Ra, Ra, Ba-Ra-Jas!

Heckuva time at the old ballpark last night. Me, Little Miss Citi and a bunch of friends hit up Citi Field yesterday, the better to bear witness to the latest heroics from Met legend Rod Barajas.

There were two undeniable highlights. The first was the connection between the lyrics of Lady Gaga's hit smash, "Bad Romance," and Rod Barajas' last name.

A substantial part of the inspiration comes from Y2K Godfather Sippy Momo, who, on Opening Day, could be heard singing "Ga, Ga, Ga-la-Rraga!" in ode to one-time Met Andres Galarraga.

It took me a month, but last night it hit me somewhere around the time of Barajas' first home run. "Ra, Ra, Ba-Ra-Jas!" I cheered, and when the occasion came again in the bottom of the 9th, my god did I yell it with fervor.

After a walk-off win it was off to McFadden's for my first trip at Citi Field. The McFadden's there has a lot going for it, and it's really cool that Mets fans now have a place to congregate after big games (aside from the 7 train, of course).

It's a huge space; it's one of the biggest bars I've ever been to, actually, so it can accommodate about as many people as would ever likely want to go.

So that's the good news.

The bad news is that the bar, for all its mammoth size, seems to have waiters enough to serve only a small fraction of its patrons.

We grabbed a table, but after waiting endlessly for a waitress, I decided to try my luck at the bar itself. Bad move. The bar was jam-packed, there were about five servers total on the wrap-around bar. (I also loved how two potential waitresses were dancing on the bar.) I never had a prayer.

Eventually I gave up and returned to my seat, by which time my friends had managed to flag down a waitress. Once the beer arrived all was well at McFadden's.

I had a few other minor quibbles. For one thing, they should have close captioning on the televisions after the game. A lot of the people there probably wanted to know what Barajas had to say after the game; with the music blasting there was no way to hear it (fair enough), but they could throw everyone a bone by including the text on screen.

Beyond that, the restroom area is just bizarre. It's a major work in progress from a physical perspective, for one thing. As you wait on line, the wall across the way isn't complete (i.e., it doesn't go all the way to the ceiling), which makes it look run down.

Once you're in the bathroom, for some very bizarre reason there's a bathroom attendant. He was a nice fellow, and his mints and cologne offerings were refreshing enough, but still... a bathroom attendant? At a sports bar? It was just... why?

That said, the major issue with the bathroom is that, in a bar that can accommodate hundreds (if not thousands) of people, most of them men, the men's room has exactly one urinal and two stalls. If you were building a bar of that size, why on earth would you include only three places for guys to take a leak?

In the final assessment though, the good far outweighs the bad. Again, it's awesome that there's now a place to go after wins to soak it all up with fellow fans. If there's an honest to goodness Mets bar in all of New York City I haven't found it, so it really is a unique experience. It just needs a few tweaks around the edges.

Anyway, from where I sit now it looks like the weather may hold up and we'll get a ballgame in today. If so, it'll be a big start for Johan after last Sunday's debacle. Let's hope for a bounce back.

Ra, Ra, Ba-Ra-Jas!

- A.F.O.M.G.