees that basically said London Series. Surprisingly they did not sell this cap which I bought in the states..
THE EVENT ITSELF: A perfectly fine American Baseball Game Experience. I had to keep reminding myself that the game wasn’t for me/you/us but for them. So things like the Yankees wearing home uniforms was weird…but hey let the British see the iconic uniform. As a spectator, white vs. white was the most confusing thing ever. I would totally lose track of who was up or who was who. On Sunday the Red Sox wore Red which solved it.
For a league that sells every holiday under the sun, they may want to go with custom jerseys for these games. I know if you offered me a Mets jersey with maybe the lettering colored the way it is in the cap above I would buy one.
I liked MLB 101…
I loved the mascot race! Freddie won Day 1, Henry VIII day two.
They did Kiss Cam, Take Me Out To The Ballgame, and the highlight of the weekend – and I am being serious here – was Sweet Caroline.
If you wanted an authentic American baseball game, you got it.
THE ACTUAL BASEBALL PART: Have I ever mentioned how bad baseball is these days? I was witness to THE WORST BASEBALL GAME EVER PLAYED. It took place Saturday in London. We left in the middle of the 5th.
Now you are like – you flew all the way to London and didn’t even stay five innings????
THAT’S RIGHT.
As the middle of the 5th hit it had been THREE HOURS. Kitchens close. Pubs lock their doors at 10 (if you already inside you can keep drinking in the place you’re already in.)
So – should we sit here for two more hours or was three hours enough and go see London Go see London.
Sunday’s game was better – better being a relative term – but I did stay for the entire game. Then we got to a pub at 9:05 and the kitchen was closed. SEEEEEEEE!!!
You can barely see the netting.
Below, the Fan Fest thing. This is like 2 minutes before the game on Sunday hence the emptiness. Typical stuff you have seen at the All Star Fan Fest – batting cages and such. Fun. Well done.
CONCESSIONS: Not that many vendors. Plenty of tents on the outside outer ring. Lines long but not Shea Stadium bad and they moved. I heard the hot dogs weren’t so good. I had some bland nachos (wasn’t hungry). Saturday I got a sausage something (British pastry sausage thing, not Italian-American street festival kind) that was pretty good. Prices were slightly below Stadium Outrageous….you would thing they were “good” but then you have to remind yourself that a pound is not a dollar so that “6” is actually 6 pounds and not 6 bucks. Check your local conversion rates.
And that’s that. Very glad I came. London was fab. MLB’s Baseball Event was just fine. MLB’s Grow The Sport a fail. London Tourism Wins. Actual Baseball is horribly broken.
