Skid's 2015 Dream Season

July 23 - HOME GAME #47 vs Los Angeles Dodgers (54-42)

Bartolo Colon (9-8) faces LA's Clayton Kershaw (7-6). The Mets are 35-5 when scoring at least four runs thanks to a dominant starting rotation. That makes them 14-41 when they score 3 or less.

49-47

Lets Go Mets! The Dodgers Clayton Kershaw threw a complete game shutout against the hapless Mets. Kershaw only allowed 3 Mets hits while striking out 11 batters. He was perfect on the mound for six innings. New York never got a runner to third base the whole game. Bartolo Colon only allowed 5 hits in 8 innings but one of those was a home run to Jimmy Rollins. The Dodgers picked up 2 unneeded insurance runs in the top of the ninth. The Mets had four batters hitting under .200 in the starting lineup.

Ticket Cost: $145
Time of game: 2:27
Attendance: 34,222

The day started early as I got up at 6am to head to JFK airport and pick up my good friend Jeff from back home. Jeff and I worked together for the last 10 years before I retired. We have many similar interests, mainly baseball and hard rock [Work is no longer one of them]. His most glaring fault is his being a confessed Dodger fan.

Jeff had an uncomfortable overnight flight across the country and six am is no longer on my personal schedule so we decided to nap for a bit. Rested up we hit the "Skid Rowe Citi Field Game Schedule" with full force. After introducing Jeff to the parking lot crew of Max, James and Irwin that I see every game, we headed to McFadden's for a pre game beer. The bar was full with nowhere to sit so we had one drink and then went to enter via the Bullpen entrance. I rarely enter through this entrance and found it filled with dogs for yet another Bark At The Park day. Having been a meter reader for 20 years, this is definitely not my favorite day at the ballpark. We did a lap around the field level and I introduced Jeff to Curtis who is an usher at the Shea Bridge. Making friends with Curtis during one of my many walks around the ballpark, he is one of the many Citi employees that I try to say hello to or acknowledge every game.

Hyundai Club view

After the brief tour of the field level concourse we headed to the Hyundai Club entrance behind home plate and above the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. We checked in again with our ticket and were given a wrist band and access to the club. This is one of my favorite sections of the ballpark. The seats are right behind home plate and the free buffet is more than you can eat. Plus as I've mentioned before there is popcorn, hot dogs, pretzels, peanuts, cotton candy, ice cream, cookies and mini cupcakes as well as a self serve salad bar & nachos bar. You don't go hungry with theses tickets. And the club has it's own bar and restrooms accessible only to the club's ticketed fans.

Clayton Kershaw was perfect for six innings

Jeff wore his Dodgers Kershaw jersey to the game. I wore my Saxon t-shirt. Anytime you see me at the ballpark wearing a Saxon shirt instead of Mets gear that pretty much means I'm not too happy with the Mets performance in the previous games. After the Mets had blown the game in Washington on Wednesday and only gone 2-4 on their post all*star game road trip I was unhappy about how this team just shoots itself in the foot constantly. When I feel this way my personal expression is to wear a SAXON shirt.

Kershsaw threw a perfect game for the first six innings before Curtis Granderson finally got a single to right. I was starting to get nervous about watching another California team no-hit the Mets. It was a lot of fun watching the game and the Citi crowd with Jeff. Some Mets losses are just so frustrating and having 4 of 9 batters with an under .200 batting average is an insult to Mets fans. I'm frustrated with a team of Triple A position players with top notch Major League pitchers. But I had to just put this loss in my back pocket and forget about it. There is always tomorrow.

Read signs when parking

This was a hilarious example of quick thinking lack of sense. From my apartment terrace I have a view over the shopping center below. Watching people park is very entertaining [to me]. Cars parking crooked or in two spaces, driving against the direction arrows and honking at cars in their way. This white car circled above drove into a disabled space. Seeing the posted sign stating placard parking only he pulls out and parks in the blue stripped space between the two disabled spaces [example in the circled space on the left]. I'm sure he thinks he left a spot open when he in fact blocked two spaces. He and his family of four walk into the movie theater for a couple hours. Brilliant!