IV
Before addressing the horrible incident at Yankee Stadium, I have a personal story, one that did not end in tragedy.
With the Yankees playing the Rays at Citi Field, I took advantage of the cheap tickets, and on the spur of the moment, I went to the game with my son. The seats were excellent.
There was just one issue. They were not protected by the netting. Even with the extended netting, we were not completely protected.
If it was just me at the game, it would not be an issue. However, it wasn’t just me. I was there with my son. He loves baseball games, but at three, he’s not fully capable of paying full attention to the game.
When I’m there with him, I’m not either. I spend most of my time fishing for juice boxes, snacks, or napkins. When I’m not going that, I’m leaning down to describe what’s happening in the game to him.
That leaves me susceptible to getting hit with a line drive. Even worse, my son could get hit. Knowing the power players like Lucas Duda possess, I had little choice but to move my seats.
With the upper tiers being closed off and ushers no longer allowing fans to freely move to different sections to open seats, my options were much more limited than what they would’ve been when I was three. Still, I didn’t give up, and I eventually found an usher willing to let us sit elsewhere with the caveat if the fans who had those seats appeared, I would move.
Was I as close to the action? Not even close, but my son was much safer. As a parent, that’s my number one responsibility.
This is not to say the parent of the toddler at the Yankee game yesterday was a bad parent, or that I’m a better parent. Rather, under similar circumstances, I was much more aware of the risk. It’s why my child would have been nowhere near a Todd Frazier foul ball.
Child gets hit by a foul ball at Yankees game. The players' reactions say it all. pic.twitter.com/YIyaBJq7tT
— Jordan Heck (@JordanHeckFF) September 20, 2017
It’s a horrible situation that just leaves you sick for everyone involved – especially, the little girl and her parent. Thank God that little girl was alright.
Understandably, it has led to renewed calls for extended netting in baseball stadiums. This despite, in the entire history of baseball, just one fan being killed as a result of being struck by a foul ball.
One.
There have been professional baseball games played since 1846 when the New York Nine beat the New York Knickerbockers at the Elysian Fields.
Simply put, while what happened was horrible, it was an anomaly. Watching a baseball game is not an inherently dangerous activity.
With the images of the young girl getting hit, many people don’t want to listen to reason. They want action. They want netting instead of choosing to be responsible with their seating choice. They want netting so they don’t have to pay full attention to the game. If they want rules to address the abdication of personal responsibility, let’s make the rules to address that situation.
Similar to an airplane, you’re restricted from using all electronic devices. If you’re in an area with no netting, you’re not permitted to use an electronic device during game action. If you’re caught using them, you’ll be ejected from the ballpark.
Also, all vendors, including the beer vendors, will only be allowed to walk the aisles between innings.
Like with roller coasters, if you’re not a certain height or age, you’re not permitted to sit in field level seats not protected by netting.
Really, since you’re there to watch a baseball game, these rules shouldn’t be an issue at all.
Overall, what happened yesterday was horrible, but it was avoidable. Some would say it would’ve been avoidable with the netting, and maybe they’re right. It’s also right to say no toddler should have been sitting in that area.
Personally, I agree this incident should be a call to action. Unlike most, I want that action to be the acceptance of personal responsibility and not more netting.
With the Mets selling at the deadline, we saw them call up young players to begin building for the future. That meant players like Jay Bruce, Lucas Duda, Curtis Granderson, Addison Reed, and Neil Walker were gone. In their stead are young players like Amed Rosario, Dominic Smith, Brandon Nimmo, Jamie Callahan, Jacob Rhame, Gavin Cecchini, Kevin McGowan, and Tomas Nido.
With that, you knew the team was going to be young, but his young?
….rompers…. pic.twitter.com/TNVBRPmoPF
— Kevin McGowan Jr (@kevinmcgowanjr) September 15, 2017
Wow. I expected a younger group, but not ones that were dressed up in rompers like my then nine month old son.
It seems that with the Mets recent youth movement, my son is closer to majors than I initially believed:
In life, we tend to get attached to and attribute meaning to bizarre things. Today, that was my car.
Now, I hated that car. From day one, it was a nightmare. I sank more money into it than I care to admit. Driving into bad neighborhoods time and again, it was constantly dinged and scratched. Tires blown. Dents in the car. Really, I hated it.
Even if I found the best Paintless Dent Repair in San Antonio (or wherever I happened to be at the time of the car needing repairs), it didn’t do much to lessen my annoyance with the car, except for the timely repairs, which I’m obviously thankful for.
