Scored A Baseball At The Mets Game!

I scored last-minute tickets to the first in a three-game series of the Mets versus the Marlins.

We got great seats behind the visitor dugout adjacent third base. I originally got two tickets, and then got two more. So I brought the entire family.

It was Celeste’s first game and Julian’s third (and this wis was his first). Laura also joined and, importantly, supported the impromptu family outing on a school night.

With these seats, your chances of catching a foul ball are extremely high. In fact, I was more worried about injury to kids versus lucking out and catching a ball.

So luck would have it that a ball came directly our way, bouncing over the dugout roof. Some teenage kid flew out of nowhere to catch it with his first baseman’s mitt. The crowd booed his sneaky swipe — a roar that rivaled the boos for Jose Reyes (former Mets star shortstop now with the Marlins) each time he went to bat. “Give it back to the kid,” some drunk guy screamed.

So the kid quickly passed it to its rightful owner: Julian. You can tell from the picture above how happy he was.

Albeit an early-season game with low attendance and little hitting, it was a good game. Marlins were ahead 1 to 0 in the seventh inning, until they gave up four consecutive walks by four different pitchers, walking the tying run. Mets eventually won 2 to 1.

Another highlight from the game: We noticed several $20 bills fall out of a guy’s pocket. We told him, and he thanked me with a 24 ounce can of Coors Light. Nice.

I was enjoying my beer, so it was hard to resist the kids’ demands for overpriced junkfood: $5.25 for a bag of Cracker Jacks, and $6.50 for a pretzel.

There’s something magical about brining your kids to a baseball game.