Royalty w/o 8/9 in review

Monday night I came home after work to recharge the batteries and to work on my blog.

Tuesday night after work I went to Citi Field to see the Mets play the Rockies. The Mets scored the only run of the game and they beat Cy Young Award candidate, Ubaldo Jimenez, 1-0! Jose Reyes hit a sacrifice fly to drive in the only run of the game. Mike Pelfrey pitched well shutting the Rockies out for 7 innings.

Wednesday night we saw a another good game until Met manager Jerry Manuel decided  it was time to over manage. The Mets behind 7 strong innings from Jonathon Niese lead 2-1 going to the 8th inning.

Thanks to Jerry Manuel the game got away as the Rockies scored 5 runs off the lousy Met bullpen. In particular, Manny Acosta who couldn't retire a batter and he gave up 3 runs. Instead of bringing his best relief pitcher, Francisco Rodriguez aka K-Rod, to get 4 outs he let the game slip away.

As a result, K-Rod exploded rightfully so in the clubhouse after the game. I'm happy he did. He wasn't given the opportunity to do his job that being to close the door or at least keep the game close so the Mets could still mount a comeback.

As for the rest of K-Rod explosion,  I totally disagree with his actions. He went overboard and he assaulted his father-in-law. He got arrested for doing so and he was suspended by the Mets without pay for 2 games.

Thursday I was working so I couldn't make the finale of the 3 game series that started at 12:10PM. About a month ago, our friend Peter Agnew from Baltimore asked me if I had an extra ticket for that game. He said he knew somebody who wanted to go and they were hoping to see Citi Field for the first time. I told Peter my ticket is available so I e-mailed his friend, John Marek, and I told him my situation.

John arranged to get the day off from work. I told him I would have a friend of mine meet him so he could get the ticket. I want to thank my friend Phil Butleman for being so accomodating in my absence.

As for John, he wrote me an e-mail afterwards. Here's what he said:

Hey Gary, Thanks again for having Phil meet me at Citi Field with your ticket. Make sure he gives you the $25. No really, I had a great time walking around the concourse before the game and taking in the Hall of Fame Museum afterwards. Not to mention the great performance by Johan Santana during the game. Mike had  10 opportunities to use his vocal chords and he did. The location of the seat was great too. All I had to do was wipe off the rain. Take care, John

That's just another example of giving royal treatment indirectly.

I'm very grateful that a good person was able to buy my ticket and he had a great time. That's priceless to me.

I hope to meet John in person someday. Phil told me he was a nice guy. I figured that since he was referred by Peter.

Friday I went back to Citi Field to see the Mets play their division rival, the Philadelphia Phillies. If you remember back in late May the Phillies went scoreless in 3 three games at Citi Field. To refresh your memory, here are the details.

The question ths time was will the streak continue? Yes, it did. Thanks to R.A. Dickey who out pitched Cole Hamels in a old time pitcher's duel. The Mets won the game, 1-0! Dickey gave up one hit to Cole Hamels in the sixth inning. What a performance that was!

For the second game in a row, the Mets starting pitcher went the distance. With K-Rod being suspended, the Mets didn't need him thanks to Johan Santana and R.A. Dickey.

More importantly, section 516 row 3 had some familiar faces too. Steve Work,  a Friday night regular, was present and accounted for but for some unknown reason his brother Jon was missing in action. I asked Steve a few times where he was. He said and I quote "I don't know." As I like to say, "it was his loss."

As for Steve & Jon, see the special post.

In addition, Manny Bonilla, the young man who I met a few weeks ago on July 31st was also in the house. I arranged to have him sit right next to me. It was another great time in the stands. His friend Arjun couldn't make it. He was away due to a family emergency. For more details, see this post.

Saturday night I was back at Citi Field to see the Phillies behind their ace pitcher, Roy Halladay shut down the Mets, 4-0! Pat Misch who was called up from Buffalo, the Mets Triple A affiliate was the hard luck loser. 3 of the runs he gave up were due to 2 costly errors. The Phillies finally broke their scoreless streak at Citi Field with 2 outs in the third inning. They went 38 and 2/3 innings without scoring.

More importantly, I had the luxury of seeing Manny Bonilla again and this time his friend Arjun was back in town and present as well at Citi Field. Despite the Mets failures, it was a fun night.

In addition, I was talking to some Phillie fans who were seated in row 4. They came up from Philadelphia to see the game. I told them about my blog and I gave them my business card. I didn't catch all their names but I remember hearing Andy and Brian.

Furthermore, during the game I got to speak to a few Met fans as well they were Dan Maimon and his friend Tim who said he was from Buffalo. I look forward to seeing these guys in the future at Citi Field.

Sunday it was Sunday Night Baseball at Citi Field thanks to ESPN. Luckily, they managed to get the game in without a rain delay. It didn't really rain very hard most of the night but it was annoying to have to sit and watch the game in it.

As for the game, Jose Reyes was the Mets offense. He did hit a solo home run that accounted for all the Mets scoring. He lead off the game hitting a ball to short left field that fell in for a hit. With Reyes' speed he should have had a double or at least he could have looked like he was trying to get one. Yes, the infield was getting muddy at the time but that didn't stop him from trying to steal second base. He got caught. I was so happy that he did for his lack of hustle on the hit.

Mike Pelfrey pitched well again for 7 innings but the Phillies managed to get a few clutch 2 out hits to give them a 3-1 victory. The Phillies took 2 out of 3 from the Mets. With the loss, the Mets fell further behind in the playoff race.

As for company in the stands, for the third straight game my new friend Manny Bonilla was in the building. He told me baseball is his passion. He met the right people to help him achieve his goals. He's a welcome addition. He said he'll be back during the next homestand.