Everything In Its Right Place

Monday's season lid-lifter at Citi Field was about everything you could ask for as far as the results of the first game of the season. The weather, which had heretofore been kind of dicey and in April at Citi Field can be downright brutal, suddenly turned bright and sunny and warm at around 11am, right around the time I arrived at Citi Field. George was with me as per usual, marking what I believe is 11 of the last 13 Opening Day games we've been present for. Howie Rose was on the field by 12:40 to blow the Shofar and welcome us to the 2017 National League season in New York, fans warmly welcomed back our team, as well as some fondly-remembered players on the opposing side, and then it was business time. Noah Syndergaard hit the mound and pitched, well, basically the way you'd expect him to pitch, mixing things up, getting out of jams and keeping the Braves off the scoreboard until a blister forced him from the game after 6 innings. The Mets had a hard time with Julio Teheran—because they always have a hard time with Julio Teheran—until he departed in the 7th, where the Mets capitalized on a replay reversal and then bombed the Atlanta bullpen into submission and cruised home with a 6-0 victory to start their season.

It had been some time since I'd seen George; this offseason has been somewhat checkered for me and certainly from a mental standpoint, though I might not have been especially prepared for it, I was more than ready to get back to the sanctuary of Citi Field. But at any rate I spent most of the pregame discussing with him reasons why I believe now that the Mets are going to win the World Series this season, and really, what it boils down to more than anything is that it's simply their time in the arc of this era, if this era of the Mets is going to be what we want it to be. They had the near-miss, they had the regression and somehow turned it into another near-miss, so now, it's time to strike.

But that was preamble and there was still the matter of seats and ceremonies and concessions and hordes of people to work through. I'd mentioned I upgraded my seats; after four years of bouncing between sections 512 and 513, I've moved down to 418, because it's just time for a change. However, the Mets for whatever reason decided to get cute and put me in different seats for Opening Day. Different seats being Section 106, sure, it's the Field level, but it's jammed down in the Right Field Corner. Not exactly where I would have preferred to sit. For one, you can't see the field directly in front of you. Two, you can't see the scoreboard above Right Field, which is where important things like pitch count and scoring calls are generally displayed. Three, because it's the Field Level, and because of the assorted "entertainment" options down there, it seems to be more crowded than the Promenade, and for whatever reason it seems there are substantially fewer restrooms, which is problematic...

...and as you can see in this video, you're kind of displaced from the action. But on the upside I got a real good view of Syndergaard's pregame routine.

Also a lovely view of Bartolo Colon's backside as he was introduced to a roaring ovation.

And then it was time to introduce our guys...

...and get hyped...

...And, finally, get on with the show!

The game from that point was a little bit of a blur, for a few reasons. For one, I, and this should illustrate how ill-prepared I was for Opening Day, didn't eat anything before the game. I almost always get something to eat before the game but for whatever reason, I waited. At the end of the 1st inning, I got up to use the restroom, thinking it would be quick and painless. WRONG. I attempted to use the restroom by Section 103 only to find the line stretching across the concourse and in fact splitting into two lines because everyone stopped caring. So that was already a clusterfuck. Then, I decided to get something to eat while I was up, and found the most palatable line to be at the Sausage stand by Section 105. Only I got on line somewhere in the bottom of the 2nd inning and didn't return to my seat until the top of the 4th. That's a bad job by me. It's a bad job by everyone, really, because there were rumblings of credit card terminals down, but really, it was a bad job by me. That's the kind of rookie move I don't usually make.

Fortunately, in this digital age, I was able to look at my phone and catch up on my scorecard. Of course, I sat down just in time for Freddie Freeman to bang one off the Right Field fence and after Jay Bruce mangled the carom, what should have been a double was a triple and the Braves were primed to strike first. Except that Syndergaard is unmoved by these kind of things and responded by putting the Baseball version of a sleeperhold on the Braves, striking out Matt Kemp and Nick Markakis to end the threat. More trouble unfolded in the 6th when Dansby Swanson and Freeman singled and Atlanta had runners on 1st and 3rd and 1 out, but, again, Syndergaard brushed this aside by striking out Kemp again and getting Markakis to fly out, ending the threat and, of course, thanks to the infamous blister, ending his afternoon.

Still, the Mets offense was stagnant against Teheran, which as I said wasn't terribly surprising since the Mets always have trouble with him. But he too departed after 6 and the Mets attacked the Braves patently awful bullpen right away. Ian Krol was first up and he allowed a hit to Rene Rivera. Wilmer Flores followed, pinch hitting for Hansel Robles, and after being greeted with his usual standing ovation, grounded into a Fielder's choice. He then stole 2nd Base, which I suppose was his way of taking advantage of the Braves kind of falling asleep on him. Jose Reyes walked and then Asdrubal Cabrera followed with a clean single to center for his 3rd hit of the day. Flores was sent home, which if you'll recall is the play that finished his season last year, and although it seemed close he was called out at the plate. However, were I sitting in my normal seats, high up and behind Home Plate, I would have seen that Flores snuck his foot in ahead of the tag. Replay, of course, reversed the call, Flores had the first run of the season for the Mets, and the gates opened up from there. There were pitching changes, walks, more pitching changes, more walks and finally the carcass of Eric O'Flaherty was on the mound and Lucas Duda clanged one off the Center Field fence for a 3-run double that made the score 6-0 and removed any particular drama from the afternoon. Fernando Salas for the 8th, a surprise cameo by Robert Gsellman in the 9th, easy enough and off we go!

Certainly, there will be plenty of bad/irritating/exasperating things to happen to the Mets over the course of the subsequent 161 games. That's Baseball. The goal, really, is to minimize the issues and keep putting forth games like this when you are clearly better than your opponent. One of the Mets larger issues in 2016, besides the fact that everyone was hurt and the replacements stopped hitting for 3 months, was their inability to handle inferior teams. I'm pulling numbers out of my ass but I believe they were something like 7-12 against Atlanta and an equivalent of bad against other non-division lousy teams, and those 7 wins were difficult wins. By and large the Mets should win more of these games this season. Yesterday was a good start.

