Behind Enemy Lines

It was a wild night for the Glass Man yesterday as I made my first trip to the cauldron of evil, i.e., the New Yankee Stadium.

Now I had my reservations about going, of course, but as a baseball fan it was important for me to see what hte New Stadium was all about.

Honestly, it was a night like few others for me, but that really had nothing to do with the Stadium itself, which in fact I saw very little of.

My group was seated in our firm's corporate suite, which affords very little in the way of an authentic fan experience. It does, however, provide an opportunity to meet former players and presidents.

There we were enjoying our "East Meets West" menu and drinking our beer when all of a sudden who should saunter in but David Cone.

I'm old enough to remember David Cone as a Met, but my primary memories of him are as a Yankee. He was in there to glad hand... I was in there to grill him. Here's the dirt I gathered:

• He has a "soft spot" for the Mets... I'll take it. 
• Having thrown a perfect game himself, he feels sorry for Armando Galarraga, but if it means anything to him, Galarraga became more famous via his non-perfect game than he would have if the ump had made the right call
• Speaking of the ump, Cone felt really bad for him. Apparently that umpire's a really good guy and a pro

Anyway, Coney was there for about 15 minutes shaking hands, talking, signing autographs. Those of us not hoping to see A-Rod's 600th home run were sure it would be the highlight of the night.

It wasn't anything close.

Seated two boxes down from us with a silver-haired man who recently became a father-in-law... one William Jefferson Clinton, Wild Bill himself.

The best part of the game, honestly, may have been when a foul ball came into his vicinity, hitting the wall below his box. He didn't make much of an effort to catch the ball, leading to cat calls from our box ("you gotta lay out for that, Bill!") and, ultimately, an amused look and shrug in our direction.

Long story short, it turned out someone in our group kind of knew Bill Clinton because he had gone to her father's restaurant on occasion. Remarkably (creepily?), he remembered her as well, and after the game she was invited to Bill's box to say hello. She did so, and then afterward she orchestrated a picture for four of us with Clinton before he left. It was pretty awesome.

The Stadium itself? Not so mind blowing. I'd heard this a million times before, but more than anything it just reminds you of the old Yankee Stadium.

Of course, that's the point, but whereas when you go to Citi Field you're getting a completely new and interesting experience, going to New Yankee Stadium is like going somewhere familiar with really fresh coats of paint and a new interior design.

It's nice and all, but it's kind of the same thing, except you no longer have the one legitimately cool element of the old Stadium, which was looking around and seeing the positions that Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle once patrolled.

* * * * *

As for the Metsies... well, they sure needed that one last night, didn't they? Great to see Jeff Francoeur get the game-winner, and to see the team completely mob him when he got back to the dugout (try telling me Carlos Beltran would have gotten the same kind of reception if he'd hit the game winner).

Don't get me wrong, I'm very much in the camp of people who believe this season is over (I'm also in the camp of people who think this season is a success if we end up at or above .500 -- 2005 redux, baby).

But if the Mets are going to make a run, they desperately need to win today and take this series. We have Mike Pelfrey going in the rubber game, which once would have been awesome, but now is just kind of sad.

Maybe he can capture that old first half magic. Let's hope so.

- A.F.O.M.G.