Yes, what a weekend indeed. The Mets swept the Astros, limped to the 70 win mark, and finished the season. I got 2 more wins under my "witness" belt, and finished the season at Citi Field at 7-0 (with one loss that I never actually saw). I got to go on the field twice. I got to meet/see a few of my fellow bloggers.
Let me give a shout out to Dana Brand, Greg Prince and Jason Fry, Steve Keane, Zoe Rice, Lynn Cohen, and from Sunday, Ed Leyro.
Lynn Cohen did a great job setting up the GKR event. We were a bit cramped down in the Citi Field party area. A lot of GKR supporters came out despite the weather. A lot of GKR supporters came out despite the Mets. That's a big outfield. In some of the photos, you can get an appreciation of how many of us there were on the warning track. We came in from left field near the foul line, and a single line wound all the way to the right field foul line and then down the LF foul line towards 3B. I was somewhere in right centerfield just before the bullpen. That outfield wall is big, almost like you can't even see up into the crowd from the field. It looks big on TV, but seeing it in person from that level you really can see just how big it is.
They had t-shirts (some cool new designs and some other ones that I remember seeing earlier in the year. My collection is now up to 7 (and I do wear them a lot). And raffles. I won a pin from an instant winner scratch off. And I won one of the raffle prize baskets (on a single ticket even). That was really cool. Mine had a GKR hat, a t-shirt (one that I wanted but didn't buy because they didn't have my size), a pen and circular key chain (I guess) medallion with the circular Mets logo on one side and the Citi Field Ceremonial Groundbreaking logo and date on the other side. That's pretty cool to add to the collection.
Thank you to Lynn and the GKR "elfs" for all of their hard work putting Saturday together, bringing all of us together, and getting us onto the field. I've already seen on the GKR site that they did better than last year in raising money, so job well done! And thanks to Gary Cohen and Ron Darling for coming down, hanging out with fans, signing autographs and posing for pictures. Keith, we missed you down there.
I did end up staying through most of the rain delay, towards the end just hanging out in the party area talking to people (mostly Dana Brand), staying that long mostly because my plans at night weren't until later (no stopping at home in between) and I would rather wait at Citi Field (under cover) than in outside in Newark in case the rain didn't go away. I ended up leaving just as the skies cleared and the train left the station just a minute or so before the first pitch of the resumed game. Oh well. 5 innings with a lead counts towards my overall record (since they held the lead, much like the rules for a pitcher getting a win).
In no particular order, photos from the GKR portion of the day and a short video from walking onto the field.
It's late and I'm tired, and the GKR event really deserves its own post, so Sunday's game will be posted tomorrow.
