May 9, 2011
We celebrated Mother’s Day this year by heading down to the ballpark on a gorgeous Spring day with both kids in tow. When I bought the tickets back at the end of March, I wasn’t aware that this particular Sunday fell on Mother’s Day, but it ended up being a happy coincidence. The day also marked Lily’s first game, Caelyn’s second, and our shared first game as a family – now that we are more than reasonably sure that this will be our final family configuration. The mere thought of another baby is enough to send me running to the “V” section of the Yellow Pages.
In the past I had often taken my mother to the game on Mother’s Day, back when I had my Sunday ticket package and even in the few years after that. She’s a Red Sox fan, owing to living in Boston for a brief time as a young nurse in the mid-70′s, and I suspect somewhat in accordance with her contrary nature, living now in a sea of Yankees and Mets fans. But the Mets are not the Yankees and she has always seemed happy to go to the games with me. She’s a much easier game day companion than my father, far more flexible, and doesn’t feel the need to point out every Mets error or strikeout to me as if I somehow missed it, and then remind me that Mets suck.
Click here to read the rest of: “Mother’s Day”
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April 11, 2011
Sunday, April 10 2011 – Mets 3, Nationals 7
Monday, April 11 2011 – Mets 6, Rockies 7
Well, you can’t win ‘em all. And I certainly don’t expect to, but when the bullpen blows up a game after a great start it’s a tough loss. Especially after a start like the one Chris Young gave on Sunday afternoon, going 7 full innings and allowing only a single hit and earned run. It seemed like just when you start thinking that the starting rotation might be working out the kinks, the bullpen shines a spotlight on the holes in the Mets’ pitching staff. At least Alderson took quick action and sent Boyer packing to make way for Izzy, who in my opinion should have claimed that final relief spot on day one. And he certainly demonstrated that last night when he shut down the rallying Rockies in the 7th, keeping the score tied in what had already been a rollercoaster game with the lead changing nearly every inning.
I think all Mets fans knew that this was not going to be an easy season by any stretch of the imagination, and that the wins would be hard fought for the most part and lucky for all the rest. But that managed to capture my interest and imagination far more than if they had set themselves up to be the pen and paper goliath the Red Sox were on March 31. It’s why I love the Mets, the victories are earned with blood and sweat and when they do come, they are all the sweeter for it.
Click here to read the rest of: “You Don’t Know Jack”
Posts: Game Journals, From the Couch, Personal History | No Comments
April 7, 2011
I checked the weather report 5 times yesterday, and each time it said the same thing. 70% chance of rain for Friday, April 8 in Queens, NY. I’ll likely check it 10 times today, just for good measure, but I’m not expecting much improvement in the forecast. Kate and I are packing our ponchos and hats and gloves, but I’m just hoping there isn’t a rainout and that the clouds give way just long enough for them to get the game in. I’ve only been at the ballpark for one rainout in my brief tenure with the Mets, and that was the day of my father’s first baseball game.
My dad was never really into sports, and aside from watching a few minutes of a Penn State football game now and again (he’s an alum), I don’t recall him ever watching a game of any sort. Given that most kids inherit their parents (and more often than not specifically their father’s) favorite teams, I too didn’t have much interest in sports beyond playing them with the kids in my neighborhood. That was strike one.
Click here to read the rest of: “That First Game with your Dad”
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April 1, 2011
Hello and welcome to another edition of Friday Baseball here on Raising the Apple! Spring should be here, but apparently even God likes to play April Fools jokes. I woke up this morning to wind and snow out my kitchen window and all desire to play a prank of my own went right out of me. It appears we dodged the nor’easter our local forecasters all claimed to be heading our way, but 36 degrees and snowing is not how I pictured this day. I’ve been threatening to run screaming through the streets naked if it snowed one more time, and I might actually do it. It’s been a long winter and after finally getting the grass back after months of nothing but snow only to have it taken away again is just a bridge too far.
My hopes were raised a few days ago when the Mets played their last Spring Training game. Most of the starters came out in the third after getting a couple of at-bats, which worked for me since I was taking advantage of the final day of my MLB.TV preview to watch the first hour of the game during my lunch break. The temperature hit 55 degrees and I was able to crack open my window and put my feet up on my desk while I ate my PB&J. It was a good day to take one last trip virtual trip to Florida, even for only an hour.
