Citi Field's Dirty Secret

Last summer, the Mets gave fans the option of spending $395 to personalize one of the six-by-six-inch bricks that would make up the entrance to Citi Field's Jackie Robinson pavilion. At the time, it seemed like a small price to pay to immortalize one's love for a baseball team in a piece of rock, and thus when the park opened last week, upwards of 18,000 engraved bricks were revealed.

Many contained messages to dead relatives, some heartfelt tributes to great Mets players from bygone eras (all seven of them), and a lot said, "Go, Mets!" As your correspondent regarded these poignant sentiments, one name in particular stuck out to him: Audrey Bitoni. Bitoni is, if IMDb is to be believed, an unhealthily proportioned, 22-year-old pornographic actress hailing from Los Angeles. She was an AVN 2008 Best Starlet nominee, and is probably best known for her work in No Man's Land, although pornography -- like all art -- is subjective, and such judgments are left to people sitting in darkened rooms.

We wondered: Did someone seriously spend close to $400 to have their favorite porn star's stage name linked forever with both the New York Mets and, more unfortunately, Jackie Robinson? And if so, who? And what other untoward tributes do those 18,000 bricks hide? Socialists? Serial killers? Or even worse, Yankees? (Remember when someone buried a Red Sox jersey at the Yankee Stadium construction site and blabbed about it?) Then again, it's possible Bitoni is just a big Mets fan. Go team!
 

Previously on NYmag.com's Daily Intel...
 

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