The Anger Year

On October 5th of 2016, the Mets season ended with a loss to the San Francisco Giants in the Wildcard Game. Instead of "On to Chicago" for the Mets, it was off into obscurity and another year of watching someone else celebrating a World Series Championship.

As a fan I'm still stewing over the way that whole thing ended and I think I've taken quite a bit of heat about it. I don't necessarily care because this is my blog and I can say whatever the hell I want. Plus, if you disagreed, then you sort of missed the whole point. But that's immaterial here as we finally approach the dawn of a new season.

I haven't written anything here in a good 5 months. Really, there hasn't been much to say. The Mets had one move that had to be made this offseason—resign Yoenis Cespedes—and they did that. Otherwise, this afternoon, when Howie Rose comes out, blows the Shofar, welcomes the congregants to the National League Season in New York and announces the Mets roster, there won't be an opportunity to give anyone a Joe Buck "WELCOME TO NEW YORK!!" Nobody's new. Everyone will have been here before.

I wouldn't call it so much addition by subtraction, even though some faces are gone. Maybe it's addition by attrition. The Mets managed to win a Wildcard last season with a team that was mostly decimated with injuries. Of the five that began the year in the starting rotation, only two were still standing come October. Now that we're back in April, one is gone, two are back, one replacement has emerged, and a face almost long forgotten has resurfaced. And, of course, one still sits in injury-prone limbo.

Mostly, the Mets flew under the radar during the offseason. That flurry of offseason activity really didn't produce anything beyond idle talk. Other teams got all the ink, and moving through Spring training, other teams continued to get all the ink. If you believe what you read, the Mets are probably somewhere between the 9th and 12th best team in the Majors, hardly enough to hang with the Big Boys when it comes time for October.

Of course, two years ago, nobody expected much out of them either.

Oh, but those names, those names, and the potential they hold. We're still waiting for the day when all of the "Big 5" are together at last, and really, that day may never come. But when you look at the Mets and see a rotation that's 7 pitchers deep, you realize that they might not necessarily have to be. Or at least not in the order you might have intended for them to be. Certainly, this afternoon's starter, Noah Syndergaard will lead the charge, much as he did last year, and a rejuvenated Jacob deGrom follows. Matt Harvey continues to have a giant bullseye on his back in the court of fan opinion, but we shall see whether his competitive spirit will once again win the day over the haters. Then, we have Robert Gsellman, who impressed last season in an emergency role and continued to do so this Spring. Finally, the return of Zack Wheeler, last seen in 2014, which may as well be a lifetime ago. What we'll get out of him, who knows, but he's back and he's ready to roll, even if he's going to be under the strictest of innings limits.

Offensively, you won't see flash beyond Cespedes, but that was the case last year too. Much like the pitchers, you just want everyone to stay away from Ray Ramirez. And maybe for Michael Conforto to hit so much he forces a move to be made. Otherwise, you sort of have a good idea what to expect from this group. Occasional line-moving, lots of Home Runs, some streakiness. Some days where they bomb an opponent into submission and others where they hit 4 double plays and leave 13 men on base.

But what I said at the end of last year still feels relevant now: the Mets, and even moreso their fans, need to approach this season with some degree of Arrogance. The Mets fan has been generally conditioned to fear the worst, and with good reason. But look at those guys that won last year. They were the saddest of the sad sacks and for some reason spent the entire 2016 season with their chests puffed out and look where they are now. Odds-on favorite to do it again. So, let's go out and knock them down a peg, shall we? The Mets have done this before. It's nothing new.

I've been thinking a lot about the Big Red Machine in the 1970s and how their arc sort of parallels this era of the Mets. They took some time to come together and made it to the cusp a pair of times, only to lose the World Series in 1970 and 1972, and get bounced by the Mets in the NLCS in 1973. But they persevered and ultimately won World Series Championships in 1975 and 1976 and remain one of the enduring Great Teams of their era. The Mets too have been on the edge twice now only to be turned away at the altar. Granted, the nature of the game is different now than it was then and more needs to align in order to make it but you need to continue to persevere. Those guys were probably murderous come '75 and, really, the Mets should feel that way this year.

Get Angry. Play Angry. Be Arrogant. I don't know if I'm the only one who truly feels that way or not but that's what this season needs to be about. Being on the edge has gone on too long and too many times the Mets have come this far only to stagnate and regress. There's no good reason for anything like that to happen to this group.

As is tradition, I will be on hand for Howie Rose, the Ceremonial Shea Wreath, The Blowing of the Shofar and the Ceremonial Opening Day Car Fire this afternoon with George, marking the 13th consecutive season I'll have done so. I've renewed my tickets—even sprung for better seats this season—so I'll be around, snarling from the Promenade level all year. 20 games the past couple of seasons has turned into 28 or 22 by the time the curtain finally falls on the season and I expect the number this year will approach the former.

Come On Over!

I was thinking it had been a while since I'd done a photo-heavy at-game post, and why not use the opportunity of Opening Day on Friday to bust one of these out. I've generally taken the day-after-opening-day to take everything I didn't like to task, but I think I've mostly covered those issues. Maybe. I can always find more things wrong.

This is new, of course, and one of the first things you see when you get to the part of the Field level where you can actually see the field.

Looping around the Field Level, where not much has changed. The Grilled Cheese stand is still there, although the panache I guess has worn off, and most everything else is the same. This thing is still here, too. I'm not talking about the skyline, I'm talking about the absurd line at Shake Shack. Bear in mind, the gates opened about 15 minutes before I took this.

New York's #1 Power Couple was also out. Here, they're in the part of Citi Field that I always forget exists, and people are lined up for photos.

Here's Fuku, the David Chang outlet. I've always had an issue with David Chang ever since he started charging $115 for a bowl of ramen noodles, but this is supposed to be pretty good. However, this stand won the line battle of the day, as I'd mentioned, and no chicken sandwich is good enough for a 45 minute wait. I'll come back another day. Maybe. I would have loved to show you the line except that this guy's head got in the way.

