So, What's the Plan?

So, this Friday is D-Day. Or M-Day. The day I decide whether my relationship with the New York Mets will continue.

If you've been following the soap opera here in past posts, the Mets have announced that they will offer partial ticket plans for Citi Field in 2009. Last week, the specific logistics of such purchases were made available. Indeed, past plan holders have been lumped together into one group that can go on-line and select their seats and plans ahead of the general public. This is a far cry from the day when I picked out my Shea Saturday plan seats. Being escorted up to the section in the dead of winter with snow blanketing the field. Nope, after 41 years of faithful invoice paying, I am packaged in with the general public.

The good news? There is a Saturday plan. But, not like the Saturday plan of the past. At Shea, I got the same seats for every Saturday game (always totalling 13) along with the chance to buy one or two games for each postseason series, September stretch drive choke permitting. The Citi Field Saturday plan is, however, a little different. Because Met management now considers some Mondays and Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Thursdays as Saturdays. You can get 10 Saturday games plus 5 other weeknight games. You know the ones I mean? The games that usually go un-sold out in April and May.

Location-wise, there is also a downgrade. At Shea, I was rooted in Loge Section 7 on the aisle. Perhaps one of the best seats in the house. At Citi, there are a number of seat options. When I clicked on the most expensive one, I found the location to be in left field. Len doesn't do outfield seating, folks. Ever. The cheaper plans were in the Citi upper deck down the left or right field lines. The salad days are over. And binoculars are not offered at a discounted rate.

As for the postseason, you are now unguaranteed for seats. But, they will let you go on-line during a presale provided the Met bullpen has not imploded by September 15.

If you're thinking that this is really a non-decision, you don't really know the strange ties I am feeling right now. Could this be the first season in four decades that there is no invoice with my name on it from the Mets? If I've been writing about this trial separation, this news is indeed the final divorce decree. And I am still holding out because that first baseball wife was so loyal for such a long time.

I'm thinking about how to process. I will put in a call to my Mets contact to see if he is at all moved by my supposed lifetime devotion. I will contact my friends who have had seats next to me at Shea for the past 15 years. If they're in, I might be. And then I will use the Met rep to ensure we are seated together. And I'm also looking for your input. Yep, another poll to the right.

At the end of Friday, I may just say "what the fuck." Either way. And enjoy this photo of how I chose to commemorate my years at Shea. I took the two tickets to my very last Saturday game at Shea and had our art department blow them into a framed poster. It hangs in my room for the rest of my days. And perhaps that is the very best way I can move forward.

Dinner last night: Turkey pastrami reuben at the Cheesecake Factory.