Meet the Mets, greeeet the Mets....come out to shea...oops Citi....

Last Friday the wonderful Miss Musings got us two tickets to brand spanking new CitiField, isn't she lovely!! First off I want to muse about the new stadium.....simply, it's amazing, baseball should be played in a stadium like this. For many years Shea was our home, granted it was blue and orange, it was next to an airport, it was in a bad neighborhood, it smelled, and everything about it seemed tight, even the food was bad...... regardless it was our home. Fast forward to 2009, Citifield is like 2 things, 1) the person who wins the lotto but loves his/her crappy neighborhood so they build the biggest/best house on the block and hired gourmet chefs or an episode of extreme makeover Home Edition, where the family with a sad story(2007 2008 Mets) leave town for a while and when they come back they have a beautiful new house. The food, the decor, the seats, the view all was amazing!! Anyone who's facebook friends with me can see the joy in my face, I went back to my 6 year old self all over again. It bought me back to the days when my grandfather would take me to a game. I used to think back then how amazing it was seeing a game, the sights , the smells, etc......it would light me up inside.....well Citifield now has the same affect on me......
Moving along another thing was a first for me, not only was I visiting Citifield for the first time, but it was the first time I ever went to a Met game with a girlfriend of mine, to put it simply M.M. isn't what you would call a sports fan so I was interested to see how she would enjoy it. My whole life I either went to games with my grandfather, my cousins, or my friends, but never a girlfriend. Granted the whole experience is a completely different one then going to the game with let's say Mike....P.S. Mike is a made up name.....So without further ado here's a comparison of going to the game with M.M. versus going to a game with Mike.

Train ride up

M.M. Look how cute we are in this picture T

Mike- Look how hot that girl's butt is( I nod my head in agreement)

Pregame Food

M.M.- Salad ,Diet Coke, lets see if the sports shop has any cute pink Mets shirts(OK the last part I made up, just sounded better)

Mike- Bud Light, Pizza, Nachos, another Bud Light, Pretzel

Warmups

M.M. - Wow that Wright guy is really, really cute

Mike- Did you know Wright is hitting 250 with runners in scoring position

National Anthem

M.M.- Did you know she is dating insert celebrities name here

Mike- Wow she has a nice ass

First pitch

M.M. - I just twittered

Mike- I just farted

In between first and second inning

M.M. - So what time does the game end?

Mike- You think we can get those girls to hang out with us when the game ends?

Random point in the third inning

M.M. -Ugh , why don't they have phone chargers here?(PS at this point her phone died, I thought I was going to lose her here, but she managed to last a long, long time after this, needless to say I was proud of her)

Mike- You think if I yell loud enough I can charge the team up?

4th inning

M.M. Are those guys the halftime show?? ( In reference to the ground crew coming out and raking the dirt)

Mike- Wouldn't it be great if baseball had cheerleaders?

5th inning

M.M.- When is the 7th inning stretch?

Mike- Think the lines for the bathroom would be full during the stretch or should I go now

Bottom of the 5th inning

M.M. -Pretzel with Mustard would be awesome right now

Mike- Another Bud Light would be awesome right now

6th inning

M.M. Why did they paint the stadium Blue and Orange it's so hideous

Mike- Why are we blue and orange, it really is a terrible uniform color(after 6 beers, we become an episode of queer eye for the straight guy)

7th Inning

M.M.- Why do the planes keep flying over? I can't believe they put the stadium here

Mike- How hot is that girl up there?

8th Inning

M.M. are they almost done yet?? ( In reference to the game)

Mike are they almost done yet?? ( In reference to the Mets season)

9th Inning

M.M. - I wonder where David Wright hangs out after the game?

Mike- I wonder if I was David Wright how many girls I can get after the game?

Post game

M.M. - singing poker face on the train, getting 16 handles, crashing on the couch at 11

Mike- Stopping in Midtown, grabbing some drinks, getting late night pizza, crashing at 2am

Morning after

M.M.- Mimosa's and shopping

Mike- waking up at 11, talking about the Mets and how hot the girl was in the section in front of us.

