- May 14, 2024
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Tickets: $40. Price of one beer: $7 (as long as it’s not a premium beer.) The thrill of almost catching an Albert Pujols home run: priceless.
It almost happened.
Last week while on vacation, my family and I went to Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets, to catch a Mets vs. St. Louis Cardinals game.
The Mets lost the game, 6-2, but it was still a ton of fun. I’m a long-time Mets fan, but that was the first time I’ve watched a game in New York.
I know many readers are from New York, too, and may have been to the field.
The ballpark was gorgeous — definitely the nicest park I’ve been to so far.
I purposely got tickets out in left field; they were cheaper, and I was hoping we’d be able to at least get a chance to catch a home run.
Sure enough, in the first inning, Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols belted a high drive to left. As soon as it came off the bat, I thought to myself that this could be it.
The ball only took seconds to reach the stands off Pujols’ bat, but in my mind as I was getting ready, it seemed like an eternity.
And right before the ball dropped down, it hit off the bottom of the second-deck façade, clanked down about two rows in front of our seats, and rolled to the first row where a Cardinals fan who, ironically wearing a Pujols jersey, snagged it. He raised his hands in the air, holding the baseball, with a big smile on his face.
I was happy he caught the ball, but I really thought it was coming to me, just like the other hundreds of fans right around us.
It turned out our seats were perfect, too, because we were just enough rows up to be covered by the shade created by the second deck of seats. Plus, because most of the stadium is open 360-degrees around, a nice wind was blowing through for most of the game.
Contact Andrew O’Brien at [email protected].
