Mets – Angels Game 2 Recap

Before I begin, I would like to apologize to all our fans for posting this late. I am new to KHH recaps and had to work some things out with my camera. I guess I pulled a Raphi by posting this late. Ok, let’s begin!

The Mets won this game, 6-1, because they got to Dan Haren early and often, bouncing him from the game after giving up 6 runs. Haren’s infielders didn’t help him, though. The fielding mistakes were highlighted by Howie Kendrick dropping a fly ball in a mistake-ridden 2nd inning for the Angels. Another factor in the win was the Mets successful bag swiping. I suppose that Dan Haren has a terrible pickoff move because by my count, the Mets stole 4 bases. All four of their steals directly led to runs.

For the Mets, Mike Pelfrey pitched a gem on this night. Well done, Big Pelf. Maybe one day you’ll be able to prove the doubters wrong and pitch well consistently.

Here are my notes of the jokes from the evening’s game:

View from our Purchased Seats at Citi Field. Bobby Abreu, at first base, did not have a good day at Citi Field.

• One thing I’d like to point out about the above picture is that the soccer lines from the recent Greece – Ecuador match are very visible. The Mets could definitely put a few cones on the field and start playing soccer. Jose Reyes would be dangerous as a forward. On the other hand, Ronny Paulino could be a goalie coach, nothing else.
• It was cap night at Citi field. As a result, the crowd was very blue. I thought the caps were very nice – probably the 2nd best giveaway after the Nets’ Deron Williams T Shirt giveaway.


Everyone was wearing their caps, in honor of Cap Night at Citi Field.



My Mets cap.

• I went to this game with Ben Nathan, a diehard Mets fan who believes that his favorite team can succeed, if only they had a bullpen, suffered less injuries, and had a starting first baseman who’s not Lucas Duda. I was not surprised when he answered tonight’s Mets trivia question correctly.
• Alberto Callaspo, ex-National was in attendance tonight. He accomplished a rare feat while with the Nationals: play in the NL East division and not be a Mets killer.
  

  He has 3 more home runs than I thought he would have.

  

  Callaspo at the plate.

  I tried to continue the short KHH tradition of video taping the last pitch of Mets games. I would’ve been successful in this, if only Ruben Tejada didn’t screw it up. Bobby Abreu dribbled a ground ball to Ruben for the last out, but Tejada let it bounce off his glove. The next batter was Vernon Wells and he popped out to end the game. Here is my video of Ruben Tejada:

  That’s all from this game. The Mets followed this win up with a loss, so this win doesn’t really stand out as important. Their series with the Angels is over and they lost 2 of 3 games of it. Stay tuned as we will announce our next KHH event soon.

Mets – Angels Game 2 Preview

Tonight, Raphi will be going on a non-KHH trip to Citi Field to see game 2 of the Mets – Angels inter-league series. I am going with Ben Nathan, a long-time diehard Mets fan. He knows a lot more about the Mets than I do, for sure. He once wrote a great article for a good Mets blog, Faith and Fear in Flushing. I couldn’t find the article.

As for the game, it’s Dan Haren vs. Mike Pelfrey.

Oh boy.

The Mets are currently floundering below .500 after losing on a balkoff two nights ago and playing Mets typical bad baseball last night. The roulette wheel to decide which Mets catcher will play has once again landed on Ronny Paulino. He gets another start. Josh Thole will probably come in as a defensive substitution in the 9th inning and play bad defense.

Mets-Angels Recap

Mets-Angels From Citi Field

Tonight, the Angels came into Citi Field and defeated the Mets 4-3 to spoil the Mets return home after a very long road trip. Joel Pineiro pitched pretty well and got the victory, the 100th of his career, while Chris Capuano (Cappuccino) pitched well as well, but got the loss instead. I have to admit, there were many boring moments from this game, but it ended up coming down to the final pitch. I will start at the beginning. The Angels opened the scoring in the second inning on a terrible throw to first by Justin Turner. It was pretty funny and typical Mets. However, Angel Pagan tied the score at 1 in the bottom of the inning with a single. The next inning, each team scored once more to tie the game at 2. The tie was broken in the 6th inning on a Peter Bourjos double, and the Angels added an insurance run in the 7th. Ronny Paulino doubled in a run in the 8th to cut the LA lead to a run. In the bottom of the ninth, things really started to get interesting. The Angels closer, Jordan Walden, was brought in to finish off the Mets and get the save. Jose Reyes was leading off, and this should have been bad news for the Angels, especially when he earned a leadoff walk to start the inning. After stealing second, Walden then walked Justin Turner to put two runners on with nobody out and the 3-4-5 hitters coming up in the lineup for the Mets. However, Walden then proceeded to strike out each hitter and the Angels came away with the victory. It was a typical way for the Mets to lose a game, especially at home where they try their hardest to disappoint their fans. This game marked the end of my KHH season, as I am leaving for camp tomorrow. At the end of this article, I will take a moment to say goodbye to all of my loyal fans. For now, you can see a video of the final out of the game and some pictures from the final inning:

Jordan Wal(fish)den

Jose at the Plate

Walden On the Mound

Jose

An Angels Meeting on the Mound

The Situation. Reyes on First About to Steal, Walden on the Mound.

