Single-game Mets tickets a big draw
February 27, 2005, 7:51 PM EST
At her home in Lake Carmel, Donna Bauer has a telephone, a cell phone and a computer with a cable modem. With all these easier -- and warmer -- methods of buying tickets to a Mets' game, she still schlepped from Westchester to Shea Stadium.
Bauer eschewed the comforts of home for cold concrete Friday night to begin waiting in line at Shea for the start of single-game ticket sales Sunday.
"I'm nuts," Bauer said.
But not alone.
More than 130,000 tickets were sold at the stadium Sunday, the best day in franchise history, a Mets official said. The ticket count does not reflect online sales.
Matt Hoey was first in line for the seventh straight year. Cameras mugged him. Some fans wanted to, also. He got there Thursday night. Stood in the snow. As did Eddie "Cowbell Man" Boison of the Bronx.
For the Mets? For the Mets!
Dunkin' Donuts served free coffee and doughnuts to the several thousand fans waiting in line Sunday.
Security guards said they were done by 11 a.m. last year. As of 12:30 p.m. Sunday, the line was still snaking all the way inside the stadium at Gate E, then all the way back outside at Gate D.
"That's what a couple of offseason acquisitions will do," Frank Vitale said, referring to the additions of Carlos Beltran and Pedro Martinez. Add to them a healthy Jose Reyes, a full year of David Wright and new manager Willie Randolph, and fans seem to believe that last place is the last place the Mets will be.
Thus, despite reports of a brief computer crash, Opening Day and the Yankees series sold out in about 21/2 hours.
This was the third year Bauer camped out for tickets. She was fifth in line but the first to finish her transaction -- for tickets to each game against the Yankees in May. She prefers tradition over technology. Of trying to buy tickets on the Web or by phone, Bauer said, "By 11 o'clock, you're still sitting there swearing because you don't have one ticket."
Besides, staying home would have denied her the chance to meet Darryl Strawberry, Gary Car.ter, Ron Darling, Sid Fernandez, Howard Johnson and Tim Teufel, 1986 World Series champions who were on hand to sign autographs and hitch their success to this year's bandwagon.
"You have to give them credit for being out there," Darling said of the fans. "There's really a buzz out there."
Strawberry emerged from the clubhouse to sign autographs for those waiting in the tunnel behind Gate D. Within seconds, the 6-6 Strawberry was engulfed by fans waving bats, old Sports Illustrated covers, even older No. 18 jerseys, baseball cards and whatever wasn't bolted down.
"It brought tears to my eyes," Bauer said.
"It kind of reminded me of what it was like when we took the field as a team," Strawberry said. "New York fans are the best. They've always been the best."
Sherry Boullt, a Brooklyn native, lives in Louisiana. She flew to Hartford, then drove to Massachusetts to take her mother to the dentist, she said. She then drove to Brooklyn late Saturday night so she could "get up at some ungodly hour to get tickets and see Mets players that'll be gone before I get up there to see them."
She was right. The early birds got the autographs. And some baseball justice.
Mike Lordi, the 15th person in line, said he saw someone doling out wads of cash to a person in the front. Lordi and friends reported it and security guards booted the person.
"It's just not right," Lordi said. "You come here, do your time. Plus, that moved me up one spot on line."
The people up front are of a different breed. They bring cots and suitcases full of clothes and food. Rob Malinowski, a ticket-day rookie, forgot a sleeping bag, so he and Lordi drove to a nearby Modell's to buy one. They didn't lose their spot in line, either. What respect!
But not all is fair up there. The best Boison had to show for his 58-plus hours in line was upper deck for the Yankees games. He was not happy.
Life in the back of the line is a little more desperate. "If I have to trip an old lady with a ticket, I'm getting in," Drew Bradeen of Farmingdale said about the Yankees series.
The Bradeens are lifelong Mets fans. They arrived around 8:15 a.m. and waited more than four hours. It was the first time they came to Shea on ticket day. So what makes this year so different from all the others?
"Why do you think?" Drew said. "Beltran. Martinez."
