Perfect Pitch

Author: Susan Laney Spector

  • GAME 19

    GAME 19

    GAME 19 – May 2, 2024

    Pat La Freida’s
    Chanpion Burger
    Thai iced tea
    with bubbles!
    When your big moment comes in the last movement of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony and involves raising a giant hammer over your head with two hands and forcefully slamming it on a resonant wooden box at several climactic moments, you nervously check
    that your mallet is there at intermission.

    Numerous times.

    Warm, gorgeous weather—afternoon game.
    Shopping City Connect merch and
    trying lobster-topped burger
    and bubble tea. Mets lead
    through six, we depart.
    To Carnegie
    we go for
    Mahler
    VI.

  • GAME 18

    GAME 18

    GAME 18 – May 1, 2024

    The game is either tied, or it’s over.

    Shut out through eight and tantalized by
    two on, almost-walk off in ninth.
    Decree from Chelsea resounds,
    “No block at plate.” Cameras
    provide no succor.
    Stunned, silenced park.
    It’s over.
    Pete is
    out.

  • GAME 17

    GAME 17

    GAME 17 – April 30, 2024

    Bluster and chill returned to the park 
    amid feverish demand for
    Seymour Weiner and dollar
    hot dogs. Teams tied at 1
    for many innings. 
    Seeking warmth, we
    left after 
    Stewart’s
    bomb.

  • GAME 16

    GAME 16

    GAME 16 – April 29, 2024

    The ballpark had thawed—a flawless night. 
    Innings passed expeditiously. 
    Severino near perfect.
    In eighth, no-no nixed by
    former Brave Swanson.
    Downward spiral
    saw Diaz
    earn the
    loss.
  • GAME 15

    GAME 15

    A walk off from seven rows off the field!

    GAME 15 – April 28, 2024

    A Mets starter going eight innings?
    Quintana’s efforts saved the pen.
    Lindor homered in the sixth,
    but after that:  crickets. 
    But the eleventh?
    A timely hit
    plus homer:
    Walk off
    win!

  • GAME 14

    GAME 14

    The day’s promotional giveaway: a Harry Potter scarf.

    GAME 14 – April 27, 2024

    Hogwarts Houses could not magic bring
    to Mets defense. Sorcery of
    Cards’ bats cast spell on starter. 
    Houser’s witchcraft earned six.
    Wizardry of Pete
    conjured home run
    two hundred. 
    Milestone
    reached.
  • GAME 13

    GAME 13

    Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley in the ninth.

    GAME 13 – April 26, 2024

    Leaving San Francisco with their hearts
    .500 record on the road
    Balmy Midwest temperatures
    St Louis did not bring. 
    J. D. Martinez
    debuted, hit two. 
    Helsley’s heat
    shut the
    door.

  • GAME 12

    GAME 12

    GAME 12 – April 17, 2024
    “State of the Art” is how Jack Fisher
    described brand new Shea Stadium. 
    First to take its mound sixty
    years ago today, he
    and second-baseman
    that day, Ron Hunt,
    returned and
    took the
    field.
  • GAME 11

    GAME 11

    GAME 11 – April 16, 2024
    Among the first to play at Shea, they
    talked of Casey Stengel, losing
    seasons, getting plunked, and the
    first All-Star Game in Queens. 
    Recollections from
    sixty years past,
    but vivid
    in their
    minds.
  • GAME 10

    GAME 10

    Carlos Mendoza, Butch Husky, and Mookie Wilson present flowers to Rachel Robinson prior to the game—seventy-seven years to the day her husband, Jackie Robinson, broke baseball’s color barrier.

    GAME 10 – April 15, 2024

    Rampant stealing surprised Mets fans and
    Pirates alike.  An homage to
    Jackie on his day?  Color
    barrier broken so
    many years ago.
    One hundred one,
    Rachel is 
    still with
    us!