Now I will talk about some of the jokes from the game:

• After we had arrived to our seats, we realized that the tarp was on the field and there was a rain delay. The tarp quickly came off, but then the groundscrew had to start prepping the field for the game. It took way too long, about half an hour. And it was raining for 0 minutes during that half hour. Actually, it didn’t rain once when we were in Citi Field. Here are some pictures of the groundscrew and the rain delay:

The Citi Field Groundscrew Working On the Raintarp

The Groundscrew Working On a Huge Puddle

They Obviously Failed

•  Tonight was police and firemen appreciation night at Citi Field. I’m sure that they felt very appreciated by the Mets’ great performance tonight. I kind of feel bad for them that they had to go to this game. This is another example of a completely failed Mets promotion.
• One interesting note from this game was that it featured Angel Pagan vs. The Angels. And the Angel vs. Angel matchup was a good one. Pagan had two hits and two RBI’s, but the Angels (plural) got the victory.
• At one point in the game in between innings, the Mets put up some welcomes to random fans on the scoreboard. In order to have your name on the scoreboard, you have to pay the Mets. At one point, it said “The Mets Welcome Daniel G.”. I wonder who Daniel G. is. Oh, I got it! Daniel Gadzuric! Dan was obviously in the house tonight watching terrible baseball. Congrats, Gad!
• Tonight for the Angels, Jeff Mathis was batting 8th because the pitcher had to bat 9th. Mathis is batting .197 for the year. Despite this, the Mets intentionally walked him twice to get to the pitcher’s spot. Jeff is probably thanking god for letting him raise his on base percentage while doing nothing.
• The Angels had two errors tonight, and they were both on Jason Bay ground balls in the infield. In fact, they were both overthrows of first base that went into the crowd. I enjoyed both of these plays.
• Our seats for this game (before we moved up right next to the Angels dugout in the 9th inning) were right next to the left field foul pole. Actually right next to it. Here are some great pictures of the foul pole in left:

The Foul Pole By Our Seats

The Foul Pole and the Scoreboard

The Foul Pole in the Dark

• Here are a couple more of our best pictures from the night at Citi:

Jason Bay in Left Field

Travis Outlaw, the Mets Ballboy

Vernon Wells in Left Field for the Angels

Vernon Wells in Left Field for the Angels

Jason Bay Preparing for a Fly Ball

The Mets Infield

The View From Our Foul Pole Seats

Russell Branyan. Ew.

The Angels Third Base Coach

Russell Branyan at the Plate

As I wrote earlier in this article, this will be my last article of this KHH season. I hope to continue blogging while at camp for the next 8 weeks, but I cannot promise my readers anything. Maybe an occasional Sport-cle of the Day, or maybe a Mets preview and recap every night; we will just have to wait and see. Right now, I would like a moment of silence for us all to think about this great KHH season and look forward to the future.

 

 

Thank you. I also want to recall every place and event that your favorite KHH bloggers have been to this year. The Rock, Citi Field baseball, Citi Field soccer, RedBull Arena Red Bulls, RedBull Arena Caribbean, Yankee Stadium, Newark Bears Stadium, Hofstra University, and possibly more. We used every form of public transportation to get to our events, and we paid the minimum possible. It was a successful year, and I look forward to blogging in the future.

Long Island Lizards-Chesapeake Bayhawks Recap

Our Lizards Tickets

Tonight, your favorite KHH bloggers made our first ever trip for an event in Long Island (or sometimes referred to as LINY). Our journey was long and tedious, but in the end, it paid off, well maybe. First I will talk about the actual game and then I will describe our journey and talk about the jokes from the game. The Lizards defeated the Bayhawks, 14-11 and they did it in comeback fashion. After scoring the first goal of the game, the Lizards gave up 5 in a row to be put in a 5-1 hole in the first quarter. In the second quarter, they fought back to cut the Bayhawks’ lead to 8-6, but then gave up 2 quick goals to begin the second half of play. It was time for the comeback to begin. The Lizards rattled off 7 straight goals to take a 13-10 lead in the 4th quarter, and they won by the same margin. We will talk about our favorite players later, but it is of note that the Lizards’ goalie played excellently after giving up the 2 goals at the start of the third quarter. He made some impressive saves and I was very proud of him. Below you will find two videos. The first is of game action from the game and the second is of the last 30 seconds of the victory for the Lizards. Enjoy!

Now on to the transportation and jokes from the game:

• First I will talk about the transportation, both to and from the game. We decided that we wanted to get to the game early because we had absolutely nothing to do at home. We left at 4:30 and went to the Atlantic Avenue Long Island Rail Road station to get to the game. Somehow, Raphi didn’t know that you can also get there via Penn Station, so that was a few minutes out of our way. The LIRR train made us transfer at Jamaica, but that wasn’t too bad. In total, our time on the train was under an hour, and we were peggling the entire time. After we got off the train, however, things began to get interesting. We got off of the train in Hempstead, Long Island. We walked around for a few minutes and saw absolutely nothing. It was just a really deserted town. We went back to the train station and decided to take a taxi instead. This turned out to be a good decision because if we had walked, we probably would have been killed by a gang or worse (though I cannot think of anything worse than that). We arrived at the game half an hour early. Our adventure back home wasn’t nearly as easy as it was going there. Raphi called a taxi 15 minutes before the game ended. After the game ended, we went back outside to get our taxi and get us to the Hempstead station to catch a 10:11 train back to Penn Station. However, after waiting for 45 minutes, the taxi had not arrived, and there was no way we were going to walk back through Hempstead in the dark. We had already missed our train and the next one would not come for another hour. Luckily, there was a taxi that pulled up from a different company that decided to take us anyway, and he took us to the Mineola station instead, which got us back to the city in pretty good time. Our journey was an adventure to say the least. To put this in perspective, we left our houses at 4:30 and got back home at 11:45. That is more than 7 hours. The game only lasted an hour, and that is with commercial breaks and halftime. That shows true dedication, to see a Major League Lacrosse game despite having over 5 hours of traveling. See pictures from our LIRR adventures below:

The Hempstead MTA Handout

Atlantic Terminal. Ew.

