Shea Stadium’s bases

I totally forgot I had taken these photos until today.  Here are all of Shea Stadium’s base-markers in Citi Field’s parking lot.

(Click for the full size image.)

 

 

 

 

Shea’s home plate

Here’s a photo of Shea Stadium’s home plate or the plaque that stands in it’s place right now.

I dig it.

Sent in by reader John.  Thanks!

Things I found at Citi Field: Part 7 -- The skyline

The next in a series of photos and findings from Citi Field...

Out in the center field concourse is a collection of food stands. This is where Shake Shack and Blue Smoke are located. Above those concession stands is a memory from Shea Stadium: The New York City skyline, complete with red, white and blue ribbon over the World Trade Center towers.In front of me in this photo is Shake Shack and Blue Smoke. Directly behind me is what looks like will be a bar. To the left, behind me, is the taco stand. To my right, the kiddie field, dunk tank and Carvel.

Here is an up-close shot of the Mets logo, which is currently serving as my computer background image...
This is one of my favorite parts about the park.

The State of the Mets -- 2/20/09

Here is the latest edition of The State of the Mets.

Today's topics: Luis Castillo, the outfield and a final goodbye to Shea Stadium.


Enjoy.

(Ed. note: Sorry about the brightness. I filmed with my window open and the clouds were obstructing the sun at points, which apparently doesn't fare well for my camera.)

Guest post: Shea's last stand

This is from Howie Mansfield, a long time reader and friend of the blog. Enjoy...

---

The place where my boyhood dreams were played out -- the place where my heroes lived forever -- where the Mets always won and where the hope for another World Series championship lived forever, has passed away.

Shea Stadium, the old mare of a ballpark that had seen its better days, the great jewel of Flushing, is no longer.

In a pile of rubble beyond the parking lot. Snuffed out and erased from existence.

As I sat here by the computer and heard the news of Shea's demise, I just thought...

I thought about the Home Run Apple. I thought about the pennants on the outfield wall. I thought about the retired numbers...37, 14, 41, and 42. I thought about the smell of beer and hot dogs. I thought about the green grass that seemed to go on forever. I thought about my experiences there and what the place meant to me and my baseball dreams.

In April 2007, my family and I took our last trip to Shea. It was only my second time there (I went once before in 1983 when I was 7), but it was the first for my wife and my daughter. It's only fitting that the two people more important to me saw the place where all of my greatest baseball dreams were housed. We watched the Mets dominate the Rockies, and had a great time. But it was hard to leave, because of what I was leaving behind. I took many pictures that day, and I will cherish those as the years go on.

So many stories of my family going down for games -- just too many to name. My aunt and uncle that live on Long Island attended the 1969 World Series. My dad talking about his visits in the early days. My brother lived in Long Island for a while and he went to a number of games, we always talked about what Shea was like, and it was always electric. And my own experience chanting "Jose, Jose, Jose" with the rest of the Mets faithful, and of course, "Let's Go Mets, Let's Go Mets." Those images are stamped on my brain.

Maybe today would be easier had the last two seasons not ended in a 7 Train wreck on the way to the World Series. Mets fans deserved better. Shea deserved better. Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS was one of the last shining moments for Shea, a great performance, an amazing catch, but just not enough. And there really wasn't a memorable game played after that. The last game was not the way it should have been, but it was.

But there is hope. A new day is dawning just across the way, in our new Citi Field. We can only believe that this team will find a way to honor Shea and its memory by playing an amazin' inaugural season.

The old has passed away. And our hopes and dreams of a world championship starts April 13. The new hope. Our mecca and our home. May Citi Field someday hold the same memories that Shea will forever have in my mind.

You Gotta Believe.

---

Thanks, Howie. That was great.

Shea is gone

From Twitter used bluenautica...So long, old friend.

Update: Here's video of the final piece going down, thanks to Jim Baumbach.

More video...

Poll Results: Will you miss Shea?

In my last poll, I asked the readers "Will you miss Shea?"

With over 115 votes cast, here are the results:

• Yes! -- 64 percent (75 votes)
• Not Really -- 19 percent (23 votes)
• Citi Field, Here I Come! -- 14 percent (17 votes)
• Shea? Shea Who? -- 1 percent (2 votes)

I voted "not really." I'll miss the old park, but I won't be too upset once I get a good look at Citi Field.

Next Poll: Who will hit the first home run in Citi Field?

The orange foul pole tradition continues

I'm not sure if this was a well known fact, but Shea Stadium could lay claim to the only non-yellow foul poles in MLB. They were, as you most likely are picturing right now, a New York Met orange.

