On Monday night I went to the Mets game with my oldest daughter.

It was the culmination of her last trip to New York to see some family before she goes away to college.

And it was also the third year in a row I’ve been able to attend a game with each of my daughters, which has become a nice little tradition that I guess I’d like to keep going if I can manage it.

It helps that I get some free tickets thanks to the Mets Connect app.

Long story short, the Mets have kind of a rewards app, and I have cashed in a few times - I went on a Citi Field Tour last year, and this year two of the three games I went to with my girls were free. (As I talked about with my daughter Monday night, though, it’s smart marketing because I dropped over a hundred dollars on merchandise and food within a half hour of arriving.)

We went on Monday night because the ticket deal is for Monday through Thursday games.

And on Monday night I definitely understood why.

Monday is a weird vibe at the ballpark.

It was definitely the least crowded game I’ve been to in a couple of years - the other Monday game I went to earlier this year was against Atlanta so that drew much better.

This one was clearly a lot of giveaway tickets - I was pleased that we had such nice seats - we don’t usually sit that close to the field. (See the picture above.)

But I heard lots of comments from other people around us that were much to the same effect.

And I overheard other conversations - we seemed to be surrounded by various family members of employees - which I took as evidence that there seem to be other efforts to fill the ballpark on a Monday night in August against an American League team.

Anyway, that was the vibe.

The game kind of had the same tone - it took a while for the Mets to get going.

Sean Manaea gave up 5 runs in the sixth, and then the Mets started to come back. Pete Alonso hit a 3-run home run, and that kind of woke everyone up - it put him within one of the franchise home run record. They do cool stuff with the lights when someone hits a home run during a night game.

The only problem with the Monday night game is having to be back in Massachusetts for Tuesday - we can’t stay until the end of the game. I have to get out of the parking lot and onto the road so we can get home at a reasonable time. (I parked in the lot after pre-paying and getting $10 off - another Monday night incentive.)

So we left in the 7th inning, and listened on the radio as the Mets tied the game, and then it went into extra innings before the Mets lost.

So there was no second-guessing our decision to leave early.

We made it home a little after midnight.

And there’s no second-guessing what was a really nice night with my daughter.