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Peter’s Trip To New York Mets Citi Field

A guest post:

We were at Sunday’s Pirate game, Excelsior level (Left Field Landing), sec
334, row 7, next to the Acela club windows.

We were in shade as the sun hit at about row 4-5.


Could not see the big scoreboard which is usually not such a problem. There
were several flat screens which appeared to show either the big scoreboard
or the SNY feed but they were behind us so you had to look five rows back
and over to the next section if you really wanted to see the scoreboard.

The field was partially obstructed. We could not see the warning track or
back wall in left or center field. We could see Beltran and Murphy in
position but any ball hit in back of them was lost to view.

There were two balls hit off the wall by Delgado and Beltran that went for
doubles. I was an outfielder for 10 years and have a pretty good grasp of
when home runs are going out right off the bat. At Shea these would have
been home runs but from where I was sitting there was only confusion because
we just didn’t know what was going on. While I think that extending the
height of the wall makes for more exciting play I was very disappointed that
I couldn’t see it.

Excelsior level is sort of like its own isolated club. Blocked on one side,
you can only get up there from the CF food court, nobody checked tickets and
we had a constant stream of “visitors” looking for better seats.

On the plus side, Nathan’s got its game back. Foot longs with mustard and
half sauerkraut and half onions made my day. They also had someone watching
over the condiments so no one screwed with them.

Again I agree with most of your staff that you would barely know that the
Mets play there. Also, while it is nice to honor Jackie Robinson, he never
played for the Mets. I grew up in Jackson Heights and used to sneak on the
number 7 after school and go watch them drive the pilings into the swamp
which would become Shea Stadium. I couldn’t wait for the Mets to play there.
I went to a lot of games in my teens when they couldn’t buy a win and had
the time of my life. In those days you could bring signs and airhorns and
anything you wanted to make noise with and we did. I had mixed emotions
about 1969. Yes, we finally won and had some respect but it was also a
little less fun. Useless trivia – Ed Charles quit baseball after 1969 and
joined a bowling league in Elmhurst, the Goodfellows”. I also bowled in that
league. Ed didn’t really bowl much and was always trying to sell baseball
themed lamps made out of small bats as I guess he was never paid that much
as a Met.

Anyway, I got way off the track. My point was that I am 57 years old and
never saw Robinson play. He is a historical figure to me even though he
accomplished greatness. I just don’t see the point in making him the focus
of the stadium in place of the Mets. Honored?, yes, of course. But the
number of fans 60 and older who actually do remember him will diminish
rapidly. If we really want to honor Jackie Robinson let’s start building
some ball fields in “black” neighborhoods or we won’t have any black
baseball players left. Then he will have accomplished nothing.

Our biggest problem is that we, the Mets, have no one to replace him. 48
years and we have only retired one player’s number??? How sick is that?
Let’s at least get Piazza up there before someone writes a book about him.

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Why Does Major League Baseball Keep Taking Down The New York Mets Citi Field Gary Baba Booey Dell’Abate Video?

If you try to watch Gary Dell’Abate’s awful first pitch at the Mets game you will likely find that “this video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by MLB advanced media.”

I can understand that MLB wants to horde all their highlights on mlb.com (short sighted, but I can understand it) – but why this one?

How is their business going to be harmed if this video is available in the wild?

Do they plan to make mlb.com/bababooey to horde all the page views?

Will there be a special DVD about it?

The only “loss” would be some pre-game footage.  Who cares?

Fortunately as of 8:30 this fan video is still working…

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Miracle Ball (New York Baseball Giants)

Good morning, a guest post this morning  Brian Biegel has written Miracle Ball and here at the Mets Police we like when people remember the New York Baseball Giants.


Miracle Ball
By Brian Biegel
Isn’t it time baseball had a positive story to lift the dark clouds of steroids and scandals hovering above the national pastime? Especially in New York, where TV, talk-radio, and newspapers have polluted us with reports about cheaters such as A-rod, Petite, and Clemens? No Mets yet…fingers crossed.

Well, the story illustrated in the new book Miracle Ball (available everywhere May 12) is the perfect antidote to a baseball world beleaguered with bad press. For it not only combines the elements of Major League Baseball, its fans and the history of the game, but it also features the uplifting – some would even say miraculous – account of a father and son – both Mets fans – whose lifelong bond is strengthened by an iconic moment in baseball lore that occurred nearly sixty years ago.

We’re talking, of course, about “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World” – more specifically, the actual iconic home run ball that’s been missing since 1951. There’ve been some precious baseball artifacts that have gone missing over the years, but the NY Giants converted third baseman Bobby Thomson’s baseball is tops on any list – no disrespect to Kirk Gibson (and Vince Scully), or Bill Mazeroski.

Most baseball fans are familiar with the scene, likely told to them by their dad. If not, here’s an excerpt from Miracle Ball to set it up for you:



“The sun hung over the first-base side of the Polo Grounds, reflecting off the apartment buildings that lined Harlem River Drive and onto the open end of the stadium behind the left field stands. It was October 3, 1951. The clock in center field read 3:58.

