(Sunday Paper, Year VIII, Issue 17)

Every time you go to a baseball game you might experience something you’ve never seen before.

It’s cliche, but it’s true.

That’s one of the exciting things about going to all of these Mets games this year: maybe I’ll see something historic.

Maybe I’ll just see something at Citi Field that I hadn’t noticed before.

I’m one game in and I’ve already done something I’ve never done before when going to a Mets game.

The last time my entire family (my family plus Mom, Dad, brother, sister, niece and nephews) went to a Mets game together was late summer 2019. We were in town for a wedding so we worked in a Mets game.

It went extra innings and I have a picture of my brother in agony as the game stretched late into the night.

There were a couple of reasons for this: He is fine with baseball, but only so much baseball. Also, he had biked to the game so the later the game went the less appealing that bike ride home was looking.

I loved that idea of biking to a Mets game. But, with a family of five, that wasn’t a realistic option for me.

UNTIL APRIL 9.

When I got these tickets, the Easter Sunday game wasn’t looking like one that I would be taking any kids to, but my brother was willing.

And I suggested to him if the weather was nice, we should take our bikes.

The weather was nice, and I wish I could do this to every game.

First of all, the bike route to Citi Field from my parents’ was about 3 miles. There’s a little pathway along the water of Flushing Bay that avoids the traffickiest streets of the journey and takes you right to the ballpark.

I was most worried about leaving the bike, but there’s a bike rack right outside the park and it was safe and convenient and amazing. (I told Kathy that I was content with having to walk home if the bike was stolen. We’d had a good 16 or so years together, bike. But there it still was when I walked out of the game. [I always think my bike will be stolen whenever I take it somewhere.])

And - bonus - we didn’t have to pay for parking. (I mean, honestly, the only way I could do this Mets game project this year was with cheap tickets, and the $40 parking per game was very unappealing to me. So if I can avoid paying that parking fee for some of the games, well, that’s a win.)

So there it is - bicycling to a Mets game. A new experience.

Oh. The Mets lost that game, by the way.

That was nothing new in my experience.

Notes

*I was going to force a “What I’ve Been Enjoying” this week but everything I thought about putting there would serve as a good standalone post down the line here. So, trust me that I’ll make up for that.

*But I guess this is as good a time as any to remind you that next week at this time I’ll be sharing new Matt Sucich music with you in that space. And if you want to hear it live before you read about it here, you can get tickets to his release show at this link. I’ll see you there.

*I took a little shot at the Mets above about them losing…but they’ve been playing really well on a west coast swing. They’ll finish a winning road trip with Sunday Night Baseball tonight. It always feels like something special is going on when the Mets win games on the west coast.

*I tried to stay up for some of the games but I just couldn’t do it. I saw a few innings of each, but that’s about it. I just don’t have 10pm starts in my blood anymore.

*It did help that a couple of nights the Rangers playoffs games led right to the Mets start time. Always an exciting time of year when NHL playoffs overlap with early-season baseball.

*For those who don’t know, in baseball a cycle is when a player hits a single, double, triple, and home run in the same game. So I obviously couldn’t pass up that pun opportunity in the title of this post.

*I guess this is the first time I’m writing since the Boston Marathon. I checked out the race in downtown Framingham and it was duly inspiring. I’m very excited for Chicago. (And I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about running Boston again. I think I have a marathon problem.) Anyway, I haven’t been running much at all. Once May hits it will really be time to start ramping up the mileage. (And, in case like me you hadn’t realized it - May is pretty close.) June 4 is the date the Chicago Marathon training will officially start.

*You can follow along with all of the social media at the links below. The running Instagram will be a lot more active really soon.