4/5/2011 PHILIES VS NEW YORK METS

@ Citizens Bank Park

L 1-7

with Frank Fucile

Well, back to Earth. It was kind of miserable game come Tuesday night. Here's the thing about baseball, except for a season ending playoff loss or near miss season ender, there's nothing soul crushing about a single game. If they win, that's cool, but there's another game the next day. If they lose, it sucks, but there's another game the next day. The old cliche, "its a marathon, not a sprint" and all the lines in Bull Durham about baseball being a religion, a steady hand to guide you through the chaos of life, being there for you the next day. So it goes.

I met up with a shoe comrade, Frankie Fucile (he may cringe at the thought of being called Frankie). We spent an hour or so pregaming, since I absolutely refuse to pay for beers at ballgames since I am not a fan of paying fucking $7 for a light budweiser (And I'm quoted on that on page five of Dave Zirin's "Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining The Games We Love") Had a small debate about facebook and whether its total bullshit or not over chinese food and tall boy beers, with a dash of whiskey. Around 6:15PM, it was time to roll out. I'm a somewhat hyperpunctual kinda guy.

When its nice out, one of my favorite pre-game rituals, besides drinking, is the "walk of victory", as I like to call it. It's a short walk from my place at 17th and Snyder up Broad Street to the Sports Complex. It's about a twenty minute walk, through South Philly's finest, many with Italian names (which I mispronounced to grate on Frank's nerves.) There's a bridge around 95 which I like to sprint back and forth under to get the ol' blood pumping. This time around though, I did something kind of dumb, which was crack open a beer in my coat pocket, causing my cellphone to fritz out. So no self-taken pictures on this post. I know you share my disappointment. I knew it was bad news when the screen kept turning white, and then red. Bad omen.

Ah, April baseball. Its cold. The games don't really mean anything, as long as you don't lose all of them. Players are still getting their shit together. Did I mention its cold? I don't mind October baseball cold. That's meaningful! So for the night, besides drinking beforehand and wearing a few layers of clothes, I like to get some nachos with extra jalepenos, which I eat straight in two minutes or so, before starting on the nachos. Through the tears and the burning mouth, I kind of feel high, though maybe that's my body yelling at me to not do that anymore. I couldn't really tell what was going the first half inning, anyway.

As awesome as seeing the Fightin's romp on Sunday with Sarah, coming to the ballpark to see Cole Hamels on the mound was just about the opposite of Sunday's game. In other words, they got their asses kicked. It was entirely Cole Hamels fault, as he had a 6 run meltdown in the 2nd Inning. And yeah, me and Frank booed him. I think if any player has that disasterious of a showing, you are allowed to let them know you're displeased. Also, I cheered for Kyle Kendrick entering the game.

Its kinda crazy. I saw last year's Opening (giveaway) Night with Frank, and Kyle Kendrick started that one, and he got totally rocked in the first inning (which the Phillies came back to win after he got pulled.) And we booed him then. I even won a bet with my neighbor about whether or not Kyle would get another start (I bet he would get more chances, my neighbor thought Nelson Figueroa would take his job. Figueroa ended up getting his ass released a month or so later) Things have a weird way of working themselves out. From goat to hero, in a year.

Over the last few years, Mets-Phillies games have been especially fun to go to because they're a touch more intense, with more cursing and brawls than your average baseball game. Mets fans used to send a good contingent of fans to our stadium, and we'd do the same. (I'd hate to work on a train in Jersey and deal with the travelling hordes during those series). Last year towards the end seemed pretty tame, and I kind of forgot about the rivalry a bit (since I honestly hate the Braves more as a division rival, and the Yankees are the only truly evil team in baseball.) This year, a combination of Phillies fans buying up all the tickets well in advance and the fact that Mets Nation doesn't have much to cheer about led to there being almost no Mets fans in attendance to see their team shit all over Philadelphia. I did get to yell "Bernie Madoff!" at a group of them while leaving, who seemed to appear out of nowhere once victory was clinched. They responded "Well, we won this game." Oh, yeah.

A Mets fan ran onto the field in the 8th and got arrested at 2nd base. This means I've seen 3 of the 4 fans who've ran on the field this season and the last.

We went back to my place and drank till 3am. Frank made a movie about the carlights urban legend killer, which I enjoyed a lot. Once its out, I'll link it to you for downloading.

Next up: Thursday April 18th with Matt Dineen, a roadtrip to Reading to see the Reading Phillies (the Phillies' AA farm team) versus the Akron Aeros, for the second attempt at getting a Ryan Howard Lawn Gnome (this version looks much less racist)

Free giveaway item (from the Phillies' website since my phone was broke):

How'd McDonald's get the sponsorship two years in a row?

