Went to the First two games at Citi Field

Because my girlfriend is awesome, she got us tickets to go to the first two games ever played at the brand new Mets ball park, Citi Field, in two exhibition games against the Red Sox. The park is beautiful. I have been bouncing off the walls waiting for baseball and this was a great way to kick off my season. Take in a bit of history. We had to wait in line for a half an hour because stub hub screwed up everyone's tickets, and actually ended up sitting in better seats than we bought because of it the first game. I think the Mets fans will be absolutely pleased with their new ball park. It has a really cool rotunda dedicated to Jackie Robinson and a huge gift shop. The exterior is built to resemble Ebbets Field, the old home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. I was disappointed in the fans the second game, as the Red Sox took a 6-0 lead in the first inning and the rest of the game the fans continuously threw their trash onto the field. It was a mess. But I guess you can't expect higher of New Yorkers. I had a great time, and am completely ready for this season to start! What about you guys?

Can't wait for another disappointing Cardinals season of pitchers getting hurt, hitters slumping and Kyle McClellan blowing another save. Everyone is predicting second but I'll be surprised if they take fourth.

Also, I saw the gallery of you at Citi Field. The stadium looks like all the other new stadiums. The retro park is the new "cookie cutter".

Jason Motte is the Cardinals closer this year Boush, and he looks good so far.

I can't trust rookies in pressure positions. Look at McClellan last year. A rookie at setup and he blew a whole bunch of games. I can't they believe cut Mather over him.

I'm super excited, especially since I'm not pledging allegiance to any team this year...I've been a yankees fan since birth and much like everyone else am getting sick and tired of their arrogance and I'm using this season to just watch the games and enjoy one of my favorite pasttimes without being pissed that my team is full of million dollar underperformers. Baseball is by far my favorite sport and this should be a damn good season.

I was looking at The Sporting News and they have the Yankees and Cubs in the World Series. Yeah right, like that will happen. And if it did happen it would be the most boring Series ever.

Meanwhile, I see the Yankees finishing in third and the Cubs winning their Division but losing in the Division Series again (I also see Soto being a big disappointment following his rookie season).

As for the Series, I'm going to say that the Red Sox will beat the Dodgers in five.

I'll have to watch a whole bunch of different games before I make my picks...We won't really have that good of an idea of how it's gonna go until all-star break anyway. As we all very well know, there's a difference between being a good paper team and being a good field team.

We're hoping some day to get a professional baseball team back here in Pittsburgh. We already have the nicest stadium in America, and you would think that would be enough to get a team to come here.

And you guys have two of the winningest teams in major sports, you think it'd be easier. Hey, I don't have a pro baseball team in my whole state and we invented the sport. You can't win 'em all.

Pirates hope to avoid setting professional sports record for futility
http://post-gazette.com/pg/09096/960821-63.stm

The only way that the Pirates will start winning again is if Cuban buys the team (which makes perfect sense since he's from Pittsburgh and has expressed interest). But for some weird reason, the poor excuses for owners won't budge.

That's interesting. I didn't know about that, although come to think of it, you never hear anything about the pirates really. Unless it's related to Bonds.

Buscemi wrote:The only way that the Pirates will start winning again is if Cuban buys the team (which makes perfect sense since he's from Pittsburgh and has expressed interest). But for some weird reason, the poor excuses for owners won't budge.

Bousch - Cuban has expressed zero interest in buying the Pirates. (He knows a losing situation when he sees one). He says as long as there is no salary cap in place in baseball, Pittsburgh can never be a viable franchise. There is just no way that they can generate the revenues to compete against Bost, NY, Chi, LA or any of the other big market cities. They will never be able to lure big money free agents because why would they want to come here? The only type of free agents they can get are aging, over the hill vets looking for one last pay check, and really, why would we want to sign those types of players any way(They've already tried that in the past, and it worked out exactly as you would have thought it would). Cuban did try to purchase the Cubs though, and the owners froze him out.

Teams like the Mets, Yankees, Sox, Cubs, Dodgers generate more income from their cable TV deals than the Pirates bring in totally including subsidies from MLB. Without a salary cap, baseball will always belong to the big market cities. Yes, every now and then, a small market team like a Tampa Bay will come along, but you have to build for this over a period of years, and then you get one shot. Once you've had your shot, most of your players will want raises that your market does not allow you to pay so the small market teams will basicall continue to be farm teams for the large market ones.

I actually think the Pirates had a pretty good team going with Bay and Nady, then they got rid of them. They have some solid pitchers (Maholm, Snell should bounce back this year) and a few building block players (McLouth and Doumit) but the loss of those two big players really hurt this team. It will be tough, like you said, to keep players once they get good when no one wants to actually see the team play.

Damned Wikipedia. Giving me wrong information again. I'll kill those bastards!

But basically the ownership in Pittsburgh is terrible and as shown in that article, they obviously have no clue in running a franchise or even care about winning. It's like that franchise has a death wish and can't wait to become contracted the next time such a thing comes up. If that's the case, I say go ahead. Fuck them.

Sorry Keyzer but it's the truth. Looks like you'll have to cheer for the Phillies.

Boush,

The ownership in Pittsburgh (Actually, they're from West Virginia) are the only ones who are winning. Somehow, they continue to make money every year, and that's all they're really concerned about. To them, the team is an investment that produces revenue. Unitl the morons in this town stop being suckered in by Fireworks nights, bobblehead nights and how nice our stadium is and stop going to the games, these shysters will continue to laugh all the way to the bank.

Rooting for the Phillies ain't never going to happen. I'll submit to novocaine-free root canal surgery before I ever cheer for a Philly team. I tried the Indians for a few years, but now I just stopped following baseball. It's nice to have a break between the Stanley Cup Finals and the opening day of NFL season.

You know what could work? Get the current Pirates team to move to Las Vegas or somewhere, leave the Pirates name and history to the city and start all over. Because this is a point of no return for this team. They will never win again unless they get the feeling of winning again. It's like the Mighty Fucking Ducks. Gordon Bombay and some rag-tag kids.

Only everyone is set up to lose and the story hasn't even begun yet.

I doubt any pro league will actually ever put a team in Vegas because of the legalized sports gambling there, but unfortunately, the Pirates aren't going anywhere because as a condition of we tax payers paying for the new stadium, they had to sign a 35 year lease that is pretty much unbreakable.

I think the NBA will put a team in Vegas. Its only a matter of time. Especially when the true nature of this economic recession starts hitting certain teams.

thats pretty awesome geez looks like a great ballpark.

Anyway some comments

Boosh im with you about the Yankees i think the Sox and The Rays are better than them. They blew way too much money and I think the only guy who will perform for them Is Mark Texiera [or however you spell it].

The Pirates arent a very good team but there is a little hope on the horizon for them in the Form of Maholm,Doumit and Mcclouth. And if Adam Laroache played the way he did in Atlanta they might be a half-decent team.

transformers2 wrote: And if Adam Laroache played the way he did in Atlanta they might be a half-decent team.

That was actually quite funny.