Just One of Those Nights

After watching the game for a while, I got fed up with how everything seemed to be rolling the wrong way for the Metsies. The outfielders seemed to get there just in time to make the catch, Jose Reyes' hit down the 3rd base line is just enough to get passed a diving Wright. It was just one of those nights, and I wasn't taking the idea of finishing the season losing a couple to the Marlins all that well, especially at the expense of RA's record. And with my sinuses flaring up a little, I thought it was time to go lay down while listening to Howie and Josh. I mean, I didn't have too many more opportunities to hear those guys.

At some point, though, I was feeling a little restless, so I decided to get up and pace back and forth while listening to the game. "What the heck? Give me one more thrill...TWO more thrills." By myself in my mom's upstate house with my dad down the hill in his own abode, watching some new show, "Elementary," (I have a complicated family dynamic, a story which will be told in film form one day) I decided to start a one-man cheering crew, giving every batter and every pitcher some extreme enthusiasm. I didn't have too many more chances in the season to act the fan, and isolated in a house in the woods was as good a time as any. And as I did, 1 run was in. Two runs were in. And then in was tied. I. Was. Pumped. R.A. Dickey was off the hook for the loss, and that in and of itself was a victory.

Until the last pitch of the game, somewhere a few extra innings after the Mets should have won, I was treating game 161 as if it were this game. Why not? I'll drive this sentence into the ground, but we don't have too many more Orange and Blue opportunities to root our socks off in 2012.

With the way we were leaving men on left and right as the innings added up, it only made sense that a Jose Reyes triple would eventually spell the end of the Orange and Blue. Though at home last year, it was that gentleman that kept us engaged through an extra inning 161, which ended in the 12th with the exact same score as last night, on a Justin Turner line drive double play. The two games weren't too similar other than the LOB, and Manny Acosta didn't blow this one in the 9th the way he blew last year's in the 9th. Either way, it was only fitting that more baseball be handed to us yet again, even if the finishing touches were by that Marlin team instead of our Metsies. It was still at least one more thrill.

I'm glad my eyes didn't witness the end, though.

Some time in the 7th, when Manny Acosta was on the mound, Howie spoke of a base hit right as my connection was cut off to receive a phone call. It was my dad. Earlier in the day, he had emailed a letter he once wrote to me while I was at camp. A letter that was a relic from another baseball time, detailing events from the summer of '99. Then, it was McGuire, Gwynn, and the New York Yankees, but this evening, my dad was calling for only one thing.

"On this show, Elementary, Lucy Liu is a big baseball fan in New York. Guess what team she roots for?"

"....................................eh......The Mets?....."

"Yep," he said with a big smile on his face. "The last scene she's wearing a hat and cheering for them. Thought you'd get a kick out of it. Anyway, get back to your game."

"Ha! That's awesome. Thanks, Dad."

I might not root for the same ballclub anymore, but my dad is still as passionate about me as he's ever been.


I don't want to type this, but today is game 162. At 4:00PM. Jeremy Hefner finishes it up.

Sigh.

I just got sad.

ORANGE. AND. BLUE.

LET'S. GO. METS.

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