Metstradamus The Grouch
Bad enough that Paul Maholm and his 87 mph fastball and his la-de-da slider made the Mets look like a JV high school squad tonight as he threw a complete game three-hit shutout while only throwing 36 pitches (95, if you're into accuracy). Bad enough that Matt Harvey couldn't get rewarded for pulling it together after a rough start chocked full of walks and giving up only two runs in six innings despite walking five. Bad enough I gotta sit here and watch another season slide into the annals of suckdom.
But Dan Uggla's home run sent me over the edge. First off, he's hitting .219, which is still 67 points higher than Jason Bay. But it's what happened right before the home run that's just down right f*cking embarrassing.
That's right, the wave. 
They've all got their hands up as Uggla's waiting for the pitch from Josh Edgin, while the Mets are down 2-0 in the eighth.
Then, as Edgin is going into the windup, they've got their hands up behind the plate. Possibly distracting the pitcher, but I can't confirm this. And then the pitch is thrown:
Gone. Into the seats. And now every time this home run is shown on a highlight package, you will see the paying customers throwing their hands up doing the wave while the visiting team is at-bat while the home team is down 2-0 and still in the thing ... right before a home run which took the Mets out of the game for good and may or may not have been caused by this dopey wave distracting the pitcher. If this isn't proof that this stupid, stupid wave shouldn't be outlawed at Citi Field then I don't know what would be. The wave really shouldn't be performed anywhere. But it certainly shouldn't be performed while the team is down 2-0 and the visitors at bat.
Let me tell you what causes waves: drunk frat boys who want to get on television. Usually in groups of two or three, it usually takes six or seven attempts to get the wave to travel a good portion of the stadium. Why is this? Because most sane people want to watch the damn game. But these drunks could care less that there's a game going on and that people actually want to watch it. They just want to get on television. So they wave ... and they wave ... and they wave until people finally get annoyed and figure that if they do it, that maybe these drunks will sit down or go back to the bar. So they participate in this mob mentality and cave in to peer pressure like the people who are coerced into throwing visiting home run balls back even though the marquee outside the ballpark does not read "Wrigley Field".
This isn't about fans having fun (as I discussed with a twitter follower tonight). I have no problems with fans trying to have fun when the product on the field isn't providing any fun. But the wave isn't fun. And I can't buy the "we have to have fun because the Mets aren't playing well" argument because Citi Field doesn't get loud during halfway decent games until they toss t-shirts or shame people to kiss each other by putting them on that wretched Kiss Cam. What, that's not enough fun? You have to start a wave in a park that wasn't even 60% full when all of the ticket holders were sitting in their seats? F*cking really??? At least 15,000 empty seats during a close game and you think the wave is a good f*cking idea??? Why is this still acceptable behavior?
I'm just happy to hear Harvey say that getting hit with a line drive in the third inning "pissed him off". Hopefully this doesn't mean that he has a dangerous enough temper to punch a wall after a bad outing. But at least the guy has a chip on his shoulder and a little vinegar and grouchiness in his personality. Grouchy pitchers are better than grouchy bloggers who despise the wave.
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I was very surprised to see the wave at a recent Citi Field game. I thought we NYers were more sophisticated than that. It kept going and going, too. Probably pure coincidence (and the steady downpour), but the wave was no where in sight during the one Yankee game I attended this year. But then again, the Yanks are in first place.
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People who care deeply about Mets baseball stopped showing up a long time ago. The reason the people at Citi are doing the wave is because they are just there for the novelty, buying beers, bringing their kids to a ballgame (with cheaper tickets), corporate ticket plan hand-outs, etc.
