In A New York State of Mind...From Los Angeles!

***This post was supposed to be up on Wednesday morning- had some additional computer issues- sorry!

I will have a few full posts about last night's game, the injuries, some updates on our minor leaguers, Jon's take on the draft, and a bunch of pictures later on this evening or early tomorrow, as I am having some computer difficulties right now. Therefore, just a few ramblings:...Last night (Tuesday) was a very hard night to be a Mets fan in Los Angeles. There were tons of us in attendance, to be sure, and there were at least 5 other fans wearing the same Pedro t-shirt that I was wearing, and about 5 more wearing the same Beltran jersey I was wearing (yes, a t-shirt under a jersey in the Los Angeles heat- when Pedro pitched, the jersey came off, and when we were at bat, the jersey went back on)... A collective hush came over Mets' fans throughout the stadium when Floyd came up lame at third, and again when Beltran went down making that catch. We groaned at the homers and runs Pedro gave up, and again at the errors that Valentin made. One fan screamed "where's Matsui when you need him?!" - I kid you not!!... I am always amazed at the LA fans, who come late, around the third inning, spend 2 innings getting hot dogs (and I'll have a separate column on Dodger Stadium later on or early tomorrow), and watch an inning or 2 before leaving in the 7th or early 8th. The traffic is opressive, to say the least, and it took us almost an hour to get out of the parking lot last night, so there's somewhat of an excuse to be made, and the hot dog vendors are the slowest I have EVER seen (Bill Plaschke wrote a great article about this in a recent LA Times- you can read it here )... As we came in to the stadium (early enough to see most of the Mets' batting practice), we practically ran over Orel Hersheiser, who threw out the first pitch. We also spotted Robert Wuhl behind us, working his way either to or from his seats. I heard Richard Lewis, Jane Seymour & Mandy Moore were also there- guess it was a big night for B & C celebs to be spotted at the game!....Pedro practically looked gased from the beginning, and I commented to my cousin that neither pitcher looked sparkling - just our luck!...Lastings Milledge brings so much enthusiasm to the plate with each at-bat, and I, for one, love the way he flicks his bat back and forth while waiting for a pitch...Will we finally bring up Victor Diaz with Floyd down and only Endy Chavez on the bench?...Unlike last year's "baby Braves", this crop of Dodgers rookies looks like the real deal. They have some scary young talent, and No-mah is leading them well!...I won't even COMMENT about Pedro & Grady Little being mere yards away from each other...Apparently, Derek Lowe & Pedro are really close friends from their time together in Boston, and Lowe wanted to approach Pedro yesterday and make his usual jokes but when he saw Pedro, he looked down at the ground and looked locked in his pre-game scowl, so Lowe thought better of it...Intersting draft to say the least...was there a special on right-handed college pitchers that no one told us about?...