I don't leave games early. I just don't. Unless I have to be some place (how often does that happen after a night game) or if I'm going to miss my last train home (too many connections to make). So why did I leave Sunday's game during the rain delay before the game actually started? Click here to read my account of Sunday in the rain.
My friend and I planned on the possibility of him leaving early (not even considering the rain) because of his little girl, so we actually met at my local train station and left my car there so I could easily get home after the game that way. But I chose to take the ride back home with him during the rain delay. Why?
I had the epiphany this afternoon about that. In my subconscious, I just don't like Citi Field, and felt no need to stay there, not being able to go to my seat (or any seat for that matter) to watch the rain, and not walking around in a Mets-like place. It reminds me of the rainy day I had at Arthur Ashe Stadium in 2006 - just walked the concourse until my feet were ready to fall off (another day I would have left relatively early except that I had Mets tickets that night). A generic-looking concourse, except that at Chez Amazin in the Promenade, you can't walk the whole thing without getting wet behind home plate (a useful place on a non-rainy day). And how many times can you walk the concourse, any concourse, dodging people over the course of what would have been 3 hours from the time I finished eating until first pitch.
Shea had concourses. Maybe a bit more crowded, but it was good to look at - all the colors and banners and photographs. In the Loge and Mezzanine, you could go out to the seating area and move back under cover just to sit without getting wet. Heck, I remember one rain out I was at probably 20 years ago where my dad and I sat and watched live baseball for one hour, and watched an ESPN game on the Diamond Vision screen for another 2 until the game was called. Why didn't they have that at Citi Field?
For all of you that stuck it out, what'd you do for all that time? Certainly, I'm not going to find refuge in one of those exclusive bars or clubs. The price isn't right, and my tickets generally don't let me in there.
If it was Shea, I would not have left. Had it been last season or the year before, I would have been all up and down Shea with my camera taking as many pictures as I could before it was gone, but even before that, I don't think I would have left unless I were to be stranded.
