Game #72- New York Mets

New York Mets vs. Atlanta Braves Citi Field July 23, 2013 What a great reason to come out to New York for a game. I won a fairly prestigious award with my company this year (only 1% of all employees have a chance to win the award) and all the winners were flown out to Princeton, New Jersey for a dinner presentation. It was pretty amazing to be eating at the old Johnson and Johnson mansion, a 46,000 square foot house located on the Jasna Polana TPC golf course. I wandered around looking for the bathroom and ended up in the members locker room…all I can say is wow. I can’t even contemplate how much money you need to make to be a member. Well, the night before the presentation Keli and I stayed in Newark and drove out to Citi Field for a ball game. First, what is with all the tolls in New York? I think we went over 8 bridges, all with a toll, that totaled well over $60! That’s insane, I know everyone uses the subway system for a reason but I didn’t want to travel 24 miles on the thing. I guess I learned my lesson. Citi Field is located in Queens, and the stadium is beautiful. It is only 4 years old and took over for the old Shea Stadium that was home to the Mets from 1964 to 2009. The outside is not too spectacular to look at, mainly large columned walls and very few fan attractions. There is a brick appreciation/fan section (yes I bought another brick, this one says “Chris Costales and Keli Arnold via CA, go Mets”) but that is all I found on my walk around the park. Inside is a bit more lively. I first stepped in and saw the old homerun apple from Shea, that was pretty cool. As you make your way around the central stadium walkway there is the fan bridge, a children’s park in the park section, and as you make your way higher up in the seats you can get some cool views of Manhattan. Unfortunately I didn’t find the Jackie Robinson Rotunda and Mets Hall of Fame section, apparently it is by the front entrance of the stadium but I entered by the old Apple so missed it. When I come back to check out our brick I will definitely get some pics. As for the game, the Mets are not playing that well this year. So far they are 8 games under .500 (44-52) and are facing the first place Braves. But the home team stepped up today, behind pitcher Carlos Torres and some big bats by allstar David Wright, John Buck, and Daniel Murphy, the Mets took a 4-1 lead in the sixth inning and never let another run score. Its funny, for over a decade even though I didn’t like the Braves growing up I knew a ton of players on the team because they were always in the playoffs and often in the World Series (Chipper Jones, David Justice, Andruw Jones, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux to name a few), but on the current roster I only knew Justin Upton. I know I am not a huge baseball fan, and it shows because even with the lack of big time players, they are still in first. An interesting fact about the ballpark is that if you are a fan of the movie Men in Black, you should arrive a little early and head down to the 1964-65 Worlds Fair site. In the movie, the alien tries to fly away in a spaceship, and the towers are located just a couple blocks from the field.