R.A. Dickey and the Mets Beat the Reds

R.A. Dickey used his knuckleball to limit the Reds to 8 hits, 2 runs and a walk over 6 2/3 innings last night in a 4-2 Mets win.  I went down to the game and watched him take warmup throws in the outfield, then made my way down to a good seat 5 rows from the field, between the batting screen and the first base dugout.  It was a great place to watch the game, especially considering I'd purchased a seat 3 levels up for $5.  Dickey has a more live arm than Tim Wakefield, with his best-looking knuckleballs hitting about 81 on the radar gun, and his occasional fastballs topping out at 89.  One of those 81 mph knuckleballs struck out Brandon Phillips, but got by catcher Josh Thole, allowing Phillips to advance to first.  It was fun getting to see a major league knuckleball pitcher up close.  One thing to note about the National League Central, the Reds and the Mets had the exact same 50-51 record coming into the game, the Reds were 3 games back while the Mets were 14.5 games back.

When I first came into town, I went up to the observation deck at Carew Tower.  It had probably been at least ten years since I had last gone up there. The view is really nice, although yesterday the visibility was limited by haze.  You can take a regular elevator to the 45th floor, then take a smaller elevator to the 48th floor, then take the stairs to the 49th floor.  You enter a little office and pay the attendant $2, and walk outside onto the deck.  The deck is surrounded by a chest-high wall with a railing on top.  When I walked out of the attendant's office and onto the deck, there was a college-age kid laying on top of the railing in the northeast corner while his friend was taking a picture.  Apparently, a local radio station was having a contest to send in the best "planking" photograph, and these guys had decided to try the Carew Tower observation deck.  Lucky for them, the attendant isn't very attentive, and they were able to try several times at different corners to come up with a good picture.  The last several attempts, the one guy would lay on the railing in the corner, while the other guy would stand on the wall, holding his camera above his head to try to get a good picture of the riverfront in the background of the photograph.  That was entertaining.