But you know what I didn’t hate? All the great things I did with the car.
What started out as a car I purchased to commute to and from work became the family car.
It was the car I drive with my wife to Pre-Cana. The day after our wedding, my wife and I drove home for the first time.
I drove that car with my then infant son to and from doctors appointments. That includes when I had to take him for emergency room visits, and one day his surgery.
We took that car to take him for his first day of school, his first Mets game, his ice skating classes, soccer practice, and on family vacations. We drove that car to places where we would share some of our favorite memories as a family. We drove that car everywhere.
Every so often, he liked to get in the front seat and pretend to drive just like his daddy:
I didn’t realize it at first, but there were hints of all those moments scattered throughout the car. I realized this as I cleaned it out today so I could trade it in for the new family car. In some ways, it felt like a moment right out of The Wonder Years.
As we cleaned out the car, there were remnants of these events. Just like we had done a thousand times, we listened to the Mets game on the radio.
You couldn’t pick a more appropriate starter than Rafael Montero. First terrible, but now you see him in a whole new light.
This is because Montero has been a much better pitcher of late. We saw it again from him today. He cruised through five innings allowing just the one run.
It was the sixth he got into trouble. Like his last start, he put his bullpen into a tough situation handing them a bases loaded one out situation. Unlike AJ Ramos, Paul Sewald, who hadn’t pitched in eight days due to some physical issues, allowed all the inherited runners to score.
Fortunately, it didn’t matter much because the Mets offense exploded against Mark Leiter.
Most of the damage came in a six run fourth inning. Even with him not hitting lead-off, Brandon Nimmo got it all started with a single. Four hits, including a Juan Lagares double and Gavin Cecchini RBI single, and an error later the Mets were up 9-0, and the Phillies brought in Kevin Siegrist.
After Siegrist issued a couple of walks, Nimmo capped off the inning with an RBI single. That single gave the Mets a then 10-0 lead.
It proved to be an insurmountable lead. That was true even for the hurt Sewald and Hansel Robles, who had another adventurous outing.
It was the Robles outing that had me sitting in my car just a little longer. I sat in my car a little longer like I had done several times in the past. Except this time was the last time in this car.
As Ramos got Rhys Hoskins to fly out to end the game, I had the last memory in that car. It was a rather small one, but a memory nevertheless.
It’s now time for a new car with new family memories. This will be the car I take my next son home from the hospital in. It’ll be the car I take to drive him to his first Mets game. Hopefully, it will be the car I drive to see the Mets in their next World Series.
Game Notes: Kevin Plawecki was 2-4 with two runs and a stolen base.
When we found out my wife was expecting with our second child, we wanted to do something fun with our son, sorry older son, for him to find out if he was going to have a little brother or a little sister. We debated doing a cake or balloons, but ultimately with the recent fad of gender reveal golf balls and baseballs, we decided to go that route with him.
The issue is those things are unnecessarily expensive. On Amazon, they range from $15 – $30. On Etsy, the price range all over the place, and even for those options that seem cheap, they cease to be as such when you consider the hidden shipping costs. Reading review of these items, the balls are flimsy, and as we’ve seen on YouTube, you are setting yourself up for a wasted moment. The last thing we wanted was to buy an overpriced baseball, have our son swing and miss, and then miss our opportunity to do something fun with him. To that end, we decided to attempt to make our own gender reveal baseball.
The baseball part is quite easy. First, we went to Party City, and for $1.00, we purchased one of those globes they sell you to fill with their penny candy. I recommend the clear globe because it is easier to paint. For the pain, we went to Michaels and purchased acrylic paint for less than a buck. We also splurged for a small paint brush for under a buck. Just like that, we had our own baseball for less than $3.00.
After painting the baseball and setting it to dry overnight, my wife drew seams on the baseball using a red Sharpie. Really, any magic marker would do the trick. What was tricky was what to put in the ball.
If you Google it, you can find a number of ways to make your own holi powder. For us, we mixed food coloring with one cup of water. We then mixed that with three cups of flour. You need to use your hands for this to help prevent clumps from forming. It’s a tedious process. After you are done, put it on a couple of baking sheets in the oven at 200 degrees. Do not go above that because you risk burning it and turning it brown.
If you don’t want to do that, you can purchase it somewhere on the Internet or pick up the powder or confetti from somewhere.
Once you put it in there, you have a cheaper option and one that is not going to simply explode just by hitting the ground. Still, with the impact of a baseball bat, the ball will easily come apart, and the powder will spray all over the place revealing the baby’s gender.
