Good morning. It's Tuesday. We'll find out why one ticket holder at a Rangers game tonight will have his mind on another sport entirely. We'll also get details on what the United Nations General Assembly will mean for traffic on the East Side of Manhattan.
Today, Nicholas Giampietro said, "it's 'man the battle stations.'" His battle station will be Seat 9 in Row 4 of Section 201 at Madison Square Garden. It is an unusual place for a Mets fan to be during the first of three unmissable games against the Atlanta Braves — especially for Giampietro. He is one of the most recognizable Mets fans, the one known as Pinman who parades around Citi Field in a jersey weighed down with souvenir pins celebrating Mets past and present. He is a collar-to-hem tribute to Tom Seaver, Pete Alonso and Mr. Met. But tonight? "I have tickets for the Rangers," Giampietro said, adding that he had promised to take his nephew. So while the rest of the crowd focuses on the Rangers and the Islanders on the ice in a preseason game, Giampietro will keep tabs on the Mets. "I'll be watching on my phone," he said. For him, it is an off-the-field twist in a season that has had hope and heartbreak, the two emotions that are never far apart for those who love the Mets. Mets fans are inured to coming so close and remaining so far — so close to the World Series or, at the moment, to the National League playoffs. The Mets announced yesterday that single-game tickets for postseason games at Citi Field would go on sale at 10 a.m. Thursday. "Fans should log on early," the Mets said, because only a "limited number of tickets for potential Mets home games in the Wild Card Series and National League division series will be available." Giampietro said that Monday was a "catch your breath" day after the Mets beat the Phillies, 2-1, in what he called "the biggest game of the season." He said the win had given the Mets a little breathing room in the race for a wild-card spot. "If they had lost, they'd have to win two out of three" in Atlanta, he said. "Now they can get away with winning one out of three" and still clinch a place in the playoffs. "I have confidence," said Giampietro, who earned his nickname in Mets fandom after spending $1.88 on a flea-market find, a set of 25 pins. That was 18 years ago. Edwin Boison, the Mets fan known as Cowbell Man, has been a celebrity around Citi Field — and, before it, Shea Stadium — for far longer. He took his cowbell to a Mets game in 1981. From his seat in the upper deck, he decided to practice rhythms he had been playing with friends who were musicians. He found himself in sync with the "Let's go, Mets!" chant and became a Mets fixture, so he has ridden the emotional roller-coaster so familiar to Mets fans, especially in this improbable season. The Mets were 11 games under .500 at the end of May. As of yesterday, the team had notched 87 wins and 69 losses. "Emotionally, it was a team that you wouldn't think would be fighting for a wild card," he said of the beginning of this season. "It was a team with not many expectations." The Mets' record so far is considerably better than Bruce Bukiet had predicted. He is a professor and associate dean at the New Jersey Institute of Technology — and a Mets fan — who predicts at the beginning of the season what the standings will be at the end. He relies on a statistical model he developed. His projection for 2024 was that the Mets would win 78 games this season and finish third in the National League East, behind Atlanta and Philadelphia. "I take what the so-called experts say are going to be the players on each team," he said. "There's no way to know who's going to get traded and who's going to get injured. I can only go by what they say and how they're going to do." Professor Bukiet did choose the right three teams at the top of the National League East, though in the wrong order. He said he had picked only five of the 12 teams that stand to make the playoffs. "Ouch," he said. WEATHER Expect a partly sunny day with highs in the low 70s and a light breeze. Temperatures will drop to the low 60s with possible showers overnight under a mostly cloudy sky. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Oct. 3 (Rosh Hashana). The latest New York news
We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. It's 'High-Level Week' at the U.N.
The United Nations General Assembly will convene today, and for the rest of the week the East Side of Manhattan will host more than 100 heads of state and dignitaries. For New Yorkers who live or work in the neighborhood, this is an annual ritual known as "High-Level Week." They see it as an annual headache brought on by limousines and sport utility vehicles that head to the U.N. on First Avenue, to receptions at consulates and to hotels where diplomats are staying. The city's Department of Transportation considers it one of the worst weeks of the year for traffic congestion. It has declared every day this week a "gridlock alert day." Street closings, security protocols and protests will snarl vehicles up and down Manhattan. John Chell, the Police Department's chief of patrol, said last week that the department was anticipating significant protests during High-Level Week. Since last October, Chell said, the department has responded to more than 4,000 demonstrations, many of them protesting Israel's military offensive in Gaza. (Last week the General Assembly adopted a nonbinding resolution calling for Israel to end "its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory" within 12 months.) Philip Rivera, the chief of the Police Department's Transportation Bureau, urged commuters to avoid streets around the U.N. — or to try walking or biking or taking public transportation. That may be easier said than done. Allison Arthur May, who lives on East 44th Street near the U.N., said that she typically used Citi Bikes to get around. During High-Level Week, she has to dodge motorcades. "Heads of state don't follow any traffic rules," she said. METROPOLITAN DIARY Wheel ManDear Diary: I live in the East Village and ride my bike every day to the West Village and then along the Hudson River bike path. After taking a nine-mile ride, I typically treat myself to lunch at a Thai restaurant on Greenwich Avenue, locking my bike to a pole on Christopher Street in front of a small shop. As I followed this routine one recent day, the shop's owner came outside and suggested I lock the bike up differently because it tended to fall toward the bus stop. He told me he had come out to adjust it on several occasions so that the wheel wouldn't be damaged by a car or a bus. I thanked him and asked if he wanted a coffee. I guess we're not as anonymous in New York City as we might think we are. — Roy Fernandez Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Luke Caramanico and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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N.Y. Today: Will the Mets make it to the playoffs?
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