Heading to the park today for a sure sign of spring, but this time it's the ballpark, for the Mets' home opener. I'm dubious about the weather and the seats, not to mention the team. I'm really an American League fan (comes from growing up in Detroit), but I've learned to support both the locals. At the peak of my involvement, I went to more than 50 games in 1986, Mets and Yankees, including the 7th game of the World Series. My interest has been up and down since then. Saw a couple of thrilling playoff games in '95, with Mike & Linda, and I did enjoy the Yankees' triumph the following year. Now that they're back in the winning habit, I'm a bit jaded; is this what it was like in the 50s? (not to mention the 30s, the 20s, the early 60s…) OK, it's not like the early Steinbrenner years. Joe Torre (whose baseball card used to frighten me when I was 10) has done an amazing job of keeping things together in the midst of every kind of distraction imaginable, while the Boss has finally allowed his "baseball people" to keep some young talent, so that instead of the endless parade of has-beens like Rick Rhoden and Ken Phelps, we have Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter. The Mets are another story. They've certainly been interesting the last couple of years, but despite some heroics, they've ended up losing ugly both times. And I cannot warm up to Bobby Valentine. Truth is, I'd rather watch the NCAA final tonight, but I fear I'll lose consciousness before it's over. I'll root for Michigan State, but even that's a compromise. My dad's a University of Michigan alumnus, so I was raised to root against State, at least until UM is eliminated. My favorite expression of the rivalry comes when the football teams play each other in Ann Arbor, and the UM band ridicules the agricultural heritage of the State school by serenading them with "The Farmer in the Dell". Oh well, I guess I'll go and see if I can tell the difference between the beer and the rain.
shit, alex is talking about sports. does that mean ill having to start talking about trees? damn, you went to 50 games in one season. thats alot of baseball. whats differences have you discerned between mets and yankees fans? i was offered tickets to todays mets game but i passed on them.
The game was not so bad as I feared, although the seats were. At least it didn’t rain. Actually, the view from the upper reaches of the upper deck is breathtaking. Great if you like vertigo, but the players look like ants. An old-school National League game. Pods got a homer in the 2nd, Mets finally tied on a sac fly in the 7th, then new guy Derek Bell made a winner of Leiter with an 8th inning solo shot. Benitez closed it out. Downright terse.
I thought the crowd was rather subdued, for an opening day with potential. Even the vulgar chants seemed a bit half-hearted. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve been to a couple of opening days, and this one was lacking in electricity. And eccentricity. There’s no shortage of young fans, but they seem to be taking their queues from mtvspn crowd reaction shots. Truly inspired drunkenness was missing. I suppose the opening day crowd is not truly representative, but Shea could use a little more juice.
I’ve always found Yankee Stadium to maintain more baseball tradition, not just in its trappings, but in its fans, as well. More people watching the game harder. More old-timers with stories. More nerdy youngsters looking to catch foul balls. More scorecards. The Mets are pretenders to the Dodgers’ legacy, and the National League led the way in integration, but it seems to me that I’ve also seen more people of color at the Stadium (not that that’s saying a lot). Maybe it’s just the difference between a legendary team, and a team with a few legendary moments. In America, you can at least root for a winner. Even when the team is losing, the Stadium betrays the smugness of the overdog, while Shea remains a bit provincial (read Long Island).
The ever intensifying commodification of sport is making all audiences more homogenous, but a winning team, a little too much beer, and sun, may still serve to bring out the local spirit. I’m just not sure I want to be there when it happens. Ahh, but on TV...say are the Yankees on after this NCAA thing...?
Rafe Colburn, who I never would have pegged as a baseball fan, noted the opening of baseball season as well, and recommended this site as the best baseball related analysis on the web. Here's the daily page for April 3rd.Seems pretty good.
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- alex 4-03-2000 1:11 pm
shit, alex is talking about sports. does that mean ill having to start talking about trees? damn, you went to 50 games in one season. thats alot of baseball. whats differences have you discerned between mets and yankees fans? i was offered tickets to todays mets game but i passed on them.
- dave 4-03-2000 1:26 pm [add a comment]
The game was not so bad as I feared, although the seats were. At least it didn’t rain. Actually, the view from the upper reaches of the upper deck is breathtaking. Great if you like vertigo, but the players look like ants. An old-school National League game. Pods got a homer in the 2nd, Mets finally tied on a sac fly in the 7th, then new guy Derek Bell made a winner of Leiter with an 8th inning solo shot. Benitez closed it out. Downright terse.
I thought the crowd was rather subdued, for an opening day with potential. Even the vulgar chants seemed a bit half-hearted. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve been to a couple of opening days, and this one was lacking in electricity. And eccentricity. There’s no shortage of young fans, but they seem to be taking their queues from mtvspn crowd reaction shots. Truly inspired drunkenness was missing. I suppose the opening day crowd is not truly representative, but Shea could use a little more juice.
I’ve always found Yankee Stadium to maintain more baseball tradition, not just in its trappings, but in its fans, as well. More people watching the game harder. More old-timers with stories. More nerdy youngsters looking to catch foul balls. More scorecards. The Mets are pretenders to the Dodgers’ legacy, and the National League led the way in integration, but it seems to me that I’ve also seen more people of color at the Stadium (not that that’s saying a lot). Maybe it’s just the difference between a legendary team, and a team with a few legendary moments. In America, you can at least root for a winner. Even when the team is losing, the Stadium betrays the smugness of the overdog, while Shea remains a bit provincial (read Long Island).
The ever intensifying commodification of sport is making all audiences more homogenous, but a winning team, a little too much beer, and sun, may still serve to bring out the local spirit. I’m just not sure I want to be there when it happens. Ahh, but on TV...say are the Yankees on after this NCAA thing...?
- alex 4-04-2000 4:01 am [add a comment]
Rafe Colburn, who I never would have pegged as a baseball fan, noted the opening of baseball season as well, and recommended this site as the best baseball related analysis on the web. Here's the daily page for April 3rd.Seems pretty good.
- jim 4-04-2000 1:24 pm [add a comment]
that site looks alright. this one is pretty good too. ill have to say the most interesting baseball columnist is probably rob neyer at espn although hes a little too into his sabermetrics and he doesnt think much of the mets this year.
- dave 4-04-2000 6:18 pm [add a comment]