First Baseball Game

I took Julian to his first baseball game on Saturday: the Mets versus the Nationals, at Citi Field in Queens. Julian enjoyed the game. He sat and watched the (relatively quick) game, all two hours, and clapped along with the rest of the fans. We enjoyed some Edy’s Dibs ice cream nuggets on this perfect Fall day. Ironically, Julian planned on wearing his Nationals baseball cap, which my dad gave him following some musical work he did a few years ago for that team. I couldn’t let him wear that to a Mets game, so we found another generic green one to keep the sun out of his eyes. This outing reminded me of the last game my dad took me to: game seven of the 1986 World Series, the Mets versus the Boston Red Sox at Shea stadium.

This was my first game at Citi Field. It’s a nice ballpark, outfitted with a grand entrance, good restaurants (even a Shake Shack), all sorts of retail shops and clean restrooms. It even has a nice tree-lined parking lot, whose price of admission is $18. All this glitz makes it feel more like a theme park versus a ballpark. Which is why I prefer the grittiness of the old blue Shea stadium, where drunken fans would pee in the restroom sinks. But Shea is no longer.

Oh…the Mets may suck this season, but they won this game.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Naked fan who went on Citi Field gets 1-year ban (cbssports.com)
• Mets Fan Swallowed By Citi Field Toilet [New York Mets] (deadspin.com)
• Like Mets, Citi Field Needs Work (bleacherreport.com)
• Amazin’ly Bad: The 10 Worst Pitchers in Mets History (bleacherreport.com)