Interesting People We Met at Shea Stadium

While Nails, the Concierge, Focks and I were suffering through another painful collapse, the packed house for Shea's final game was chock full of interesting people.

There was the guy seated on the aisle in the row in front of us who brought his tote bag and left it in the aisle. The Concierge purposely stepped on his bag everytime he exited the row.

And then there was bag guy's wife, who kept turning around and talking to me everytime I made a bitter or angry comment (which was very often, especially during the 30 minute break between the game and the farewell ceremony).

Seated in front of them was the guy who signaled every time there was two outs by holding his middle and ring fingers down with his thumb and raising his index finger and pinkie to show everyone seated behind him how many outs there were.

One of the strangest people we saw (and I hesitate to make fun of him because he may very well have been mentally handicapped) was wearing a 69 Mets jersey, under a green blazer. He was also wearing an autographed Jets helmet. Wearing a full-size football helmet. He was walking the aisles displaying some kind of framed photograph (of what, I don't know).

But there was nobody in the Stadium, or perhaps the world, dumber than the couple who sat in the row in front of us for three innings -- until the rightful owners of those seats arrived. Insisting they were seated correctly they refused to get up. When they finally passed their tickets to the usher he discovered they belonged in the mezzanine, one level up. They were on the wrong level. As they left the aisle, the woman noticed she didn't have her tickets anymore. First, everyone accused the usher of not returning them. One guy insisted the usher empty his pockets. After the usher was cleared the finger was pointed at someone in the row who must be playing a cruel joke on this poor couple. Someone finally suggested the dumb lady look in her purse, and lo and behold, there were her tickets. And we missed a whole inning while all this was going on.