LIRR

Our Train to the Game (as the Mets would say)

The Hempstead Train Station

The Area Around Hempstead

• For those of you who don’t know (like me), Chesapeake is in Maryland. You learn something new every day.
• Upon arriving to the University of Hofstra football stadium, which also serves as the home of the Lizards, we noticed a few interesting things. First of all, much more than 50% of the attendance was children who played lacrosse. I did not expect to see so many kids there, but I guess that they are the Lizards’ only fans. Also, as we walked into the stadium, they gave out tons of free Lizards stuff. See pictures below:

The Lizards Throwaway Stuff

A Lizards Throwaway Poster

MLL Program

Lizards Program

• Before we went to our seats, Raphi wanted to get smoothies from the smoothie station. As we were in line for the smoothies, the entire Bayhawks team walked right by us to get onto the field. They didn’t come out of a locker room or anything. They just walked right past the crowd. The Lizards also did that a few minutes later. That just shows how much of a joke MLL is. See pictures of players walking by below:

Bayhawks Players Getting Ready to Enter the Field

Bayhawks Players Getting Ready to Enter the Field

• For those of you who don’t know, the only reason I found this event was because I saw that in my TV guide, this game was somehow on ESPN2 tonight. I have no idea why they put it on national television, but I guess ESPN likes lacrosse. Because of this, there was a camera actually taping the game, people in the booth above us broadcasting, and a lot more commercial breaks than MLL usually has. See a picture of the camera and the camera man below (keep in mind that in this stadium, just about every fan who attended was sitting on our side of the stadium. That is why the other side looks so empty. Our side was more than half full):

The ESPN2 Camera Guy

• Our favorite player by far, was Stephen Berger of the Lizards. His number 13 jersey was the only jersey selling at the stadium, and we also love him for his name, named after of course the great Jake Berger of Heschel High. I think he had at least a goal tonight too. See pictures of the great Berger below:

Berger For Sale

Stephen (Jake) Berger

Jake

• People who follow KHH know how we love the Red Bulls Supporters section at Red Bulls games. Well, the Lizards have a supportive fan base also. However, it is only two people. One of them was wearing a Lizards jersey and a green and white wig. He looked kind of ridiculous. The other was also wearing a Lizards jersey with the name “Spallina” on it. Because of this we called him Ronny, named after Ronny Paulino of the Mets (because Paulino and Spallina are similar). They led all of the children in cheers and such. However, the extremely creepy thing is that they are both probably 35 years old. And they are die-hard Lizards fans. That’s a pretty sad life. See a picture of Ronny below:

Ronny Spallino

• The funniest moment of the game in my opinion was in the first half. We were sitting pretty close to the Bayhawks bench so we were able to see everything that happened on it. In the middle of the game, one of the players had to do some adjusting to a bandage that was covering his lower stomach area. In order to do this, he was forced to remove his pants, and he decided to do this in front of the whole audience. Even though he was wearing underpants (thank god, that would have actually been horrifying, especially for children), it was still hilarious. This shows how much of a joke Major League Lacrosse is. If this was the NBA or even the Nets (sorry Nets, I had to take a shot at you), the players would not take off their pants right in front of the crowd. It’s a joke. Unfortunately, we have no pictures (because Raphi was a wimp).
•  If I had to compare this game to another KHH event, it would definitely be the Newark Bears game. Both of them were complete jokes, even though this is technically a higher level (the Bears aren’t even class A). Also, they both require a pretty large amount of traveling, though the Bears really can’t compete with the Lizards in this department. Another comparison between the two is that I don’t think that I would ever go to another one of their games again. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the games; I did, but the games are just not exciting at all and there are long journeys in both cases. However, tonight was a good experience and I’m glad that KHH was there to cover the game.
• See more pictures of Lizards action below:

Hofstra's Football Stadium

The Lizards' Great Mascot

A Lacrosse Faceoff

The Bayhawks' Bench

The Lizards' Bench

A Lizards Huddle

The Stadium

Game Action

A Bayhawks Huddle

Lizards Bench Watching the Game

Game Action

Game Action

Our next KHH event will be tomorrow, when the Mets return home from their very long road trip to take on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Citi. This will be our first appearance in Queens since Greece-Ecuador, which feels like ages ago, so I am excited to say the least. This will also be my last KHH event before I leave for camp on Saturday 😦 but expect a goodbye article before I leave for the summer.

Sport-cle of the Day

Will Thole, Paulino, or Nickeas make this list? Doubtful (well, for 2/3).

http://www.sporcle.com/games/sultanofswing/mlb-most-starts-at-catcher-by-team-99-10

Mets – Peggle Comparisons

During the past few years of high school, the KHH bloggers have often found themselves mired in complete boredom. Sometimes we had nothing to do during free periods. Other times we needed something to do during joke classes. On (many) occasions, we were bored during serious classes. Faced with each of these situations, the KHH bloggers often played Peggle.

