Then they took the nightcap, 3-2, with Nick Swisher's 9th inning home run giving Andy Pettitte the win after 8 strong innings. Mariano Rivera, who had his 1st blown save of the season against the Twins, got the save in both games.
The series concludes tonight with the suddenly-good Javier Vazquez pitching.
Target Field has gotten good reviews. I can't really see what makes it appreciably different from any of the other post-1992 "Camden Yards" style ballparks, but as long as it's not appreciably worse, I'm okay with it. I especially like the scoreboard topped with the original Twins logo, with the giant figures representing the "Twin Cities," and their former Triple-A teams, the Minneapolis Millers and the St. Paul Saints, shaking hands over the Mississippi River. And, of course, it's not the Metrodome. Though it has now had 2 rainouts, but no snowouts, and no coldouts.
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The Mets beat the Phillies at Citi Field last night. Two out of three (with a chance to make it a sweep tonight) at home against a team dealing with injuries, exactly what a good team would be expected to do... this sounds familiar.
Nevertheless, credit to the Mets for winning the games they most have to win. Some wins do mean more than others, especially if they give you the confidence to win games you otherwise might not have won.
Good thing the New York Journal-American isn't still published. It was a Hearst newspaper, and if it were in business today, it would probably be blaming some foreign country for blowing up John Maine. Ba-dump-bump-tssss
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I saw the New York Red Bulls defeat the Colorado Rapids 3-0 last night at Red Bull Arena, advancing to the next round of the U.S. Open Cup. Rapids? They were so slow they should have been called the Colorado Molasses.
Just as the Empire Supporters Club has sung to Toronto FC about the CN Tower, and to the Seattle Sounders about the Space Needle, they sang, to the tune of "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" -- I wonder if the original was meant as what we would now call a double entendre -- "You can shove your Rocky Mountains up your ass!" There were also chants of "John Elway sucks!" and "Joe Sakic sucks!" in insult of Colorado's 2 biggest sports legends.
Good thing they didn't say it about University of Colorado football legend, later Supreme Court Justice, Byron White. God only knows what they would have done with White's football nickname.
Whizzer.
Hardly any Rapids fans made the trip. One sat in Section 133, the home base of the Garden State Supporters (which is where I sit when I go), next to Section 101, home of the Empire Supporters' Club. To the tune of "Blue Moon," a variation of "You've Only Got One Song," they sang, "One fan! You've only got one fan! You've only got one fan! You've only got one fan!" And, to the tune of "Guantanamera," "Come in a taxi! You must've come in a taxi!"
At least he was wearing a Yankee cap.
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On the way back, I took PATH to the World Trade Center station, then walked over to Church & Murray Streets to the A train back up to Port Authority.
Get this: On Murray Street, there is a bar called Uncle Mike's. First I've ever heard of it.
I was exhausted, both from the game and the heat (it was 90 degrees at game time), and I was so sweaty I probably didn't smell too good, so I didn't go in. But I intend to on an upcoming trip into The City.
For the record, both this blog and the bar were named independently of each other, each without prior knowledge of the other's existence. I wonder if I can get a discount for mentioning the bar in this blog?
Then again, it's only from moving from Nevada Smith's on 3rd Avenue to Lunasa on 1st Avenue to watch Arsenal matches from overseas that I discovered that Coyote Ugly, basis for the film of the same name, actually exists. I haven't been in there, either.
It's just as well, it's not like the magnificent Maria Bello would actually be tending bar in a tight T-shirt. (At age 43, she could still do it. Wear the T-shirt, that is. I don't know about her real-life bartending skills, but I wouldn't put it past her to be good at it.)
UPDATE: The Rapids ended up winning the MLS Cup that season. Uncle Mike's the bar has since gone out of business. And Maria Bello remains gorgeous, but she also... remains unavailable.
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Super Bowl XLVIII (48) will be played, most likely on February 2, 2014, at the new Meadowlands Stadium, whatever it ends up being officially named.
If the Giants or Jets win it, New York City will say it was in New York. If neither makes it, and if it's as cold as many fear it will be, New York City will say it was in New Jersey.
But then, I live in a strange world, where the City of New York and the City of Philadelphia are both in the State of New Jersey, not the State of New York and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, respectively.
My world is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there.
On second thought, please do live there. I could use the rent money.
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