Opening Day at Shea: great time. Yesterday way about the exact opposite of last year's horrible opener.
Boy was it depressing to walk into the stadium, look up at the scoreboard, and see that Shane Spencer and Todd Zeile are your 3&4 hitters for the home opener. But the Mets crappy lineup quickly destroyed Hampton. It sure felt good to beat up Hampton, and boo him out of the ballpark.
Sadly, however, it felt like the fans focusing all their energy on Hampton was a recognition that our team doesn't have much of a chance this year. Despite being the home opener and the 7th game of the season, we all seemed to feel that the season is over, but we at least had a big day against the evil Hampton who sold out and left for Colorado "for the school system" (wink wink).
Also, for the second straight year, there are some nice improvements to Shea. The scoreboards are much, much better, and the "NY" in the CF grass is really cool. Sure, Shea's not a great stadium, but if the weather's nice, I still have a great time at the ballpark, and the couple of little changes help. When it comes down to the idea of a new stadium, I'm just not convinced that after the first few visits, it's really going to make much of a change in how much I enjoy a Mets game. What would make a huge difference in my enjoyment is a winning team. I wish Wilpon would focus more energy on putting together a winning team and less on building new ballparks in Queens, Brooklyn, and Port St. Lucie.

660
Rob Neyer has a column up saying that there's too much hubbub about Bonds, that it shouldn't be a big deal that he's just reaching third on the homerun list. I think he's way off base. Whether it's right or not, homeruns are the biggest stat to most baseball fans. We all grew up with certain magical numbers in our minds. Roger Maris 61. Babe Ruth 60. Hank Aaron 755. Babe Ruth 714. Willie Mays 660. When I was a kid, I didn't know that Frank Robinson was fourth on the list, let alone how many he hit. It was simple: 3 guys had hit a lot more homers than anyone else. There were huge gaps between them, and an even bigger one to the fourth guy. The numbers seemed permanent, almost mythical. 755. 714. 660. Arguably, Bonds already broke into the class around 600 or 650 or somewhere in between, but it became clearest when he tied Mays. It's significant because he is the fourth man to join this long-standing elite group, and also because it's the first signpost on the way to 755. 660 is a big deal. 714 will be a much bigger deal. And 755 (if it happens) will be an even bigger deal.