Kevin Burkhardt: Y2K Legend

Hell of a weekend for the Glass Man. One of my best friends from college lives in DC and he'd been meaning to have a blowout weekend when all his boys came down. Better yet for me, one of his connections supplies him with tickets at RFK Stadium, and with the Mets down in DC for a set with the Nats, it just made too much sense to make this past weekend the time.

RFK Stadium is kind of a dump, that's just the way it is. It's what Shea would look like if they hadn't given the old girl a new paint job several years back and if it were closed in the outfield rather than open (one of Shea's real perks in my opinion is the open outfield, I've always liked that).

More important than the stadium though were the seats we had. The big fella hooked us up -- these were easily the best seats I've had to a game this year, the best since I watched Pedro's first start of 2006 from about 15 rows back of home plate in the field box at Shea.

There were two sets of seats, ones right behind home plate, maybe 10 rows back, and another set maybe 20 feet beyond first base in the second row of the stadium.

For the majority of the game I held down the latter. This allowed me to tell Rickey Henderson he was the greatest, which he acknowledged, and young Lastings that he was the truth, which he did not acknowledge. Asshole.

None of that compared to the moment when I saw a distinctly familiar figure making his way down to the press box immediately to my right. I knew that light blue polo shirt, I knew that cow lick. It was him.

"OK Kevin Burkhardt!" I shouted. Burkhardt turned and acknowledged my enthusiasm, before proceeding further down to the press box. It was then that I resolved to wait the situation out and plug Y2K with a regular SNY legend.

Regular readers know how I felt about Chris Cotter. With his blend of good-natured commentary and fresh-from-a-keg-stand looks, Cotter captured the hearts of SNY viewers from the first. When word came out that the Cott wouldn't be back doing the broadcasts in Year 2, we were devastated.

Not saying we don't miss Cotter around here, but Burkhardt has taken the job and made it his own.

And so I waited him out. There was no other exit, so Burkhardt would have to come up my aisle again (luckily I had an aisle seat). When he did so I called him over, told him I thought he was doing a good job, and that I wished him well. In one fluid motion out came his hand; I'll tell you what, the man gives a hell of a handshake.

It was then that I dropped Y2K on him.

I wish I could tell you he was a loyal reader. I wish I could tell you he'd been here from the first. I wish I could tell you he comments under the pen name "worndownboyboy". Alas, Burkhardt had never heard of Y2K. Salt.

But I sure as hell told him to check it out, and I mentioned he should feel welcome to drop a word or two about it on the air. We'll see if that happens, but either way the seed's been planted. Next step is getting Sip into the General Manger's seat.

After talking a little Y2K, discussion turned to his transition from radio to television; Burkhardt moonlights as a broadcaster for Cyclones games, so we talked a bit about that.

All in all, it was a good talk. Burkhardt seemed like a really good guy, albeit one who could be improved by reading Y2K regularly.

It was all gravy after our meeting. I never got a ball for these two little girls sitting in the seats next to me -- one of whom, no older than 8 years old, danced like a complete hoochie every time a rap song came on; think McAdams' sister in Mean Girls.

But the real key takeaway from the night was Denver D's' little trick for scoring free beer at ballgames. Buy your first round, drink it until there's a small pool remaining at the bottom, then douse yourself with the remaining beer.

I was skeptical; there was no way they'd fall for that, I said. Sure enough, D's got round after round of free beer by claiming some little punk had run in to him, causing him to spill his beer. "It was my fault, really", he'd say. It sure was.

Needless to say, at our second dinner, around 11:30, Denver D's fell out of his chair.

Last thing about the Nats: say what you will about the stadium and the team, but they've really cultivated a nice little fanbase down there in DC.

Anyway, hell of a weekend for our boys. This one was gratifying. I read on ESPN last week that the Nats had a better record than the Mets over the last 75 games. Not the kind of thing you want to read. Coming in to DC and sweeping the series was just what we needed.

And as Nails wrote me last night, how about a little perspective. With a 5-game cushion on the Phillies, no first-place team owns a larger lead over their closest competition than the Mets.

Upward and onward boys, upward and onward.

- A.F.O.M.G.