Both instances with both people are great times, just a littttle bit different, it's part of growing up. I thoroughly enjoyed going to the game with M.M., I had a blast and would love to do it again! that's if she wants to see me practice my fake batting stance in front of the stadium or pretend I'm playing Centerfield by doing fake crow hops......I can't help myself deep down I'm a little kid. I do also need to do a Mike night, head out there with the boys, talk some baseball and do our guy thing, I can't wait to head back again, the 6 year old in me is itching to get out there shortly, regardless of the fact that they don't have cell phone chargers under the seat ;)

On that note, time to watch my Mets.......

Have a good night

TP

Madden and Mutombo

Back in my younger video game playing days I used to spend hours upon hours mindlessly sitting in front of a TV pressing buttons in order to "win" a game. This was before I discovered my inner buffness and started to go out a little. Needless to say one of my favorite games to play was the Madden Franchise, any guy around my age who liked sports and was into video games to this day still gets giddy upon the release of the newest title every year, after the age of 15 it became our Christmas. The game started simple enough and year after year they kept adding little twists to it to enhance the overall game play and "feel". I forgot what year it was but the year that they added the Franchise mode was a watershed moment for anyone like me. I might have spent months playing as the Giants up until 2020. I used to love simulating a season, than building up my team via the draft, free agency, and trades for some reason this was more fun for me than the actual game play, what can I say I'm a numbers geek. What does this have to with Dikembe Mutombo you may ask? Well for me a lot................

First off for those who don't know, Dikembe went down with a major knee injury the other night, here's the link to the story........ http://nba.fanhouse.com/2009/04/22/dikembe-mutumbo-retires-after-injury-for-me-basketball-is-over/........ after he was carted off he told the press that he was done with basketball. My first thought was wow, Dikembe retired didn't I just get his rookie card in a pack of cards the other day. Off the subject for a second, every other pack of Basketball cards I bought when I was 13 I seemed to get a Dikembe rookie card, I don't know why I always ended up with him but I must of had like 12 Mutombo cards, I think I even had his sneakers http://dimemag.com/wp-content/Images/sneakers/_Vintage-Voltage---Dikembe-Mutombo-3.jpg ........ god 13 was an awkward age. Back onto the subject when reading the story line I had no idea but am I alone in questioning how the hell is Mutombo 42 years old?? Has he really been playing basketball for 18 years?!??!? Where has the time gone? After that I noticed Shaq is in his 18th year, wasn't I just wearing an Orlando Magic hat? These players were rookies when I was in my prime of sports viewership 13-17 years old. I feel that every year after sports become a little bit less of a priority and you begin to start to focus your passions elsewhere. So how am I tying the two of these together? .............

In the franchise mode of Madden when you first get started, it's like being 13 everything is fresh and new and you know every player, eventually you get through the first season and you do a draft and you pick up a guy with a fake name like a QB from Miami named Steve Johnson, at first you follow Steve's career, you draft him, you watch him grow, eventually he may be an All-Pro, and so on. This is how I feel about Mutombo when I was 12-13 years old I remember him getting drafted, following every game of his because he was a 7'2 shot blocking machine from Georgetown, before the Internet was popular I remember getting the advance and following the stat line and being wowed about him blocking 7 shots or something like that, it's probably conversation pieces like this at parties which led to my lack of girls when I was younger. Eventually, you get to a point in Madden where it's 2020, you don't know any of these user generated names and eventually the game grows stale. I feel like I'm slowly getting to this point in sports. Granted I still follow it everyday, but the names aren't sticking out to me like it used to, I used to know every player now I'm lucky if I can name 5 players on an NBA team. I was at my fantasy baseball draft a few weeks ago, and I was like who the hell is this guy or that guy? Has my sports viewing life turned into year 2020 in Madden Franchise mode? Sadly(depends on which way you're looking at it) it has, sports just don't do it for me for a variety of factors never ending steroid allegations, overexposure, lack of the Mets in the playoffs, and having seen every conceivable game ever played the show doesn't work for me as much.

Having said all this have I stopped watching sports? NO!!! , If the Mets are in the playoffs, you better believe I'll be watching every game like my life is on the line, but something will be missing, the excitement from my youth has waned and has now been directed into other things...MM, work, writing this blog.........I'm just going to presume that when I have a boy that it'll rekindle my fire as he'll be the starting pitcher, QB, and point guard and I will rekindle my love for sports again. Any thoughts, comments out there from the 25-35 year old male group out there? Any one else feeling this withdrawal??

On that note back to work

TP