IT’S A BOY!
My three year got a hold of my laptop when I stepped out of the room, and here’s his thoughts on the Mets:
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I’m sure many will say this is the best thing ever published on this blog. I tend to agree.
If you were paying attention yesterday, Assistant General Manager John Ricco told the press Mets Captain David Wright was in St. Lucie doing “low level” baseball activities.
Any optimism you may have had quickily faded when you realized what was meant by low level baseball activities. By no means do I wish to disparage one of the best players in Mets history, but he is essentially doing the baseball activities I do with my three year old:
David Wright is in Port St Lucie and has started low-level baseball activities. #Mets pic.twitter.com/syOYHdbs0o
— New York Mets (@Mets) August 2, 2017
In many ways, it is sad a player who had the talent to be in the Hall of Fame has been reduced to fielding grounders hit right at him, hitting off a tee, and throwing the ball.
On the other hand, this is still progress. Remember, Wright couldn’t do these things to begin the season. He was throwing away from the media’s view so as to save him from some embarrassment. Things went so poorly he was shut down from anything baseball related. The mere fact he is doing things yet again at least means he has made some progress. Hopefully, there is more progress.
If there is enough progress, maybe he takes the field again at some point. That may be this September. It could be at any point next season. It may be never.
However, if there is even the slightest chance Wright can step back on the field, I want to see it. I don’t care if he runs out to third base, or whatever position he is now capable of playing. I don’t care if he leads off the game to take just one more at-bat and tip his cap to the fans. I just want to see Wright play again.
I want to see him be able to set foot on the ground at Citi Field again because he’s working so desperately to do so. I want to see him do it because he’s a favorite player of mine. I want to see him do it because he deserves the chance to retire on the field as opposed to the trainer’s room.
So yes, anytime I see news Wright is doing anything baseball related, I’m going to be excited. I’m excited because I want to see him play again even if that means just one more at-bat.
With my son heading in for surgery yesterday, I unabashedly asked for people to say a prayer for him:
My little buddy is going in for surgery this afternoon. If you have time today, please say a little prayer for him. Thank you.
— Mets Daddy (@MetsDaddy2013) July 14, 2017
The response was overwhelming, and l tried to reach out to all those who reached out. If I missed it, I apologize. It was a mixture of exhaustion and sheer volume of the responses. If I did not thank you personally, please accept this as my genuine personal thanks.
I can happily report the surgery was successful, and there will be a quick and speedy recovery.
As you can see, he’s happy and healthy.
Again from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your prayers. They worked.
This past week my Dad turned 70 years old. It is because of him that my brother and I have been lifelong Mets fans. For that, I’m not sure to thank him or to curse him. All joking aside, some of my fondest memories with my Dad have involved baseball.
There were the Mets games through the years. We were there for Robin Ventura‘s Grand Slam single. We saw Todd Pratt‘s homer ending the 1999 NLDS. We were there a year later as Bobby Jones propelled the Mets to the 2000 NLCS. There was the last game at Shea Stadium, and the first game at Citi Field.
We saw Matt Harvey come so close to pitching a no-hitter against the White Sox. We loved see Noah Syndergaard and Rafael Montero have their first ever start at Citi Field in the 2013 Future’s Game. Our favorite moment at a Mets game hands down was Game 3 of the 2015 World Series.
But it was more than the Mets games. There were the catches he used to have with my brother and I in the backyard. There was him throwing pitches to help try me to become a catcher. There were the times, he would throw batting practice to my brother and I.
When it came time to give him a gift, my family wanted to give him more than a present. We wanted to give him a memory that would at least rival the fond memories we had of him. With us not having 499 friends to invite to a Mets game, or the money to purchase those tickets, that left us with the Brooklyn Cyclones.
Brooklyn in and of itself was fitting. It was the place he would commute over an hour each way in order for him to support our family, to put my brother and I through school.
After speaking with the Cyclones, Joe Senis specifically, we were able to arrange for my father to throw out the first pitch before Saturday’s Cyclones game. Not just that, but at my Dad’s request, they allowed his grandson to take the mound with him (and throw out a pitch of his own):
Personally, I think they both did a great job:
Also, great job by Kurt Horne catching both of those pitches and for taking a brief moment to shake my Dad’s and my son’s hands. It was also great Edgardo Alfonzo, one of my Dad’s favorite Mets, gave us his autograph.