I hadn't checked StadiumPage.com in a while, so I shot the Mets an e-mail yesterday. Just a few minutes ago, I got off the phone with a representative from the team. He told me, and now I see for myself, that the foul poles in Citi Field are also orange.

"The ownership was very adamant about having the orange foul poles," Chris, the representative said.

Here's an image from StadiumPage.com, taken this past weekend...

Bright orange, just like I remember.

I love this sort of stuff. Fun little facts and trivia like this are pretty much all I remember.

The other thing I e-mailed about will have to remain a secret, for now. Hopefully the team comes through with my little proposition.

Shea's final days

My father just sent me this photo.Not much left, eh?

Here's a strange one to start your day

Fletcher has been reading "The Yankee Years," and he occasionally throws up a quote or two from the latest chapter. Last night, he read this one aloud and it's too good to pass up.

It deals with the Mets, I promise.

George Steinbrenner would shovel debris out of six inches of gunky, green water while dressed in loafers and slacks if it meant winning a World Series, which is exactly what he was doing in the eighth inning of Game 4 of the 2000 World Series at Shea Stadium. A fire had started in a third-deck trash container at Shea. When firefights opened one standpipe to extinguish the fire, pressure built in another standpipe located over the Yankees' clubhouse. The pipe burst, spewing torrents of dirty water and eventually causing the clubhouse ceiling to collapse. Great waves of fetid water cascaded over the clubhouse, and headed in the direction of the Yankees' principal owner.
...

As firefighters arrived to shut off the standpipe and clean up the mess, Steinbrenner jumped in to help them. After they did the best they could to move the water out and shovel away the pieces of the demolished ceiling, Steinbrenner, soaked himself, took a wad of bills from his pocked and peeled off fifties and hundreds to give to the firefighters in appreciation of their effort.

What a peculiar story. Oh, and people said Shea wasn't a dump?

Does anyone remember this story from when it happened? I sure don't.

Because I so shamelessly stole his entire post, please go visit Scott Proctor's Arm.

This is just stupid

I can't tell if the people behind this are Mets fans making fun of the lack of memories at Shea Stadium, if they're fans of another team grinding salt in the wound or if they're just bad at what they do.

Watch this video (a bit of language at the end, so I'd classify this as NSFW) and see if you can figure out what is going on.

Either way, it made me angry -- that's all I know.

Reader photos

Since I posted my "favorite photo from Shea," I've gotten a few e-mails from readers and friends with their own pictures.

Here is an album from commenter Buzz from the last game and ceremony at Shea Stadium.

And here are three photos from my good friend Kay. The first is her favorite picture from the old stadium, also dealing with the seats. The other two show her tattoo on her ankle, and her dog, both of which you can see on Brooklyn Met Fan.

If you ever have anything you want to submit, feel free to send an e-mail to TheRopolitans@gmail.com.

My favorite photo from Shea Stadium

I took this at the last game I attended at Shea Stadium. Aug. 11, 2008, when the Mets took on the Pittsburgh Pirates.

I just love this photo. It's one of my favorites from my "portfolio."

Click for full size.

Shea Stadium is naked

No more seats. The field is a mess. Slowly but surely, Old Shea is disappearing.

WCBS 880 AM (via River Avenue Blues) has a spectacular gallery of Shea Stadium.

Here's the photo that was on RAB:
One of the comments on that Yankees blog really makes me happy. Steve says:

I drive by Shea every day on my way to work and I noticed the seats gone a few weeks ago. Didn’t notice the outer facade being taken down, though.

BTW-The new Citi Field is absolutely gorgeous.

Citi Field, here we come. A new season, a new stadium, and maybe a new direction for the franchise.

Paying top dollar for items from Shea

Some things have already been taken home, others will go down into the pile of rubble.

The Journal News updates us on some of the items that have gone home with those with the money to pay for it.

One of the last things to come out, from the upper deck, was the piece of concrete, which now looks like a memorial stone - the front painted and marked with Tommie Agee's name and No. 20, and the date April 5, 1969, when he hit the longest home run in stadium history.

That's something that should head to the museum at Citi Field. Something that iconic should either be given to Agee's family, or stay with the Mets franchise.

Seems the Mets listened to me about the foul poles.

The foul poles didn't sell, so they will be cut into one-foot pieces and sold like that.

I'm so smart. On Aug. 25, I wrote, in "What I would like to own from Shea Stadium": "Pieces of the foul pole. Something they could cut up and sell in small pieces, like 1x1 foot sections. Everyone could have a piece."

