Day 3: Philadelphia to NY

Day 3: Philadelphia to New York

Quote of the day:

I'd hit 35 homers and drive in 110 runs and I'd be an MVP candidate. With those numbers today, I'd bat eighth. When I'm 70, 80 years old, I'm going to be ashamed to admit I'm in that pitiful, little 500-home run club when there are 30 guys in the 800-home run club.

Weather: Gorgeous in Philly, clear, breezy, low 70s, and this afternoon in NYC it is pleasant until around 5pm when thunderstorms hit, then windy and in 70s (and, as we see from bb updates, raining in Philly again)

Pics: Amtrak station, Aloft Hotel in Harlem, Citi Field, dinner, Shea Stadium sign in subway

Fitness center, cheerios and yogurt for breakfast, checkout of Embassy Suites ($200/night, a good deal for a downtown location). Off to the Amtrak train station, a short cab ride away (or a long walk, we treat ourselves), $10. Train leaves right on time, only shortcoming is intermittent wifi for LHB (THB is engrossed in Sunday NYT, reading an article on the crappiness of wifi on Amtrak…it’s true, it is crappy). $50/person for the 1.5 hour journey.

The C to the D, check-in at the A-Loft in Harlem, near Columbia, good rate so we are not sharing a room. It is Sunday afternoon, there are zillions of people out and about. LHB goes exploring, THB settles in with the NYT. At 5PM, it gets dark, rain starts coming down hard, and THB can hear thunder. LHB calls from her room, maybe we should hold off heading to the park (a 50+ minute subway ride).

It seems to be clearing, so around 5:30 we take the A (or was it the C?) to the 7 to Citi Field. It is a long ride, and the game was originally starting at 1pm, since moved up to be the Sunday Night Game of the Week. Arghhh….and, it is Mets Hall of Fame induction day (now night) and John Franco and the long-time groundskeeper of the Mets are being honored, complete with bag pipe band wearing orange Mets t-shirts.

T o keep the “how was the ballpark” report short, it is as bad as its namesake. Shea wasn’t all that great, and somehow they have copied it to a great extent: goopy, poor sight lines, we’re in a wind tunnel in the left field seats, tickets horribly overpriced ($60 each), some small areas between concessions and stands, concessionaires horribly slow (expecting a small crowd? Wait this was a small crowd). Madoff should’ve got a lot more for all the money he gave the Wilpons, a lot more!

Pastrami sandwich, on the other hand was excellent, as was the Widmer dark ale, $20. Oh, and a free Mets HOF hat and another ballpark t-shirt (see pic). And, we are nearing the end of the Tartes cookies, time to find another bakery (ahhhh, Sullivan Street will be on Tuesday!).

Game report: the Cards stink now, Mets looked lively at plate, get many men on base and brought some of them around to score (A’s take note: hard to win when you don’t score). THB and LHB agree, 3 hours in a wind tunnel is enough, as did many of the fans who must have bought tickets and then decided to stay home (announced crowd of 23k, more like 15k scattered all around park so nobody had to sit next to somebody), head to the subway at 7^th inning stretch, where the 7 and A trains stop at every station and the cars are very crowded (this is Sunday nearing midnight). Late night for us travel-weary fans, remind THB to shoot the GOTW schedulers.