Power Shift
The unseasonable snowstorm that hit the area Saturday and continued into the early hours of Sunday left my home without power for more than 48 hours.
In some ways living without power is simple - you quickly resign yourself to the things you can not do - surf the internet, laundry, cook, for example - and move on and find alternatives.
There are certainly inconveniences - no heat, the inability to do anything after dark without adequate lighting - but we made it through OK.
But the timing of the lack of power in my home was interesting - because it converged with an announcement about a possible increase in power at the home of the Mets.
We now know what some of the changes at Citi Field will look like.
Now, let me be clear - I don't endorse the fact that the Mets are changing Citi Field's dimensions. I feel like there's an element of giving up in there - after just three seasons the Mets decided it was enough of a psychological disadvantage for them to hit at Citi Field rather than suck it up and build a team that fit their ballpark. I equate it to a student who is not doing well in school, and rather than helping the student by giving them strategies to succeed you just keep giving them easy work. Where's the challenge?
If you don't want players to be trying to hit homers over the 16-foot left field wall or the monstrous right field gaps, then you should have had some foresight when you built those elements.
Now, all that said - I like the re-design. The Mets are not getting rid of the existing wall - they're building a lower wall - 8 feet high all around - in front of it. And the new walls being built are blue - more in line with the Mets color scheme. (And the team is touting the blue as a connection to their 50th anniversary season - which is kind of nice, but also a load of baloney. This has nothing to do with the 50th anniversary of the Mets - it just happens to coincide with that anniversary.)
Three new walls are being built in all, with some existing walls being changed from the color 'soot' to blue. I like that in left field the retired numbers and World Series/playoff appearance pennants peek over the new wall.
I'm kind of excited to see it - but I also wish they had just gone this route in the first place.
(Below left - the new left field wall at Citi Field, and below right, a tighter look at that wall. There will be some new seating in between the old wall [note the banners] and the new wall, with some stairways added leading to those seats.)
(And below is a look at right field and the other two new walls that will be added.)
