America’s Favorite Passed-Time

Baseball. Everyone has a favorite team or player. As a matter of fact, in our house there is a rivalry over two teams. We are New Yorkers and New York has two baseball teams. Two of my boys, Sour Dough and Mini Buns are fans of rival New York teams; Mini Buns loves the METS and Sour Dough is and always has been a Yankees Fan through and through.

Last night we got tickets to the METS game vs. the Florida Marlins at Citi Field. It was the first time the whole family actually got to go to a game together and we had a great time. After the game though was the memory I will hold onto. The METS comeback from behind to win will fade from my thoughts. The three major plays that David Wright made to save the game (in my opinion) will disappear from my memory. But the way that EVERY one of the METS filed out of Citi Field with Mini Buns pleading for any one of them to sign his METS book, and walking straight past him getting into their cars and driving away, I'm saving that memory.

After the game we took the kids around to the back of the stadium to where the METS exit to their cars to maybe get a glimpse of the players as they came out. Mini Buns planned ahead for this and brought his METS book and a marker to hopefully get some autographs. There was no chance of that happening though because they ran to their cars faster than any of them ran the bases the whole game. It was as though they saved up their energy during the game just for the parking lot sprint in case there were any kids hoping for an autograph. The folks at the stadium don't tell you that there is no chance of an autograph, in fact, there is an area barricaded off to give you hope.

Now I am not an unreasonable person that believes that all of the players should rush out to see the folks standing there and give out autographs, but some of them could. I also understand that they are sometimes disrespected and called out to in a disrespectful manner, which I think is atrocious, but my kid wasn't like that. Last night there were young kids there calling in a manner I found disrespectful and embarrassing and I didn't even know those kids, but they were not the majority. I might even get it if they had lost, or if there was a hoard of people. But they didn't lose, they won. There was not a plethora of people, there were about 15 people there and we were six of them.

I know that part of the reason I'm getting so bothered by this issue is because I had to see my little baseball fan passed up not by one or two of his hero's of the diamond, but ALL of them. There is no fury like a parent scorned. (I may have embellished on that) I don't understand how a person can be so numb to a 10 year old child pleading, "PLEASE, Jose Reyes Sign my book?" over and over while standing less than 10 feet away on the other side of the fence. Perhaps if he were on my side of the fence looking at the sad eyes of my little man he couldn't have been so callous.

I know that I wouldn't want to stop and sign autographs at the end of my day, but then again nobody wants my autograph. But if they did, and they were a child pleading with me to sign their book, I'd sign it.

I also know that I am not the first parent to feel this way, nor will I be the last. I take my kids to ball games to make them happy. But, alas, the memory I will take home from this game is not that of my happy children. It will be my ten year old son, holding his freaking METS book, looking up at my wife and saying, "I like the METS, but I guess they don't like me."

Thank you METS.