Saturday's game was "Build-A-Bear" workshop day. I was very excited because I wanted a bear. So my friend Adam and I arrive at Shea, a little more than half-past noon. We were waiting in the wrong line. One line was if you had bags with you, the other if you had nothing.

We're waiting in line for about 20 minutes, until I realized that we were in the wrong line. So we jog to the correct line, get metal detected, and enter Shea Stadium. We get out tickets scanned, and then I saw it them...the aforementioned "Build-A-Bears." As I entered past the ticket scanner, I waited for the young man to give me my bear. He didn't, so I bent down to pick one up, and he said "Those are for the kids, and you ain't 12."

I was a little mad at that, but no biggie. We get to our seats as Mets' batting practice was going on. I've seen batting practice before, but nothing like this. Cliff Floyd must've had a good 4 or 5 BP Homeruns that were gone as soon as he hit them. I snapped a few pictures, nothing much. I looked over and saw the Dodgers were getting ready for their BP so I ran over to their dugout and stood next to this chinese woman, who was the biggest Hee Seop-Choi fan I've ever seen. She had his jersey on, autographed and all, and about four balls signed by him.  She was a little looney, but nothing too drastic. I finally saw Jason Phillips for the first time since the Mets' traded him to L.A. for starting pitcher Kaz Ishii. Phillips was blasting the balls to all directions of the field. He got done and the Dodger fans were cheering him.

The game started around 3:15, and it was as loud as I have ever heard it. When they started to announce the line-ups, Pedro Martinez got a standing ovation. It was a beautiful sight to see as all the Met fans got on their feet and cheered for our ace. He stood on the mound and started throwing to Ramon Castro.

Game starts with Pedro throwing a ball to Oscar Robles. The first inning was horrendous for Miguel Cairo and Carlos Beltran who misplayed two pop-ups, that eventually gave them an early 3-0.

I was thinking to myself that this couldn't be happening. Mets were up in the bottom of the first, and I was ticked off with what happened in the top half of the innings, so I went to go get some ice cream in a helmet. I come back...BAM!...3-2 Dodgers. I was stunned that we almost came back all the way. So when Floyd tied it up in the 4th, Met fans gave him a standing O.

The Mets would win in in the 7th as Jose Reyes, who had four hits, two runs batted in, three runs, and two stolen bases. He smacked a triple down the right field line as Marlon Anderson, who was walked to begin the inning, came around third to score the tying run. Beltran would follow up with a bloop hit. So the crowd was going electric going into the bottom of the 9th. Looper got the first two Dodgers swinging, than one groundball later to Reyes, the Mets were on their way to a great 7-5 comeback.

It was a great time to be at Shea. It was very, very hot, so I spent a good 35 dollars on refreshments. Bottle of water cost $4 and soda is $4.25. And I'm a sucker for getting them. The Mets needed that game, never want to lose a series at home, especially when you have an NL Cy Young Candidate on the mound in Pedro Martinez.

It was a great win for the Mets, who are 51-47, and only 3.5 games back of the NL East and NL Wildcard.

Maybe the Mets motto is true, "Next Year IS Now!"

I was actually able to take some pictures at Shea with my Polaroid Digital Camera, which you can view at http://www.pbase.com/bkraemer/inbox.