Here's the new dugout roof.

I bet you didn't know that all On Deck Circles are stored in the On Deck Circle warehouse in New Jersey and they have to be carted in every game.

But what I can't understand is if they're going to drive them in on a cart, why then, do these poor schlubs have to carry the damn thing across the perimeter of the field to put it down in front of the Mets dugout?

Bunting! It's not Opening Day without Bunting. There appeared to be a short supply of bunting this year, though. George noticed it too. It's only been hung off of the front of the Excelsior Level and the Suites. And a small portion of the Promenade. At Shea Stadium, they hung bunting off of every available surface. Time to step up the bunting game, Mets.

Here's the blowing of the Shofar, the presentation of the Bill Shea wreath to Terry Collins. Bill Shea is of course long departed but his son and two grandsons are here to do the honors. At least two of these guys look like they just stepped out of a 1920s Speakeasy, and I'd have to guess they sound like it too.

And now, some players. Wonder what these guys are talking about? Noah Syndergaard is probably trying to discuss where he gets his favorite Raw Juice from. Matt Harvey might be eyeing up some ladies. Either way, they've excluded Matz from the discussion.

All right, all right. Now I'm just showing off how good the zoom lens on my camera is.

Now they've stopped talking. Anthem time. If this were at another ballpark in this city, Syndergaard, Verrett, Blevins, Campbell and Familia would have 55,000 people screaming at them to "TAKE YOUR HAT OFF!!"

More of these guys.

Again, they got guys from Hamilton to sing the anthem. If you don't follow Theater (and I have to since I work in the business), well, then you probably don't care, but basically there's a 6-month waiting list for the privilege to pay upwards of $500 a ticket to see Hamilton, so, yeah. It's a big deal.

Here's the NYPD helicopter flyover. I guess the days of the B-52s are over, which is OK with me. I think those are probably best reserved for things like the Super Bowl. The helicopters were adhering to Bill deBlasio's schedule, so they were about 90 seconds too late.

David can still get that leg up, but I'm not sure how early in the morning he had to get there in order to be able to do that now.

More Coca Cola Corner. I've always preferred Coke to Pepsi so this change in vendors is just fine with me. But it was too cold for soda on Friday.

More fun with Zoom lens.

It's like Jacob deGrom is going to pitch right into your lap!

Jim Henderson, too.

And, of course, with new companies come new mascots. I forgot that the Coke mascot was a bear, and so when I first saw Mr. Met hanging around with a bear, I wondered what the hell was going on.

But then, of course, they go out for the 7th inning Stretch, and Mr. and Mrs. Met are there singing and dancing and whatever it is they do together, while they sent the bear down on the side by himself. This is supposed to be a partnership, why is the bear all the way off on the side?

And, that's all I've got for today, photo-wise. When they raised the banner, the wind immediately died down and the banner just hung there, but the wind eventually picked up so I could get this picture.

Maybe we'll have some more of these posts in the future. Right now let's just get through April without freezing to death.

The Place To Be!

There was, of course, no better place for any Mets fan to be on Friday afternoon than at Citi Field for the 2016 Home Opener. I was, as promised, there at 11am, and in spite of the fact that I'd left my house later than I would have liked, I was still there on time, which means that had I left when I had intended to, I would have been there, what, 10:30? George was there as well, and in fact beat me by a few minutes, but it seemed a bit of a fruitless exercise because the gates hadn't yet opened when we arrived, and so we were reduced to standing along the perimeter of the masses that had gathered outside the Rotunda, ready to get in and get their slice of Baseball Nirvana.

We did, eventually, make it inside, and of course as per usual, did our lap around the Field Level, just to see what was new since we'd last sojourned to Flushing. Lines had already formed at the usual places, Shake Shack, Pat LaFreida's, and at the new David Chang Fuku outlet, which seems to have either truncated or bumped completely the Lobster Roll stand. I will, I'm sure, have to try this mythical sandwich, but today was not the day; my aptitude for waiting on long lines for food has vanished completely, as opposed to my aptitude for sitting in Arctic conditions at Citi Field in April, which has grown tired but may never evaporate.

Eventually, we did get upstairs, and to our seats, just in time for the Opening Ceremonies and the proverbial blowing of the Shofar. I have, of course, captured everything for you loyal readers who were either unable to attend or wish to relive it, and thanks to an offseason acquisition of a new camera, I bring it to you in eye-popping HD, as opposed to an iPhone video. The difference is stark.

This video ran us through the history of Mets Pantheon years and events leading up to last season, I was late in joining it but nonetheless, you get the idea. I'd already taken note of the most notable new addition to Citi Field:

which I suppose would have been more fitting if it had been unveiled by Matt Harvey, but that's not Harvey standing there by himself in the Excelsior level, and there was already another unveiling planned, but we'll get to that later. Meanwhile, there was the Shea Family presentation of the Opening Day Wreath, which to me is, for all intents and purposes, the Baseball version of the blowing of the Shofar, which was followed by Howie Rose:

For the Baseball purist, which I consider to be just about anyone who truly embraces the National League style of play, I've always been struck by the fact that this is how Howie Rose welcomes Opening Day. It's not just the Baseball season, it's the National League season, and as I've been over many times, that National League style of Baseball is the way it ought to be done. People may not agree, I don't especially care, and the fact that Howie Rose acknowledges it as a thing means he agrees with me. It's straight business after that, of course, as Howie introduces the Phillies roster and lineup, which consisted of the carcass of Ryan Howard and a bunch of rookies and retreads and guys we'll only know because the Mets and Phillies play each other 19 times a season. They are all booed heartily, some more than others. And then, of course, our guys:

For years (and I have the videos to prove it), most of the trainers and staff got booed, with the exception of Yoshi Nishio, the massage therapist, whom everyone seems to love and I've never understood why, other than he always looks really happy to be there. This year, everyone got cheered, even Cortisone Shot Ramirez. When you go to the World Series, everyone loves you. But we'll see how long that lasts. Then, there were the players, and most hearty welcomes were reserved for Wilmer Flores, Steven Matz, Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, Jeurys Familia, Michael Conforto and, of course, Bartolo Colon.

