Okay, so the Mets won 10 in a row, in an extraordinary game. They went into first. Now they’ve lost two in a row, catching their breath, already causing some anxiety in a deliriously happy but understandably insecure fan base. You know all this. You watched or heard these games. I haven’t. I have not been in the right time zone.
You see this picture. It’s me, yesterday. That’s not Shea stadium behind me. It’s the bullfighting arena in Pamplona, Spain. And the bearded guy on the left is arguably the greatest writer about sports in history, Ernest Hemingway.
What can I say? I planned this trip long ago. Even bloggers have lives. I’m having a great time, by the way. I am trying to keep up with what’s happening to the Mets. That’s always been a fun thing to do when you travel. It used to be that all you had was Armed Forces radio and the International Herald Tribune. I still think of a square in Venice where I read that the Mets acquired Keith Hernandez as Keith Hernandez Square. I remember my anguish at the age of 14 when I was travelling with my family and we kept losing reception of the Armed Forces Station (because of Alps or something) and they were announcing that the Mets had finally moved into first place. There used to be something very cool about how little you could know about what was happening back home, how much you had to infer from each precious box score. Well, it’s different now. All you do is log onto the Internet. You can even read all the articles and blogs. This is wonderful, but there was something wonderful about the old days too.
Anyway, I will be back in the States on August 4, but I hope to do some blogging even while I’m away. So, I’m not shutting down. But regular readers of this blog should please understand that how much I blog will depend on Internet connections in Spanish paradors and French, Dutch, and Irish budget hotels. It may also depend on the quality of local wine and the mood of a diehard Mets fan who is, well, on vacation.
Hi Dana,
Hope you are enjoying Spain. In case you hadn’t heard, the Mets pulled out a win in the 10th inning. Wagner actually had a 1,2,3 inning. So now we await Philly, tied with them for first with the Marlins right behind. I will be happy if the Mets take two out of three. I just hope the pitching improves, because no one was good against Cincinnati, they just got lucky in the two games they won.
Maybe you can scout some prospects. If Latin America can produce baseball players, it should be no problem for Spain. LOL!
Thanks, Vicki. I am genuinely sorry to miss this Philly series. As for Spain, there’s no sign anywhere that baseball even exists.
BASEBALL is there in PAMPLONA!!! ACtually in a town outside pf Pamplona. In 1988 I was fortunate to go to Spain and do baseball camps for 6 weeks-4 1/2 in Pamplona(got to see the bulls run) and in Zaragosa. Granted it is not a big sport/event there, but it is there! And the players are quite passionate!
Luis, that is cool. And I’ll bet the players are passionate. Like American soccer players. There’s something about playing a sport that is really big somewhere else, even if it is not that big where you are. Pamplona is a terrific place. I did miss the running of the bulls, but I sort of did that on purpose.
WOW.
Must confess, don’t much like Hemingway– and yes, I’m (was) an English major, and I read plenty of him. Bullfighting? Disgusting. But if I could be where you are, even thought it’s probably hot as hell- well, how much worse could it be than Brooklyn in July?
Dana, my stay-cation is consisting of visits to the Met Museum. Where else in Spain are you going? Barcelona? Madrid?
Dana, remember that in Venice, the Keith Hernandez Square would have to be the Piazzetta Keith Hernandez, because there’s only one Piazza, San Marco. Thought I think if anyone should have a full-fledged Piazza, it should be Keith. Buon viaggio!
I’m not a bullfighting fan, though I would be curious to see one. I am a fan of Hemingway’s powerful, direct prose style, his way of representing the physical world and suggesting the mental world, his way of showing how people create their own meanings and find their own pleasures. Hemingway was a very bizarre person, but I love his writing. Right now, my wife and I are in Leon. We’ve been in San Sebastian, Burgeuete, and Pamplona, the main Spanish settings of The Sun Also Rises, and we’ve crossed the Castilian plain and are now in Leon, on our way to Santiago de Campostella, from which we’ll fly to Madrid, then to Paris to pick up our daughter, who’s been in a three-week program there and then on to Amsterdam, and Dublin. Then I’ll be home for what I have a suspicion will be a monumental pennant race between the two largest National League cities in the Northeast.