That’s not all the Cyclones did for us. They also sent the mascot up to where we were sitting for some family photos . . .
and they put on a great postgame fireworks show:
It was a classy move from a classy group of people. They gave my Dad and his family a memory we will forever cherish, and we are forever grateful to the team.
Like many dads this weekend, I spent part of my weekend going to see Cars 3. Like many people who have seen the movie, there was one overriding notion that came across – this, and not Cars 2, is the sequel the original movie deserved.
If you have seen the promos, and you got the opportunity to visit the Cars 3 Nationwide Tour, you have an idea of the plot. Lightning McQueen is trying to figure out how to compete with the next generation of racers. He is trying to end his career on his own terms rather than being pushed out similar to how Doc Hudson had his own career end.
To make it succinct, if you liked the original movie, you are going to like this movie. You could argue this move was better than the original. For what it’s worth, my son seemed to like this one better.
With the G rating, you know it is pretty safe to see the movie, but then again Finding Nemo had the mother dying in the opening scene, and that movie still received the same G rating. To that end, if you are a parent who are concerned about bringing your child to the movie, don’t be.
Even though Doc has passed, they don’t show his death on the screen. Now, Doc is one of the central characters and focuses of the movie, and the characters speak about missing him, but no one speaks about the manner of his death.
Overall, the most upsetting part of this movie was the scene where Lightning McQueen crashed. The Figure 8 race is a bit scary for the kids, but it nothing that leaves them covering their eyes and shuddering.
As a parent in the movie theater, it is an entertaining movie. If you are stuck at the phase where you are stuck watching a lot of kid movies and shows (like Paw Patrol), this movie is Casablanca.
Now, there are a number of positive messages. Seeing Lightning McQueen train and train does teach kids the importance of working hard to get the things you want, and how you should never give up. Seeing the story arc of Cruz Ramirez does instill the importance of believing in yourself. The Smokey story does instill the importance of listening to your elders as they still have many things to teach you.
With Jackson Storm being better than everyone and being a jerk, it does show the kids how to deal with similar situations. Want to be better than someone? Work hard and get better than them. They insult you? Don’t let them get to you. In between all of that, it had all the humor you could expect from a Pixar.
In the end, I was happy I took my son to the movie. It didnt’ disappoint. In fact, it was better than I expected. Having seen it a large part of me hopes we get to see a Cars 4.
Note: We did not see the movie in 3-D as we didn’t want to deal with making sure our son had his glasses on throughout the entire movie.
There is no better reminder of all of your bad habits than having a child. If you have a son, they watch you and want to do all the things you do. Unfortunately, that includes your bad habits. Check that, that especially includes your bad habits.
I was reminded of that again the other day:
My son wanted a blue car like his daddy, and because grandparents do what they do, he was given this instead of a matchbox car. After he got in the car, I was soon very uncomfortable.
No, it wasn’t because of the size of the gift. It wasn’t for safety reasons. Between the fact these are impossible to flip over, the low rate of speed, and bike helmets, that wasn’t the issue. The real issue was what my son did once he got in the car.
Almost everyday, I have to derive through bumper-to-bumper traffic on the way to preschool. This means I have to deal with idiots of every kind who won’t drive for a number of reasons:
- On their cellphone
- Completely zoned out and not paying attention
- Doing their makeup in the car
- Eating breakfast
- Talking to everyone in the car
- Turning the knobs on the radio like it’s one of the ones with the dials
- Singing and dancing
- Letting everyone in whether or not people actually want to get in even if it means stopping dead in traffic to let it happen
- Somehow I have to get two or three lanes over in the span of 3 feet and I’m just realizing it now so I’m stopped
- Just not in a hurry to get anywhere
- And one of my favorites: the person who takes a cat nap at every red light.
With my child in the car, I make sure not to use profanity or insults, and if anyone of the aforementioned people get angry with me, I certainly don’t engage. To that extent, I thought having a child made me a better man.
That was until my son got in the car, and his very first reaction was to slam the horn repeatedly and scream, “DRIVE YOUR CAR! GET OFF THE ROAD!”
By the way, that’s when you get the knowing look from your wife. You don’t even have to turn around to see it. It’s there. You don’t even have to have the conversation about it either. It happens instantaneously and telepathically.
And yet, you will talk about it. You will both laugh that he did it and reinforce to one another how he watches everything. The end result is I’m seemingly calmer in the car without any slamming of the horn.
One added benefit – I’ve found flashing your lights certainly pisses people off more than slamming your horn. I wish I knew this sooner. To that end, I can once again say I’m once again better for having a son.