Friends in Flushing

My final visit from friends over the summer came only 3 days before it was time to go home. The great Kevin Price came out with Amelia to see Shea before it was torn down.  The unique fact about this trip was that they only made a 24 hour long trip from Chicago to New York and back again.  They flew into a distant airport on Long Island and took a train into Penn Station to get into Manhattan and did the reverse only twelve hours later.  They’re insane.

I gave them a call from my office when they were supposed to be at Penn Station and directed them to the nearest Dallas BBQ.  It was sure Kevin would like it because we used to eat Soul Food at Soul Ingredient on Thursdays at FAR occasionally. Keeping with tradition for my guests, my only other instruction was for them to meet me at Rockefeller at 5:15 pm.  By the way, I was watching Spiderman last night and when he saves MJ from the Goblin at the parade and brings her to a place with grass and shrubs with a church in the background, that is a Rockefeller rooftop that I used to stair at from my window.  For most of the summer, my office partner and I thought there were pools and on the rooftops and we always wanted to go swimming, until one day I saw a man with a hose walking on water and realized that we had been fooled!  The pools were only fountains. Too bad so sad.

Anyway, we met at the established time and naturally went to have some pizza at Pronto.  It was a good meal and perfect for right before a ballgame.  I already had my Alou jersey on because I brought it to work knowing I would be going straight from there to the game.  We took the 7 out to Queens and had to transfer to an express train at Queensboro Plaza which proved interesting.  The conductor kept screaming over the intercom for the local train, “Local! Local! Local! Local! Local!” because the sign on the train said it was express, but it must have been a mistake.

At the gates we bought our $15 tickets with our promo code and walked up to our seats.  This time we didn’t try to sit downstairs because their were three of us.  I quickly discovered that Shea is much nicer upstairs.  It is very open aired. The night was a very nice for a game.

We watched a good game and the Mets bullpen almost blew their 6-5 win over the Padres.  They gave up something like 3 runs in the 9th.  During the middle of the game, Fernando Tatis was swinging for the fences with men on 2nd and 3rd and 1 out.  He was only doing it because he hit one out earlier, but the situation at hand called for a steady connection.  I told Kevin the batter should cut it out because he had about a 5% chance of hitting a homer again.  Kevin disagreed and we debated, Tatis got lucky.  I’m still of the opinion that when Tatis got into the dugout the coach (Jerry Manuel) should have said “good job” and then smacked his helmet and told him never to do that again. That was the only great debate during the game.

The only other thing that happened was some crazy Italian song started playing and Kevin started jumping around.  Joker.  By the way, James Blake just walked into Arthur Ashe Stadium decked out in Mets garb for the first round of the US Open.  He must win a Slam.

We got back on the 7 to Manhattan and went down to my place on the 6.  There we ate my cheddar chili cheese that I bought weeks earlier at East Village Cheese (something like that) on 3rd between 9th and 10th.  Along with cheese we had Trader Joe’s crackers, El Ranchero chips, and Herdez salsa.  After hanging out for about an hour and hearing how much Kevin’s mom hates the Mets over the phone, Kevin and Amelia left to catch a train out of Penn Station.  I don’t know how that went, but I heard it was interesting.

Thanks to everybody who came out this summer, it meant a lot.

-George the Visited

Transfer from Local! Local! Local!

Takin’ a Picture

Upperdeck Where We Belong

Cubs Fans Are Hardcore!

He’s a Little Nuts During Italian Songs

Farewell Shea!