fifteen game lead

The Mets won today's game against the Nationals at RFK Stadium. The game had something for everyone. Some innings were scoreless pitchers' duels yet there were a couple of home runs and some errors and really bad base-running that made the game a lot more interesting. Plus the Mets utilized the double switch, the managerial move that will forever make the National League superior to the American with their wussy non-batting pitchers.

My daughter and I had seats behind the foul pole in right field. Thanks to rollback pricing, we paid only $5 each (plus service charges) for the normally $11 tickets. Smaller kids got free Screech bobbleheads. Before you get a mental image of Dustin Diamond's oversized head, you should know that Screech is the bald eagle mascot of the Nationals. The bobblehead was more like a bobbletorso. Between innings Screech was joined by two of his bird buddies, the Baltimore Oriole and the Toronto Blue Jay. Mr. Met was there too. They took turns firing t-shirts into the crowd and dancing atop the dugouts.

The mascots weren't the only ones throwing things into the stands. Every foul ball scooped up by the ball girl got tossed into the crowd. So did the ball used to make the third out of an inning. And the ball thrown back and forth by the outfielders between innings. Before the eighth inning, one of the outfielders tossed a warm-up ball into the 400 level seats near us. A father caught it and gave it to his son. The boy promptly threw the ball back onto the field. He looked at his dad and said, "I wasn't supposed to do that, was I?"

The weather was perfect for the 37,732 people in attendance. The guy sitting next to me was a season ticket holder with a heavy Maryland accent. Everytime the scoreboard suggested a cheer he insisted on changing it slightly. There was one cheer that he changed completely. When the scoreboard said "Let's Go Nats," my neighbor shouted "hep hep hep."