Peggle is a very addicting game. It involves firing a magical ball at different colored pegs. It’s sometimes fun and always challenging.

Today, I will compare all your 2011 Mets players to Peggle characters. Without further ado, let’s begin!

Mets Pitchers
RP – Pedro Beato: Pyramid Ball

 

KAT TUT - Pyramid Ball

RP – Tim Byrdak: Gopher Ball

 

JIMMY LIGHTNING - Gopher Ball (Multiball)

SP – Chris Capuano: Lobster Ball

 

CLAUDE - Lobster Ball (Flippers)

SP – R.A. Dickey: Flower Ball

 

TULA - Flower Ball (Flower Power)

SP – Dillon Gee: Magic Hat

 

WARREN - Magic Hat (Lucky Spin)

RP – Jason Isringhausen: Zen Master Hayon

 

MASTER HU - Zen Master Hayon Ball (Zen Ball)

SP – Jon Niese: Unicorn Ball

BJORN - Unicorn Ball (Super Guide)

RP – Michael O’Connor: Gopher Ball

JIMMY LIGHTNING - Gopher Ball (Multiball)

RP – Bobby Parnell: Dragon BallZ

LORD CINDERBOTTOM - Dragon BallZ (Fireball)

SP – Mike Pelfrey: Lobster Ball

CLAUDE - Lobster Ball (Flippers)

RP – Francisco Rodriguez: Spooky

RENFIELD - Spooky Ball

RP – Dale Thayer: Flower Ball

TULA - Flower Ball (Flower Power)

Mets Batters
C – Ronny Paulino: Space Blast

SPLORK - Space Blast

C – Josh Thole: Unicorn Ball

BJORN - Unicorn Ball (Super Guide)

1B – Nick Evans: Pyramid Ball

KAT TUT - Pyramid Ball

1B – Daniel Murphy: Zen Master Hayon

MASTER HU - Zen Master Hayon Ball (Zen Ball)

SS – Jose Reyes: Magic Hat

WARREN - Magic Hat (Lucky Spin)

2B – Ruben Tejada: Flower Ball

TULA - Flower Ball (Flower Power)

IF – Justin Turner: Dragon BallZ

LORD CINDERBOTTOM - Dragon BallZ (Fireball)

LF – Jason Bay: Gopher Ball

JIMMY LIGHTNING - Gopher Ball (Multiball)

RF – Carlos Beltran: Spooky

RENFIELD - Spooky Ball

OF – Scott Hairston: Unicorn Ball

BJORN - Unicorn Ball (Super Guide)

OF – Willie Harris: Space Blast

SPLORK - Space Blast

CF – Angel Pagan: Magic Hat

WARREN - Magic Hat (Lucky Spin)

OF – Jason Pridie: Lobster Ball

CLAUDE - Lobster Ball (Flippers)

And the Ultra Extreme Fever award for best Peggle player belongs to…

Daniel Murphy!  Congratulations!!

Mets-Pirates Game 4 Recap

This was the most impressive game that we have seen the Mets play all season. I think that they really responded to Terry Collins’s rant last night, but this response may only last one game. The game was played in two parts. The first part of the game was the first 2.5 innings and the second part was the last 6.5 innings of the game. The first part of the game completely belonged to the Pirates. In the top of the first inning, the Pirates had some lucky hits, but ultimately killed Pelfrey. They had two steals before the Mets recorded an out and 3 steals in the game. There was a meeting on the mound in the first inning as well. The big blows in the inning were singles by Andrew McCutchen and Matt Diaz. The Pirates scored 3 runs in the inning. After a 1-2-3 bottom of the 1st, the Pirates were at it again. Andrew McCutchen hit another RBI single and then Neil Walker hit an absolute bomb to right-center. It went over the 415 sign, the deepest part of the park, and continued on to hit the Dunkin’ Donuts sign. It probably traveled close to 440 feet and it scored 2 runs. The Pirates were leading 6-0, and then tacked on one more run in the third. It was 7-0 Pirates. To make things worse, Paul Maholm who came into the game batting .050 went 2-3 in the game. This was very typical Mets and every single person at Shea thought the game was over. We were in for our second Mets blowout loss in 2 games.

Paul Maholm at bat. He is about to get a single.

Now on to the second part of the game. This part belonged to the Mets. In the bottom of the third inning and down 7-0, Carlos Beltran hit a ball off of the facing of the left field middle deck and cut the score to 7-3. It was the first ball that I had ever seen hit past the lower deck in left field at Citi Field. This was nice, but so what. Nobody thought that the Mets would come back and win. But the Mets were not done. After a couple of boring innings, the Mets put together a great two-out rally in the 6th inning. With the bases loaded and two outs, Ruben Tejada hit a single to right to cut the Pirate lead to 7-5. Then, a pinch hitting Daniel Murphy singled as well to make it a one run deficit. In typical Mets-Pirates fashion, Ruben Tejada scored to tie the game on a passed ball by Pirates catcher Dusty Brown (who?). This was on the first pitch be Pirates reliever Chris Resop. Both pitcher and catcher were kind of a joke. At this point, Mets fans had a lot of confidence in their team. In the 8th inning, more disasters struck for the Pirates. First off, Jose Veras, the Pirates reliever was awful to say the least. In the 7 batters he pitched to, he got 2 out, gave up 1 hit, and walked 4 of them. After Ronny Paulino led off the inning with a single, he was pinch run for by Willie Harris. After this, Chris Capuano pinch hit for Jason Isringhausen. I was shocked when I saw Cappuccino pinch hitting, but he was only there to lay down a bunt. In typical Mets fashion, he was unable to get the bunt down, though Willie Harris did force a Veras balk and got to second. When Capuano had two strikes on him, something I never saw happened. Terry Collins pinch hit Josh Thole for Capuano in the middle of the at bat. Thole walked and then Ruben Tejada hit a sacrifice fly and Willie scored from third. Later in the inning, Veras gave up a bases loaded walk to Beltran to make the score 9-7 Mets. But the game was not over because K-Rod always makes games interesting. He gave up a leadoff triple to Xavier Paul, but Pittsburgh only scored once in the inning to give the Mets an impressive 9-8 victory. One thing to note about the final score is that Raphi, half-jokingly, predicted this score in the first inning. The first correct score prediction of the year goes to Raphi in a very strange game.