Then, there was the National Anthem. They had cast members from the musical, Hamilton on hand to perform, which is when I realized that this is now officially a Happening. Citi Field is truly the place to be. Other teams in this town that love to revel in the past seem content to beam out an image of Frank Sinatra, but we're getting guys from the hottest show in town for our party.

And then, finally, the ceremony was capped off by the raising of the Championship Banner, which feels very anticlimactic, perhaps because of the short flagpoles, or perhaps because it's not a banner for something bigger, but regardless, a banner is a banner and the Mets have a long tradition of banner waving, so here's one more:

And finally, with the shofar blown and the ceremony dispensed and the banner raised and the crowd plenty fired up, it was time to play a game:

And play the Mets did.

After the pomp and circumstance I guess the game itself is almost a sideshow. Once the ceremony is done with and everyone finally settles in to watch a game, things kind of settle down, or at least it settled down plenty this afternoon. That was probably because Jacob deGrom settled in and in spite of not having that pop on his fastball that he had last season, he still shoved aside a mostly overmatched Phillies lineup over his 6 innings of work. There were some hits, mostly singles, but when deGrom needed a strikeout he tended to get one. This, of course, with the specter of impending fatherhood hanging over him, but where such circumstance led to the undoing of other pitchers in prior seasons, deGrom seems to have the uncanny ability to not allow outside things to distract him from the task at hand. Really, the only thing that slowed him down was this nagging lat injury, which knocked him from the game after 6 innings, and while he'd have us believe it was no cause for concern, on a frigid afternoon, there was no need to push anything.

deGrom did depart with a lead in the 6th, because it was in the 6th that his teammates finally figured out Jerad Eickhoff, the young Philly starter whom the Mets saw a few times last year and had a hard time with. Eickhoff ran into some trouble in the second; partially his own doing because he was walking guys, and partially the fault of Freddy Galvis, his Shortstop, who dropped what likely would have been a double play grounder off the bat of Asdrubal Cabrera that set up the Mets first run of the game, an RBI groundout by deGrom. Though Philly did tie the game in the 6th, which seemed somewhat accidental, the Mets then stormed back in the bottom of the inning, as Lucas Duda led off with a double, Neil Walker followed with an RBI single—his "WELCOME TO NEW YORK!!" moment—and Michael Conforto drilled a double to score Walker. That settled Eickhoff.

In the 7th inning, Jim Henderson had his "WELCOME TO NEW YORK!!" moment, coming in and doing what he's done all spring and retiring the side in order, throwing heat and striking out 2 of the 3 batters he faced. For Henderson, this has to be gratifying considering he'd missed the better part of 2 seasons with injuries and basically had to prove himself worthy of a role, which he's done in spades. Sometimes, you take chances on guys like this and they work--at least this has been the case so far with Henderson.

The Mets then put the game away in the bottom of the 7th, against James Russell, who's bounced around a lot and basically fits the mold of a lefty reliever to a tee. He was in there to face the alternating lefty hitters in the Mets lineup, but he didn't do a very good job of it. He walked David Wright with 1 out, gave up a single to Yoenis Cespedes, walked Lucas Duda, and then gave up hits to Neil Walker and Conforto that plated 3 runs between them. Travis d'Arnaud then capped the scoring with his first hit of the season, a single that scored Walker and, with the game now 7-1, sent many of the frozen revelers to the exits--and some warmth.

I, however, stuck around to the finale, which got needlessly hairy in the 8th thanks to Hansel Robles' inability to get anyone out, and might have been hairier when Jerry Blevins entered the game, but after falling behind 3-0 against Odubel Herrera, but he eventually got Herrera to pop up, and this turned into a Double Play when Cesar Hernandez forgot the machinations of the Infield Fly Rule. Antonio Bastardo worked an uneventful 9th, and the Mets wrapped up a fine Opening Day with a 7-2 victory, and at least for one afternoon all was right in the world.

There are, of course, still some complaints about the service on Opening Day, when it often seems like the stadium staff is sometimes ill-prepared for 44,000 people to show up. The scorecard golf pencils were blunted, to the point where I now have an unreadable scorecard (my handwriting is bad to begin with and when I have to write with a horseshit pencil it's even worse). There were no vendors to be found in the seating areas for a majority of the game, until the pretzel guy came by in the 8th inning, which was useless because I didn't want a pretzel. I would have loved to get some pocket schedules, but there were none to be found, which happens every season.

Fortunately, I have more complaints about the ballpark than I do about the team, which is a good thing. deGrom's line was, for him, pretty standard stuff so there's not much to write about. Neil Walker had himself a nice afternoon and was in the thick of all the Mets rallies, as was Michael Conforto, who is supposed to sit against lefties, but I have a suspicion he's going to force Terry Collins to reconsider this before too long because he's hitting everyone right now. We'll see how this goes. The Mets aren't scheduled to face a lefty pitcher until I believe Tuesday.

So, the Mets have dispensed with the ceremonial portion of their schedule, and can now get back to the business of the day-to-day life of the season. It was a Happening at Citi Field, though, and I suppose it is what happens when you go to the World Series. Those days of 10-15,000 people out there on a Tuesday night are probably over. When you're winning, every game can be a Happening.

Break Out The Bunting

George and I were discussing what the plan was for Opening Day tomorrow, as we usually do since we've attended Opening Day I believe 10 out of the past 12 seasons, and he asked me what time to meet out at Citi Field. I thought about it for a few minutes, and this was the answer I gave him:

"You know, every year, I say let's meet at 11:30, and every year I go dashing out there and show up at 11, so why kid myself anymore? Let's meet at 11."

I suppose, in my advancing age, I've become wiser about my own particular patterns, if not so much my aptitude to sit out in freezing temperatures at April Games at Citi Field.

