Stumbling Home

I took it upon myself to listen to a majority of Friday night's game on the radio, just to get the last vestiges of the WFAN Mets Radio Network out of my system. I also turned the radio on at the outset of Saturday's game, if only because the WFAN has replaced their normal opening of Exciting 2013 Mets clips (of which there have been few) with some classic clips from happier times and that pleases me. Unfortunately, the highlight of both games were the audio flashbacks, because the subsequent games were snoozefests of the highest order.

Friday night, the Mets fell behind early thanks to Carlos Torres' usual case of 1st inning-itis and couldn't catch up. Their best opportunity was cut short when Daniel Murphy had one of those spastic fits he's often prone to and attempted what was essentially a delayed steal of home on a passed ball that really didn't get far enough away to be a passed ball. Murphy was out by a good 20 feet. The Mets mounted no further threats and they lost, 4-2.

Saturday brought an odd 4pm start time amid the day's earlier news that, barring some unforeseen circumstances, Terry Collins would be resigned for 2 more seasons. This news really wasn't news to me (and it bothered me that that it was that two-faced ass Ken Rosenthal breaking the story). I'd more or less assumed Collins would be back since a) How much can you blame him for not making the team better when he hasn't had a real team to work with, and b) the players seem to like him. More can be said about it, I'm sure, but I'll expound on it when I wrap up the season next week.

There was still a game to watch, and like Friday, there wasn't much to enjoy. The Mets fell behind, tied the game, and in the 7th inning were primed to go ahead, with the bases loaded and none out, but in succession Eric Young, my main man Lucas Duda and David Wright all failed to get a run home. Predictably, the Brewers went ahead in the 8th, but the Mets once again had a golden opportunity to win the game in the 9th, following a pair of walks and an RBI double from Young. This brought up Duda in a situation where, were a more fearsome bat at the plate, an Intentional walk would have been in order. But since it was Duda, the Brews went after him, but to the poor fortune of Mr. Hand, he hit Duda. However, Wright followed by hitting into a DP. And, of course, the Brews made the Mets rue their missed opportunities by scoring 2 in the 10th to win their 3rd straight 4-2 game.

I spent a majority of Saturday's game getting my books in order. As I've mentioned in passing, I score every game I attend and keep my scorecards in a binder, which has now expanded to two binders and is really in need of a 3rd binder. At the end of each season, I gather up all the programs from the games I went to, tear out the scorecards, make any necessary corrections and put them in the binder with the ticket stub stapled to it. Though the season hasn't yet concluded and I have one more game to attend, I decided to do this bit of housekeeping today just so I'd clear up some clutter and not have to worry about it later.

This afternoon will be my 18th game of the season, which was composed of 13 of my 15 plan games and 5 other games of random attendance. My 18 games will represent the highest number of games I attended since 2007, when I attended 19. My record for the season currently stands at 8-9, a win would make 2013 the second consecutive year that I managed a .500 record (I was 8-8 for 2012). My 5-year record at Citi Field is currently 38-38 (after a 5-11 record in 2009, it's been an uphill battle to .500 ever since) so tomorrow's game will determine whether I go into 2014 over or under .500. The first 17 games of the season included 3 Matt Harvey starts (none after May 7th), 3 Zack Wheeler starts (his first and last home starts of the season included), 3 Dillon Gee starts (none of them good, unfortunately), 3 Shaun Marcum starts (one of which they won, if you can believe it), 2 from Niese and 1 each from Jenrry Mejia, Jeremy Hefner and Aaron Harang. 2 games went to extra innings, both of which the Mets won. Several more only felt like extra-inning games due to poor pace or poor results or, in many cases, both. An overwhelming majority of them were attended in a stadium that was mostly empty, a testament to the general distaste fans have had for the team after 5 lost seasons. Today, however, the stadium should be full as the honoring of Mike Piazza has drawn everyone out. However, I'm not totally convinced that a large majority of people aren't going to show up, stay for the Piazza ceremony and then leave. But, we'll see.