Pleasure and pain

Guess I've been feeling a bit of both lately. But let's recap yesterday, Friday Aug 28 the year 2009 AD.

I get up and head straight to the gym around 8:30. After a half hour on the elliptical (not much foot pain) and a makeshift shower, I head towards downtown. It was probably 9:45 and I wanted to get to Hot Doug's quickly. They open at 10:30 am, but I wanted to beat the line. Fortunately, there was no traffic on 90 east, a very pleasant surprise.

By the time I got to California and Roscoe, the line was 25 people long already. Talked to a guy and girl for about 20 minutes. She was from Philly and visiting. He basically ranted about the violence of Chicago and the bad neighborhoods that had to be avoided. So around 10:55, I get to the counter to order. Doug Sohn, the owner is taking orders, and he sees me with a black Mets jersey. He bit his lip and shook his head. Then he started talking about how he went to school in NY from 1984-86. And he starts mentioning players on both the Mets and Cubs, it was pretty impressive. But I peeked out the window and the line is about 50 people now. I wanted to order just to speed the line up. But I appreciate people who don't just go through the motions at their job and Doug is one of those guys.

I ordered the garlic-rosemary chicken sausage with garlic-rosemary mustard and cumin-gouda cheese. Grilled perfectly, very juicy. The roll was steamed very nicely. The chicken was very mild, but the garlic and rosemary in the mustard gave a certain bite to it. And with the cumin in the cheese, that was almost too hard a kick for me. I guess I'm not a big cumin guy. On a scale of 1-10, I'd give it a 7.

Then, I got the smoked pork and crayfish sausage with Cajun remoulade and I substituted smoked cheddar for smoked bleu cheese. This one looked like a hot link, since it was reddish-brown in color. Obviously, spicy pork and crayfish makes for a unique experience and it came together well. The cheese was ok on it, but didn't work too great. But the remoulade was the star. I wanted to ask for some shrimp to dunk into the remoulade. For the remoulade alone, I add two points. Score: 8

I guess I need to work out these cheeses. The fries were fresh and crispy as well. Plenty of pleasure there. As large as the portion is, I could not go for the duck fat fries or I may have passed out right there.

So then I added towards Wrigley Field, blasting Mets music. Found a great parking spot and Belle Plaine and Greenview and walked the one mile down Clark St. I went to Merkle's first, where a few Mets fans were meeting. We commiserated (or coMetserated), shared some laughs, the whole deal. What else can we Mets fans do at this point but share our misery?

I got to the park around 12:10. My seat was the tenth row of the 200's right behind home plate. The Mets were taking batting practice. Gary Sheffield hits and again does not play because his back aches. What a wuss. And the last Mets player to hit in the cage? Bobby Parnell? Are you kidding me? Today's starting pitcher is working on his swing? Hey Bobby, how about pitching 7 innings today. Can we focus on that?

So the lineups get announced, since the Cubs refuse to be fan friendly and put in a scoreboard. There were four Mets fans sitting three rows behind me. When we heard the names Pagan, Castillo, Murphy, Francoeur, Tatis, Santos, Sullivan, Valdez, and Misch, we just shook our heads and laughed. That kind of laughing where you just want to scream and cry at the same time. I also tried cheering for Milton Bradley out of sympathy.

I must say there were some stellar looking women right behind me. And they got a fifteen dollar pretzel to split. Two women eating that many carbs. Ridiculous pleasure. They let me have a taste and I dipped my piece into this cheddar cheese spread. Honestly, it was brutal. Why is it so hard for ballparks to make a decent pretzel. Keep it warm, and give it a little crispiness. Is it so hard? Talked with two other guys behind me. We exchanged trivia and chatted about the misery of this season and what we have to look forward to next year. That is to say, not a lot.

Also sitting behind me was Pat Misch's high school coach at Glenbrook North. And I have to say Misch, who I had no confidence, was outstanding. Seven innings, one run. I never expected that. I'm not sure what to expect from him the rest of the season, but he showed he was capable of pitching a good game.