Regardless, as if it were a surprise to anyone, I'll be at Citi Field tomorrow for my 12th consecutive Opening Day or Home Opener as the case may be. I've got the Shofar polished, I have a brand new Game Hat for 2016 (Classic Blue, 2015 World Series patch), and now all we need is Howie Rose, the Bill Shea Good Luck Wreath, the Ceremonial First Car Fire and a whole mess of Bunting and we're ready to go.

Things will be a bit different this year as opposed to prior seasons, for obvious reasons. The usual blind hope that everyone enters Opening Day with has been replaced by actual Hope, and there's going to be a banner-raising ceremony to prove it. I've never actually been to a Mets banner-raising ceremony, and the scuttlebutt I'm hearing is that Rusty Staub, John Franco and Edgardo Alfonzo will be there to perform the banner-raising, so this should be a rollicking good time.

It's going to be a festive day—Opening Day usually is—but with a bit more of a purpose. Usually, when I leave Citi Field at the final game of the season, which more often than not has been the final game of the regular season, I'll detour myself to walk down through the Rotunda and smack a pillar on my way out, as if I were patting an old friend on the back and saying, "See you next year!" This didn't happen last season. On the final day of the regular season last year, I knew I'd be back, and I ended up being back 6 times subsequent to that date of October 4th. I didn't say my traditional farewell after Game 4 of the Dodgers series—that was too depressing an evening and too jammed a crowd. After Game 1 of the Cubs series everyone was too busy reveling. And then, there was the final game against Kansas City, at around 12:30 in the morning on November 2nd. And on that night, saying farewell for the offseason wasn't really on my mind and I'm sure it wasn't on the mind of anyone else who was silently and sullenly streaming out of the building. This hasn't sat well with me, not so much the lack of farewell, but the way it all ended—I'm sure that holds true for most fans—the ending kind of undoes the great vibes of the journey to get to that point—but now we get to start over again. The crowd will probably be as full and as fired up as it was last October, albeit with much lower stakes, but that doesn't matter. It's a festive occasion no matter how you look at it.

Come on! Opening Day has it all! The Shofar, the Wreath, the Bunting, the 11:30am Beer, the Car Fire...Can't wait. Howie Rose at 12:40, First pitch 1:10. Who's Drinkin'!?

An Untenable Situation

For as much as I wanted to deny it, I had a really bad feeling about the Mets opening their season in Kansas City. It was bad enough that the Royals wiped the Mets out last October, but now they'd be having their coronation party right in the Mets faces, and then going out with their crowd of kazoo-blowing fans and throwing the same looks at the Mets. It seemed an untenable situation. The Royals predictably made the Mets stand around for an hour while they patted themselves on the back (I'm sure what I heard about them showing a consolation video for the Mets was little more than a token gesture) and damned if it took less than an inning for that Royals Mojo to rear its ugly head once again.

The World Series started with Matt Harvey on the mound and Yoenis Cespedes botching a fly ball leading to an early Kansas City run. The 2016 season started the same way. Harvey got Mike Moustakas to hit an eminently playable line drive to left with 1 out that clanked off of Cespedes' glove for an error. 3 batters later, Moustakas had scored and thus started a game that may as well have been Game 6 of last year's World Series. The majority of the game followed suit. The Royals created breaks, got close calls, made solid contact and ultimately knocked Harvey from the game in the 6th inning, while the Mets could make no breaks, advance no runners, and didn't make much of a peep against Edinson Volquez.

This wasn't a pretty outing for Harvey, and his final line would indicate that, but I can't say I thought he pitched badly by any stretch. But if anyone needed to be reminded—and I don't think any Mets fan actually needed to be reminded—about just why the Royals are the defending World Series Champions, they went out and did it. In a game where, against basically any other team, Harvey likely would have been pitching shutout ball or 1-run ball and cruising through 6 innings, the Royals just singled him to death, taking extra bases, forcing the issue, you know, the same annoying stuff we had to live through last year, and slowly that 1-0 deficit turned into a 4-0 deficit and the game seemed pretty much nuked. But, as I've recently mentioned, and of course as the media will dictate, you're remembered by the final result, and, well, Harvey lost. So that's the endgame.

Offensively, there wasn't much to say about the Mets. They couldn't take advantage of the limited opportunities they had against Volquez, and until they managed to rally against Joakim Soria in the 8th inning it seemed pretty certain that they wouldn't push anything across. But they did have a spirited rally in that 8th, as Soria lost the plate and the Mets finally managed to catch a couple of breaks when flair hits by Lucas Duda and Michael Conforto landed safely, and suddenly that 4-0 deficit became 4-3...but they got no closer. Wade Davis looked ripe for the taking in the 9th inning, and certainly the Mets had the opportunity to tie the game after a great AB by Travis d'Arnaud and some clutch hitting from Curtis Granderson, but David Wright struck out, and Yoenis Cespedes struck out and that was the end of that.

I did like what I saw from Conforto, in particular, and also from Granderson and Duda, who put up some nice ABs and Conforto ended up finding himself on base every time he came up, something that might be lost in the overall effort. But it was overshadowed by Cespedes, who whiffed in the field and whiffed at the plate, and by David Wright, whose 9th inning strikeout seemed almost predictable. For as much as I hate to say it, Wright batting 2nd in this lineup might end up becoming a liability before all is said and done. He didn't get the necessary game action in Spring Training and it showed, as Davis made him look silly on 3 pitches and the only way he could have looked sillier would have been if Davis had thrown a slider 10 feet off the plate so David could have flailed away at it.

So, not the world's most encouraging start for the Mets, but again, the Mets aren't going to play the Royals 162 times this year, and they also don't have to play any more games in the home stadium of the defending World Series Champions anymore after Tuesday. It's easy to lose perspective because it's one game and because the Mets looked like a bunch of idiots on National TV (once again), but again, consider all the circumstances surrounding the game before jumping to conclusions. It almost seemed predestined that the breaks weren't going to go the Mets way on this night. They'll have plenty of days where they'll get the breaks they need.

The Fighter Still Remains

Usually on Opening Day, I kind of reflect on how the Mets sit in front of me and what they'd need to do in order to move themselves forward. Most seasons it seemed like kind of a fruitless exercise because even if everything went right, and it usually didn't, the Mets were still a long way from getting to where they needed to be. It's obviously different this year, because at some point in 2015 the Mets turned into a legitimate team and rode the wave all the way down to the World Series.

