New York Mets Spring Training brings out the kid in me
By Joe Noa
EWB’s Joe Noa attended the opening of New York Mets Spring Training in Port St. Lucie, FL, on Wednesday. Here’s a look at his fun day with the Amazins.
Wednesday was the first official day for pitchers and catchers. I decided to make a two-and-a-half-hour drive from the west coast of Florida to Clover Stadium in Port St. Lucie to see the 2020 edition of the New York Mets. As each year goes by and the hopes of every team begin, the little kid in me comes out. I am back in New York playing catch with my buddies in the streets of Manhattan taking batting and fielding practice at the Junior High School next to the building I lived in, at the Wagner Houses.
It was 6:30 in the morning when I picked up my friend and off we went to the other side of the peninsula. He is a die-hard Yankee fan. I try not to hold that against him, even though I made many offers of holding an intervention to get his life together and leave the dark side of the Bronx for real good guys baseball of Queens. I am still working on him.
He made the trip easy as we shared baseball stories from our time living in New York City. While we may not care for the other New York team, we seem to have mutual respect for what both teams have done during the winter to improve their respective ballclubs for this 2020 season. One thing we agreed on is New York City baseball will be huge this summer and imagine a real possibility that it may be another Subway Series come October.
We arrived at Clover Stadium and I was instructed by the usher at the entrance that things have changed, and now I had to drive around to the other entrance, where I parked. Seeing the Orange and Blue colors and the stadium just made me feel I was home away from home, the closest thing to Citi Field and even closer to the days of Shea Stadium.
My friend tells me the orange and blue colors started with the University of Florida Gators. To which my response is those colors were borrowed by the Gators until the Mets came into existence. We just reclaimed the colors God intended for the Mets in the first place.