Met Fever: Catch It!

From today’s AP game story:

So how do the rest of the Mets avoid getting sick on their upcoming trip to Pittsburgh and Washington?

“I need one of those masks,” [David] Wright said. “Just stay away from the sick people, quarantine yourself I guess.

It figures that the one game where I am sitting far closer to the players than I am likely to all year is the one where the unofficial team captain is talking about wearing a mask and quarantining himself.

My friend Roger had great seats to today’s game, so I found myself sitting 20 rows behind home plate. Cushions on the seats – but no Purell dispensers.

One minute, John Maine is breezing along with a three-hit shutout, then he suddenly gets removed in the top of the seventh because he caught the same stomach virus that Carlos Beltran has.

Perhaps the discussion in the dugout between Jerry Manuel and Dan Warthen went something like “You go get him. ” “No, you go get him.”

Though I do admit to being a bit of a hypochondriac, I’m not really worried about catching something at the game. (Besides, as a longtime Met fan, I am used to the Mets making my sick to my stomach.)

With all the injuries and illness the Mets have had (Angel Pagan also got hurt during the game and could go on the DL), it’s a wonder that they have now won six of eight. The Mets don’t get many hits these days, but they make them count. Twice the Mets sacrificed a man to second and both times they got him home. And the players who drove in those runs were well outside the core – Pagan and Fernando Martinez.

We got to the game so early that there was no line at Shake Shack. My friend Roger said it was the best burger he has ever had at a sporting event. I have somehow managed to skip Shake Shack the last couple of times at the ballpark so it was great to go back.

The other off-the-field highlight: No “Sweet Caroline”!

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Squawker Lisa, I know you like Larry David about as much as you like Monty Python, but my trip to the ballpark today did make me think of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” I can just imagine Larry getting a chance to go to the clubhouse to meet the players after the game, only refusing to do so because he didn’t want to catch anything and managing to insult everyone in the process.

Or Larry could be the one who brought the bug to the ballpark in the first place and made all the Mets sick, much like the episode where he tripped Shaquille O’Neal at courtside and caused Shaq to tear up his knee.

***

By the way, Lisa, our section was fairly full and the people there didn’t look any different from other fans.

I can just imagine what it would be like to sit behind home plate at the new Yankee Stadium – you’d be surrounded by empty seats except for a couple of guys wearing tuxedos and monocles swatting at foul balls with polo mallets.