I am used to hearing lots of fans cheering for the other team when it’s the Subway Series, but at last night’s Met game, it was the Dodgers that seemed to be getting bigger cheers than the Mets, at least where Squawker Lisa and I were sitting in field level down the left field line.
Perhaps it was because the last-place Mets, punchless at home, trailed almost the entire game. The Dodgers took the lead for good in the second inning, and though it was only 1-0 at the time, the only runs the Mets would score in the first eight innings would come on a two-run homer by Eric Campbell in the sixth, cutting the lead to 3-2. The Mets scored again in the ninth, but the Dodgers had tacked on an insurance run and the Mets lost, 4-3. No, it didn’t help that the insurance run was able to score as a result of the Mets botching a potential double play.
In the middle of the game, a guy stood in the aisle trying to start a wave. I ignored him the couple of times, then did a half-hearted wave hoping he would move on. He was blocking my view of home plate! But the guy came back a couple more times to try to start more waves. Then I saw him further up the aisle, speaking with some stadium personnel.
The wave enthusiast was not dressed as a Mets employee, and for all I know, the employees were telling him to cool it. But when the only noise the sparse crowd is making is for the other team, it’s not hard for me to believe that Met officials would try to find some way to get some more noise in the dead ballpark.
By the way, Campbell’s shot was his first major-league homer. Four years ago, Lisa and I saw another Met first baseman wearing number 29 hit his first major-league homer. Ike Davis is now hitting .286 with two homers, 10 RBI, 13 runs and a .388 on-base percentage in 84 at-bats. Davis probably needed a new start somewhere else, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Sandy Alderson’s performance has come under a lot more scrutiny since the Mets received little back in return for Davis.
Meanwhile, Stephen Drew just signed with the Red Sox for about $10 million. He may or may not be worth it, but now the Mets are supposedly looking at shortstop prospect Didi Gregorius. Will the Mets try to trade a top pitching prospect for a player who started for the D-Backs last year, but lost his job this spring and is now back in the minors?
At least Shake Shack is still going strong. Maybe the Mets should move Shake Shack to behind home plate, to make it look as if there are lots of enthusiastic people at the ballpark.
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