We, of course, know what happened from there.

But in some odd juxtaposition that could only happen in a Baseball World, a season that extended so late into the year that it created the shortest Offseason in Mets history probably felt like the longest, or at least it did for me, and probably because I keep reflecting on that final night of the season, on November 1st. Mere 5 months ago feels like ages, I guess because of how that evening keeps running through my head.

I tend to come back to Matt Harvey, and how he's kind of become a punching bag in the media. Sure, some of this he brings upon himself, but in reality, what is Matt Harvey's fault other than being talented, handsome and arrogant? The point is, would some of the stories about Matt Harvey even be stories if it didn't involve him? But Harvey off the field is of little interest to me. So long as he doesn't end up doing something stupid and really getting himself in serious trouble, it's not my business. When he's on the field, pitching for my team, then it is my business.

And that's what brings me back to the first and only time the Mets played Baseball in November. Because on that night, Harvey stood out intent to pitch the game of games and stamp his name in Baseball lore. Because for 8 innings, Harvey pitched with the kind of ferocity I'd never seen out of him, to the point where he stomped off the mound screaming after striking out the side.

In the 7th inning, I was quite certain that Harvey was finishing the game, win or lose, because at that point, he was pitching so well and his level of intensity was so high that I figured him likely to put Terry Collins through the dugout wall if he attempted to pull him from the game. Of course, that led to the now-infamous 8th inning discussion in which Harvey talked himself back into the game, failed to seal the deal, and instead of being a hero, he became this offseason's punchline.

But again, why should Matt Harvey be laughed at for trying to will his way through the game? It seems to me that if he'd come out, and Jeurys Familia ended up blowing the game, then Harvey's a jerk for coming out. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, but I'll never blame Matt Harvey for demanding to finish out the game. Far as I'm concerned, he deserved the opportunity to do so. It didn't work out, the Mets lost the lead, lost the game, lost the World Series. And for 5 months now, he's had to carry that around just as much as all of us fans have had to, and it sucks.

It did, however, lead to this scene, which I still find incredible so I'm going to show it to you again:

I talked, after that game, about how the Mets had to remember the feeling. Remember how the season ended. But there's two ways this can go. Some teams have had painful ends to a season and ended up carrying it around as baggage that took all the starch out of the team the following season. As though so much emotion had been built up on that game that the loss was too catastrophic to recover from. Other teams use the feeling as springboard to drive them through the following season.

Certainly, the Mets appear like a team primed to do the latter. Most of these guys on the team are too young to have the baggage of so many losing seasons and none of them were around the last time the franchise was coming off a horrible Postseason loss. But you really don't know until you see it in action. The fact that they'll be starting things off with their World Series opponent throwing a celebration in their faces might be a good thing for them. Certainly, giving Matt Harvey the Opening Night start on The Biggest Game In The Galaxy is a good opportunity for him to make the a statement that people ought to just focus on his pitching. That's all that should matter about him for the next 6-7 months.

It's a long way back to get to where the Mets were last season, and of course not many get the opportunity to play in that arena in back-to-back seasons. But the Mets certainly appear capable of doing so. It becomes a matter of using everything that went on last season as a means to springboard them forward. It goes beyond whatever stats and numbers might tell you about a player or a team. The Mets didn't have that look at times last year, but what they did have was a whole that felt greater than the sum of its parts. Yes, they had guys like Harvey, or Jacob deGrom, or Noah Syndergaard, or Yoenis Cespedes who got most of the ink, but ultimately, none of them felt themselves above the team, which is key. The Mets developed a fighter's spirit last season that held across the roster and appears to still be there as they get ready to try and better the results of 2015. This starts with Matt Harvey but it's going to be on display every time the Mets take the field this season.

Hopefully, the ending will turn out right this time.

Happy Returns

Monday at Citi Field marked the 11th straight year that I was present for the Home Opener, a streak that covers every Citi Field Home Opener. The Home Opener annually has a bit of a "Baseball Woodstock" feel to it. There's a lot of fans there, and people are hanging out and tailgating in the parking lot, and the concession stands are generally understaffed and overwhelmed, and it generally feels kind of disorganized sometimes.

As is my habit, I got to Citi Field, accompanied by my other half for what would be her first Opening Day, at around 11:15 or so. The parking lot was already full, and inside the crowd was abuzz in the kind of way that hasn't really existed pretty much since the first Opening Day at Citi Field way back in 2009 when the Outfield was all black and a giant vacuum for fly balls. Now, 6 years hence, the team is different, the walls are different, the Outfield is still kind of a vacuum in the right kind of weather, but it's still Citi Field, and it's still sort of new, like most of us are still warming up to the fact that the beloved Blue Blob that was Shea Stadium isn't there anymore. We milled around somewhat and looked for new and interesting things, discovering little more than the grilled cheese stand and the bacon-on-a-stick stand, but for the most part things haven't changed that much. The line at Shake Shack is still absurdly long, and the line at Pat LaFrieda's stand could rival it. Blue Smoke, which for my money is probably better than Shake Shack, and the equally superior El Verano Taqueria have less of a line (you're welcome, Danny Meyer). The World's Fare Market didn't have anything new either, unless you consider "Mets" Cupcakes something new and exciting (although I can't determine that they're a new offering since I haven't actually been in the World's Fare Market since at least 2011). Upstairs, even less had changed, except that after a while I realized that there was no more Subway at Citi Field. This is fine, since I was never one to get Subway at a Mets game and I have, in the past, mused as to why this was ever an option in the first place. Something that I can't remember has replaced it in the Promenade level. It must not have been a very exciting option, since I can't tell you what it is. I'll try to do a better job later in the season.

