Now that all the travel stuff is out of the way we can finally talk about the fun part of the trip. This morning we spent some time at the South Seaport which is on the East River side of lower Manhattan. I walked on my own up to Wall Street (I ran into a wrestling coach from Fowler, Indiana) and then Ground Zero. I was able to get the New York pizza I didn't get last night.
We returned to the bus about noon and with a "walk-on guide" headed over to Battery Park. He was great at pointing at several sights and historical markers on the short trip. The line to the ferry took about an hour. We had about an hour at the Statue of Liberty and 90 minutes at Ellis Island. Both were quick but we had enough time to see the highlights. My dad was able to hook up with us at Ellis Island!
We headed to Shea Stadium and got there about an hour before the game. The stadium is in the same complex as the Tennis Center so we saw Arthur Ashe Stadium. It is definitely not a nice area of Queens. Our seats were about 4 rows from the top of the upper deck but behind home plate. They weren't that bad and we had plenty of room to spread out. This is one of the worst stadiums on the league and it's earned it's reputation. You can see the new Citi Field being built just beyond center field. We spent a few innings in the top row to get the cross breeze and also get a view of Manhattan. Dinner was a Nathan's hot dog, famous for the hot dog eating contest. I stuck with 1 rather try to do 60+ in 12 minutes!
The starting pitcher for Washington was making his major league debut and had a great start. He was leading 3-0 on a one hitter into the 6th inning. He struck out the first 2 batters of the 6th before giving up a single, double and home run in about 6 pitches to tie the game. The Nationals added a 3-spot in the top of the 8th and our group headed to the bus. We need to be on the bus by 6:00 am tomorrow so we needed to get the driver back to get his rest. The Mets did rally in the bottom of the 8th but only got 2 runs. The game ended 6-5.
Prior to the game they were doing an exhibition with some slow-pitch softball players hitting. Those guys were crushing the ball out of the park. The normal fences in softball are 275 feet and they were hitting it over the 371 feet sign in left center. We also saw a fight between a Yankee fan and a Mets fan. The Mets fan kicked the Yankee fan in the nose and a shouting match ensued. Eventually security came and took the Mets fan away and the Yankee fan dealt with his bloody nose.
We're on the bus to Cooperstown at 6:00am tomorrow and should get there by noon. We'll stop to grab a bite to eat and traffic will be high. They are expecting a record crowd of about 70,000. Should be fun!! Until tomorrow....
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