A Perfect Day at the Ballpark
Seven years have passed, and I still shake my head as I recount the details of that magical day. As parents, we jump at the chance to create happy moments and shared memories, especially when the kids are young and still willing participants. On the baseball scale of memories, this one was a parenting home run.
May 2, 2019. Our beloved New York Mets were playing a getaway day game vs. the Cincinnati Reds with a 12:10 p.m. first pitch. They used to call that game time “the businessman’s special.” The Mets were a pedestrian 15-15 coming into the finale of the three-game series.
My then nine-year-old son loved baseball, but that spring, he was playing on a travel soccer team and a travel baseball team, both of which filled his schedule relentlessly with practices and games. Finding a window of time to take him to a Mets game was damn near impossible. Night games were too late, and weekends were spent on ballfields playing (him), and coaching (me).
I had circled May 2 on the calendar. Not only were the Mets playing an early day game on a Wednesday in May, but as luck would have it, Mark’s favorite pitcher, Noah Syndergaard, was scheduled to be on the mound for the Mets.
Syndergaard was nicknamed Thor because he was six feet six inches, 240 pounds, with long blond hair. He looked like you figured Thor would look if the comic book character came to life. He looked the part even more than Chris Hemsworth.
Mark had dressed as Thor for Halloween and Purim, complete with a blond wig and a Mets uniform t-shirt with the number 34 and Syndergaard across the back.
In fact, when my son was six years old, in 2016, we were driving home from somewhere, probably a T-ball game, listening to the Mets/Dodgers game on the radio, and Thor was pitching. He was excited to pick up Thor’s outing on television when we got home.
Welp. In the interim, Syndergaard threw a 99 mph heater past Chase Utley’s head in the third inning and was controversially ejected. So when we turned the TV on at home, things did not go well when he saw that Logan Verrett was on the mound.
Now, with Thor scheduled to pitch on this bright, sunny, early May afternoon three years later, the planets had aligned. So on that May morning, the wife and I agreed on the plan. We would read his third-grade teacher in on the operation so she could help contribute to the surprise. We let her know that I was coming to pick up Mark for the day around 10:30 a.m. to take him across two bridges to Citi Field in Queens to see the Mets.
I snagged reasonable tickets on SeatGeek in section 125, Row 16, along the left field line. I packed his Thor jersey t-shirt, our Mets hats, and made the short drive to Lyncrest Elementary School to surprise my son.
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He was sent to the office with a quizzical look on his face as he saw me waiting for him. When I told him where we were going, his face lit up. It was on!
I brought a baseball scorebook because Mark wanted to learn how to keep score for real. Education is about more than just the classroom.
Back then, parking was still reasonable at Citi Field. So we paid our $20 and arrived in plenty of time to explore the ballpark before settling into our seats.
As we were walking around, we were approached by two people.
Stranger: “Are you a Verizon Wireless customer?”
Me: “Yes. Yes I am. In fact, here is my Verizon phone.”
Perhaps this revelation, I thought, would earn me one of those stickers you put on the back of your phone that holds a credit card or driver’s license. But what the stranger said next still gives me the good kind of chills when I think of it even now.
Stranger: “Would you like your seats upgraded?”
Me, looking at Mark, and then looking back at the stranger: “Sure!”
Stranger: “Here. Sign this release. Here are your tickets. Have a great time!”
He handed me the paper tickets.
I did a double-take when we saw the tickets said Row 2. And as we realized where we were going, practically on the field between home plate and the Reds’ visiting third base dugout, we kept repeating to each other incredulously, “Did that just happen?”
Work has provided me with a degree of access at sporting events through the years, but to be able to share this special view with my son as a fan was a dream.
About the game: For nine innings, Mark kept score as Thor mowed down the Reds frame after frame. He struck out 10 en route to an old-school, four-hit, complete game shutout in a 1-0 victory in a pre-pitch-clock anomaly of two hours and ten minutes.
The cherry on top of the delicious Sundae this Wednesday had become was that Syndergaard broke the scoreless tie with a home run in the bottom of the third inning. His blast accounted for the game’s only run.
The amazing seats came with access to the exclusive Delta Club, complimentary food and non-alcoholic beverages, though, to be honest, I’m not sure we ever left our seats. Mark did get a ball from the bat boy in the Reds’ dugout, and he did an expert job scoring the entire game.
You’ll notice on the Reds’ page that future Mets Jesse Winker and Jose Iglesias were both in the Reds lineup that day. Here is the box score. On the Mets side, Dominic Smith started at first base, with then-rookie Pete Alonso entering the game as a pinch hitter.
My son and I still enjoy going to games together, even as he has entered his teenage years, and perhaps this experience has cemented that special privilege for me. But it will be tough to ever surpass the wonder, surprise, and joy the day provided us.