San Francisco Giants @ New York Mets (1)

My first game of six in New York to finish my holiday was the opener of a three-game series between my San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets. I made my way down to 42 St and then onto a 7 out to Citi Field. The subways didn't appear to be filled with fans going to the game though, which I thought was odd. The train did get very full once into Queens though, and since the driver noted to the people trying to cram on that there was an empty train waiting just behind - and you could see it waiting just outside the station - I decided to get off and wait about a minute for the next one, which I got a seat on.

The stadium is as I remember it, pretty when lit up by the setting sun. You can also see that LaGuardia air traffic is taking off to the South this evening, so we'll be getting a good view of the aeroplanes.

This was the one series that I didn't have any tickets for, except for a rain check from 18th September last year which had to be exchanged for a game "within 1 year" of the original game, which by my calculation meant I had to use it tonight! This caused momentary confusion at the ticket window, as the ticket vendor couldn't understand why I was trying to exchange a ticket with tomorrow's date on it as a rain check, until I pointed out that it was a 2012 ticket and not a 2013 ticket! Once he understood that, there was no problem and I was able to have exactly the same seat as it should have been last year. I also went to the advance ticket window to get tickets for Wednesday and Thursday, which means that I now have bought all the tickets for this year's trip, finally!

Unfortunately, neither team has anything left to play for this season and the crowd was decent, but not huge. There were quite a view Giants supporters, including what seemed to me to be a whole section over in left centre. The pictures here weren't taken when the crowd was at its largest - there were quite a few more people, but it certainly wasn't crowded in my section. Whilst most people started off in their assigned seats, as everybody went in for food and drink and came back, people ended up in different places to avoid having to squeeze past other people.

In this game, the second inning got off to a good start, with the Mets' pitcher Wheeler walking 4 batters, including our pitcher Petit. We scored 3 runs on 1 hit. The Mets battled back, but the Giants kept stretching the lead back again until it was 8-4 going into the bottom of the 9th inning. Sergio Romo came on to close it out and loaded the bases. Fortunately, the Mets only got one run before Romo could get the final out. This game went on for nearly 4 hours - it was quite chilly by the end. I stood and talked to the usher in my section for quite a while towards the end of the game, and even he was saying that he wanted to go home and no longer cared who won the game, just as long as somebody won it and it didn't go into extra innings! He took some photos of me as well.

After forgetting to take my gilet with me in Cleveland, I did remember to take it tonight and I was glad of it, but I shall be bringing my full coat to tomorrow night's game. The Northeast is currently in something of a cold snap this week, but it's going to return to high temperatures for the weekend. Fortunately, the weather looks set fair for Sunday, which is the day the Yankees are doing their big celebration of Mariano Rivera's career.