Click here to read the rest of: “Friday Baseball: Waiting for This Year”
Posts: Rants and Raves, Friday Baseball, Personal History | No Comments
March 28, 2011
I am now the proud owner of a baseball team. Last night I drafted players from amongst the best that Major League Baseball has to offer, a good mix of proven veterans and rookies full of potential. I’m quite happy with my team, and as their manager I intend to lead the New York Tempests to victory!
Of course, this team only exists in the vast databases of Yahoo Fantasy Baseball, one of millions of teams in thousands of leagues where every pitch, hit, strikeout, home run, etc. in our universe is recorded and then applied to all of these others, spawning millions and millions of games whose outcomes will determine champions the world over. This may sound a bit silly, but consider the billions of stars and the potential trillions of planets out there and you’ll realize that significance is all about context.
Click here to read the rest of: “Here There be Dragons (and Dungeons)”
Posts: Personal History, Tangents | No Comments
March 25, 2011
Happy Friday afternoon to you all, it’s time for another edition of Friday Baseball here on Raising the Apple. We’re heading into the final week of Spring Training, the time when rosters are set, lineups are tested, and everyone from the fans to the players are sick and tired of exhibition games and ready for the season to just start already. I’ll miss the palm trees and the laid back nature of Spring Training, but I’d be pleased as punch if the season started today. This Spring felt longer than usual for Mets fans, at least it did for me, and I can’t shake the feeling that we’ve all been holding our collective breaths and waiting for something, but what – I can’t quite put my finger on.
Click here to read the rest of: “Friday Baseball: The Spring of our Discontent”
Posts: Rants and Raves, Friday Baseball, Personal History | No Comments
March 18, 2011
Welcome to Friday Baseball, the first in a regular feature I plan on doing here on Raising the Apple. Sunday will always be my favorite day to watch a ballgame, especially out at the ballpark, but Friday Night Baseball has always had a special place in my heart. Fridays have a kind of magic to them, especially to us work-week-rank-and-file Americans. Being a great lover of tradition and ritual myself, I have had several concerning Fridays over the years.
Click here to read the rest of: “Friday Baseball: Just what the Doctor Ordered”
Posts: Rants and Raves, Friday Baseball, Personal History | No Comments
March 14, 2011
Watching baseball while you’re sick can be pleasant, but I usually don’t like to. I’d rather zone out to some movie, preferably one with Star Trek somewhere in the title, and if I fall asleep halfway through – so be it. But, if I’m conscious enough to pay attention to the game and utilize all the comforts of home it can make for a very nice afternoon, as it did this past Sunday. Going to the ballpark sick is another story altogether. It’s something I’ve only done once, and it was a special circumstance as it was Kate and mine’s first game at Citi Field.
Click here to read the rest of: “Not Rain, nor Sleet, nor Snow, nor Phlegm…”
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March 11, 2011
Thanks to a very generous salesman from our database’s software vendor, I am the happy recipient of a pair of tickets to this May’s oft mistakenly named “Subway Series” (only a WS would be a true Subway Series) at Yankee Stadium. To some Mets fans this would be a visit to the “House of Evil” as I have heard it called. I for one do not feel this way, and to be perfectly honest have never quite understood the so-called rivalry between the two teams. The most likely answer is that it’s because there is none.
Click here to read the rest of: “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”
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March 8, 2011
Due to a serendipitous business trip to Chicago for our database software vendor’s user conference this April, I will at long last get to visit Wrigley Field and take in a game there. I bought tickets for both the April 18th and 19th games with the Padres, and I was lucky to get two great locations – the first game behind the plate in the second section back from the field, and the second game behind the ivy in right field.
My obsession with Wrigley Field goes back to childhood and my ill-fated baseball card collecting days. I knew nothing about baseball in the mid 1980s, but like most boys my age I collected the cards anyway and traded them with my friends. My cousin Bill was a dedicated sports fan from an early age and I’m certain took advantage of me at every turn with the shrewdness and moral relativism of a Wall Street trader. I remember he and my other cousins sitting on the floor of his living room, our cards spilled out onto the carpet and the TV tuned to the Sunday afternoon game on Channel 11. Seeing that beautiful brick wall covered in ivy made me long to go there myself.
Click here to read the rest of: “The Friendly Confines”
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