Sometime last season, I got really tired of writing about brutal losses.  How many ways can you say it?  My mother got tired of reading me ranting and complaining, often reminding me that WGH was supposed to be a positive place.  “If you don’t have anything nice to say…” You know the drill.  So, I’m at a loss for what exactly to write lately.

Last night, I kept thinking about this quote from last summer.  When I read it back then, I thought “this doesn’t sound like great make-up for a closer.”  I like Joel’s potential, his powering fastball and he seems like a great person.  I just never really thought he was suited for this role.

Here’s the old quote from St. Claire, July 2008:

“For me, his biggest adjustment is his mental approach… I think the game controlled him. In the big leagues, you’ve got the crowd, TV, ESPN, newspapers, all of it. It focuses into one area, the mound, and there you are thinking, ‘I better do well. Everybody is watching.’ It’s big time here. This isn’t Class AA. This isn’t Class AAA. You know, (you’re thinking) if I [mess] it up, everybody is going to see it. And that adrenaline, it takes over guys. When they cross that white line, some guys can’t do it. You know? That’s this game. Guys that are real good? You go out to talk to them, you can put your hand on their chest and their heartbeat is normal. Other guys, you put your hand on their chest, and their heart is pounding through uniform. Ba-bum, ba-bum! Literally. They’re so hyped up and sped up. Their mind races. They lose their mechanics. They don’t allow themselves to execute their pitches. They stop thinking about that slider low and away. It goes right down the middle. And Joel, he’s trying to make that adjustment. I tell him, your game is between you and the catcher. I try to make it very simplified.”

On another note, I am loving Ray Knight’s anger.  He’s competitive and he carries these losses with him all day and all night, just like we do.  It’s refreshing to hear that someone else is tired of all the excuses too.

Lastly, I spent the weekend in NYC and made my first trip to Citi Field on Saturday.  I can’t believe I went the whole way to NYC and missed the two good games (Santana on Friday; J. Zimmermann on Sunday and a win).  Daniel Cabrera.  Super.  Somebody call Pedro.

At least I had plenty of time to explore without missing anything important.

The park is really beautiful; I’m a sucker for brick.  The Jackie Robinson Rotunda is spectacular and inspiring, a fitting tribute for an important legend.  The seating felt cozy to me, perhaps because our section in LF wasn’t so long.  The food was great with lots of local flavor.   A lot of the stands even had calorie counts posted next to the prices.

My only complaints were that it’s very difficult to move up and down the different concourse levels.  There seemed to be very few elevators, escalators and steps, so navigation was a little difficult.  I never did make it up to the Alyssa Milano’s Touch store because people kept pointing me in the wrong direction.

The other issue is well documented.  It appears that the bullpens were an afterthought.  It’s really kind of strange because a lot of parks build great seating around the bullpens as if they are some kind of attraction.  At Citi, they are underground and the visiting one is set directly behind the Mets one but on the same plane.  That’s a heck of a home field advantage.

Here’s some photos from Saturday.  It was, despite D-Cab, a beautiful day for a baseball game.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 6:59 am and is filed under Miscellaneous, Road Trips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.