They weren’t much, but for 19 games of the 2023 season, they were mine.

(Sunday Paper, Year VIII, Issue 37)

Things started to go a little bit sour on the Mets back in Spring Training.

But if I’m nothing else in this world, I am an optimistic Mets fan…so I tried to stay positive.

And this year I was going to pour more time and energy into the team than maybe ever before, so I had extra incentive to root for that positive outcome.

But there was a hint of truth to the joke I was telling after I told you about my season ticket membership for the 2023 season…

I said that the worst case scenario with the 2023 Mets would be after years of different disappointments, I would suffer a unique form of disappointment this year.

And that disappointment came to its conclusion last week, at least for me in-person.

On Monday night, August 28, I went to my last game of the Mets season.

All told I went to 9 games in 2023.

I had two tickets for 19 games total, but after combining tickets (in different ways than I expected, had the Mets been contenders all season) I just went to the 9. I ended up using all 19, so the only thing that I didn’t use were some of the free-game vouchers that I got along with the membership. So by the numbers:

In the 9 games I went to the Mets were 5-4.
Carlos Carrasco pitched in three of the first five games I went to. (Not great.)
I got some great souvenirs - Mets shirts for myself and Kathy, hats and other little things for my daughters, souvenir cups, a home run apple ice cream bowl - and some good giveaways (Pete Alonso sunglasses, bucket hats, baseball cards, Mets soccer jersey). That’s always fun.
I went with my brother, my father, a friend, each of my daughters individually, once with all of them together, once with my daughters and both of my parents, and once with my family and my sister’s family. I was able to give away a couple of games at the end of the season that ended up generating some Chicago Marathon fundraising too, so all in all, I feel good about that.

And, other than the fact that the Mets season wasn’t what I wanted it to be, I loved having these tickets.

So much, in fact, that after a summer of cursing myself for making such a stupid purchase…I’m thinking about doing it again.

It was such a frustrating summer (I still believe that had the Mets not tore the team apart at the trade deadline they’d be in the playoff mix right now) that part of my motivation for going to that last game was to just see if I would still enjoy it.

And I did.

And if I was able to make this summer work - with our Disney trip and training for a marathon which limited the days I could travel to New York - next summer should also work for me going down for games.

So we’ll see. I might play around with it - maybe one ticket? Maybe a nicer section?

I have a month or so to make a decision.

As for that last game? Well, it started out well. There was an event for season ticket holders so I ate and drank for free, and then the Mets jumped out to a lead, and I enjoyed being with my friend. I took the train so I didn’t have to worry about driving and U.S. Open traffic and it was easy.

Then my friend left, and the Mets blew the lead, and I had a nice night at a beautiful ballpark and all that was missing was a good baseball team.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

My brother is going to be touring a little bit the next couple of months, opening for/supporting an artist named May Erlewine. We’ll probably be seeing them when they come through Boston later this month, so I listened to May’s most recent albums. I really enjoyed them. My kind of music. So I would have been pushing the shows anyway…now I can confidently say it’ll be good music. You can click here and look for ‘Tour’ at the bottom of the page to see the dates and if there are any shows worth checking out in your area.

Notes

*Why, you ask, am I not going to any more Mets games with a month left? Well, for one thing it’s a busy next five or so weeks. There’s something happening every weekend. And when my running mileage gets to what it is right now, the aches in my legs become a little more pronounced when I sit in the car for a couple of hours. Even August 28th was pushing it - my hips hurt for a couple of days after that trip. So, since the games are meaningless, there’s no reason for me to push it.

*Speaking of running mileage, Saturday was a 12-mile run. This was kind of a cut-down week before next week’s big 20-miler. So it should have been easier…but it was not as easy as I would have liked. I don’t know what to make of it. The first 3-plus miles felt awful, and then I hit a good stride for about 4 miles, and then the rest of the run was not great. I have been through this process four times now and I wish I knew more about how the build-up works but it’s been different each time. I feel like how I feel about running the marathon will be a mystery until I wake up the morning of the marathon.

*Friday was a month until the Chicago Marathon. I am running for Team RMHC, raising money for Ronald McDonald House Charities. Thank you to everyone who has helped me get to within shouting distance of my fundraising goal…if you’d still like to contribute, you can do so at this link.

*I did the annual comparison of the Jets schedule versus the Patriots schedule to see which games would be on my local TV or not…and the Jets have a lot of national games this year, starting with Monday Night Football tomorrow. There are very few conflicts between the Jets and Pats. Lots to look forward to this year! There’s no way they’ll disappoint me! (Nervous laughter.)

*As that Chicago Marathon approaches you’re going to want to keep tabs on my social media for updates on what’s going on. Thank to all of you who already follow along!