The Purist!
Yes! ladies and gentlemen, I am a Mets fan!
It is not an easy job, as they tear your heart out on many occasions but they thrill you at many other times.
On Thursday evening, on June 10, I was present at Citifield for a Mets-Padres game. The parking fee was $19 – a bit higher than last year. My seat was in the Promenade section that is in the stratosphere of the stadium. Up and up my companion Bill Kusnitz and I traveled to our wet seats. It rained before game time but the blue skies defeated the gray rain clouds in a battle of weather. It was the second game of a double-header that had been rained out the night before.
The players looked like tiny creatures from our elevated position. However, we could see the entire field.
We entered the stadium through the Jackie Roosevelt Robinson Pavillion and viewed many huge photos of my beloved Brooklyn Dodgers. The food stands featured Nathan’s hot dogs, Glatt Kosher hot dogs, fried dough, Italian sausages with exotic toppings and ice cream and beer. You could eat yourself into a coma.
Little did I know that the evening would offer two wonderful surprises. The first rarity occurred in the second inning. It was a 5-4-3 triple play for the Padres. With Mets on first and second base, Ruben Tejada pulled a pitch on the ground to the third baseman. He stepped on third base, fired to second base for the second out and on to first to get the runner.
I have been watching baseball games since the Boston Red Sox-St. Louis Cardinal World Series in 1946. I have never, never seen a triple play. What bothered me, then and even now, was how little fuss was made over this extraordinary event. What has become of the jubilation and wonder of a rare, unique and uncommon event? Are we so jaded that we hardly give it notice? I am a baseball purist and I was thrilled to be present at a triple play.
The second rare and wonderful event was the one-hitter pitched by the Mets pitcher Jonathan Niese. He was as powerful in his 3-0 shutout victory in the ninth inning as he was in the first inning.
We left Citifield exhilarated, first by a Mets shutout win and second by a triple play and one hitter.
It’s wonderful to be a Mets Fan! ….. Sometimes!
