captainsblog | If you cant say something nice.... (Reply)

I was struggling, until moments ago, to obey this long-held precept off the Mom List. But since I started assorted surfing late this afternoon, it's been rough. We have drag-racing NFL players in town; we have gun nuts who succeeded, in the span of three days, in getting the Nuts Running America to walk back the most reasonable thing they've said in years; we have a viral and vitriolic display of racism one town over from us, which hundreds of white-privileged crackers (there, I said it) are defending because, First Amendment. (I'm not bothering with links. Comment if you want them, and the heartburn that goes with them.)

Throw in today's assorted annoyances from clients for me, and from co-workers and dentist for Eleanor, and I could rant into the middle of next week. But Susan saved me.

Susan is one of my Mets Blogger friends, who wrote one of the heartfelt essays marking the Amazin' life and too-soon death of our fellow Dana Brand just over three years ago. An Okie by birth and still (I think) spirit, she is now a pit orchestra oboist for the Met (the opera, not the team), and she acquired my longtime dreaded Flushing Disease from her husband Garry. As a result, mostly in opera off-season, she blogs about the team. It was her post just now, about her husband's recent experience at a home game at Citi, which turned my collective frowns upside-down:)

A die-hard Mets fan basically from the infancy of the franchise, my husband never appears happier or more youthful than when attending a Mets game. He was recently rewarded handsomely for the hefty price of our Season Ticket package, not to mention the expenditure of vast amounts of his personal time spent watching the futility that is the Mets’ offense in general and with the bases loaded in particular: he got to throw out the Ceremonial First Pitch at Citi Field.

Apparently, the designated First Pitch Thrower du Jour was unable to “go on”, and a suitable “cover” had to be found. Citi Field officials need have looked no further.

...Garry showed no signs of performance anxiety whatsoever. In fact, he appeared rather poised and purposeful. (See if you don’t agree from the photo!) Dutifully following the instructions he had been given to “follow David Wright” (!), he strode onto the field with aplomb....

Wisely electing to throw from in front of the mound, Garry did one heck of a job, and I was not the only one who thought so. He did not spike the ball nor did [Mets catcher Anthony] Recker need to leave his crouch in order to catch the ball. As the two posed for a photo together, Recker even complimented Garry on his pitch.

If the story ended there, it would've been a wonderful one. As it is. Yet making it even better is what happened after Garry left the field: several nights later, the Mets turned to the world of celebrity to carry out this task, and the resulting Celebrity First Pitch was more of a Shit Heard Round The World from Fitty: