The end of September

Ahhhhh, I think I might have come up with a good idea now. Maybe at the end of every month I'll write about what happened this past month. Actually I'm going to start that next month. This month was wayyyy to depressing(except for Notre Dame looking pretty good this season) so I decided I'd give Shea it's fair fairwell. I'll miss the stadium, even if people think it's a dump. (Before I start, does anyone know what happened to cowbellman? I watched a bunch of Mets games on tv this year and I don't think I heard him at any of the games? He's just as much part of Shea Stadium as Mr. Met, Mrs. Met, and losing heartwrenchingly.) I decided to talk about the 5 best games that I went to at Shea. Here we go kids!

#1. Game 1 NLCS 2006. I went to this game with Malone, his dad and Malone's gf. That was probably the greatest season that I remember of the Mets. Sooo many clutch games, sooo many amazing wins, Wright, Reyes, Beltran, Delgado all going insane during the season. So, the day before the NLCS started I was at work and Malone and I found out that there were plenty of leftover tickets that TicketNetwork was trying to sell. Well, as usual there were tickets left over so Malone and I talked to Jeff, one of the upper management guys and he said that he'd sell us the tickets around face price. We were happy, but I had to see if I could get a half day so we could leave on time. Well, then Don the owner came by, and he knew we were both Mets fans and said instead of around face price, he'd give them to us at half price. Can you really beat that? Game 1 NLCS for half price? Well, I quickly called my boss and was able to have him give me a half day so I could go to the game. It was actually a pretty good pitching duel. I can't for the life of me remember who pitched for the Cardinals, I think maybe it was Jeff Weaver(remember him Yankee fans?) against Tom Glavine(before I knew him as Benedict Arnold). Tied at 0-0 going into the bottom of the 6th and one man on, Beltran crushed a pitch for a 2 run homer and the Mets ended up winning 2-0. What an amazing game. I think that season I went to 8 games and the Mets ended up going 7-1 in those game. By far the most games I've been to in one season.

2. Mets-Gaints 2007 - This one just gets into the #2 spot over #3 & 4. There were a bunch of us who went. Me, Malone, his dad, koho, perrotti, my gf, and 3 of her friends. I took the day off from work(and I think I bought Madden that day, too) and we made it down so we could tailgate. It was a great day out. We played home run derby with the wiffleball(Koho finished last of course) and then we went in for a great game. Timmy L was pitching for the Giants, he was a rookie that was suppose to be amazing but we didn't really know too much about him. He was pitching against Oliver Perez, who was streaky like he's always been. Randy Win lead off the game with a hr and they added another hr in the first to take a 2-0 lead. That didn't last too long as Delgado hit a 2 run homer to tie it. Then later Beltran smacked a double to drive in Reyes to take a 3-2 lead. As usual the Mets gave that lead up with a solo shot to tie the game. Into the 12th it went and Joe Smith ended up giving up a run so the Giants took a 4-3 lead. In the bottom of the 12th though, Armando Benitez came in to "save" the game. Reyes ended up walking to lead off the inning, was balked to second, took third on a grounder and then was balked home to tie the game. Delgado followed that with his second home run to win the game. Just amazing. Sadly the last win I ever saw at Shea.

#3. Yankees-Mets May 2006 - This was a weird weekend Subway Series at Shea. In game 1 the Mets won 7-6 with a David Wright walk off single off of Mo Rivera. Game 2 the Mets were up big but blew it when Wagner had a melt down going into a non save situation. I went to game 3. Sunday night on ESPN. I actually had Mono at this time. I had also just graduated from college with a second BA. Much fun. As a birthday present to my little sis I bought 4 tickets to this game so I went with both of my sisters and my younger sister's friend, who is a die hard yankee's fan. I had to look this up because I couldn't remember who pitched for the Yankees but it was Aaron "You're killing me" Smalls. The Yankees had taken a 2-0 lead into the 5th when Smalls went to work. With two on and Delgado up he gave up a huge shot to Delgado for the Mets to take a 3-2 lead and gave up a second hr to Wright, the next batter. Glavine pitched that game and go the win. Funny, I went to a Mets Yanks game the year before and Glavine pitched and won that one. Well, the Mets hung on the win that game and the best part about it, besides thew in, was the fact that Arod went 0-4 in the game, each at bat being critical and leaving 7 on base. At the end of the game my sis's friend realized that Yes, Arod is not clutch.

#4. Cardinals-Mets August 2006 - By far the best seats I've ever had. I sat in the Metropolitan section where you had a waiter come over and take your order for food and drinks. I went to the game, once again, with Malone, his dad, Koho, and Perrotti. This was the craziest game I've ever been to. Delgado had just hit his 400th home run the day before. The Mets took an early 1-0 lead before Pujols decided to put on a show hitting 2 home runs, a three run bomb and then a grand slam as the Cardinals took a 7-1 lead off of John Maine after 4 1/2 innings. Well, that didn't stop the Mets. Delgado hit a grand slam of his own and the Mets were able to cut it to 7-6 going into the bottom of the ninth. Issy was pitching and with Lo Duca on Beltran hit a game winning 2 run bomb for the 8-7 Mets win. Just an awesome game. It's just one of the best feelings leaving Shea after a win and they're blasting "Taking care of business everyday!" as you leave the ballpark.

#5. Phillies - Mets August 2006 - I went to this game in the beginning of the Month. The woman was doing a rotation in NYC so I went down on the first weekend to hang out with her. On Saturday we decided to go to the Mets game and look for a scalper... broker and buy two tickets. We got pretty decent seats and made it just in time. In the first inning Ryan Howard hit an oppo shot to give the Phils a 3-0 lead, but in the bottom of the first Lastings drove in Reyes to get the Mets on board. In the bottom of the sixth Wright hit a single to drive in Beltran to cut the lead to 1 and then Endy followed with a double into the gap to drive in Delgado and Wright to give the Mets the lead. In the top of the ninth with runners on the corner Wright made a diving catch with two outs to preserve the win. Just an amazing game. Sadly most of these games came in 2006. Sad because of how the season ended. Oh well. I'll see you guys soon back in CT. Malone, I want my money for the Home Run league and if I get any money for the other TND league(see Rob you can't make fun of my fantasy baseball teams).