February 27, 2005, 7:51 PM EST
At her home in Lake Carmel, Donna Bauer has a telephone, a cell phone and a computer with a cable modem. With all these easier -- and warmer -- methods of buying tickets to a Mets' game, she still schlepped from Westchester to Shea Stadium.
Bauer eschewed the comforts of home for cold concrete Friday night to begin waiting in line at Shea for the start of single-game ticket sales Sunday.
"I'm nuts," Bauer said.
But not alone.
More than 130,000 tickets were sold at the stadium Sunday, the best day in franchise history, a Mets official said. The ticket count does not reflect online sales.
Matt Hoey was first in line for the seventh straight year. Cameras mugged him. Some fans wanted to, also. He got there Thursday night. Stood in the snow. As did Eddie "Cowbell Man" Boison of the Bronx.
For the Mets? For the Mets!
Dunkin' Donuts served free coffee and doughnuts to the several thousand fans waiting in line Sunday.
Security guards said they were done by 11 a.m. last year. As of 12:30 p.m. Sunday, the line was still snaking all the way inside the stadium at Gate E, then all the way back outside at Gate D.
"That's what a couple of offseason acquisitions will do," Frank Vitale said, referring to the additions of Carlos Beltran and Pedro Martinez. Add to them a healthy Jose Reyes, a full year of David Wright and new manager Willie Randolph, and fans seem to believe that last place is the last place the Mets will be.
Thus, despite reports of a brief computer crash, Opening Day and the Yankees series sold out in about 21/2 hours.
This was the third year Bauer camped out for tickets. She was fifth in line but the first to finish her transaction -- for tickets to each game against the Yankees in May. She prefers tradition over technology. Of trying to buy tickets on the Web or by phone, Bauer said, "By 11 o'clock, you're still sitting there swearing because you don't have one ticket."
Besides, staying home would have denied her the chance to meet Darryl Strawberry, Gary Car.ter, Ron Darling, Sid Fernandez, Howard Johnson and Tim Teufel, 1986 World Series champions who were on hand to sign autographs and hitch their success to this year's bandwagon.
"You have to give them credit for being out there," Darling said of the fans. "There's really a buzz out there."
Strawberry emerged from the clubhouse to sign autographs for those waiting in the tunnel behind Gate D. Within seconds, the 6-6 Strawberry was engulfed by fans waving bats, old Sports Illustrated covers, even older No. 18 jerseys, baseball cards and whatever wasn't bolted down.
"It brought tears to my eyes," Bauer said.
"It kind of reminded me of what it was like when we took the field as a team," Strawberry said. "New York fans are the best. They've always been the best."
Sherry Boullt, a Brooklyn native, lives in Louisiana. She flew to Hartford, then drove to Massachusetts to take her mother to the dentist, she said. She then drove to Brooklyn late Saturday night so she could "get up at some ungodly hour to get tickets and see Mets players that'll be gone before I get up there to see them."
She was right. The early birds got the autographs. And some baseball justice.
Mike Lordi, the 15th person in line, said he saw someone doling out wads of cash to a person in the front. Lordi and friends reported it and security guards booted the person.
"It's just not right," Lordi said. "You come here, do your time. Plus, that moved me up one spot on line."
The people up front are of a different breed. They bring cots and suitcases full of clothes and food. Rob Malinowski, a ticket-day rookie, forgot a sleeping bag, so he and Lordi drove to a nearby Modell's to buy one. They didn't lose their spot in line, either. What respect!
But not all is fair up there. The best Boison had to show for his 58-plus hours in line was upper deck for the Yankees games. He was not happy.
Life in the back of the line is a little more desperate. "If I have to trip an old lady with a ticket, I'm getting in," Drew Bradeen of Farmingdale said about the Yankees series.
The Bradeens are lifelong Mets fans. They arrived around 8:15 a.m. and waited more than four hours. It was the first time they came to Shea on ticket day. So what makes this year so different from all the others?
"Why do you think?" Drew said. "Beltran. Martinez."
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