Friday, July 18, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Remembering Shea....
Well...here we are
Its been quite a ride so far, hasn't it?
67 games to play beginning tonight it Cincinnati with the Great Johan toeing the slab and a chance to move into first.
Coming off the All-Star game, which we all know was the last important game at Yankees Stadium, I got to thinking about Shea and how many games I have been to there and how many memories I have of the big blue horseshoe.
How when you sit downstairs past the bags, like I did for the great Bobby Jones 1-hitter against the Giants in the 2000 NLCS, your seat actually faces the opposite outfielder. How when you sit in the back row of the loge, like I did for the best pitching dual playoff game I have ever been to, Glavine-Leiter, 1999 NLCS Game 3 (Braves won 1-0 on a stupid Leiter error in the 1st inning), you can't see pop-ups or the scoreboard or basically anything aside from the field. How after it rains the upper deck used to get leaks from the "roof" that would drain down onto seats, like it did on mine for the NLCS clincher against the Cardinals in 2000. (I complained to the usher about the fact that it was raining on me and they moved me & my buddy Steve into the press seats right behind the plate in the mezzanine, then watched Mike Hampton throw a complete game 3-hitter). How the entire upper deck literally shakes when the place is packed and the fans are rocking like it did when I sat there for Todd Pratt's walk-off homer to beat the D-backs in 1999 and Robin Ventura's grand slam single (my favorite game ever) a week or 2 later. And of course, the most recent dramas...the memories of how the entire stadium can go from the insanity of the Endy catch to dead silence from the Yadier Molina homer to the shock of the Adam Wainwright curve and that fact that it was over and we actually weren't going to the World Series we so deserved to go to....
All of these memories will be with me for life but the one that is still with me every time I watch our beloved Mets play is the last one. Fink and I went to that game knowing we would see history. Little did we know then that that night would be the beginning of 1 and 1/2 years of trying to recapture that magic. Now with 67 games to play, for the first time since Molina & Wainwright quieted Shea, this team looks hungry. They look confident. They look ready to beat the crap out of the fuckin Phillies.
People keep saying how the Brewers added CC and the Cubs added Harden so those guys are the teams to beat in the NL. Well ya know who we added? We added Johan. We have watched Pelfrey grow up in front of our eyes. And we basically added Pedro (yes, I still believe he will be good. Don’t give up on him guys...see Delgado, Carlos and Heilman, Aaron).
I bashed Omar for many of the moves he has made and I stand by those comments. But the best move he made may be the one that was most scrutinized...firing Willie. Jerry, while possibly a serial killer by day, has changed the atmosphere of the club & the team is having fun playing baseball again.
Which brings us back to Shea. As I have been saying since the GIANTS WON THE SUPERBOWL...2008 is 1986 all over again. Since I initially said that, the Celtics also have won the Championship, making 2 of my 3 child hood teams Champs in the same year, just like 1986. There is only one team remaining from that trio of clubs...and we all know who that is.
So why not dream big?
Let's send off Shea is the greatest way possible. Yankee Stadium had the all-star game in it's final year. Let's root our boys in and get Shea and our Mets to the biggest stage of them all...A World Series & a Championship!
LETS GO METS!!
Its been quite a ride so far, hasn't it?
67 games to play beginning tonight it Cincinnati with the Great Johan toeing the slab and a chance to move into first.
Coming off the All-Star game, which we all know was the last important game at Yankees Stadium, I got to thinking about Shea and how many games I have been to there and how many memories I have of the big blue horseshoe.
How when you sit downstairs past the bags, like I did for the great Bobby Jones 1-hitter against the Giants in the 2000 NLCS, your seat actually faces the opposite outfielder. How when you sit in the back row of the loge, like I did for the best pitching dual playoff game I have ever been to, Glavine-Leiter, 1999 NLCS Game 3 (Braves won 1-0 on a stupid Leiter error in the 1st inning), you can't see pop-ups or the scoreboard or basically anything aside from the field. How after it rains the upper deck used to get leaks from the "roof" that would drain down onto seats, like it did on mine for the NLCS clincher against the Cardinals in 2000. (I complained to the usher about the fact that it was raining on me and they moved me & my buddy Steve into the press seats right behind the plate in the mezzanine, then watched Mike Hampton throw a complete game 3-hitter). How the entire upper deck literally shakes when the place is packed and the fans are rocking like it did when I sat there for Todd Pratt's walk-off homer to beat the D-backs in 1999 and Robin Ventura's grand slam single (my favorite game ever) a week or 2 later. And of course, the most recent dramas...the memories of how the entire stadium can go from the insanity of the Endy catch to dead silence from the Yadier Molina homer to the shock of the Adam Wainwright curve and that fact that it was over and we actually weren't going to the World Series we so deserved to go to....
All of these memories will be with me for life but the one that is still with me every time I watch our beloved Mets play is the last one. Fink and I went to that game knowing we would see history. Little did we know then that that night would be the beginning of 1 and 1/2 years of trying to recapture that magic. Now with 67 games to play, for the first time since Molina & Wainwright quieted Shea, this team looks hungry. They look confident. They look ready to beat the crap out of the fuckin Phillies.
People keep saying how the Brewers added CC and the Cubs added Harden so those guys are the teams to beat in the NL. Well ya know who we added? We added Johan. We have watched Pelfrey grow up in front of our eyes. And we basically added Pedro (yes, I still believe he will be good. Don’t give up on him guys...see Delgado, Carlos and Heilman, Aaron).
I bashed Omar for many of the moves he has made and I stand by those comments. But the best move he made may be the one that was most scrutinized...firing Willie. Jerry, while possibly a serial killer by day, has changed the atmosphere of the club & the team is having fun playing baseball again.
Which brings us back to Shea. As I have been saying since the GIANTS WON THE SUPERBOWL...2008 is 1986 all over again. Since I initially said that, the Celtics also have won the Championship, making 2 of my 3 child hood teams Champs in the same year, just like 1986. There is only one team remaining from that trio of clubs...and we all know who that is.
So why not dream big?
Let's send off Shea is the greatest way possible. Yankee Stadium had the all-star game in it's final year. Let's root our boys in and get Shea and our Mets to the biggest stage of them all...A World Series & a Championship!
LETS GO METS!!
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