Some Good, Some Bad: Another Opening Day
I stepped onto the 7 train and saw an older man wearing a Mets hat and nodded my head. He saw me and did the same. We both then laughed. I knew, because Tyler knew.
There is a bond that all true Mets fans share. For most of the last 10 years we lived in a city where we were the minority. Proud yes, but outnumbered and with smaller voices.
Three years back and the number of Mets hats on the streets was 10% what it is today. You saw a Mets hat and you got excited.
Today, things have changed. People are fans of the Mets like they were of the Yankees of the late 90's. It is rough in that you cannot trust your own. Still, you can often tell who is legit and which fans are "New" fans. This guy was one of us and it was great.
I sat with AFOMG, one of the few that I trust. His heart is in the right place. We all know that.
There I was, my best friend, my favorite place and a beautiful day. Can't ask for much more, at least not without upsetting any mothers reading this site who still think their little girl is an angel.
The Mets won the game, of course. They always do, at least on opening day. Other than for the disaster against the Cubs back four years back, when was the last time the Mets lost an opener?
Other than for the obvious positives -- the win, the weather -- there were a couple of other great moments.
For my money, there isn't much better than the Jose Reyes Spanish Academy.
Reyes goes on the jumbotron and teaches all of us a few easy Spanish sayings, flashing that megawatt smile in the meanwhile and just being Jose, the most enjoyable player in the game to watch.
The player introductions were great. HoJo got a great hand. The usuals did as well. But watching the crowd show love for John Maine and Oliver Perez was very nice. Endy got a great ovation. And Tom Glavine and Carlos Beltran received a king's welcome. Rewind 4 years and 1 year for those two, respectively, and there is a much different story.
The whole Jimmy Rollins subplot was great too. For those of you not around over the last month, Rollins called the Phils the team to beat in the NL East. A 1-6 start and a trip to Shea later and Rollins probably wish he could take that back.
He got abused the whole game, as did Pat Burrell. Pat Burrell is awesome. He is Chipper Jones except much worse against all other teams. But this guy is one of my favorite villains.
HERE IS WHERE SIP GOES SOUR. HAPPY PEOPLE STOP READING!!!
There was a lot that really pissed me off at Shea.
First off (and of least significance) there was the Ryan Howard home run. I am not second guessing because I was laughing with AFOMG before it happened. Why pitch Burgos against Ryan Howard when Feliciano is in the pen and there is an open base with a righty on deck and your righty specialist is also ready?
I laughed with AFOMG and made fun of Willie.
"Ambiorix is my guy. I went with my gut. I went my gut all year last year and we won 97 games. I trust my gut and I'm gonna stick with it as long as I'm manager of the New York Mets. Did I mention, Ambiroix is my guy and that I went with my gut?"
No, Willie didn't say that -- I don't think -- but he might as well have. Anyway you slice it, this was just a bad decision. We got lucky that it didn't cost us the game.
But what happened in the game did not bother me as much as what was happening at the game. Shea has changed. I don't know what it is. The team doesn't feel like my Mets. It felt like a team with a distant fan base trying to go mainstream.
Two things really REALLY pissed me off.
1. "Sweet Caroline." During the break in the 8th inning Shea Stadium rocks to Neil Diamond's classic. This has to fucking stop. This has been a corny tradition at Fenway Park in the 8th inning for years. We cannot steal it. It is not right. It belongs to them not us.
It used to be that 35,000 Massholes would sing it and dumb themselves down just because they were all so drunk and having so much fun that they didn't mind letting down their guard and softening their otherwise tough guy Boston mentalities. The first time I witnessed that at Fenway I laughed at them, the second time I was jealous. Either way, it is not right to play it at Shea. Get another song.
2. "Jim-my Roll-ins." "Jim-my Roll-ins."
The Mets fans were great to abuse J-Ro after he botched the grounder in the 8th inning. But this is Shea Stadium not Yankee Stadium. It already bothers me that we at Shea have taken the whole Yankee tradition of saying the players team in successive times (Car-los Bel-tran! Clap-Clap-Clap! Car-los Bel-tran).
Call me an asshole, that this is a generic chant and I will tell you to go fuck yourself. Yankee fans have been doing this when their team takes the field for years. It started going down at Shea the second the Mets started getting good. The second people who rooted for the Yankees in the late 90's thought it was ok to make the switch back to Queens. FACT.
But then there was Jimmy Rollins and the way he was booed.
We should have sang to Jimmy Rollins like Darryl Strawberry got it back in the day or Chipper Jones in the heart of the Larry scandal. "Larrrrrrrry. LARRRRRRRY. LARRYYYYYYYY." We say it slowly and let it drag out. You all know the chant. That's what Mets fans did.
That is a cheer that has been at Shea for as long as I can remember. It is how Mets fans boo a player. It's the way it has always been done.
This is Shea Stadium. NOT YANKEE STADIUM.
Finally, why do they have to go and fuck with the subway station? The new spot to swipe your Metrocard isn't better or worse. It's just different and I don't like change. If I wanted change, I would up and move to California or go to school in Arizona. What do I look like?
As happy as I am with the Mets success I often feel like losing gave the Mets the personality that made me proud to be a Mets fan. My friends who stuck with this team that came with me to all those games were there for the right reasons and not because the team finally started winning.
Now Shea has changed. People go expecting to win without understanding all the losing.
I'm a little salted right now.
BUT
In the end of the day, I couldn't be happier with how today went down. I'm a complainer. If you're looking for peaches and roses, check out another site. Like Rod Tidwell's brother Tee-Pee, I'm just keeping it real. I only hate because there is so much god damn love.
VCD,
Sip
(Pics courtesy of Fridaysundae.com, cnn.com, authem.com, tripod.com)
posted by Sippy Momo at 2:41 PM
3 Comments:
You couldn't be more right about the chant.
The long, drawn-out chant belongs to Shea Stadium. The fact that that wasn;t the de facto chant used to razz Rollins is embarrassing.
I hope this changes. As recently as last year, Mets faithful employed this chant to boo Derek Lowe in the playoffs (Deeeerrrr-riiiiick), and it was beautiful.
I can't believe no one else picked up on this, Sip. Good looking out.
The chant used to bother me a little, now i just think it's a stupid chant. In fact when i first heard it I didn't even think it was a Yankee thing, and that was back in 2000 with Mel-vin Mor-A.
I think it was okay with Jimmy, although the other way would've been nice too.
The sweet caroline thing is kinda stupid, and the biggest problem, with all of this is that a lot of the fans just don't know. the chant can be excused because the Mets have nothing to do with it, fans will be stupid, and you can't control it, but the Mets organization themselves were the ones that stole the Sweet Caroline thing, and it's lame, although I do kinda like the Mets Montage they play with it.
I'm absolutely sick of God Bless America during the 7th inning stretch, we honor America with the anthem at the beginning, the rest of the game is about baseball. At least they haven't replaced Lazy Mary with God Bless America, they just stretch out the break.
As for the subway thing, It's better in two ways, if you're taking the LIRR or you're taking the 7 eastbound. It keeps the three separate lines from getting stuck together for the most part.
And as i'm watching the damn Yankees are scoring again. screw them.
Actually the Car-Los Bel-Tran is not from the Yankees chant - we used to do the same for Melvin Mora when he was with us a few years ago. (No clapping though)
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