Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Beginnings of What, Exactly?

They played the wrong Chicago song.

When Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza reprised their first pitch from Shea Stadium's last pitch tonight at the brand new Citi Field, "Beginnings" was blaring over the sound system. In the reality we know as Mets baseball, "Old Days" would have been a better choice for this 6-5 historical blemish. Too many eerie reminders of the old days.

First off ... a cat? Come on. Waaaaaaaaaaay too convenient. Waaaaaaaaaaay too coincidental. You tell me that that by chance there was a cat roaming the field to open up the new stadium on Opening Night when one of the signature moments of Shea Stadium involved a cat? Yeah, I'm sure some cats made the trip ... but Opening Night? Please. If there weren't so many flight restrictions in New York there would have been a parachutist in the second inning. Somebody set that up.

Then, let's return to older days like ... last season, as in Jody Gerut becoming the first player ever ... ever ... to open a new stadium with a home run, a stadium that's supposed to be impossible to hit a home run in, or at least Gerut-proof just as Shea was supposedly "Gerut-proof" last season. Somehow, that wasn't a coincidence either.

Or, let's go back in time to ... yesterday, as in another outfielder having a ball go right off his glove and helping to bring in the winning run which, if it wasn't balked home, it would have been driven home by David Eckstein. You remember Eckstein from 2006 when he was being a general pain in the ass during the NLCS, never to be seen or heard from again until the next momentous moment in Mets history, the opening of a new park. Of course Eckstein would be around to screw that up by driving in two runs with three hits. What, the Padres couldn't trade for Yadier Molina and Jeff Suppan?

No, they decided instead to get two former Mets to close out this game for the Padres. Filthy Sanchez and Heath Bell. Six up, six down. First game ever at Citi Field, and it's closed out by Sanchez and Bell ... from the old days. Heath not only was dreaming about this moment, but he got it to come to fruition with a 1-2-3 ninth. Awesome. Just awesome.

And I'll state the obvious: if this is what we are to expect from Mike Pelfrey over the coming weeks, then Citi Field is going to turn into the House of Angst for a New Millennium. Oliver Perez goes on Wednesday for the Mets. Maybe the appropriate Chicago song will reflect the final score ... as in 25 or 6 to 4. And we'll have endings before the beginnings actually begin.

5 comments:

number15 said...

how bout 58 or 3-4. that's for the number of baserunners the mets have left to fester out on the pond in the first 7 games

Unser said...

I am totally with you on the cat fix - somebody planned that. A WHITE cat just happens to roam in front of the METS dugout? Please.

As for the rest, can't say THAT was in the plans.

Nice Chicago references.

Anonymous said...

I'd be peeved by the bad karma and sick ironies, but Debits Field is a dog of a stadium. Thousand of bad seats in the house. And don't worry---you're still going to miss two innings to hit the head and get a beer, so it's very Shea-like, except at Shea you could watch most of the game. Awful, awful ballpark. Wilpon's Folly, his homage to greed and ignorance.

Subway Squawkers said...

Love the cat logo!

Lisa

Subway Squawkers

weesle909 said...

That 25 or 6 to 4 had me lauging - good one.

Am I the only one who noticed Eckstein parked basically over home plate? Outside pitches he could almost reach were two feet off the plate!

Three words for Met's pitchers:

Pitch. The Fuck. Inside.


Ok, 4.

P.S. My verfication work was 'mothr', and I was wondering where the 'fuckr' part was.