Jason and I met in front of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda about 30 minutes before the game. My lady friend was still back in Manhattan getting ready, so Jason and I went through the turnstiles, up the escalator, and walked around the new stadium before the game started.

My first impression of Citibank field was that it was a nice recreation of Ebbets Field. I'm convinced I was a die hard Brooklyn Dodgers fan in a previous life, so it was nice to go back in time, but that nostalgia only lasted for a few moments upon seeing the stadium from the outside and then entering through the turnstiles.

Once I saw the field, it more or less seemed like every other ballpark built after 1991. Granted, it did have more character than the stadium in Phoenix (which seemed like an indoor shopping mall with a baseball diamond in the middle). However, in my opinion, it was much less distinctive than Dodger Stadium, or Shea for that matter. It didn't seem like the home of the Mets. It seemed like it could be the Orioles' home park, or the Brewers', or whatever, especially with the color of the outfield walls. I remember complaining to Jason about how that paint job was awful; the walls were a dark green so dark they looked almost black. Thankfully, they repainted them blue before the 2012 season.

This was a Sunday afternoon game and in a way, it seemed like everyone was going through the motions. The Mets were a 64-85 team playing out the string, and the only reason I was even there was due to tradition. The only reason Jason was there was because he was a nice guy and had accepted a free ticket, and as for my girlfriend, she didn't like baseball, didn't care about the Mets, and had only reluctantly agreed to attend this game because it was my birthday. However, at the start of the game she was nowhere to be seen and apparently on her way.

John Maine pitched a no-hitter for four innings. Then with the score 4-0 Mets, Josh Willingham of the Nationals led off the top of the 5th inning. He took the count to 1-1, and at that point, I don't know why- maybe it was angst over being possibly stood up by my girlfriend on my birthday- but I stood up and I screamed, "NO HITTER!", then sat down. On the next pitch, Willingham lined a single into center field and the no-hitter was broken. I honestly think I did that because I wanted to test the "no hitter jinx", you know, about not mentioning a no hitter during a game. Well, it worked, and I wasn't proud of it. I felt like Steve Bartman for a second; everyone around me was silent. I didn't care though; deep in my heart I knew that John Maine was not going to have the stamina to pitch nine no-hit innings, even knowing that he had thrown a one hitter (on July 29th, 2007). Still, I should have kept my mouth shut. Who knows; maybe he would have done it since it was my birthday.

With the no-hit bid over, the only drama was whether or not my girlfriend would finally show up. She did, arriving "fashionably late" in the 8th inning, which allowed me to give her a one-inning crash course on the rules of baseball.

The game itself was inconsequential to the history of the Mets, baseball, and our lives in general. It was a beautiful day in September, the Mets won, I didn't get stood up, and Jason got to see that I wasn't making up a story about a fake girlfriend.

So all in all, it was a good day.