Could it be? A new blog from us? Indeed it is and I plan on making a more concerted effort this season to updating this blog more regularly when I feel there is something to actually discuss that isn't already being mentioned on the countless other Mets blogs.
Today I take to this forum to fondly remember a day I formerly treated as a holiday, and that is the day Mets Single Game Tickets went on sale. Prior to the days of multiple season ticket plan options, and a lottery system to win Opening Day tickets there was a time when the only way to secure these desirable games on a single game basis was to purchase them on the day they went on sale at 10am either at Shea Stadium, A Mets Clubhouse Shop or via telephone. Once I realized the futility of attempting to get through on the phone,s I took on an annual tradition of camping out overnight at the Mets Clubhouse Store in Menlo Park, NJ. Seeing as the sale date normally coincided with President's Day Weekend and temperatures were often below freezing, this was no small undertaking.
Security was always kind and allowed us to line up outside the mall the night before and this became an annual rite of passage for many of my fellow fans. We would congregate overnight with our blankets, winter gear, Thermoses filled with a warm (and often inebriating) beverages and recount the wonders of the previous season (It was the late 90s, a better time.) Vast speculation about the pending Spring Training (usually opening within the following days) and how the team would be composed would take place as well as the usual positional debates, think of it as Twitter....but in person. Around 1999 some brilliant soul thought to bring a Wiffle Ball and Bat with him and the entire experience reached another level. Over the years I came to forge One-Day-Per-Year Friendships with many of these people and still wonder why we never coordinated to meet at any actual games.
Unfortunately as technology progressed we became a much more instant gratification society, and soon this ticketing process became extinct, much like that particular Clubhouse Shop, and we now primarily purchase our tickets via the internet. However I will always look back on those sleepless nights of bonding with my fellow fans with fondness as I sit in a Virtual Waiting Room in an attempt to score Opening Day tickets.
