That's right. I had dinner with the Mets. The entire team. Even some famous former Mets. And, the owners and coaches. Just me, my kids and ...a couple of hundred other lucky fans.
This fortunate event happened at a Mets fundraiser dinner. No, the Mets aren't looking for handouts (yet.) The beneficiary was the Katz Women's Hospital at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
Here's how it went: it was in the ballroom of a New York City hotel, and there was a big, two-tiered dais at the front of the room, at which all of the Mets players sat and ate dinner, facing the fans. I got to see the likes of Jose Reyes (entertaining), David Wright (hot), and Carlos Delgado (extremely hot) eat dinner. All appeared to have decent table manners. Reyes clowned around a bit, and David Wright, who sat on the end, didn't seem to mind when fans approached him during the meal. I have to hand it to the players. Try to imagine eating your dinner with two hundred fans staring at you. (OK, it's harder to imagine having 200 fans, I know.) It was kind of like a zoo, but the food was better and there wasn't that nasty elephant smell.
Sitting among the fans at various tables were some former Mets, the owners and coaches. My kids approached them for autographs:
Daryl Strawberry: used to live in my hometown when he played for the Mets, so we reminisced. OK, maybe I was the one reminiscing, but he acknowledged that he remembered the town, and he was nice. A
John Franco: Say what you want about his alleged "ties", I like this guy. He was friendly, and he was always one of the Mets who did things for charities. A+
Rusty Staub: He signed autographs but was a bit grumpy about it. C
Tom Seaver: He signed an autograph for one of my sons but not the other. I've met him before. Not a nice guy. Often refuses to sign autographs. What ever happened to "Tom Terrific??" D
Mr. Met: always accomodating! A+
Jerry Manuel: seems like a stand-up guy. Nice. Good with the fans. Took a picture with my kids. Whose camera was that? I want that picture! A+
After the dinner, we had the opportunity to get autographs from the team, in an assembly line fashion. I know this isn't fun for the players, but I think if God gives you enough talent to play Major League ball, you have to put up with this kind of thing. The nicest guys were Mike Pelfrey, JJ Putz and Ryan Church. I was hoping Carlos Delgado would give me a wink or something, but no such luck. Oh, and Johan Santana wasn't there because his wife had just given birth to his son that day. Excuses, excuses. We missed out on David Wright, but we've met him before. A couple of years ago, we got to go down to the field for batting practice before a game. David Wright was brought over to be in a picture with some kids who, I believe, might have been ill. I'm not proud of this, but I nudged my son into the picture and took a snapshot ("Hey, who's that kid??") ... which turned out to be unnecessary because David Wright allowed me to take a picture of him with just my son. (I know, I'm going to hell for that one.)
So, there you have it. A little glimpse at the Amazins'. Go Mets!
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