Skid's 2015 Dream Season

July 24 - HOME GAME #48 vs Los Angeles Dodgers (55-42)

Jonathan Niese (5-8) takes the mound against Ian Thomas (0-1). The Mets have called up prospect Michael Conforto to make the jump from double A to the majors and play left field as Michael Cuddyer goes on the DL with a sore knee that has hampered his playing time.

49-48

Lets Go Mets! Another frickin' loss by the Mets. Jeff tells me all day that Thomas is not good and concedes the game before it even starts. One good thing going for the Mets was the Dodgers Zack Greinke not pitching and going home to be with his wife and the birth of their child. One bad thing was the Mets Jon Niese not going home to be with his wife and the birth of their child. Niese was rocked and exited the game after 3 innings, then watched his daughter's birth on facetime. He surrendered 8 hits and 6 runs before jetting off to be with his wife and new child. Former Mets pieman Justin Turner had 3 hits including a home run frustrating Mets fans even more as Turner was deemed unneeded a few years ago and could have been a backup for the still injured David Wright.

Ticket Cost: $59
Time of game: 2:40
Attendance: 36,066

Michael Conforto MLB debut

The best news of the day was the call up of Mets minor league outfield prospect Michael Conforto to join them in New York. Jumping two levels from Double A ball to the majors can be tough. Conforto went 0 for 4 with a RBI on a ground out. He is supposed to be the future of the Mets and let's hope he is the real deal.

IRON MAIDEN FRIDAY!

With my unhappiness of the Mets play and bench player's lack of production, Jeff and I decided that instead of "Free shirt Friday" at Citi, we declared it "Iron Maiden Friday" and we both wore Iron Maiden shirts. We even received two complements on our matching Maiden shirts ... by women! Our first afternoon stop was lunch at the local Hooters restaurant. This is a requirement on most of our road trips, mostly drives to southern California for Maiden concerts. We put away a plate of Habanero BBQ wings and doused that with a pitcher of Coors light.

Once we got to the stadium I showed Jeff the Promenade level. He was amazed with the food and concessions that are available in the upper seats. They do not have that in Oakland or San Francisco. We then checked out the amenities of the Excelsior level. The air conditioned Caesar's Club behind the press box felt good on this hot day. Then we grabbed a hamburger and settled in our second deck first row seats just as the game started. My knees are getting a workout always sitting in an aisle seat. Tonight the fans to our left must have gotten out of their seats a dozen times. Seems everything went downhill fast after that. It was 6-0 Dodgers before the Mets had even gone through the lineup once. I was again unhappy with the Mets. But right as the game started we heard that the Mets had traded for the Brave's 3B Juan Uribe and IF Kelly Johnson (who is a Met killer) for two unheard of lower level minor leaguers. I am not a fan of Uribe since he played for SF, LA & Atlanta previously. But at least the .170 bench players had been upgraded.

Game 48 view

After the game Jeff and I sat in the apartment and had a long discussion about the Mets chances of winning not only the division but the NL Championship and World Series. He thinks I am crazy to think the Mets would win the World Series this year. We discussed how he thought both Uribe and Johnson would immediately break the starting lineup and I said they were only replacing bench players (Mayberry Jr. & Muno). Jeff tried to get me to envision I was the Mets GM and who would I trade for. I said I couldn't do that. He could not understand why.

Since we had been nibbling on snacks and seeing how many empty bottle bottoms we could hold upside down, the conversation got intense. Jeff is a realist, looking at stats, trends, different scenarios in the league. When the Dodgers are down in the standings and not playing well, he does not always watch them. I try to watch every Mets game regardless of standings. My Mets loyalty leans on my emotions towards all Mets players, rookie or All*Star. Once you have been in a Mets uniform you are a part of Mets history. As a Mets fan I root for the underdog. I want the .170 hitter to get the game winning hit. But I realize a team of .200 hitters will not win a championship. Obviously having 5 stud pitchers will not either. But I don't scout to improve, I don't feel that is my job as a fan. I'm hoping for better days ahead for the Mets with their current players or some welcome additions.

We stayed up until the ungodly hour of 1am west coast time [do the math]. I like talking baseball or anything else with Jeff because we are able to talk through our different perspectives and agree to disagree without changing our friendship. And we seem to agree on more than we don't.

Pinman!