WALK ON BY

I went to the Mets-Yankees game last night with my girl and some of my closest friends. It's the second Subway Serious game I've attended; I was at the Stadium when Clemens plunked Yazzie a couple of years back. We bundled up, and sat out in the left field bleachers. It was rainy and muddy, but fortunately for us, the rain stopped by the 5th or 6th inning and we didn't get drenched. (Most New Yorkers are so water logged right now, our thoughts are soggy.) The fans were in fairly good spirits, but it wasn't a playoff atmosphere despite the sellout crowd.

The game was close, familiar, yet agonizing for the Mets faithful. Where have we seen this before? It's bad enough they have to deal with getting invaded with a militia of Yankee fans, but when Armando Benetiz came on to close the game in the ninth, there were more groans than cheers from the home crowd. They could sense something bad was going to happen. For his part, Benetiz---who may have been auditioning for the Bombers---didn't disapoint as he walked the bases full and then walked pinch-hiter Jorge Posada on a 3-2 pitch with two outs, to blow the Mets one-run lead.

The Yankees took the lead in the 11th when G. Lloyd walked Charles Gipson on a full count pitch, and didn't look back (Gipson, hero for a moment, reverted to form by getting picked off later in the inning---his third time this year by my count). Tom Glavine and David Wells started and both pitched resonably well. Glavine was struck with a liner off the bat of Derek Jeter and although he was pitching effectively left the game after only 66 pitches.

We didn't get home until well after 1 am, but fortunately for us, it was worth losing the sleep. Many of the Mets fans cleared out after Benetiz blew the lead and the game went to extra innings. Perhaps they got a decent night's sleep. Then again, maybe not.

For the lowdown on the everything Metropolitans, check Steve Keane's Eddie Kranepool Society.