Back From The Layoff

As I'm sure you've noticed, this blog has been pretty inactive for the last couple of weeks. This is because this is not a blog about the Mets, but rather about the Mets as they exist through my eyes, and I haven't seen that much of them lately. Between firm events at night and my sister becoming Mrs. Gottlieb, I haven't had that many opportunities to watch games on TV, never mind make it to the ballpark.
I did, however, go to the game this past Sunday, and it was a special occasion because I took my 7-year old nephew Ilan to what was his 1st ever Mets' game. He was so excited by the game that he at first refused to get up from our seats in the upper deck to move down to field level because he was nervous he would miss some of the action. Later in the game, I left to get food for us (of course he refused to come with me, because he is a baseball freak and can't miss a single pitch.) When I came back with a carton full of food, sat down, and handed him his hot dog, he insists "I have to wash." I couldn't believe he was serious. Now I had to get up again, take him to the bathroom to wash, and come back. If I was Uri, I would call him "Mussar Haskel," but I'm not, so I will just more accurately call him "annoying."
What was amazing to me was the body of incorrect knowledge he came into the game with. For some reason it had been planted in his mind: a) that the Arizona Diamondbacks have the best player in baseball, although he didn't remember the player's name b) by rule, a pitcher must be removed from the game after 91 pitches. It beats me where he picked up such nuanced tidbits of information that are so blatantly wrong.
The Mets have been up and down the last couple of weeks, as they have suffered injuries in their outfield and had to get by with a makeshift lineup.
The big news of the day, though, is that Pedro threw off a mound for the 1st time yesterday. Somehow Pedro throwing a few pitches was more exciting to me than the 12 inning game they played last night. Pedro just still has that x-factor aspect to him that just brings such an incredible excitement to everything that surrounds him and everything he affects. I can only imagine what the atmosphere will be like at Shea when he finally takes the mound at Shea, hopefully later this summer.