Jun
6
2012

Funny Story From The Game Monday…

An article by Clayton Collier

Thought I would share with you all a funny tidbit from Monday’s series finale against the Cardinals that I was in attendance for.

So me and four of my friends piled into a car and headed out to Citi Field on a rainy Monday morning. We had been trying to plan a day to all go together for awhile now, but fresh off of graduation from our high school, we finally found a day to go.

Since it was still raining, batting practice did not occur on the field so we had some time to walk around the ballpark. When we got to the shop with all the game used items, we thought it’d be a good idea to poke around.

One of my friends, an avid Jordany Valdespin fan, conveniently found a game used jersey of the Mets prospect. Using a chunk of his graduation present money, he bought the cream-colored, pinstriped jersey on the spot for $200 bucks and wore it proudly for the game.

After finding our way to our seats above the Mo Zone, the five of us enjoyed the game and after seeing the Mets tie it up twice, we were on our feet with rally caps on for the bottom of the ninth.

Sure enough, Duda flys out and Murphy goes down swinging, and who but Valdespin comes on up to the plate. We all look at each other, acknowledging the irony of this occurrence and waited for something amazing to happen.

Instead, in Casey At The Bat-like fashion, ‘Spin goes down swinging on three pitches to end the ballgame, failing to live up to our expectations of him in that moment. There was no joy in Mudville as my Valdespin jersey-wearing friend made a beeline for the Amazin’ memorabilia shop and proceeded to go to return the game used jersey and get himself a Gary Carter jersey in it’s place. An emotionally driven, yet smart and hilarious move.

After last night’s awful loss highlighted by Valdespin’s two pitiful errors, it was for the best that he purged that jersey ASAP. If I learned one thing from all that, it was that one should make his purchases at the ballpark AFTER the ballgame, not before.

Hope You Enjoyed!

About the Author: Clayton Collier

Clayton, a Long Island native and die-hard Mets fan, started writing online about three years ago. He is currently a Journalism major with a minor in Broadcasting at Seton Hall University. Although very disappointed with the current state of the team, Clayton remains hopeful that the young prospects in the farm system will bring the Mets back to a respected franchise in baseball once again. Besides writing for MMO, Clayton is also a staff member at 89.5 WSOU, Seton Hall's modern active rock radio station. You can contact Clayton by following him on Twitter: @Clayton_Collier or E-mailing him at MaybeNextYearMets@yahoo.com

11 Comments + Add Comment

Joe D June 6, 2012 at 9:00 am

A funny thing happened on the way to the rotunda, would have been a better title.
- Clayton Collier June 6, 2012 at 9:20 am
  
  Joe you know titles for articles aren’t my forté
- Ceetar June 6, 2012 at 9:31 am
  
  didn’t you read? He just graduated! (Congrats btw) He gets to let his brain be mush for 3 months now.
  
  Fun story about the ups and downs of fandom. I imagine you’re friends emotions were allover the place last night too.
  - Joe D June 6, 2012 at 9:42 am
    
    Ceetar, you might enjoy this, and Clayton will confirm it. But as a present for Clayton’s graduation, I offered him a pair of tickets to the game last Friday. Yes, that game. Great seats just behind the third base. He respectfully declined so I gave them to my cousin whose birthday was actually the very next day anyway. At about 2 AM, Clayton starts texting me like a mad man after coming home from a night of partying with his friends bemoaning what he had sacrificed that night. Clayton will never forget that no-hitter. lol
    - Ceetar June 6, 2012 at 9:43 am
      
      Awesome.
      
      I’m still waiting for someone to confess and admit they left the game early. I’m sure there were some.
      - Clayton Collier June 6, 2012 at 9:54 am
        
        I can confirm all of that except for the fact that I was at my graduation mass on the night of the no-hitter since the next morning was graduation, the nights of partying came the week before for after prom and then continued after graduation Lol.
        
        Needless to say, I heard Howie Rose call the final out on the way home and started screaming, then within 20 seconds the screams of joy became screams of agony when I came to the realization of the fact that I did not accept Joe’s tickets for Santana’s no-hitter. Then I decided to keep texting Joe about my misfortunes and dilemmas long after he stopped responding.
        
        I better get into heaven for that one. Lol.
nycsoftwareman June 6, 2012 at 9:11 am

If there is one thing I learned about being a baseball fan. I always purchase player memorabilia after the game. Even then I have been burned many times. Since my enthusiasm for a player got the better of me. As the saying goes.You root for the laundry,
not the individual player. The last time I made an in game purchase of a player jersey
was a Gregg Jefferies jersey.
- Joe D June 6, 2012 at 9:37 am
  
  You reminded me of something I bought back at Shea during the game in the 1986 season. I have always been an avid Mets collector and that day I saw that they had these minor league team sets for sale for only $2.00 of the Columbia Mets which was their Single-A affiliate back then. I tossed them in unopened into a storage box with a bunch of other Mets team sets I had purchased over the years and forgot about it.
  
  Then in 1988 the Gregg Jefferies craze hit the baseball card market and his rookie cards were fetching anywhere between $50 to $150 after his 1988 September callup.
  
  I remembered I had purchased that team set and sure enough there was a Gregg Jefferies card mixed in the pack, which I immediately took to a baseball card shop to have appraised. The dealer offered me $200 worth of cards in trade for it and I took it.
  
  I walked out of there with two pristine condition Cal Ripken Rookie Cards, a gem mint 1969 Topps Tom Seaver card, and a stack of ten 1985 Mark McGwire Topps USA Olympic cards. A nice haul to be sure. I ended up selling the McGwire lot of ten mint cards on eBay for $775 about 14 years later. The Ripken cards I had graded by PSA and sold one for $300, and kept the other. And I still have the Tom Seaver card which is one of my favorite cards in my collection. Thank you Gregg Jefferies.
sarge69 June 6, 2012 at 11:51 am

Awesome Joe, I p/u a McGwire card at a show a while back, 90′s, then sold it the year he and Sosa were tearing up the baseball for $100 then when the PED scandal hit I was glad I had sold it when I did.
James June 6, 2012 at 12:42 pm

The awkward moment when that’s you.
srt June 6, 2012 at 12:52 pm

I’m surprised they let him exchange the Jersey.

So you turned down tickets offered from Joe on what turned out to be the Mets first no hitter? Oh boy…..

Congrats on your graduation, Clayton.

NL East Standings

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB
Braves	42	30	.583	-
Phillies	35	37	.486	7.0
Nationals	34	36	.486	7.0
Mets	27	40	.403	12.5
Marlins	22	48	.314	19.0

Last updated: 06/19/2013

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