One of my more vehement gripes at prior Opening Days was the lack of pocket schedules. It's been years since you could get a Mets pocket schedule on Opening Day. The Pocket Schedule is a major part of my life during baseball season. I keep one in the pocket of two different coats, usually one in my wallet, several in key locations in my apartment, and one on my desk at work. This way, I always know when there's a game. After years of no pocket schedules on Opening Day, I was delighted to find that the Fan Assistance booth on the Field Level in fact WAS LOADED WITH POCKET SCHEDULES!!! This more or less made the day right there. I made sure to grab several more than I needed, because who knows how hot a commodity these will be in the season's early going.

Oh, and then there was a Shofar Blowing with Howie Rose, and a Game, too. Howie did his usual sparkling job, replete with the typical vitriolic welcome to the visiting Phillies, and the expected wild ovations for such Mets as Matt Harvey, Lucas Duda, David Wright, Jacob deGrom and Bartolo Colon. During the game, it was deGrom who sparkled, in spite of not having his best stuff and kind of throwing too many pitches too early in the game. But he had the benefit of facing a Phillies lineup that's just putrid, which I enjoy to no end. They have some young players like this Odubel Herrera (not to be confused with Oddibe McDowell or Asdrubal Cabrera) fellow and Cody Asche, but mostly this is a roster of creaky old guys, like the Artist formerly known as Chase Utley, Perpetually injured Grady Sizemore, and the corpse of Ryan Howard. deGrom navigated his way through 6.1 innings, allowing no runs to the Phillies in spite of 7 hits and only 3 strikeouts. He was helped by a 4th inning Double Play turned by Daniel Murphy, and by his own fine defense in the 5th, cutting off a sacrifice bunt attempt by Harang and cutting down the lead runner at 3rd.

Still, the Mets needed to find their breaks against the wily Aaron Harang (who can get you on a good day) in order to plate the two runs they were able to generate. They scored in the 4th when Juan Lagares hit a liner off Harang's glove that for some reason Harang decided to look at rather than field, and by time he negotiated his situation, Lagares was safe at 1st and Murphy had scored the first run of the game. An opportunity in the 6th was squandered after Michael Cuddyer's fly ball was lost in the sun by a cowering Sizemore, resulting in a triple. But Murphy followed with a pop out and that killed the inning. It wasn't until the 8th that the Mets finally managed an insurance run, thanks to a Daniel Murphy grounder that was ticketed for DP land until Utley ole'd it and the ball went through his legs. Travis d'Arnaud followed with a Sac Fly and that was the sum total of the Mets offense.

Fortunately, it was enough on this day, as deGrom, Carlos Torres, Jerry Blevins (who had the day's best WELCOME TO NEW YORK moment, punctuating a perfect 8th inning by striking out Howard) and Jeurys Familia, who closed out his second Save opportunity in as many days, thanks primarily to Lucas Duda's slick fielding (who the hell ever thought I'd be saying something like that) as he started a key Double Play to pick up the inning's first two outs. And, thus, the Mets kicked off their Home Schedule with a nice, crisp, 2 hour, 53 minute, 2-0 victory.

Other interesting tidbits: The clock that has mysteriously appeared in the Outfield that read 2:20 prior to the game. It wasn't until I looked up in the middle of the 1st inning and saw the clock counting down that I realized it was one of the MLB-sanctioned timer clocks installed to speed up the pace of the game. I guess they can do it all they want, but they'll still have a hard time keeping the American League games under 4 hours.

It's a quick turnaround for me, as sometimes happens, I've managed to end up with tickets to the first two games on the season. So I'll be right back out at Citi Field tonight, to welcome Matt Harvey back to Citi Field. Me, and more than likely about 35,000 others. The crowd on Monday was over 43,000, a Citi Field record. I guess once the tide turns for the Mets, we can expect more of this. It's nice, but a part of me will miss going to weekday night games where there were 15,000 people in the stands and you could get food without missing an inning and a half.

Holiday!

It poses to be a sleepless night for me tonight, as is usually the case before Opening Day at Citi Field, particularly in the now dozen or so consecutive years that I've had tickets to Opening Day, whether it's real Opening Day or the Home Opener. Currently, I feel as though I might be best served waking up at 7am and running out to the ballpark, but conventional wisdom (and my other half, who'll be accompanying me tomorrow in what will be her first Opening Day) will more than likely win out, I'll stay in bed a little later, and then divert my usual trip downtown onto the 7 train for my first sojourn to Flushing for the year.

I've said in the past that Opening Day really only feels official when it's a True Opening Day, such as it has been for the Mets the past 3 seasons. Still, even though the Mets have been playing for a week already, since I've barely seen much action live, the Home Opener will actually feel like Opening Day for me. The Mets have played 6 games; I've seen 0 live, except for a snippet of Friday night's game, and it's made for some pretty shoddy blogging around here of late. I'll try to do better tomorrow since I'll actually have seen the game.

Also, it's hard to not get fired up when you hear Howie Rose get on that microphone and start yelling, "WELCOME TO CITI FIELD, AND THE START OF THE 2015 NATIONAL LEAGUE SEASON IN NEW YORK!!!"

Other nice things about Opening Day, which can happen whether it's True Opening Day or not, is that it's a nice day off from Work, which I've generally requested and received several weeks in advance (although this year as I've recently switched jobs, my new employers were kind enough to honor my request for a personal day in spite of lack of accumulated service time). It's now a rare game where I feel a legitimate need to arrive at Citi Field 2+ hours prior to game time, just because it's nice to walk around the stadium, see what's new, get some food before the masses arrive and be in my seat at a leisurely pace before the Shofar is blown and the home season gets underway.

Even Opening Day has been a tough sell for the Mets in recent years, but this year, it's completely sold out, so I'd have to guess I'm not the only one raring to get going in the morning, but most, unlike me, will probably be driving. The Mets are encouraging fans to use mass transit but most people don't listen to those kinds of things, so the parking lot should be plenty full. You know where this is going. There has, for my money, been no better Opening Day Omen for a good season than a nice car fire during the game. Opening Day 2006, car fire. Mets run away with the division. 2006 NLDS Game 1, car fire. Mets win a nailbiter over LA. Ever since then, no car fire, and we know how things have turned out. Now that the Mets have moved into Citi Field, you can't even see the parking lot from where I'm sitting, so if there's a car fire, I'll have no idea. But maybe I can just sort of generate one with my mind, and that will carry things forward from there. If not, maybe being able to get a pocket schedule on Opening Day will be a fitting equivalent. It's been a good 3-4 years since the Mets have had pocket schedules available on Opening Day (and of course they have more than they know what to do with at the end of the season), but I think it might be just as good a sign if, by some chance, I could get a bunch of pocket schedules. Let's hope for at least 1 out of 2.

