My wife Linda and I went to see the Mets game last night, at Citifield, in Queens. The Mets literally threw the game away, committing 3 errors, including a 2-out ground ball that went through the legs of third baseman David Wright, which led to 2 unearned runs. Citifield is beautiful, but I found it too cavernous and impersonal. It's certainly easier getting in and out of it though, than Yankee Stadium, but a lot more frustrating if you want to see a good baseball game. This one was particularly bad, but in a way it gave me some perspective for when I get furious with the Yankees for not winning every game they play. At least that was the advice of Linda, my social worker wife. She was a fill-in for my son Zach, an avid baseball fan, who was planning to go, but had made plans to celebrate his birthday weekend with some friends. It was fun and amusing going with Linda. She is now a real Yankee fan, having the philosophy of "if you can't beat 'em....", after being around Zach and I, who are constantly watching Yankee games or the MLB channel. Once she "knows' the players, she gets emotionally involved, as if it's a 'reality show'! Anyway, when David Wright came up to bat, the inning after his costly error, Mets fans started to boo. Linda turned around to engage with two particularly vociferous ones, and asked them why they were booing him when he was batting, instead of encouraging him. Fearing a confrontation, I quickly intervened, saying "Sorry, she's a social worker, don't listen to her", but one of them actually agreed with her, and I guess when you think of it, she's right. If you're going to boo, do it when he makes the bad play, not when he's trying to redeem himself at the plate. Sort of like scolding a dog for taking food from the table, ten minutes after he's done it! Anyway, after that, Linda went back to "watching" the game, in an ambivalent kind of way.
Linda doing her favorite thing at a baseball game.
Linda doing her second most favorite thing at a baseball game
