You know it’s a good day when it’s an unexpectedly nice day and someone offers you free baseball tickets.  It’s even better when they are great seats a few rows away from the field.  With that, my son and I headed out to Citi Field for a fun day. Well, it turned out to be a fun but odd day.

From the Home Run Apple to the Jackie Robinson Rotunda to rooting against the Yankees to seeing Lucas Duda‘s name in the lineup, there were many things that were familiar.  However, it was Duda that became a symbol for what made this an odd day.  After seeing Duda play eight years in a Mets uniform, it was bizarre seeing him wearing a Rays uniform.  It was even stranger to see a DH in a National League park.

This was the end result of Hurricane Irma forcing the Yankees and Rays to move their series from Tropicana Field to Citi Field.  That meant the Rays would be the fifth team in history to play a home game in New York.  It also meant American League baseball would be played in a National League park.

There was also the fact just the lower tier of the ballpark was open.  Really, it was a bare bones operation.  The children’s section was closed down.  While Shake Shack was open, Boxed Frites was closed.  Other than that, most of the other places on the Field Level were open leading to a number of Yankee fans making a number of trips to take in the full Citi Field experience.

For a Mets fan, that wasn’t the case.  The children’s section with the tee ball and the dunk tank was closed.  There was no suite access.  No, Howie Rose play-by-play playing in the bathrooms.  The televisions at he concessions and near the obstructed views were on YES an not SNY.  Mostly, there were no Mets.  With the DH, no Mets, and the like, it was more Brooklyn Cyclones than a Mets game.  Except it wasn’t the Cyclones, it was a MLB game with a vast majority of the fans in the park were Root-Root-Rooting for the away team.

Personally, I’m happy I went to the game.  It was great seeing Duda playing one last home game at Citi Field.  It was great seeing a well played baseball game between two teams fighting for a postseason spot.  It was fun even if there was no Aaron Judge or for that matter, the New York Mets.  It was a different and strange experience, and those don’t come around very often.

Hopefully, we will never see a repeat in the circumstances leading the Rays playing at Citi Field.  However, if it were to happen again, I would recommend people go to that game.  If for no other reason, it’s an opportunity to see a baseball game.  No real baseball fan should ever pass up on that opportunity.