Mets Game at Shea Stadium

I made it through the training today, thankfully on less sleep than I would have liked, and was excited about the evening activity planned for those of us that attended.

After deciding that it was worth it to test the weather, and give it the chance to not rain out the game, we all boarded a bus and headed into wherever Shea Stadium was for the Mets vs Phillies 710pm baseball game. I'm not the biggest fan of baseball, I guess I'm really more indifferent, but Shea is being town down after the new one is finished being built, so this was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity for me.




I was so glad that I ended up going, as I had a great time hanging out and chatting it up with my new New Yorker pals. Chris, Anthony and Danny from ASI, Adam, Rob, and James from Synnex, and all the others made it such a great night. Not to mention the fact that we were all given Mets Bucks to do with what we pleased. These were perfect tender for the beers and hot dogs, but we had a few leftover to get a few hats too. Even though my first hat ever was a Yankees 1961 Roger Marris hat, my new Mets one will add very nicely to my ever growing collection.




James and I ended up meeting a guy that had a lot to work for tonight. Let me tell you a little story about a man named Ronnie. Everytime that James would be at the beer counter right outside our seating area, I'd inevitbly show up at the same time, and we'd order 2 beers. We took great care of Ronnie, even though he said that he wasn't supposed to accept tips....we nice folks from the South just can't help it. So, we saw him quite a few times, to where he knew what we'd want when we rolled up, and smiled at us each and every time.

Well, after James, Cati and I had spent the last few Mets Bucks on a some tee shirts (double score!!!), all the stands were closed, but we were looking for one last beer. We saw Ronnie, and pleaded with him, but he wasn't able to sell us anything else. BUT, there was one last one sitting there in the back, and he happily rewarded us with it to take it back to our seats. Not 3 minutes later....guess who shows up.....at our seats....with a grocery bag full of beer. Yup, it was Ronnie. He wanted to come spend the last few minutes with his favorite customers of the night.

As soon as he sat down, and we all cheered his joining us, he whips out his flip phone, and shows us a picture of a brand new little baby. I smiled and said "Oh, Ronnie. She's a beauty. Is that your granddaughter?". His reply shocked the hell out of James and me. "No, that's my brand new baby girl!".

Um....what???

Turns out that Ronnie.....who is 60 years old.....just had his 4th child. He has kids that are 40, 23, 17 and now, a 7 week old child. The baby mamma is 32 years old. Whoa!!! We had a great time laughing with Ronnie.....and were happy to contribute to (what we thought would have been a life long career for him, but instead turned out to be day 2 of his new job) his now much needed income, for the evening. He was working with the fry cooks on day 1, and slinging beers on day 2.

Aw....good ole Ronnie.



The bus ride home was fun....I'm surprised I stayed awake with it being so dark in there, and this was also after the rain storms started. But, there were several of us staying at the same hotel, so we decided to head to the hotel bar after we got back, and shut it down for the night, while still enjoying everyone's company.


Tomorrow is going to be a tough one to get up for......night night!