Howie Rose at 12:40. First pitch 1:10. See you then!

One Day Late

So, after missing all of Monday's game because I was at work, I had the idea that I'd come home and watch the game. Generally, I don't make much of a fuss of trying to see games I'm not able to watch live, but Opening Day is obviously a special case. I had set the DVR to record the Pregame show, the Pre-Pregame show, and an hour on the end in case things ran long. Knowing how things turned out before I got home, I was raring to go to revel in the glory of the Mets and their spotless record. My other half had some other things in mind. After a busy weekend (which included performances of my critically acclaimed production, GREAT KILLS—now in its final weekend), we had a few days of TV to catch up on. We missed Saturday Night Live, and the season premiere of Mad Men, and the evening just got away from me, and I didn't get to see the game.

Tuesday was heading down the same path. We arrived home around the same time, and dinner was involved, and my other half wanted to watch some Three's Company, but finally, I was able to wrest control of things and watch the Mets Opening Day affair. Obviously, I wasn't disappointed. I hadn't had a chance to watch more than one or two Spring Training games and those are kind of dumbed-down broadcasts anyway. Often, Gary, Keith and Ron aren't on those games, and the Steve Gelbs/Jim Duquette tandem leaves a lot to be desired (I am already on record as voicing my disdain of the virtually unlistenable Duquette), so Opening Day is really the first time we get to hear GK&R in anger, just as it was the first time we were able to see the Mets in anger.

It's somewhat fleeting, though. Because of work and other commitments, Monday's game is probably the only game I'll get to watch at all, except for assorted highlights. Tonight, I have a show, Thursday's game is in the afternoon, and then I'm pre-empted by shows all weekend. Then, the Mets come home, and I'll be in attendance at Citi Field for the opener on Monday, and then again on Tuesday for the Return of Harvey, so it's going to be at least a week before I get to watch another game on SNY or any other network. Fear not, however, I'll do my best to sort of get the gist of things and try to give some vaguely well-informed opinions on the state of things.

Flip The Results

The Mets and Nationals started the 2014 season against each other in a 3-game series at Citi Field. The Nationals came back to win the season opener, swept the series and set the tone for the entire season as the beat the Mets 15 times in 19 games for the season. But the Mets woes against the Nationals stretched longer than that; it seems to me like the Nationals have won 15 of 19 from the Mets every year since 2010. Certainly, the situation on Opening Day seemed ripe for the same results, the Mets were going into Washington, in front of a packed house expecting to see their $200 million dollar pitcher Max Scherzer throw a no hitter, Bryce Harper hit 4 Home Runs and the Nationals win the World Series all at once. But the Mets had their own ideas. While Scherzer flirted with a no hitter and Harper hit a Home Run, the Mets capitalized on some Washington miscues, picked up some timely hits and rode the pitching of Bartolo Colon and company home for a 3-1 victory to kick off the 2015 season.

I still actually haven't seen the game as I write this. The 4:10 start time fell while I was still at work and thus relegated to MLB's Gamecast at my station. Though I did record the game on DVR, various interruptions over the course of the evening precluded me from watching it. Nonetheless, I know how it turned out, even though I was in transit during the final 1 1/2 innings of the affair. It was a brisk game, and I don't think that had anything to do with the new game-speed rules that have been implemented, I think the Mets and Nationals hit the ground running and kept to a pace. Certainly, Colon and Scherzer set the tempo, each allowing first inning runners but little else otherwise. For all the whining people did about Colon being named the Opening Day starter, Colon threw it back at everyone by pitching an outstanding game. Colon's only hiccup, Harper's Home Run leading off the 4th inning, was one of only 3 hits he allowed in his 6 innings of work, and true to his usual form, he walked 1 and struck out 8.

But for as good as Colon was, Scherzer was even better. Though Curtis Granderson led off the game with a Walk, Scherzer then proceeded to set down the next 17 Met batters that came to the plate, only breaking when he walked Granderson again with 2 outs in the 6th inning. Innocuous, yes, but sometimes, that's all a team needs to get themselves going. David Wright followed with a popup that probably should have ended the inning, but with Dan Uggla ready to catch it, Ian Desmond out-Ugglaed Uggla and dropped the ball, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd, still without the benefit of a hit. That, of course, changed when Lucas Duda came up and nailed a 2-run single, the Mets first hit of the season and the first runs on the board, giving the Mets a lead they would not relinquish. One inning later, the Mets plated an insurance run when Travis d'Arnaud blasted a triple over the head of Teenage Center Fielder Michael A. Taylor to score Juan Lagares. Colon turned the ball over to Carlos Torres in the 7th, Jeurys Familia in the 8th, and when Jenrry Mejia failed to answer the bell in the 9th inning (in a scenario that recalls the fate that befell Bobby Parnell last season), newcomer Jerry Blevins and Buddy Carlyle finished things out instead, the latter earning his first career Save at the tender age of 37, keeping the Nationals off the bases and off the scoreboard.

Yes, this is only one game out of 162 and yes, this is only one game out of 18 or 19 that the Mets will play against the Nationals. But if today's game served any kind of notice, it's that the Mets aren't going to lie down against this team. It goes back to what Zack Wheeler said way back at the beginning of Spring Training. Sure, Washington's the team to beat, but we're not going to make it easy for them [sic]. Wheeler got hurt and won't be around, but that doesn't matter. He said we, and not I, and for the Mets to find the success they're looking for, they have to be able to flip that record against the Nationals. It makes a difference. This is a good start in the right direction.