Our first blossoms of spring

Our front-yard daffodils once again bless us this time in April as our first blossoms of the year. It’s like saying hello to trusty, old pals. They’re bending a bit with their age, but they sure do know how to make me smile.

Calling my name

It’s time to circle the backyard with a brown paper recycling bag. Ah, the chores of spring to make amends for the gusts of winter.

Thank you for prepping for another season, plow company

The plowing season is officially over. I arrived home from my work shift at the library to find the driveway stakes gone and the plowed-up edge at the street corner turned over and seeded. Good job, folks. Did I get value for paying ahead for the whole season? It may have been more economic to…

Crack that bat

I see promise up and down the order of my hometown Syracuse Mets. Yes, even though they were shut out 5-0 in my game of this season. I know, it’s early.

Bring it, pitcher

Some pitchers have a great motion to watch, especially when you’ve scored great tabletop seats behind home plate. Count Syracuse Mets lefty Thomas Szapucki among those I now consider smooth on the mound. No matter that my hometown squad fell 5-0 to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. Well, little matter.

Tacos of opening day?

This year’s Syracuse Mets opening day fell on a Tuesday. Taco Tuesday, as they call it every week. Three tacos for 10 bucks. The line started at the rear. We got pizza and chicken tenders and cheesesteak sandwiches, some nachos and fries on the side, regular prices. Maybe another Tuesday at the stadium …

Fair game

If a batter pulls the ball down the line and it manages to hit this orange contraptionin front of me, it’s a home run. Fair ball, will scream or moan the crowd depending upon if it’s a hometown Syracuse Met or opposing Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRider who smacked the shot. Then how come they call it the…

Green, green turf to sprawl

I think when I was a kid I would have enjoyed the Syracuse Mets’ no-seats-necessary turf section out at the edge of the right-field and left-field edges of NBT Bank Stadium. It affords an interesting view toward the field, I noted as I stepped down on the way to our seats. Yes, seats, the preferred…

Mookie mingles

The famous New York Met from the 1986 World Championship squad would sign autographs from 7 to 8 p.m., Syracuse Mets general manager Jason Smorol announced as Mookie delivered one of the two ceremonial first pitches before game time of 6:40 p.m. I went up to the concourse from our tabletop seats at, oh, 7:03…

Hello, Tom Terrific

Enter on the right-field side of NBT Bank Stadium. Find your way to the inner concourse. Wind toward the home-plate high-rise table-top seats. Stop for a second to admire the painted mural of the first New York Met to make the Hall of Fame for his accomplishments lifting the franchise to that 1969 World Series…