Jose Reyes Warming Up

To talk about the pitching briefly, Paul Maholm was fine except for the 3 run homer to Beltran and the 6th inning. Other than that, he was very impressive, but those things really hurt him. Pelfrey was pretty disgusting in this game giving up 7 runs in 5 innings, but luckily the Mets bailed him out and he avoided the loss. For the first time in a long time, the Mets bullpen did not blow the game. They were actually quite good. Congrats Tim Byrdak, Bobby Parnell, and Izzy. This was a big win for the Mets because if they lost this game, they would have lost 3/4 at home to the lowly Pirates. Even though it is not enough, at least they got 2 wins. This was the Mets biggest comeback in a game since June 30, 2000 when they came back from down 8-1 to the Braves. After Terry Collins’s rant last night, I expected the Mets to win this game, but not in this crazy fashion. I expect Collins’s rant to last one game and the Mets will return to their bad ways tomorrow night when they host the Braves. Terry was very happy about the win, almost too happy. He might have taken it as more than it actually was. I’m sorry, but all you did was beat the Pirates at home.

Pelfery on the Mound

Now on to the jokes from the game.

• Today’s Mets promotion was a Dunkin’ Donuts gift card. It is worth $2 at any Dunkin’ Donuts if you buy something there. It was a pretty meager reward for sitting through Mets-Pirates. Raphi was so disgusted with it that he gave his card to me. I am doubtful that I will use either card. Here is a picture of the card:

The Mets Dunkin' Donuts Give Away Card

• We wanted to go to Mets-Pirates batting practice today, but Raphi was 40 minutes late so we missed it. Fortunately though, we did get to the game in time for a softball home run derby. Even though they used metal bats, these guys were really able to smack the ball. I was actually surprised at how good they were. They hit many home runs. There were kids in the outfield trying to catch the balls and they all failed. See pictures and video below:

Kids in the outfield during the softball home run derby.

The Home Run Derby

• People actually sat in the upper deck of left field today! I was very surprised because this should have been the least attended game of the season. It was a Mets-Pirates day game. But people were out at the ballgame today. There were also a lot of schools that came out to Shea. Each school wore a different colored shirt and they all sat in a huge group so they were easily spotted. See pictures of upper deck left field and schools at the ballpark below:

Upper Deck Left Field

Upper Deck Left Field. People actually sat under the scoreboard!

Yellow Shirt School. Worst possible seats ever.

Some More Schools

Purple School in the Pepsi Porch

• After the home run derby and before the game started, there was really nothing going on. The Mets groundscrew was randomly watering the infield and the Mets were playing the radio in the background. They were popular songs and very unlike the Mets. See pictures of the groundscrew below:

Great picture of groundscrew. This is my favorite of the day.

• After the home run derby we decided to not leave our very good seats and go to our bad seats. Even though we got moved a few times, we never had to leave the area and we had very nice seats in the 10th row behind first base for the entire game.
• The highlight of the game for us was the paper, napkins, and plastic bags that blew onto the field. They just made the game even more of a joke. It was a very windy day and because of this, the field was covered with these things throughout the game. And they always huddled together. Sometimes there was a huge clump of napkins in left field, sometimes the plastic bags surrounded Angel Pagan in center, or sometimes they attacked Pelfrey on the mound. They also sometimes chased baserunners around the basepaths. See pictures and video below (Raphi claims that he was crying from laughter during the filming of the video):

Paper and Plastic Everywhere

Groundscrew working to get the field free of paper and plastic in between the innings. Needless to say, they failed.

More Paper and Plastic

• Because of all the wind, one of the security guards lost his light blue Mets hat and it blew onto the field. It was on the field for a good 5 minutes during game action. I wish it interfered with one of the plays. See picture below:

The Security Guard's Hat on the Field

• In the 7th inning stretch, Raphi got a shirt. I maybe should have gotten one also, but I had already caught 3 this year (I gave the first one I caught to Raphi). I already have 3 Mets shirts and I don’t know if I can stand any more of them. The shirts are wrapped with one of those long balloons that clowns use (we call it Petro’s armband) and after the last pitch of the game, I “fired away” the balloon. This expression comes from Peggle when you have such a big lead that you can just fire away and you will still win. Speaking of Peggle, I had a great shot on the train ride home from last night’s game. See a video of it below. Also see how Raphi used his caught shirt:

Raphi's Mets t-shirt catch. He decided to use this shirt to protect his legs from getting sunburned. Typical usage of a Mets prize.

