SU made its 2nd Citifield appearance last night for the year with long-time SU subscriber E. Steele.  Note this is 2 more appearances than I have made at Yankee Stadium in 2016 which is a reflection of how boring the Yankees are and that Chase Headley and Jacoby Ellsbury are everyday players.  And I am not even mentioning that Brian McCann is a human pop up machine to right field and that the retiring Mark Texeiria’s at bats have created a brown patch in short right field where all of his ground balls to the 2nd baseman go.  But I digress.  SU is not a true Met fan but I find myself rooting them more the last few years.  A few comments:

• We sat 11 rows behind the Phillies’ dugout for $46 on StubHub (plus service fee).  At Yankee Stadium, you are talking about $200 tickets for seats that border the moat section also known as the Legends seats.  I don’t think I have sat this close to the field for a game in the last 20 years.  So many foul balls in that section.
• Excellent food selection in the outfield food court area and nice wide walking concourses.
• Citifield has a nice feel to it – more like a ballpark than Yankee Stadium where the stands are well back from the playing field creating a dead atmosphere for most of the time (of course, much of that is due to the product on the field and the fact that Chase Headley and Jacoby Ellsbury are regular players – have I mentioned that lately?).
• The Mets had TJ Rivera, 2nd baseman, batting clean-up.  Hmm.  Not exactly scaring the other team offensively.
• Full disclosure, SU left in the 8th inning and missed the game tying Reyes homerun in the bottom of the 9th (but I did hear it on the radio) and the game winner by Cabrera in the 11th.  The crowd was into it with their hopes rising and falling in a see-saw type game in a pennant race.  And 36,000 for a Thursday night was impressive.
• SU is certainly not abandoning the Yankees and becoming a Met fan but I was very impressed with the customer experience.  Props to the Mets.

Meanwhile, back in the Bronx, there is a steady drumbeat of support for Gary Sanchez to be considered for AL Rookie of the Year.  Long-time SU subscriber P. Friedman is on the case and it’s compelling.  I have not done the research to see if there are other more worthy candidates who have been doing it all year which to be honest would be my preference for the award.  But what Sanchez is doing has never been done before.  My hope is that he is able to pass Chase Headley for rbis before the end of the season (I think it’s 38 vs. 51 at the moment).

SU is very excited about the Yankees youth movement and the prospects for fielding a really young team in 2017.  I am still a little concerned that Cashman will feel the need to sprinkle in more veterans but we have been down that road the last 4-5 seasons.