The details of the play itself are familiar to most baseball fans. Branca had Thomson down in the count 0-1, the result of a called strike right down the middle. It was the bottom of the ninth. Two men on base. The Giants trailed the Dodgers by two runs in the last game of a three-game playoff series. The winner would advance to the World Series against the New York Yankees. Out of the windup, Branca threw a fastball, high and tight. But this time Thomson, the lanky outfielder-turned-third-baseman, was ready. He pulled the pitch to left field—a sinking line drive.
The fans in the lower portion of section 35 followed the flight of the ball. A photo captured the moment perfectly. There was an overweight, middle-aged man in a white t-shirt and a black jacket in the first row. Next to him was a buzz cut teenager with thick-rimmed eyeglasses. A row above them stood a man with a handlebar mustache and a fedora. In the fourth row, a bushy haired man stood with his arms stretched above his head and his mouth wide open.
The crowd’s loyalties were evenly divided: The Dodgers fans prayed that the ball would somehow find its way into left fielder Andy Pafko’s mitt; the Giants fans prayed that it wouldn’t. The teams’ rivalry—the oldest in professional sports—dated back all the way to the 19th century, but it had never seen a moment like this.

The prayers of the home team’s fans were answered: Thomson had hit a home run; the Giants won the pennant. Thomson’s blast became known as “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World.”

As for the ball itself, that’s been a mystery ever since—one that every baseball historian in the country thought would never be solved. Just after the ball cleared the wall, it bounced out of a fan’s glove and ricocheted seven feet to the left—straight into the hands of a person who would ensure that its fate would not be discovered for more than 50 years.”

The subjects in this book are colorful and compelling. What’s more, the story itself is utterly unique and unprecedented. Soon every sports page and baseball website in America will be sharing the news of the person who walked out of the Polo Grounds that day with the most storied baseball in the history of the sport.

While Miracle Ball will likely encapsulate any baseball fan, it also has the kind of touching narrative that makes even the non-sports-fan become engrossed in the book. It’s a story about family, baseball history, and an utterly unique quest for a famous baseball. There’s also a component of a person overcoming debilitating mental illness – all through the prism of baseball and parenting.

Present in the background through the entire book is the memorable event, which catapulted the NY Giants into baseball lore and crushed the hearts of Brooklyn Dodgers fans from Flatbush Avenue to Ocean Parkway.

This from JEREMY SCHAAP, New York Times bestselling author of Cinderella Man and Triumph:

“The adventure documented in Miracle Ball is ample evidence that Biegel is the Magellan of literary searchers. But Miracle Ball isn’t just about the Journey. What Biegel also captures are the dynamics of the relationships between fathers and sons, between Americans and their national pastime, between history and mythology. Miracle Ball is a poignant, funny, and important addition to the baseball canon.”

Miracle Ball: My Hunt for the Shot Heard ‘Round the World
AVAILABLE IN BOOK STORES AND ONLINE MAY 12
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First Place? Thanks Citi Field

Every Monday I write a column over at Flushing University , and this was this week’s.

First Place? Thanks Citi Field!

By Shannon Shark
Posted Monday, May 11, 2009
And just like that, the Mets have a lead and it’s Johan Santana’s turn to pitch.
This new park is going to be our friend. I can’t help but compare it to the disaster in the Bronx, and I keep telling my Yankee friends that you can’t defend against a fly ball carrying.
Young Jon Niese benefited from the new place. He gave up a few rockets, including one in front of the 415 sign. Stop to think about it, you don’t see many 415 signs and when you do they usually aren’t attached to a giant fence.
So Niese’s mistake was an out. When Phil Hughes makes the same mistake it’s a three-run homer, but that’s the Yankees’ problem.
Watching the games on SNY, you hear Ron Darling talk about how pitchers will use the park to their advantage. Ronnie says you can be more aggressive in a big park because the mistakes won’t kill you. They didn’t kill Niese, the way they might have had the game been in Philly, Baltimore or Yankee Stadium, so now Niese comes away with some confidence. You know that feeling you had on Ollie Day? You won’t have it on Niese day this week.
Smartly the Mets are built offensively for this park too. There really aren’t one dimensional slugger types, and I won’t mind if David Wright hits .330 with “only” 20 home runs a year (by the way you jerks can stop booing him.) Carlos Beltran is the MVP of the first six weeks and I don’t need 40 homers from him either. In 2010 our new first baseman Dan Murphy can not-hit for power all he wants, just keep getting those gappers. Of course we can’t forget Jose Reyes, even if the myth of the walk-steal-steal-sac fly run is as much a legend as the Loch Ness monster is….and even Boois Boostillo is half way useful now.
Citi Field has been good to us. The tacos are tasty, the shakes are sure, and if they can figure out a way to fix the obstructed views we’ll really have something.
Last week’s Monday column was about how the team needed an edge. This was not a bad week at all. See ya next Monday!
 

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