I’m doing it, I’m posting every day! Technically I didn’t blog Wednesday as it posted it after midnight, but that’s now how people think. Yesterday’s adventure was going to the Met game. Notice it’s “Met” singular. That is standard usage in New York. I understand that it sounds odd to people in other parts of the country. “Met” is being used as an adjective, not a noun. Where else has this usage? Do the locals say Cub, Dodger, or Brave games? Using the plural sounds wrong to me but people have tried to correct me when writing “Met game,” so I know it’s not like that everywhere.
As I wrote a few days ago I wrote about getting my senior MTA discount applied to my new debit card. That can be done at the Yankee Stadium subway station. When I got there the machine wouldn’t register my phone’s google wallet. There’s a little screen that says, “tap” and when I did, nothing happened. I was told to come back another day. As I go past Yankee stadium on the way to Shea Stadium Citi Field I decided to do it yesterday. When I got there the first clerk I went to didn’t even know that you can pay for the subway with a credit card or phone. His entire job is helping MTA customers with questions and he didn’t know something that basic. Fortunately, he had a colleague in the booth who did. I went over and tapped the screen, and nothing happened. The MTA worker who knew what was going on came out of the booth to help me. I showed him that what I was doing, tapping where it said, “tap.” He told me I was tapping in the wrong place. Lower in the booth there was a recess, in the back of the recess, where you can’t see when standing, there was a yellow plate that says, “tap here.” There was so much incompetence; The guy that designed the system made using it not un-intuitive, but anti-intuitive. Who is not going to tap where it says “tap?” The clerk who saw where I was tapping on Sunday and didn’t know the right place, and the clerk that didn’t even know that you can pay for the subway with a debit or credit card or wallet app on a phone. When I finish writing this, I’ll have to write the MTA. At least I got it done and can now ride for half fare.
I gave myself time for this and the subway ride went smoothly so I arrived at the Met game earlier than usual. I love that. It’s so much more relaxing to get there early. I could grab my food and free drink. If you have a driver’s license you can fill out a form where you promise not to drink alcohol, and they give you a free soda. I do this every game. I could then take my seat in time for the national anthem. It was Queens night, the borough president and many of the members of the Queens delegation to the City Council was there. One was a young woman in full Mets gear with a baby in a sling. I wanted to vote for her. The anthem singers was another Queens resident, Juliet Ivy. She gave a great rendition of the anthem. It was acoustic, accompanied by an acoustic guitar. I wonder if the normally plays guitar herself but didn’t because it’s so hard to sing in a stadium with the long delay between singing the words and the sound reaching you from the speakers.
I did some research, she does play guitar. I wish she could have played it last night.
The Mets have been in a cold spell. Last night they broke it. They won 9-1. Lindor hit a long home run then Alonso hit a longer one. It was a great game all around. They just needed me to be there. When are the Mets going to pay me to go to games? I’d do it for the MLB minimum salary and unlimited food for me and a friend. That’s reasonable. They’d win well over 100 games. I might have to make occasional visits to the clubhouse.
The cover photo is the game’s first pitch. I mis-timed it, the ball was still in David Peterson’s hand. The batter was Lawrence Butler. If he drove in the winning run would people say, “the Butler did it?”
The ride home was very eventful. First the gate to the subway was open so I didn’t have to pay the fare. I still have to check if I’m going to get the half fare when I use the subway tonight. Then really remarkably the ride home went smoothly. I made it home in an hour and 20 minutes. It’s been taking over two hours of late.
Tonight, I’m off to see Charming Disaster. I’ll have a lot more to write about tomorrow.
Wise Madness 