Monday, May 21, 2007

It Hurts To Boo

I wish I could give you a bit more tonight...just as I wish Tyler Clippard could have given you a bit less Sunday night.

But as it turns out, your great and all knowing soothsayer doesn't know well enough to know that if you swing yourself under the rail that separates the sections in the upper deck, and that if you're considerate enough to keep bending at the waist so as not to block your fellow fans from the incoming pitch, then there's every chance that your back is going to go out.

And out it is.

My back is more out than Derek Jeter's blast off John Maine...which was so out it was halfway to the CitiField construction. The Jeter blast, unfortunately, was the signal for all of the frustrated Yankee fans to let loose their frustrations and morph into the bragging, puffy chest, brain surgeons that we all knew they could be, as a big bag of popcorn came flying down from the reaches of section 41 in the upper tank. Not so coincidentally, that is the general vicinity where all of the fights started, yet it took the security folk a good two innings to reach that area and start ejecting people.

Then, of course, there seemed to be one of them in every section...the one that felt he needed to get up and make a spectacle of himself to everybody to prove that he's a Yankee fan, reminding us to look at the scoreboard (but conveniently failing to bring up the current standings), like the one in our section...section 31. He deserved a good booing, but it couldn't be from me...heck I could hardly stand up. Even booing hurt.

On Sunday night, a lot of things hurt.

But let's keep in mind that while losing to a pitcher fresh out of grade school is a bitter bill to swallow (along with that court order that prevents Shawn Green from coming at least ten feet away from every fly ball), the Mets have won another series, and have gained a game on the Braves in the process (not to mention the 7-3 homestand). Silver linings people...silver linings.

Enjoy your off day, and I'll give you a little bit more then...that is, if it doesn't hurt to type.

18 comments:

Mike said...

Who let that boy out so late on a school night? Mr. Clippard is gonna ground him for a couple weeks at least.

Anonymous said...

be well my friend, a back is nothing to toy with.

JMP said...

Over his last 3 starts (2 losses and 1 ND), Maine has a WHIP around 2.

Krup said...

i recommend accupuncture and, if necessary, an epidural (seriously). i avoided back surgery this way (along with a little physical therapy and, I admit, some of Rush Limbaugh's favorite pharmaceutical) and now I'm an upright citizen.

yankees' fans have become so sad and ridiculous. I prefer to ignore them but they keep showing up at our stadium.

Anonymous said...

Metstra,

First off, feel better, my friend.

I was a few sections over from you, in 25, so I didn't have quite as good a view of what the hell was going on in section 41; all I really saw was, after things started getting pretty crazy, an insane storm of cups flying around, hitting fans and security officers alike. (Which is not to mention when I found myself in the bathroom peripheral to there, three Yankee fans co-opted the stall next to mine to [I'm pretty sure] do some coke, afterward dreamily exclaiming "Now I'm reeaaaaaaally having a good time.")

I come to one of the Met-Yankee games every year, and it seems like every time the crowd gets a little more ridiculous. And it's not just Yankee fans; I saw a particularly drunk Met fan yell "F--- the Yankees" and "Go back to the Bronx, motherf---er" at a Yankee fan and his pretty young (maybe 7 year old?) son. They were minding their own business, and the kid was just standing their with his mitt looking like he might cry.

I swear, it's something about these games that really brings out the worst in people.

Ceetar said...

Yeah, I saw all the craziness out there in the outfield from section 9. It looked like it was raining beer at one point with all the stuff being thrown.

You could tell all the Mets fans were still cheering and booing and 'Yankees Suck'ing last night. However, the Yankee fans were nowhere to be heard the other two nights.

87th Street said...

When the Yankees drop 2 of 3 to the orange and blue, and it's still considered a feel-good outcome, either Steve Phillips wrote the article or you know that the big apple is back in the Mets' top hat like it was in the late 80s.

Anonymous said...

