Benitez, Looper and Now Wagner

After having to work a 16 hour day on Thursday and having to be right back to work on Friday, few things in this world could've made happy. One of them just happened to be Mets tickets for Game 2 of the NLCS, which just happened to fall in my lap on Friday morning. After finding out the seats were ten rows behind first base I made some moves to get out of work early and jumped on the Number 7 headed towards beautiful Flushing, Queens.

I should have known from the beginning I might be in for a long night, while walking in to the stadium and enjoying a cold beverage in a red plastic cup with fellow Met fan F.A., we were warmly greeted by three NYPD officers who were kind enough to write us tickets for open containers. Thanks Boys! So as we sat there waiting for our tickets as about 30,000 other people with little red cups walked by with no problems I was hoping the worst of it was over with.

After getting inside and finding our seats you just feel the electricity in the air and the crowd was just dying for a reason to explode. Unlike our counterparts in the Bronx, big October games are have not be routine over the past 20 years or so. Anyway after a quick top of the first the Mets were at bat with Reyes already on second and Beltran walking, Delgado came to bat. Having been hot all postseason, he continued on his tear depositing a Chris Carpenter fastball into the cool Shea Stadium night. Ahhh, the ticket is forgotten the bills are forgotten, life is good and Mets are headed to the series. But ofcourse things could never be that easy.

Avoiding doing an entire play by play, The Mets gave back and then took the lead twice more resulting in a 6-6 tie heading into the top of the ninth with Billy Wagner coming into the game with the sounds of Enter Sandman having to face 2-3-4- hitters. Now we were all worried about Puljos and Edmonds coming up, but who need s them when you late game defensive replacement So Taguchi to crush a Wagner fast ball to deep left field. After a few more hits and three runs later, followed by an uneventful bottom half of the ninth, the Shea faithful headed home knowing we missed a golden opportunity.

So once again I would like to thank the NYPD and Billy Wagner for turning what could have been a perfect Friday night baseball game with celebratory drinks afterward into a a bitter loss, followed by a ridiculous amount of traffic and aggravation. Thanks again boys, Let's Go Mets!