That’s right Theresa, there’s only one Piazza!
Hope you’re having a great time Dana. We’ll take care of the Mets for you while you’re gone. I’m taking a vacation in florida next week when the Mets are in town. Guess I should go to a game!
I was in Pamplona for the running of the bulls 31 years ago, hard to believe. Still have my wineskin that was filled much Tinto over the several days I was there. The red bandana fell apart years ago. Hope you’re having a great time.
Dana, you are not sory to be missing this Phillies series…a 5-2 lead going into the 9th is (currently) an 8-5 Philly lead…yes, 6 runs in the top of the 9th…Wagner not available, and instead of trying for a complete game from Santana (105 pitches, and largely cruising), Manuel brought in Sanchez…and Smith, and Feliciano, and now somebody else.
Dreadful.
No comebacks. Horrendous. Simply horrendous.
The crowd booed, and somehow, I’m not offended at this one. Just awful.
I booed and I am in TEXAS!! WHY DID HE TAKE OUT JOHANN!!!!
http://www.fenabs.com/
Pamplona baseball link
I woke up this morning thinking it was just a horrible dream. But alas, no.
Sounds like a glorious trip, Dana– Santiago de Compostela- wow! Enjoy it– if we were on the trip, it might be easier to forget last night. Errrch! Hope this is all in the rear view mirror when you get back.
There is so much potential in this team that it drive me crazy that we’re not up the way we were in 86…it seems like it may be coming together (I’m forever skeptical while hopeful). The league (leagues, actually) are so NFL-like parityesque now, that I have to like our chances while acknowledging that we could be out of it by mid August.
Weird, just weird.
By the way, my son and I are planning to reprise one of our father/son trips to NYC to include pilgrimage to Shea in September.
Not sure which weekend, but we both feel a primal urge to pay tribute to the beast…if anybody is going to the game we are (TBD), we’d would love to have an overpriced beer with whovever would be there.
You guys are making me glad I’m away. I don’t think I could have stood that 6-run ninth inning. But of course, even if the Mets don’t win this year, I don’t think they’ll ever be out of it. And there’s no reason they couldn’t go all the way. Still, here’s a prediction: whatever happens, there will be plenty of scary and awful moments. We’re in Madrid now, great place. It was interesting to see all the pilgrims arriving in Santiago de Campostella. I wonder, Chris and the rest, whether there will be some sense of a lot of last pilgrimages to Shea on the part of both out-of-town and in-town fans. The Mets should do something to welcome the pilgrims. You should be able to touch the home run apple or get some kind of commemorative something.
And so then I check the score this morning and we win a beauty, and Delgado is back in the cleanup spot and we’re tied for first. It’s going to be like this, I think, all the rest of the way. We should enjoy it. Remember where we were a month ago. Luis, I checked out the site, and although I can’t read it, it’s clear that there is some serious and involved baseball going on in Spain which is a great thing. I wonder if Europeans other than the Dutch will soon start contributing ballplayers to the major leagues.
Oh, it was great, Dana. I don’t think we made Bret Myers suffer enough, but it was good. A nice 3-run HR from Jose, Jose Jose Jose, a gutty 7 innings from John Maine, and an emphatic door-slam from Billy Wagner.
A funny thing, in the post-game press conference, Jerry Manuel called Shane Victorino “that little rascal.” I fell down laughing. That was such a benign way of putting what Mats fans have been saying a bit more– well, obscenely.
Dana, things were less than beautiful with the Fish in Florida, but all in all, I think you’ll be coming home to a different team. The Mets in July went 18-8. Carlos Delgado batted .357. Ollie Perez had a 1.38 ERA. And they are in a real, live pennant race.
Yes, the Mets are making me anxious to get home, even though I’m having a wonderful vacation with my family (musical pub crawl of Dublin tonight). Still, I miss being around as all this is happening.