Screw IL play. Screw the hype. Screw the phoney TV shots. Screw WFAN becoming a Yankee-fan-therapy station. Screw FOX and ESPN broadcasts--thank dog the Sopranos was on. Unscrew your back, dude, and thanks for blogging in the middle of the night. That's dedication and due dilligence--unlike the announcers on national TV who know squat about the Mets.

Anonymous said...

Makes you think they should ban beer and wine sales for every Subway Series game, doesn't it?

That way, the only people who'd bother showing up would be the ones who want to see a ball game, not the ones who want to get s#!%-faced.

Of course, they'll never do that. It would be in$ane.

Anonymous said...

Good luck with your rehab assignment, Metstra. I thought I had it bad after catching two slow pitch softball games this Saturday, but you have it much, much worse.

Anonymous said...

Hi Mestradamus- We all knew Maine would comeback to earth at some point. I will forget when the right handed Bobby Jones went to the All Star game with a record of 12-2 or 12-5 something like that and he hit the wall. It happens.

What I cannot stand is Scott Schoene-waste coming into throw gasoline on a fire, and then Burgos coming in to fan the flame. Boy of boy do I miss Chad Bradford.

Anonymous said...

Give the Show a break. He was the most effective pitcher of the night last night.

If Willie would use Show as a LOOGY, like he should, Show would be a halfway decent reliever.

Anonymous said...

BTW, yes, I know how faint the praise of "the most effective pitcher of the night last night" is.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous- "The Show" should be cancelled he is vomitacious-you have to admit he has been nothing short of atrocious lately. Him & Burgos are enough to enduce sickness in any Met fan when they come out of the pen. Lets get real here.

Anonymous said...

god damn YESpn. i wasnt sure if i was watching a ball game or just watching the YANKTHESE dugout.

its like the guys in bristol have "men crushes" on torre and jeter.

out of the 3+ hours broadcast last night, i bet you 2 hours were dedicated to shots of the YANKTHESE dugout and 1 hour to the action on the field.

also, all the talk of teh YANKTHESE injuries, etc.. for a while there, i wasnt sure who they were playing. for a while i think joe "kiss my bunt" morgan and ben franklin forgot who the YANKTHESE were playing.

they set the world record last night for the longest conversation on ONE topic.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, bro, for bringing me along for the ride. So what about the outcome ... the Yanks are 10.5 out, and we gained a game on the Native-American-Culture-Apers. I'll fly out any day for that kinda fun! ... but the $7.25 beers! When did that happen?

Anyway, always remember, no matter what, little brother ... we'll always have Flushing.

And we'll always have Mama's Empanadas!

See you at Dolphins v. Jets this September when the brain surgeon Yankees fans don their aquamarine!

Anonymous said...

I think Sean has a pretty good point regarding fan behavior. It seems to be at its worst on both sides during a series like this....a lot of it due to the abuse of alcohol. I find that as I get older, the games and the team still means a lot...however its just a game. I try to think about how my wife or my young son would see me if I behaved in a disrespectful and abnoxious way. Lots of Met fans and Yankee fans guilty as charged. The fact that people are entertained and standing while watching this is also sad. We are, after all, there to watch baseball.

In terms of full disclosure, Metstra and Fredstra were there on account of a Yankee fan. I can honestly say that while passionate, they carry themselves with respect both on and off the field. Metstra is always working on his blog...even mid game.

Lastly,for the first time in a long time, I felt a real change in the air for both teams. The Yankees struggling to be relevant and Mets confident and ready to close out a big series. The Mets right now are the best team in town...however the Met fan enthusiasm about a series like this is quite annoying. After 15 straight years in the playoffs, four world series, six pennants, and countless division titles, sooner or later your time is going to come. The Mets won't have true bragging rights until they finally bring home the World Championship. A sobering reminder, probably a quarter of the people in Shea on Sunday weren't born when the Mets last one...now that's tough reality.

And Fredstra...there are Yankee fans who are Jet season ticket holders....no aquamarine in September for me.

Anonymous said...

Jeterboy, how you can be a Yankees/Jets fan astounds me. The fact that you root for the Yankees and, at the same time, are relatively sane, right-thinking and rational makes you an anomaly of historic proportions!