Game stats and my personal stats for 2011 baseball season under the cut

PHI

Pitching

Starter: LHP Cole Hamels (68 Pitches, 37 Strikes, 2.2 Innings, 7 Hits, 6 Runs, 6 ER, 2 BB, 3 Strikeouts, 20.25 ERA) L (0-1)

Relief: RHP Kyle Kendrick (42 Pitches, 30 Strikes, 2.1 Innings, 2 Hits, 1 BB, 1 Strikeout, 2.70 ERA)

Relief: RHP David Herndon (25 Pitches, 13 Strikes, 1 Inning, 2 Hits, 1 Run, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 Strikeout, 6.75 ERA)

Relief: LHP JC Romero (16 Pitches, 12 Strikes, 1 Inning, 1 Hit, 1 Strikeout, 9.00 ERA)
Relief: RHP Danys Baez (10 Pitches, 7 Strike, 1 Inning, 1 Hit, 0.00 ERA)
Closer: LHP Antonio Bastardo (9 Pitches, 7 Strikes, 1 Inning, 1 Strikeout, 0.00)

Lineup:

1. CF Shane Victorino (5 At-bats, 3 Strikeouts, 4 Left on base.154 AVG)

2. 3B Placido Polanco (3 At-bats, 1 Hit, 1 Double, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 400 AVG)

3. SS Jimmy Rollins (3 At-bats, 1 Hit, 1 BB, 2 Left on base, .467 AVG)

4. 1B Ryan Howard (4 At-bats, 3 Strikeouts, 5 Left on base, .412 AVG)

5. LF Raul Ibanez (4 At-bats, 2 Hits, 1 Strikeout, .267 AVG)

6. RF Ben Francisco (4 At-bats, 1 Strikeout, 3 Left on base, .353 AVG)

7. C Carlos Ruiz (3 At-bats, 1 BB, .154 AVG)

8. 2B Wilson Valdez (4 At-bats, 1 Run, 1 Hit, 1 Strikeout, 2 Left on base, .333 AVG)

9. SP Cole Hamels (0 At-bats, .000 AVG)
--- RP Kyle Kendrick (1 At-bat, .000 AVG)

--- PH Michael Martinez (1 At-bat, 1 BB, .250 AVG)

--- Relief Pitcher (Herndon)

--- Relief Pitcher (Romero)

--- PH Pete Orr (1 At-bat, 1 Hit, .500 AVG)

--- Relief Pitcher (Baez)

--- Relief Pitcher (Bastardo)

--- PH Ross Gload (1 At-bat, 1 Hit, .500 AVG)

NYM

Pitching: 

Starter: RHP Chris Young (103 Pitches, 59 Strikes, 5.1 Innings, 5 Hits, 1 Run, 1 ER, 4 BB, 7 Strikeouts, 1.69 ERA) W (1-0)

Relief: RHP DJ Carrasco (23 Pitches, 15 Strikes, 1.2 Innings, 1 Hit, 1 Strikeout, 0.00 ERA)

Relief: LHP Tim Byrdak (13 Pitches, 9 Strikes, 1 Inning, 1 Strikeout, 0.00 ERA)
Closer: RHP Bobby Parnell (11 Pitches, 8 Strikes, 1 Inning, 1 Hit, 0.00 ERA)

Lineup:

1. SS Jose Reyes (5 At-bats, 1 Run, 2 Hits, 4 Left on base, .250 AVG)
2. CF Angel Pagan (3 At-bats, 1 Run, 1 Strikeout, 1 Left on base, .145 AVG)

3. 3B David Wright (5 At-bats, 2 Runs, 4 Hits, 2 RBI, 1 Strikeout, 2 Left on base, .412 AVG)

4. RF Carlos Beltran (4 At-bats, 1 BB, 2 Strikeouts, 6 Left on base, .143 AVG)

5. LF Scott Hairston (4 At-bats, 1 Run, 1 Hit, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 Strikeout, 4 Left on base, .143 AVG)

6. 1B Ike Davis (4 At-bats, 1 Run, 1 Hit, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 Left on base, .200 AVG)

7. 2B Brad Emaus (4 At-bats, 1 Hit, 1 RBI, 2 Left on base, .200 AVG)

--- Relief Pitcher (Carrasco)

--- Relief Pitcher (Byrdak)

--- PH Daniel Murphy (1 At-bat, .200 AVG)

--- Relief Pitcher (Parnell)

8. C Mike Nickeas (5 At-bats, 2 Strikeouts, 2 Left on base, .000 AVG)

9. SP Chris Young (3 At-bats, 1 Run, 3 Hits, 1 RBI, 1.000 AVG)

--- 2B Chin-lung Hu (1 At-bat, 1 Hit, .200 AVG)

James's Personal stats

Starting Pitchers:

Oswalt 1

Hamels 1

Starting Pitchers:

Oswalt 1

Hamels 1

Total Games: 2

Minor League: 0-0

Phillies: 1-1

Overall: 1-1