• Here are a few more pictures from the game:

Jose Reyes Warming Up

Nick Evans Being Nick

Pelfrey Preparing for his Terrible Start

Matt Diaz, a Right Field Fan Favorite

Dusty Brown, Pirates Catcher. He had 4 at bats on the season coming into today and he has a great name.

Paul Maholm. He came into the game batting .050 and he still got 2 hits.

• After the game ended, we went behind the Mets dugout to try to get something from one of the players. I was sort of expecting something because they won, but I got nothing. I was kind of disappointed, but that is because I am very spoiled. In the 10 or so games that we have went to, we have caught 4 throw away Pepsi Max Shirts, got two Chevrolet Mets black shirts, 4 free tickets (to Mets-Phillies and Mets-Pirates), got 3 balls, and Angel Pagan’s hat. That is an impressive list, if I do say so myself.

If the Mets lost this game, Terry Collins would have been so angry with them, but I guess the pressure will be off them for one more day. I can’t see them beating the Braves tomorrow night, though. Here at KHH, we have some exciting events coming up. On Saturday, we will likely attend Red Bulls-Columbus Crew, possibly with Sam. Then, on Sunday night, it is possible (but unlikely) that we will go to Mets-Braves. If we do not go to this game, our last chance to see the Mets will be the day before I leave to go to camp on Friday, June 17 when they play the Angels. Next Tuesday, we will be back at Citi for Greece Ecuador. I am really looking forward to this and it should be great.

Soccer at Citi!

Mets-Phillies Recap

Let's Go Mets!

This might have been my favorite Mets game of the year so far. One reason this is is because it felt like a real baseball game and not just Mets terribleness. First of all, the weather was good for the first time in a very long time. It was neither pouring rain, freezing cold, or snowing. Even Section 401 was somewhat full. Because of the weather, people actually showed up to this game. In fact, there were very few seats (unless you wanted to sit in the upper deck in left field, but more on that later). I would say that about 25% of the fans attending the game were Phillies fans. And why shouldn’t they come up to New York for a weekend series? It is a 2 hour trip by train and they get to see their team for cheaper than they would in Philadelphia. And their team has a better chance of winning because they are playing the Mets. The tickets for this game were very expensive on Stubhub because of all the fans, but luckily I chose this game as my free tickets for a rain out earlier in the year and these were our best seats at a baseball game in a while.

Now on to the actual game. The Phillies won 5-2 with Cole Hamels picking up the win to improve to 7-2, Mike O’Connor very deservedly getting the loss, and Ryan Madson securing the save. This game was a Mets bullpen catastrophe on every level after the starter, Mike Pelfrey pitched a beautiful game for the Mets. The disaster begun fairly unassumingly. After a pretty unwatchable and boring game, the Phillies had 2 outs in the 8th inning and nobody on base. Pelfrey was still on the mound and the Mets held a 2-1 lead. Unfortunately for Mike, he gave up a single to Jimmy Rollins and was pulled from the game. He received a huge standing ovation as he exited and this will probably cause him to pitch terribly in his next game because he will be overconfident. Anyway, enter Mike O’Connor. After allowing Rollins to steal second, Chase Utley hit a single to left. Keep in mind that the only reason O’Connor was brought into the game was to get a lefty, Utley, out, and he gave him a game-tying hit. He will probably be sent back down to the minors after this performance. Enter Jason Isringhausen. Utley attempts to steal second and Ronny Paulino’s throw sails into center field. Utley is now at third and there are still two outs. Issy (or should I say Sissy) then walks Placido Polanco and leaves the game without recording an out. Enter Tim Byrdak. He comes in as the lefty specialist to get Ryan Howard out and keep the game tied at 2. However, Howard doubles down the right field line and 2 runs score. In the 9th inning, Dale Thayer (who made his Mets debut) gave up 1 more run and the Mets were officially out of the game. They did absolutely nothing in the bottom of the 9th against Ryan Madson. One of the reasons that this was my favorite game so far this season is that this is such a typical Mets-Phillies game. This is exactly what I expected. I thought the Mets would take a lead, but of course disappoint the fans in the end like usual. They did the exact same thing yesterday as well. I don’t know how die-hard Mets fans are able to survive this. Even though I try to root for them, I can’t get myself to do it. They are just too terrible.

Dale Thayer. He is now apparently a reliever for the Mets.

Now on to the jokes from the game:

• As we arrived at Shea, we realized that Pepsi Max was unfortunately back, and they were back with a vengeance. There was tons of Pepsi Max stuff outside the stadium including an annoying DJ yelling at everyone. There were also huge bottles of Pepsi Max looming over everyone and girls with free samples of Pepsi Max. It was disgusting and horrifying. I refused the temptation to participate in the devilish activities before the game, but after the game I took a free can of Pepsi Max as I was leaving the stadium. I had about 4 sips of it before throwing it out in a subway garbage can. It was as bad as I thought it would be if not worse. However, it probably gave me the caffeine to be writing this article right now. As we were walking up the staircase to the subway, the stairs were littered with unopened and one-sip-taken-out-of Pepsi Max cans. It was terrifying. I should have knocked one of them over by accident and then the Pepsi Max would drip down the stairs grossing everyone out. It would have been quite funny. Also, after wearing my Mets throw-away shirt tonight to the game, I realized that I am a walking advertisement for Pepsi Max because it has an advertisement on the back. Maybe I should just cross it out with a black marker. Any better suggestions? See Pepsi Max Pictures below:

Pepsi Max Stand

Pepsi Max Bottle

• As we entered Citi Field, the Mets gave us free “Tote Bags”. It is really just a bag with a belt around it and it looks pretty feminine. It also has an advertisement for Harrah’s Casino. We took our bags into the stadium with us and used them in various ways. I will talk more about these Tote Bags later on. See pictures below:

Mets Tote Bags

Mets Tote Bags With Peanuts

Mets Tote Bag

Mets Tote Bag With Peanuts

Mets Tote Bags with Peanuts

Mets Logo On Mets Tote Bag

Mets Tote Bag Belt

Peanuts Inside Mets Tote Bag

• As we arrived we noticed the annoying foam finger guy. People actually bought stuff for him today. They could have spent that money on a lower level Nets ticket! Idiots…

Annoying Foam Finger Guy (people actually buy these things)

• As part of rewarding their season ticket holders, the Mets chose some season ticket holders to go on the field before the game. It was mostly just old people. Each person went to a position and when the Mets went onto the field they shook hands with the Met who played their position. It was kind of a joke. See pictures below:

Random Season Ticket Holders on Field

Random Season Ticket Holder on Field

• After arriving to our very good seats, we noticed the upper deck in left field. In every game we have went to so far this season, nobody has sat in those seats. They are always empty. The Mets just never sell those tickets. This was for the most part the same tonight except for one section. I assume that there must have been a birthday party or something like that in this one section because there were almost no people in the other sections. It is pretty hilarious. Also, during the 7th inning stretch, there was one guy sitting under the out-of-town scoreboard in the left field upper deck and he was standing up and dancing and wanting to get a shirt. Good luck, because you will need a miracle. See pictures of the left field upper deck below:

Shea Stadium Upper Deck Left Field

Shea Stadium Upper Deck Left Field

• After the 1st inning we decided to break out the peanuts. They were as disgusting as we remember them being (we haven’t been to Shea in a few weeks) but luckily there were less than there are at Yankee Stadium. There weren’t many perfume nuts, however I did get one that was pitch black after being burned in an oven for probably 5 days. It was super perfumy. After we opened the peanuts, I thought of a great idea. We will put all of our peanut shells in Raphi’s Tote Bag and then Raphi will have to decide what to do with all of them. We carefully positioned the bag under Petro/GadZoom’s dunking bucket (AKA cup holder) so that when we dunked or shot, the peanuts would go into the bag. I suggested dumping them all in one urinal in the Citi Field bathroom but Raphi was too scared. He still has yet to make a decision and still has possession of all of the peanuts. See peanut pictures below:

Peanut Shells in Tote Bag Close Up

Peanut Shells in Tote Bag Close Up With Peanut Bag

Peanut Shells in Tote Bag with Peanut Bag

Peanut Shell in Tote Bag

• In the 4th inning, Mike Pelfrey had a balk with runners on 1st and 2nd. Unfortunately neither runner scored which would have made this a lot funnier. Still, a balk is a balk, and it made this game a little more of a joke.
• In the 6th inning, a fan won 6 months of Tide laundry detergent courtesy of BJ’s. Congratulations. This was a terrible Mets giveaway and I am thankful that I did not win it. Have fun washing clothes for 6 months. Is that a reward or a punishment? Probably punishment.
• Raphi claims that he got bit by a Shea mosquito during the game. Mosquitos usually love my blood but I have not yet noticed any bites. I’m glad Citi Field mosquitos like Raphi more than me.
• After the 7th inning, I noted that the Mets defense had been surprisingly good tonight. That is, until the 7th inning. In the 8th inning it was disgustingly bad including Ronny Paulino’s awful throwing error.
• After 2 outs were recorded in the 8th inning, it took the Mets 4 pitchers to get out of the inning. The foursome are Mike Pelfrey, Mike O’Connor, Jason Isringhausen, and Tim Byrdak. All those terrible pitchers just to get one out.
• During the later innings of the game, Raphi and I moved up successfully 3 or 4 times. I was pretty impressed with it and was not expecting it. I guess the reason we were able to do this was because the Mets fans were so disgusted with their team after the top of the 8th inning. They just wanted to leave Shea immediately. That was good news for us, and I got some nice close-up shots at the end of the game. You will see the pictures from the game towards the end of this article.
• After the game was over and the Phillies won, we were one of the first ones to get to the Phillies dugout. We saw all the players leave and we did not get any balls. However, the pitching coach and the people from the bullpen had yet to leave. We waited for them and I believe the Phillies pitching coach threw a ball in our direction. I had no shot at it, but Raphi had a small chance. He reached out as far as he could and knocked the ball closer to him and made an impressive grab, stealing it away from some Phillies fans. I was impressed to say the least. I didn’t know he had it in him. After getting the ball, he then put it into his peanut bag to make it even more disgusting. It now smells like peanuts. Ew. See picture below:

Peanut Shells in Tote Bag with Baseball!

