Traveling Man

Maybe you noticed - or, who knows, maybe you didn’t - but I was not present for episode 45 with Jeff Wise.  As Kevin mentioned during the episode, I was on assignment.  Well, I don’t know if this was an assignment or not, but I was in London where I had recently watched the New York Mets take on the hated Philadelphia Phillies. I took the trip with a couple of friends and met up with another Oswego Alum and old friend who also came for the game, Kellie Fuller. It was good to catch up with her even if we had to cross an ocean to do it when I could just drive to Boston to see her.

Let me tell you, the Mets fans were outnumbered what seemed to be probably 60%-30% with the other 10% fans of other teams who just wanted to come to England to watch some Major League Baseball.  It was very surprising to my friends and myself that we were outnumbered by such a wide margin considering you had to buy the tickets way in advance before the season even started.  When we went to London, the Mets were not playing very good baseball and since have played great baseball with one of the best records in MLB since that series actually took place.

While in London, we did your normal sightseeing.  We saw Big Ben, the Parliament, the London Eye, Horse Guards Parade (which seems like a place they would have fought during Medieval Times), Westminster Abbey, Downing St, London Bridge, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, as well as Downing St (although guarded so you cannot walk down it), Shakespeare’s Globe and Borough Market (which kind of seems like the South Street Seaport when it WAS the South Street Seaport, not today’s version).  I also can’t forget having fish and chips as well as my first Guinness outside of the US which let me tell you was so much better than any I have had here.  Also, can someone explain to me how not one bar sells Boddington’s nor do any bartenders know what it is when it is brewed a few hours away.  I was very disappointed at this.

On top of your normal locations, we also checked out Emirates Stadium, which for anyone who does not like soccer or football, this is the home of Arsenal.  Sorry Chris, I did not deface the stadium like you had asked.  This was a pretty cool experience even of we could not see a match and see the history behind this club.  On top of one of the highlights was going to Richmond.  For all of you Ted Lasso fans, we went and checked out the Richmond Green, the bench where he and Coach Beard always sat, the pub they always went for a pint as well as his apartment building.  This was certainly a highlight.

Another location we visited which most visitors will go to is Trafalgar Square. We went there but this was not your normal visit.  During our visit is where they held a large MLB event/pep rally for the games. While we were there, we saw a virtual reality home run derby between Daniel Murphy and the rat and dirty place Chase Utley.  They battled and they each had a gladiator on their team and the team of Murphy and his partner won.  Mookie, David Wright and Mike Piazza were also there for the Mets, as well as Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino were there for the Phillies as alumni.  One of the best parts of seeing Murphy as my friend and I kept laughing after we heard this was Murphy mentioning he was looking forward to learning the language.  It’s a good thing he was a good hitter.

Now on to the games.  For both games we sat in left field just to behind and to the side of the Phillies bullpen.  Saturday, the Mets were the home team and it was a rough game.  The Mets scored a run early and then it was all Philly after that with some home runs by Harper and Merrifield.  I was very disappointed in Marte not making the catch which then led to the Harper home run and the five run inning.  He makes that catch and then that inning ends and it could have been a whole different ballgame.  On to the Sunday game where things went bonkers.  The Phillies jumped out to a 3 run lead and then the Mets came back to tie it up in the sixth inning.  The Phillies would go on to take the lead in the seventh at which point we felt like this was it but it was not.  The Phillies brought in their horrible closer, Alvarado, who went on to implode and the Mets would score three in the ninth to take a 6-4 lead.  The Mets would make things interesting as they normally do and the game would end 6-5 it would be a series sweep.

To help out the British who were at the games as well, they were posting different rules on the scoreboards to help them understand the rules of baseball with a full explanation of what was going on at that specific time.

While at the games, there was a lot of eating and drinking going on.  The first day we bought a bat which is like one of those yard glasses you would get on spring breaks and it came with two beers.  The best part about buying beers was you could buy as many as you wanted at any time and they didn’t force you to open them. I asked a vendor how many I could get and I basically got a look of puzzlement when she responded how many do you want as she also looked at me thinking what a dumb American.  We could learn something from how they sell their beers at game in the UK.

Overall, this was a great trip and not sure a trip I would get to do again.  Now, a few weeks later the family and I took a trip to upstate NY - or, for the locals, Central NY - and visited the alma mater, Oswego State University. I showed the family around campus took them into the Campus Center and then we made our way to Bev’s for some ice cream and before that what is a stop in Oswego without visiting the Oswego Sub Shop!!! Unfortunately our stomach’s did not have enough room to hit up Rudy’s as well but maybe next time. Then, that night we went to a Syracuse Mets game for a Throwing Bagels game with Chris and Kevin.  My son, who is the biggest Brett Baty fan out there, had a sign made for him by his mother asking Baty for a bat if he hit a home run.  Baty, signed my son’s baseball and his sign and said he would give him a bat if he hit a home run.  Unfortunately, he did not hit a home run and even though we still tried he did not give my son a bat.  The kids though while Baty was signing some autographs had their picture take and it showed up on the team Facebook page.  The kids were also more than happy to take some pictures with Scooch, the S-Mets mascot.

Then, this past Friday we went to Pride Night at Citi Field where the Mets took on the Astros.  If you have not figured it out yet, we are huge Mets fans in this family.  We got in there pretty early and I took the kids to centerfield where they have activities for the kids and they were able to take a picture with Mr. and Mrs. Met which they were ecstatic about.  My son was trying to hug Mr. Met and once again, they made the socials as they showed up on the Mets Instagram page.  The Mets had a nice win and then had fireworks which right before had a little concert from Jose Iglesias (a.k.a. La Candelita) singing his song OMG which is now being played in my house nonstop.

This has been quite the Mets summer for myself and the family and now my kids are famous.  We might have to get some sort of endorsement deal after all this!!!