We had an awesome time at the Mets game last night, even though the Mets lost. They just can’t seem to score any runs for Johan Santana, but that’s for another rant and another blog :). It was great to get out just the three of us and have some family fun and leave work and everything else behind for a few hours. We all ate ballpark food, well sort of. Ballpark food has sure changed over the years. Sure you can still get a hot dog, a pretzel and popcorn (and we did get popcorn), but you can pretty much get whatever else you might feel like having at Citi Field too. Sean had pizza, which was real New York pizza from Brooklyn, and I have to say even though I am not a big pizza eater, it looked and smelled really good. Instead of having the usual hot dog, I went off the board and tried a hot pastrami on rye from the sandwich shop they have there. It was an awesome grilled pastrami round brisket that they cut and put on fresh rye bread with some great New York deli mustard and the best half sour pickle I have had in a very long time. It was the best pastrami sandwich I have had in ages and I would definitely get it again. Michelle went with a Keith burger from the Keith Hernandez grill and she was a little disappointed in it. The burger itself wasn’t bad, and the greens and tomato on it were super fresh, but she wasn’t thrilled with the amount of mustard on it and didn’t like the taste of it. For the price of the burger ($11.00) it was a disappointment. Sorry Keith. We had great seats by the left field foul pole (where we’ll be for 5 more games this season) and had several balls in batting practice come our way, but we didn’t get any of them.

Well let’s get back to yesterday’s question of:

What’s your favorite baseball memory?

I got lots of good answers to this one, so thanks to everyone who answered, and thanks to Jeremy Heffner of the Buffalo Bisons for answering. Apparently Cliff Floyd answered me last night too on FSN in Florida, but I don’t get FSN and haven’t been able to find any video of it. If I find it, I’ll post it. He hasn’t responded back to my message to him, but I hope he does. We got lots of good answers though. I have lots of good baseball memories. I can remember watching the 1973 World Series on television with my dad and how hard he was rooting for the Mets to win (sadly, they lost). I can remember going to lots of games at Shea Stadium when we lived in Ozone Park, including a Banner Day doubleheader, back in the days of John Milner, Felix Millan, Dave Kingman, and the not so fun days of Mike Vail and Bruce Boisclair. I have fond memories of the Mets winning the World Series in 1986, of going to a game at Camden Yards, of watching Marlon Anderson chug around the bases as he legged out an inside the park home run against the Angels at Shea Stadium and of sitting just a few rows behind home plate at Citi Field with my brother Kevin and my friend Eric 6 months after I got out of the hospital. Some of my best memories though are of minor league games watching the Charlotte Knights with my Dad. We would always try to go to games whenever I visited Charlotte and we even got to go a couple of times after Dad got sick and before he passed away, so those will always be good memories. And there was last year when my brother Don and I took our sons to a Knights game and the first baseman tossed a ball to Sean. The look on his face was well worth it.

So now on to today’s question. I thought of today’s question after I get hit with a bunch of last-minute work. I don’t mind getting the work; I enjoy it, it pays and I get paid for writing, which is a fun thing. I don’t like getting a message at 5 in the morning saying we need this 6 articles written before the end of the day about topics I know nothing about. It was a challenge, I did it and it’s over with, but it got me thinking about today’s question, which is:

Finish this sentence: I really hate it when . . .

This is another one I used with students to get them writing. Everyone has a pet peeve, something that really drives you nuts. You may sit there and do nothing while it happens, grit your teeth and feel your blood pressure rise, or you may actually say something when it happens. It doesn’t matter what it is; nothing is too ridiculous or crazy. Whatever it is that really irks you. It can be whatever you want it to be. You can answer here, or on Facebook or on Twitter.I’ll post my answer tomorrow and I’ll ask some people on Twitter and see if they answer (they may answer that they hate when they get my question, who knows!)

That’s it for today. I’ll leave you with some photos from last night’s game. Have some fun tonight and don’t forget to do something creative today!