Quite A Day for New York Baseball
Citi Field had its inaugural game tonight, and it started with a Padre hitting a home run off of Mike Pelfrey. The next inning Pelfrey fell off the mound like the big goof he is. Then Ryan Church did his best Daniel Murphy impression. Sure, David Wright became the first Met to hit a home run in the new park, revealing the brand new apple, but his dramatic game-tying 3-run bomb turned out to not be enough. Yet it gave Mets something to cheer about, and a memory for everyone who attended that opening game. Even I’ll always remember that, despite watching it from my desk chair. Who else would hit the first home run at a stadium that hopefully brings a new, less pitiful era for Mets baseball? The House of David, indeed. Shit, that’s way too cheesy.
I think tonight definitely helped to illuminate just how much of a pitcher’s park Citi Field is going to be. Both Beltran and Wright crushed balls to center field — Wright’s moreso than Beltran, I think — and neither managed to make it out of the park. Maybe in the summer it’s a different story? Maybe during a less windy night? Nonetheless, I don’t think anyone will disagree that the park is not going to help boost the home run totals of any Mets players. Wright, Delgado and Beltran are going to need to earn it if they want 30 home runs. Or just hit them when they play at Citizens Bank Park.
The other New York team — where else would you see the Yankees referred to as “the other New York team”? — got its ass handed to it 15-5 by the Tampa Bay Rays. The best part was Nick Swisher pitching a scoreless 8th inning, striking out Gabe Kapler in the process. Pretty sure he should just retire now to become a professional steroid abuser. I didn’t see much of the game, but I know Chien-Ming Wang obviously sucked, and the highlight montage at the end of the game seemed to display the Yankees total ineptitude in the field. Before the season started, I told a friend I thought Joe Girardi’s job was safe through this season, but now I’m starting to have my doubts. Yes, I know it’s barely been a week, but Wang having two spectacularly terrible starts has to worry everyone connected to the Yankees. He has already given up more runs than he did in the whole month of April last year. Not that such an occurrance is Girardi’s fault, but the loss last night can certainly be somewhat attributed to his overmanaging tendencies. It’ll be interesting to see how Yankee brass reacts if the team is ever more than 10 games out.
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