Here are some pictures from the actual game:

Jimmy Rollins

Placido Polanco Stretching

Placido Polanco

 

Justin Turner

 

Jose Reyes

Carlos Ruiz

Philly Fielders

 

Justin Turner

Raphi's Favorite Ben Francisco

 

Ryan Madson

Our next KHH event will be on Monday, Memorial Day, as the Mets host the Pirates at Shea. We received these tickets for free for sitting through Mets-Nationals a few weeks ago and we picked up our tickets for this game today. It is sure to be a great one, and we will probably go to at least one more Mets-Pirates game in the series. That is all for now, but look out for a video of the announcement of the Mets starting lineup coming soon. Also, Mets-Nets comparisons will finish up tomorrow!

Mets-Nets Comparisons: Infield

David Wright and Brook Lopez.

This was a pretty easy comparison. Both guys are players that grew up in the teams’ farm system and they are fan favorites. They are among the best players on their respective teams. They are also both a little goofy and have been brought up in some trade rumors recently. One difference between them is that Lopez has never missed an NBA game while Wright has missed games with all sorts of injuries. They are both whiners; Lopez on the court and Wright off the field with stupid injuries.

David Wright and Brook Lopez

Josh Thole and Kris Humphries.

The Hump had his breakout season last year and Thole hopes to do the same this year. However, this is pretty unlikely seeing his start. Both players are still pretty young and have a lot to prove. Off the field, as we all know, The Hump is recently engaged to Kim Kardashian. Thole doesn’t seem to have a celebrity girlfriend as far as I know, but he should change that. Who wouldn’t want to date the Mets’ catcher? I think that if The Hump played baseball, he would be a catcher. He has the body type for that position. He isn’t very fast and I can imagine he would like playing that position. They are both unlikely to be traded anytime soon, though The Hump could choose to leave as a free agent.

Josh Thole and Kris Humphries

Ike David and Derrick Favors.

Both of these guys are young players with infinite potential (Favors probably more than Davis). So far in their careers, they have yet to be spectacular, but their futures are bright. Favors was traded to the Jazz in part of the DWill trade and will continue to grow in Utah. Ike will most likely not be traded because he is one of the few Mets that Fred Wilpon did not harshly criticize. Both of these players seem like pretty nice and relatable guys. I think that Ike Davis might be Jewish and Favors is only 2 years older than us. He is also apparently a Mets fan, so we can relate to him even more. Oh hi Jerry Manuel.

Ike Davis and Derrick Favors

Justin Turner and Anthony Morrow.

The only reason that Justin Turner gets to be compared to Morrow is because of the very nice start to his season. He has led the Mets most of the way this season which speaks to how poorly the rest of the team is playing. For much of the year, Morrow was also a leader for the Nets. He showed up and competed every night and he is a special shooter. I think that Turner’s specialty is hitting doubles, though I am probably wrong because he still does suck. Also, Morrow is an avid twitter user. I feel like Justin Turner should have a twitter account just by looking at him. I’m sure he does. Any conformation on that Raphi?

Justin Turner and Anthony Morrow

Ronny Paulino and Johan Petro.

This might be my favorite comparison. Both of these guys are fat, lazy losers. Both players were acquired this season by their respective teams and are journeymen. Both of them speak another language (Paulino: Spanish, Petro: French). If Petro played baseball, he would be a catcher. Actually, he would be too lazy and probably just play 1st base, which is I’m sure what Paulino wants to do. Both of these players are also very random. Who cares about Ronny Paulino or Johan Petro? Nobody (except kids in hospitals).

Ronny Paulino and Johan Petro

Nick Evans and Ben Uzoh.

The last men at the end of the bench! Ben Uzoh was the 12th man for the Nets all season, playing very limited minutes and whenever he did play, trying as hard as he possibly could. Nick Evans has been going back and forth between the Mets and AAA for a couple of years now and he is currently the last man on the roster (unless Brad Emaus replaces him). I don’t think that we have seen Evans play yet this year, but when we do it will be the garbagiest of times for the Mets, just like whenever Big Ben Uzoh got his minutes with the Nets.

Ben Uzoh and Nick Evans

Daniel Murphy and Troy Murphy.

This was one of my favorite and easiest comparisons. First of all, both of their names are Murphy and they are both Irish (Troy went to Notre Dame). Second of all, they both suck. Surprisingly, we have seen Daniel hit a few home runs this year, including a game winner against the Yankees, but he still sucks. He is rarely clutch and he is a classic disappointing Met. Troy played in a few games for the Nets this season before they got sick of him and told him to stop showing up and eventually traded him. He finished up his season in Boston, which is where I’m sure Daniel wants to be also. I’m sure they are cousins in some way.

Daniel Murphy and Troy Murphy

Ruben Tejada and Mario West.

Both of these players are random, young guys with pretty low expectations. The Nets picked up Mario West after they dropped Q (thank god) and he played a few games for them before he got injured and missed the rest of the season. This didn’t surprise me at all when it happened. He had a few games when he scored 10 points and tried to sit the rest of the games out so that he would be able to stay in the NBA next year. I could see Ruben Tejada trying to do a similar thing with the Mets. He knows he sucks and he just wants to be able to play major league baseball and get paid a lot of money. Neither of these players care about how their team does.

Mario West and Ruben Tejada

Mets-Nets Comparisons—Starting Tomorrow!

As I promised earlier in the week, I am planning a Mets-Nets comparisons article in which I compare our current Mets with last season’s Nets. This will be a three part series, with the first part coming tomorrow. The three categories are Outfield, Infield, and Pitchers. I understand that this will be a very opinion-based article, so feel free to comment if you disagree with one of my comparisons. From Petro to Paulino, I hope you enjoy.