The Slanch Report

Yesterday I finally got my chance to see my first game at the New York Mets’ new home, Citi Field; overall it was a good experience, I was able to enjoy the stadium, see the Mets blow an easily won game, watch Jerry Manuel completely mismanage and enjoy a tasty beer and sandwich. What more could you want?

I’m going to ignore the on-field actions, mostly because they were so miserable despite what should have been an awesome pitcher’s duel between Florida’s Josh Johnson and Johan Santana.

The stadium itself is gorgeous, everything looks great, the super wide concourses are almost TOO wide, but the view you have anywhere in the stadium and being able to look in on the action is AWESOME. The center field scoreboard is MASSIVE, not so much the screen itself, which is big too, but the whole structure of it is incredibly gigantic; I’d love to see it not SOOOOO covered in ads but that simply won’t ever happen so, so it goes. Loyal reader Myummers accompanied me for this game and we managed to get first row upper deck seats just walking up to the game. Here’s our view from our seats:

Of course, I forgot my camera and so was forced to settle with my phone camera for these photos, so the quality sucks. So it goes.

Myummers and I opted to forgo the not-ridiculous but still really long Shake Shack line and instead go with the delectable and short wait Blue Smoke. We both got the pulled-pork sandwich, take THAT swine flu and it was BANGING! One of the best pulled-pork sandwiches I’ve ever had, it could have been a bit bigger, especially for the price but it’s a ball game so…I also got one of the Blue Smoke Ale’s, their specialty brew, it was similarly BANGING.

The rest of the stadium is great, the food stands all had relatively short lines, the sight lines were excellent, the field looks phenomenal, all in all, I like the new Citi Field.

Some things to quibble with the stadium/game:

• The Mets have a deal where if the team steals 3 bases in a game one section “could” win $5 coupons for KFC. First off, why only “could?” Secondly, they ALWAYS give it to a lower tier section, where A) the people have more money because they paid for the expensive seats, B) Are unlikely to ever use the coupons. What a waste.
• Daniel Murphy comes to bat with the song “Shipping up to Boston” playing; but Murphy isn’t from Boston, nor is he shipping up to there. Just because the song is by the Dropkick Murphy’s doesn’t mean you should use it. Get a new song that makes sense. Or you know, go play in triple A and learn how to be an outfielder.
• Carlos Beltran has been a Met since 2005, he has come to bat with the same boring salsa song since, CHANGE YOUR SONG CARLOS!
• Jerry Manuel is a terrible manager.
• Mets fans are full of class, one batter into the game, when a fly ball is out of reach of multiple gold glove winner Carlos Beltran, they boo him. (Although I got a couple laughs when I yelled out “Put Murphy in center!”) They also repeatedly booed David Wright who is struggling big time right now and can’t NOT strike out. Then, when the Mets needed base runners and he was given an intentional walk, the Mets booed again. WHY! You had no confidence in him getting a hit before, now you’re given a FREE base runner, which is better than the otherwise inevitable Wright pop out to short left, and you still boo? I hate Mets fans,
• I forget, when did Jackie Robinson play for the Mets? Oh yeah, I forget, the Mets play in the same borough as the Dodgers… Oh no, wait, that’s not it. So um, can someone please explain to me why the Mets are the holders of Jackie Robinson’s legacy? Why not a team that makes more sense, like say, I dunno, THE DODGERS! For whom he ACTUALLY PLAYED, STARRED, etc, as opposed to a team that ONLY exists because the Dodgers and Giants LEFT NYC! The Jackie Robinson Rotunda is nice and completely unnecessary and I have NO idea why the Dodgers allow the Mets to deify Jackie when he NEVER HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE METS! What the fuck!

All told, I really REALLY liked the new stadium; it’s just a shame the Mets have to play there.