YO BRO IT’S ME LITTY

I was lucky enough to be invited by my friend Roy to the Yankee/Mets subway series finale at Citifield on Sunday night. While it certainly isn’t the same to enter the stadium as a paying customer (actually I didn’t even pay but I did have a ticket) it was well worth it. We had great seats – first row about half way between first base and the foul pole. I looked one section over and saw the Mad Dog himself (btw, I forgot to mention that Kosh and I saw Francesa as we were leaving the stadium last game) sitting a section down the line and smirked to myself because I had better seats than that blowhard.

About the only guy who had a better view in the whole ballpark was Chad the Ball Boy who was a few feet in front of us. Naturally, Chad and Roy are the closest of friends. It seems as though Chad is well on his way to a satisfying life as a Nihilist as he sat emotionless in his seat throughout the game. His job consists of warming Sheff up between innings and grabbing a relief pitcher’s jacket from the bullpen. To do this, Chad remains extraordinarily hydrated by drinking three or four Gatorades and a few bottles of water during the game. (Taking piss tests for the team perhaps?) He also put down a pack of sunflower seeds, skittles and huge wads of Big League Chew. All that being said, I’m convinced Chad can do a better job at first base than Daniel Murphy who looks completely lost in the big leagues.

The game was a typical drawn out affair but somehow remained close despite the Yanks being right on top of Livan Hernandez’s Cuban junk. Robbie Canoe roped four straight line drive grounders to Castillo that turned into two double plays and six outs and kept the Mets in the game. Interestingly, Canoe wasn’t that far off from tying Joe Torre record of 4 double plays in one game (had to look that one up).

The Yanks brought Rivera in to try and collect his 500th career save with one of his patented four out performance. He easily got out of the jam in the 8th and the Mets countered with K-Rod who had trouble finding the plate and somehow found himself facing Mariano Rivera with the bases loaded and two outs. Rivera has just two career at bats with his second one coming just last week. I happened to be watching the game as Melky outfitted Rivera with batting gloves, helmet, bats and instructions on the signs. Sabathia and Pettite watched with amusement in the dugout as Rivera lined out to center. Mariano is just as graceful at the plate as he is on the mound and can eve make hitting look simple. My guess is that if he was a centerfielder he would swipe 30 bases per year.

I’ll let my mobile video below tell the rest of the story. (If you reading this in an email click here.)

On another note — I find myself whipping out my Blackberry 8900 quite often to record the highlights of my life. I have about ten :30 second clips in the last few months. I find the long term implications of this really interesting. Unwittingly, I’m creating my lifetime highlight reel. If this continues I can only imagine the narrative these video clips will be able to tell over the course of a few years, decades, etc. Perhaps the greatest benefit of facebook will be as the ultimate digital scrapbook/biography of one’s life. It warms my heart to know that my great grandkids will know that ole Littyhoops had deep compassion for Johnny the Chicken before he was slaughtered.

Anyway, LET’S GO MO and congrats to Mariano on his 500th save. I remember back to when he was a struggling rookie as a starter before he had a breakout playoff series in ’95 that set him up for his masterful ’96 season as Wetland’s dominant setup guy.