David Wright Number Retirement
It seemed a little too perfect that my favorite player’s number was getting retired ON MY BIRTHDAY. As soon as I heard the rumors and tickets went on sale I snagged a pair for my brother and I. Best case, we’d be there for the retirement, worst case we’d have (pretty expensive) tickets to a game for my birthday.
We left to get there when the parking lots opened, but should have left a bit earlier I guess as the last couple miles were full of traffic. I ended up getting off a different exit and trusting the GPS which landed us in the parking lot across the street from Citi Field – with an entrance line already reaching the sidewalk and turning around. We went to find an ADA entrance and magically it had nearly NO line and we got in pretty quickly and made our way to a store so I could spend all my money on whatever they had. I was bummed that almost nothing had my birthday on it (I guess just in case the game got pushed) but did managed to get the last 2 commemorative tickets in that store. It looks like I missed out on stickers (I didn’t see any in the store we went to) that would have been nice for my scrapbook, but maybe they’ll show up online and not 10x the price.
We managed to get to our seats before the 3:15pm suggested time for the ceremony and watched slowly everyone take their seats, I took photos so we could try and figure out who it was down on the field. The ceremony was emotional, as expected, and as they took the tarp off the retired 5 in the stands, it started to rain. Only fitting that the sky was crying too.
Unfortunately the Mets couldn’t manage a win (and I do put some of the blame on the crap ump behind home plate) but Baty hit a birthday home run for me which raised the apple with the retired 5 on its front.
We also got stuck in stupid traffic on the way out of the stadium making it a nearly 11 hour adventure, but there was no way I was going to miss that game again – and hey I don’t need to go to a sold out Citi Field game again now… unless it’s for the Bananas.