Seeing The Madness In Person

Yes, I was at Monday night's Mets game.  My ridiculous Mets obsession and love of Xavier Nady finally paid off when I was able to get the Mets twitter trivia correct.

Monday afternoon arrived and I made my way to Citi Field with my dad.  We picked up the tickets and the first surprise of the evening was that the seats had club access and they were basically right behind home plate.  The Mets had finished BP and the Rockies were on the field so I went as close as I could to the Rockies dugout and waited for any players to get autographs.  Nobody came over and I got impatient so I made my way across to the Mets dugout.  I knew that no players would be there for a while but I felt more comfortable waiting there.

Josh Thole was the first player to eventually make his way into the dugout.  He talked to a trainer for a little while before going out to the dugout to warm up with Mike Pelfrey.

Daniel Murphy was the next player in the dugout.  After him, the rest of the players came pretty quickly.  It was cool seeing which players would talk together and just how the team interacted from a view that I don't normally see.

The coolest part of pregame was having the chance to talk to Mike Nickeas before the game.  It would have been talking to Mike Nickeas if I had the ability to talk after he came out of the dugout to say hi after I got his attention.  All I could manage to say was that I think it's cool that he's in the big leagues.  Thank goodness my dad was there to have a coherent conversation.  Anyway, it is truly awesome that he remembers me.  

Once I stopped shaking and gathered myself after a major leaguer had come over to interact with me I got R.A. Dickey's attention and asked him for an autograph.  He came over and signed for me and I also got an autograph from Chip Hale a few minutes later.

At some point between arriving at Citi Field and first pitch Kevin Burkhardt did his pregame report for SNY. I didn't talk to Kevin but it was cool seeing the pregame up close.  

Finally, it was time for the game to start.  Mike Pelfrey was on the mound, Josh Thole was behind the plate and I was seated right next to the dugout, at least for the first 2 innings.

Sitting right next to the dugout let me get some really cool pictures.  I also got a baseball from a bat-boy after the top of the first inning.

After the second inning I went to my seats behind home plate.  On my way to my seats I passed Joba Chamberlain of the Yankees sitting in the stands watching the game.  I am still trying to figure out what he was doing at the game.  Both of my siblings are Yankees fans (ugh) so I got his autograph for them.  Mets games are obviously good for seeing more than just the Mets, you can see the Yankees too.

After Joba had signed two Mets baseballs I settled back into my seat for the rest of the game.  

I saw the Mets take the lead, lose the lead, and fight back and get close to regaining the lead.  However, I did not see the Mets win.  Not many people have seen the Mets win this year.  Despite the loss, I definitely enjoyed the being at game.  I probably won't get to sit in seats like that again for a long time.

Let's Go Mets!

For more pictures, click here.