Sunday: What a great day at Shea!

Do I have any James Bond fans in the house? Imagine Shriley Bassey...as a Mets fan.

Foam Finger
It's the team, the team with the pretty win.
See, they still win.
Such a home finger
You say where are the cheers at Shea?
But not today.

Anyone who doesn't love Nelson Figueroa is dead inside. The feel-good story of the season came through for us again, prompting the music powers-that-be at Shea to let us know we were "Gettin' Figgy with it."

And how 'bout that Ryan Church?? Ever see a ball in the outfield that Carlos Beltran can't catch? Ryan did! Man, that 7th inning Beltran-slides-Church-strides catch had the stands roaring in appreciation. Church jogged back to the dugout alongside Beltran to thunderous applause.

But the story of the day you'll hear most about, of course, was Carlos Delgado's 2-home run extravaganza. After the first one, Mets buddy Rob next to me said "I can see his smile all the way from here." Matty's doing a great job of covering "CurtainCallgate," which unfortunately seems to be eclipsing the coverage that Hey, we won the rubber game against a crucial rival. Against John Smoltz, whose ERA was under 1 at the beginning of the game. We scored in multiple innings to keep the lead throughout the whole game.

It was pretty baseball. I missed pretty baseball.

And as for my own two cents, if Delgado's going to explain that he didn't do a curtain call because he respects the game too much to show boat, I'm fine with that.

I will so be rocking my friggin' foam finger in the future, folks.

What does it take for the dude to get reprimanded? Fired? Anything at all? If nothing else, he should be barred from calling Mets games, when he so clearly has a personal vendetta. Angel Hernandez, you win Massengill Ump of the Season.

P.S. (For real? And 1st base umpire Angel Hernandez just called Carlos Delgado a "piece of s**t.")

What kind of game is this!?

Metsblog Matty had requested the whiffle ball, and we all took some shots. Anthony even taught me (briefly!) how to hold the bat, and I took my first 6 pitches ever. I made contact with 3: 1 popped foul, 2 straight at the pitcher.

Matt, Anthony, Ryan, and others made it look much prettier, I assure you.












Know what else makes a tailgate fun? Free stuff! Parting gifts!! A group of clever dudes had made a "Philly Sucks" t-shirt with an awesome quote from Pedro Martinez. They gave Matty one, and when I ran over to see if they had more, they kindly gave me one too! I heart it! It's quite big, kids XL, but I hope I can be creative and figure out how to sport it for a Mets/Phils game at Shea. The shirt? Just plain ROCKS. (Ooh! Our boys just tied it up in the 6th! I "WOO-ed" in my own apartment!)

Coop and I heard our first real "boos" on our way into the stadium. There's a lot of parking lot to travel from Lot N, and the walk was just one big boo.

But once inside, things weren't so bad! I'd been told Citizens Bank Park is beautiful, and indeed, I can't argue. On our way in, I heard a Phils fan say, "Should we boo them now?" and he started booing. I turned around with a smile and said "No, you should boo us when we're winning," and he and his girlfriend just laughed good-naturedly.

Our seats were about as high as you can get, literally, at that ballpark. But they were still pretty good. It makes me think they're telling the absolute truth that every seat at Citi Field will be worthwhile. And yes, it makes me more excited for our spanking new ball park.

We wouldn't stay in our seats long, though. We went to meet the other Girls of Spring, Stefi and Rebecca, at their standing-room-only spots right behind home plate. What fun we would have there! Matty, Ted, and Jason stopped by to hang, Brooklyn Met Fan Adam made an appearance, and Dykstraw finally found us there too. Plus, there were Mets fans everywhere. We made friends with some--it felt like we were around our people. Yes, there was one verrrrrry obnoxious (and verrrrrry drunk) Phils fan running at the mouth, but his taunts were so truly lame that it actually felt like stand up comedy! The dude almost got beat up by his own team's fans, so you can imagine what a dumb douchie he was.

You can't tell from the pics, but I was wearing a shirt with John Maine's # on the back. I felt a tap on my shoulder and heard "Is that a John Maine jersey?" I made a sympathetic face at the Phils fan and spoke slowly "It's a tee-shirt."

"John Maine sucks!" he said.
"Your mommy," I responded.
His friends laughed, he laughed, and he shook my hand. "That's nice," he said. "Hey, I'll wear a John Maine jersey"
"If they make them in your size," I said. He wasn't unusually big, it just seemed like a reasonable taunt. And he agreed. I felt at that moment like a poster-child for good-natured rivalry. 

To top it all off, with all the tailgate fun, the beautiful ball park, the sun and breeze, our boys gave us the win! Oh, that was sweet. Sure, it got interesting there for a bit, but kudos to Heilman (ohhhh I was nervous!) for getting out of it, a pat on the back to Wagner for the save in his former city, and thanks to Ollie Perez for 5 truly solid innings. And how 'bout our Jose Reyes? Keep it up, buddy. The media will love their "Jose being Jose" and "Did Carlos Beltran show leadership" for at least another three weeks.

I haven't quite figured out the best way to post pics on the newfangled mlblogs, but here are some of my faves! And remember for more, just check out the flickr album.

 

I will also let you laugh at me, in my first ever at bat. We will thank our lucky stars that our boys never look anything like this. Not even Ollie Perez :-)

* * * * *

And I was watching the game with a friend who went to Figgy's college alma mater, Brandeis. So the Figgy love certainly spreads around.

Update 6:25 PM: Aaaaand there's the difference between a team and a boyfriend. When the team throws the Relationship Card back in your face, you don't break up with it.

However, you can totally withhold the sex.