Saturday afternoon, Alex Rodriguez hit a three-run homer in his first at-bat, to become the youngest player ever to hit 500 home runs. That night, Barry Bonds hit a solo homer in his first time at the plate, to tie Hank Aaron with for the all-time lead with 755. In between those two home runs, I went to a Mets game in Chicago, with Russ.

There was nothing particularly special about that game. It was my first time at Wrigley Field, and we had some pretty good seats (view here). John Maine breezed through the first two innings, before giving up 6 runs in the third. The Mets were only able to score 2 runs off of Ted Lilly, both on Moises Alou solo homers. It was a fun game, but disappointing.

Sunday, though, was a different story. I went to the game with Matt, who has season tickets. Tom Glavine was the starter for the Mets, making his second attempt at getting win #300. I had been planning this trip since the season schedule came out, but I realized when he was at 297 wins that I’d have a decent shot to see him go for 300. In his last try, last Tuesday, he left the game with a 2-1 lead, only to have Guillermo Mota blow it in the 8th (and the Mets lose in extra innings). Sunday, Glavine pitched great, giving up 2 runs in 6 1/3 innings, and also drove in the first run of the game with an RBI single. He’d finish 1-2 with a walk and a sac bunt. He left the game with a 5-1 lead, and saw it get to 5-3 before the 7th inning ended. It took three relievers (Mota, Feliciano, Heilman) to finally get out of the inning, but Glavine’s lead was intact. The Mets added 2 in the 8th, and 1 in the 9th, and Jorge Sosa and Billy Wagner both pitched a scoreless inning to close it out, for a final score of 8-3, and Glavine’s 300th win!

I decided at the start of the game that I’d keep score to have a nice souvenir if the game did end up being his 300th. Our seats were good, but I wouldn’t have been able to do much good photography from where they were anyway. The cable holding up the screen would have been in the way of a lot of it, and they weren’t terribly close (view from seats here). I haven’t kept score at a game since Game 5 of the 2003 ALDS in Oakland. I was a little rusty to start, but got back into it pretty well, and managed to keep at it the whole game. I need to do it more often. It’s a lot of fun, and keeps me really focused on the game. Click the image to see the scorecard bigger.

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I seem to be getting back to where I should be bowling. It’s about time, I’ve been in a bit of a slump for a while. Besides the 691 series the day after I got back from Reno, my scores haven’t been great. A few good games here and there, but very inconsistent and my series scores not where I want them to be.

Monday:

Last night:

I think more important than the scores this week, though, is the fact I feel like I actually know what I’m doing again. That might just be the beer.

It’s my birthday today. I’m now 28. Tonight, I’m going out to dinner with my parents… which really isn’t any different than any other night they’re here, but will be nice.

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Saturday night, after my visiting parents were exhausted and in bed, I was talking to a friend of mine. A friend of his was having a few people get together for her birthday, his car was in the shop, and the guy who was supposed to drive him flaked out on him. I wasn’t doing anything else, so I drove and went along. We went to a bar downtown, and then moved to a club. Not really something I normally do, but I had a surprisingly good time. If I didn’t have to drive home and get up fairly early, I probably would have had more to drink and stayed out really late. I ended up getting home at 1:30.

It was worth leaving early, because yesterday I went to the Mets/Dodgers game with my mother. We were out the door by 9:30 for a 1:10 game, because you never know when there will be terrible traffic somewhere in LA. We ended up getting to the stadium about an hour and a half before the game, which was fine. The game was a lot of fun, a ten inning 5-4 win for the Mets. I’ve now been to three Mets games this season, two of which went extra innings. The Mets scored a run in the 8th, 9th, and 10th, to win. The bottom of the 10th was very stressful that I took delta-9 gummies to help calm my nerves, even though no one was able to put a ball in play against Wagner. He walked two (one intentional) and threw a wild pitch, but struck out the side. My mother had never been to a stadium other than Shea, and hadn’t been to a game at all in at least 15 years, so I’m really glad she wanted to go. We had a great time.

The Braves lost in extras last night, so the Mets lead in the division is now 3.5 games. Still too close for comfort, but they seem to be playing better lately.

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Through the smoke from the Zaca fire.

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