A free ball game is a free ball game. So when asked if I wanted to see Philadelphia play the Mets on July 19, I said “Sure!" I would be going with two fellow Yankee fans and a Phillies guy. Pretty much immediately, I started working out how to represent my fellow Yankee Blue Bloods.
But what to wear? An official BYB shirt was a must. Order one HERE, by the way. The plan was to do a big reveal at the end of the game when the Mets lost. Notice I did not use the word “if."
What to hide the shirt with was the question. Ultimately I decided on my retro Gary Carter Montreal Expos jersey. The reasoning being that Gary Carter went to the Mets after Montreal and won a Championship; the Expos were the team Coney threw his perfecto against the day before, those fourteen years ago; and the Kid was one of my childhood favorite players regardless.
On the 7 train to Citi Field, my jersey got immediate attention from Mets fans. It was clear it would be a huge hit. There are worse things than reminiscing about Gary Carter as an elevated subway scoots you across Queens on a beautiful summer day. These guys were alright. For Mets fans.
Everybody met up at the Main Gate. Pinstripe (not his real name) and Charina were my fellow Yankee die-hards, and Dave was in a green Mike Schmidt Phillies jersey with matching hat. I loves me the uncommon jerseys, so Dave was alright. For a Phillies fan.
Citi Field is not bad. But then I spent 10 years going to ball games in the big bucket that is the SkyDome so I am easy to impress. Spending a beautiful evening in an open air park watching a live MLB game? That was alright. For a Mets field.
As for the fans, there seemed to be almost as much Phillies red as Mets orange. Although some Met-heads displayed a rather… um… unique fashion sense. What’s that you say? Provide an example? Very well.
Behold. Citi Field Clown Pants.
You’re welcome.
We found our seats and the game got underway. It became immediately clear that Jeremy Hefner was going to have a bad night. The Phillies smacked him around early and often. They got all the way through
the order before Hefner got opposing pitcher Kyle Kendrick out.
That took the Mets fans out of the game for the rest of the night. David Wright hit a homer and got some cheers, but by the time the Mets got on the board, Philadelphia was on too high a perch to be knocked down.
On a side note, rumors are swirling about Michael Young. There could be interest from the Yankees. Young comported himself well this night. A triple, a homer, 2 runs scored with 3 Ribbies. Yeah. He could help us out. There’s the hard journalism part out of the way.
Met faithful were wearing rally caps by the third inning. The Jumbotron suggested out of town vacations. Announcements began reminding people every two minutes that Nas would perform a free concert after the game. People were leaving in droves anyway.
In the middle of all the despair, a magical moment. A dragonfly darted through the crowd, dodged multiple attempts by Met-heads to kill it, and alighted upon my baseball cap. I took this as a sign from the baseball gods. That was alright. For an Expos fan.
Wilson, as the dragonfly was named, chilled with me for around five minutes, or as Pinstripe said, half of his life. Charina proved deathly afraid of insects as an added bonus. This led to comical opportunities of leaning in for a picture and getting screams of terror.
Wilson continued on his way shortly after that, allowing me to do my best impression of Tom Hanks in Castaway, “WILSON! WILSON I’M SORRY!" By this time beer was flowing freely. All the Mets fans had left was to get completely wasted, so why not join them? As the Phillies continued to beat up the Mets on the way to a 13-6 laugher, there was much joking, inappropriate dancing, and loud heckling on our part. And that’s how I ended up on YouTube. At least I did my part to make these poor Met-heads forget their pain.
Towards the end of the game I realized, through my beer-soaked haze, that the whole point of my coming here was to show off my Bleeding Yankee Blue shirt. While there was no honor in rubbing it in to utterly defeated Mets fans, a promise is a promise. I posed like a conquering hero in front of the Citi Field sign. A plastered Met-head cried out, “It’s the Dragonfly Guy!"
We left feeling happy and satisfied. Dave flew his colors in an enemy park and got to strut out like he owned the place. I knew the feeling. Ten years of cheering for the Yankees on the road. When your team wins as the visitors it is really satisfying.
For Pinstripe, Charina, and me, it was a great night out at the game. And the Mets were good enough to teach us a very valuable lesson. One that no Yankee fan should ever forget:
No matter how badly the Yankees do, it could always be worse. Just look at the Mets. And breathe a sigh of relief.
Chad R. MacDonald
BYB Writer
Facebook: New York Yankees the Home of Champions
My Blog: ChadRants
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