“If this is what we are to expect from Mike Pelfrey over the coming weeks, then Citi Field is going to turn into the House of Angst for a New Millennium.”  So wrote Metsradamus in the wake of the Mets’ inauspicious 6-5 home opener loss to San Diego last night, a contest that doubled as the official grand unveiling of The Wilpons’ Palace Of Avarice & Greed.

As you can see by the photograph below, my seat in section 436 denied me a proper perspective on much of the evening’s action ; I’m told David Wright hit a game-tying 3-run HR in the last of the 5th , but I’ll have to take your word for it.

I can, however, vouch for both Wright and Carlos Beltran hitting drives to deep center field that were hauled in by sure thing first-ballot HOF’er Jody Gerut.  For all the talk of Citi Field representing some misplaced Wilpon fixation with Ebbets Field, who knew the real goal was to build a park that played like Petco?

Of Mike Piazza’s very hasty getaway after last night’s ceremonial first pitch, the New York Times’ Joshua Robinson writes (with a straight face, presumably), “It was unclear if Piazza™s reluctance to talk was connected to allegations of steroid use in a recently published book, ‘The Rocket That Fell to Earth,’ by Jeff Pearlman.”    Only at the Times do the words “unclear” and “obvious” mean the same thing.

œHe wasn™t looking for any attention, Jay Horwitz, the Mets™ vice president for media relations, said when asked why Piazza did not want to talk.

œHe said, ˜I™m a private person now, I have a family, I™m raising my kids, my wife™s having a baby and I want to stay in the background.™ 

Piazza made his exit through the back of the stadium. Seaver was in the press box breaking down the finer aspects of the new outfield wall.