And as bad as the Cubs fielding was, they gave the Mets so many chances to score. I think Bradley just dropped another pop up. But Misch was up twice with two on and two out and there wasn't much he could do against Ted Lilly. Angel Pagan's diving catch off Ramirez to save two runs was incredible. And I was pretty excited when the Mets scored in the eighth inning (of course on the same play Murphy gets thrown out at home). But after two pitches from Brian freaking Stokes, I knew it was trouble. He had no control. And before K-Rod could even start warming up, Ramirez singles home Bradley and that bastard Soriano hits a three-run homer. I bolted and got out of there before I had to deal with the relentless traffic. That was pain to the nth degree. (I think nth is a word, pronounced enth)

I think on the ride home, I flipped off every car that had a Cub logo on it. And I went straight to Claim Jumper, and guzzled down a Blue Moon, ate some sliders. Got home at 7 pm and stayed up until 1:30 am. High school football is under way.

Why am I going back to Wrigley for more of this crap today? I think I really just am intrigued by watching suffering and death. Get this season over with already and get healthy for 2010. And earth to Fred and Jeff, if you are not going to bring in some players, slash the ticket prices across the board or you will be looking at a sea of green surrounding the field at Citifield next year.

Mets who have spent time on the disabled list in 2009

Bold = season ending

Brian Schneider, Angel Pagan, Tim Redding, Carlos Delgado, Ryan Church, Jose Reyes, Alex Cora, Oliver Perez, Angel Pagan (2), Ramon "Little Leaguer" Martinez, J.J. Putz, Billy Wagner, John Maine, Fernando Martinez, Fernando Nieve, Alex Cora (2), Gary Sheffield, Jon Niese, David Wright, Johan Santana, Oliver Perez (2)

The Mets have $88 million on the DL. That number is higher than 17 teams' payrolls.

Sunday reflections

Finally, a hot weekend. And man, when we get some heat in Chicago, it's stickier than molasses. But when the weather does get warm, I'm not about to object it. We're not that far off from wind chill advisories.

1) Good hanging with CT today and Ecclesia at night. With that heat and wind, that was the craziest badminton game ever! And to think, I did one dive to reach for the shuttlecock (no giggling please), tumbled over, I look back at the racquet and it's basically bent in half.

2) The XXL Pennington Jets jerseys have arrived for Adam Pearce and Brent Albright. One month till they get what's coming to them...

3) I really can't stand cats. Spent three hours in Joe's house on Saturday, it took 24 hours for my eyes to stop watering, eliminate the redness, and start breathing through my nose.

4) Bien Trucha summary: The pescado tacos were phenomenal: beer battered tilapia, red cabbage, onion, tomato, lime, and chipotle-morita aioli. The pork torta was so-so (a little too much pineapple) and the steak tacos were really good. The watermelon guac was a little weird, but refreshing on a hot day. I still want to try the pineapple guac though. All in all, a very good place, you just have to know what to get. I am happy they are doubling size within six weeks though.

5) K-Rod blew a 2-run lead to San Diego, losing the game on a grand slam without even recording an out. And it barely fazed me. The Mets just invent ways to lose games. This is the most numbing, depressing season I can remember since maybe 2002, when all the overhyped and overpriced stiffs (Alomar, Cedeno, Vaughn, Burnitz, Weathers, Astacio, D'Amico, Estes, Strickland) brought the hopes of a pennant only to be finished by mid-May. But the Mets did acquire Jason Bay for Lou Collier in a great trade that year! Of course, two months later, they sent him to San Diego for Steve Reed and the immortal Jason Middlebrook. What a disaster.

6) Speaking of disasters, how will I get through this week at work with Joe B on vacation?

7) Speaking of Joe B, can the Jets start already? And of course, those damn Patriots trade for Derrick Burgess, an incredible pass rusher. Unreal.

8) Thanks to Ted for a great message tonight on discipleship. Nothing "accidental" about it. Unfortunately, the person who that second remark was intended for will likely never see this since I and people like me are apparently beneath him. It's a shame. I hope things will change. I can only pray.

9) Looks like any chance to go to Dragon Gate USA is out now. And I thought it was only going to be for work reasons.

10) My 10 year WA reunion is only six weeks away. Dang, that's double digits.

Song pick: "Last In Love" George Strait