Also, the group stripping down Shea made some awesome discoveries. In the bathroom of the locker room used by the Jets, they found tile behind a wall inscribed with J-E-T-S. The Journal News relays it crumbled as the workers tried to take them down.

They also found a pallet of wood that was actually part of the original outfield wall, complete with green paint and "338" written on it.

Pretty awesome. What I would give for one last walk-through.

I am so baffled by this article I don't know where to begin

Confusing and pointless. I've read this article three times and have found nothing which makes sense.

An article about Shea Stadium, written by Denis Hamill (who?).

It begins with the his own lament, one of a "fan" who went to the final game at Shea Stadium. From there, he complains about how much it stunk that the ceremony was held after the game. He's only a few weeks late, no worries.

Then he seems to make up two characters, affectionately called "Dumb" and "Dumber." He claims that he sat near these guys on the final day, but also references to other days too? He seems to have made up this fictitious people to make some sort of point, but it really makes no sense.

The article continues with more whining about Wall Street, some silly "How do you spell 'dot com?'" joke, and oh, look, more economy humor. Hilarious.

Then we get to the point in the "story" when the closing ceremony began, and Hamill has to come out and say one of the more ridiculous things I've ever heard:

But then a painful moment came when Willie Mays, one of the top five baseball players to ever wear any uniform, was introduced to tepid applause. Soon followed by Mike Piazza, a pretty good catcher, but say, hey, not even in the same sport with Willie Mays, and the place went nuts.

Let's take a look at this, Mr. Hamill.

• Yes, Mays is far and away a better player then Piazza. Undeniable fact. But to Mets fans, most of who aren't old enough to have seen him play in his heyday, he doesn't mean much in the history of the franchise.
• Mays played all of 135 games for the Mets, in the very dim twilight of his career.
• Sure he could have gotten a better hand, but as I stated before: as a Met, he wasn't that much.
• Piazza, on the other hand, is a player who crafted his Hall of Fame-to be career with the Mets over nearly eight years and 972 games.
• Piazza hit one of the most emotional home runs in Shea Stadium, and New York City history on Sept. 21, 2001.
• There are so many other things I should be listing here, but if you're any sort of Mets fan, you already know the contributions that Piazza put forth during his time with the Mets. Mays, though an amazing player, did not do that sort of stuff with the Mets, and it was surprising he was even at the ceremony at all.

Guess what this awful article ends with? More economy jokes!

Thank you, Mr. Hamill. I think we all know who the "Dumbest" one is now.

Rebuttal: My outrage at Citi Field

I miss Shea Stadium. But I'm much more excited for Citi Field.

Andrew Beaton over at Hot Foot feels much different:

It is truly shameful that the Wilpons are sacraficing thousands of seats, the opportunity for thousands of fans to go to a game, in order to build a few extra luxury boxes and earn an extra couple bucks. In fact, MLB teams have financial incentives to build luxury boxes beyond the obvious ones.

Sure, that's an issue here, but if you've been to Shea Stadium at all, you must know it's a dump. That's right, I said it. Shea was a dump.

It wasn't pretty. Citi Field will be gorgeous.
It didn't have the greatest facilities. Citi Field will be better for the players and the fans.
The good food was few and far-between. Citi Field will have scrumptious food at every turn.

There are 10,000 less seats, but it will be a much more pleasing venue for everyone. Better seats, better sight lines, better proximity to the game. It's going to be a better place, no matter which way you slice it.

Plus, you cannot forget that baseball is a business. It is hard to look beyond the emotions and love of the game, but it's an entertainment business. It's sole purpose is to entertain to make a profit. If they can make more money in Citi Field, then so be it.

They make more money because of SNY, would you want them to shut that down too, just because some people can't get it on their cable provider? I don't think so. It's a business, and where they play is just another way they can make money.

And where do you think that money goes? Well, most of it probably goes into the pockets of the Wilpons & Co., but the money gets recycled into the team. More money translates to better facilities, better franchise, and possibly better players.

So Citi Field in an investment in the franchise for the better. It may be a bit tougher to get a ticket, but outside of the huge games, I've never had a problem getting a seat at Shea when I needed it. I'm sure it will be just the same.

Citi Field, I can't wait for you to get here.

Shea Stadium is coming down [Video]

Head over to Newsday to check out a video from inside Shea Stadium as the workers begin tearing the old place down, piece by piece.

What I'd like to know is, if the Mets are selling those seats, how is taking them apart and tossing them around like that going to keep them safe or organized?

A tearful goodbye

I didn't think I'd be so beat up over this, but I already miss Shea Stadium. That final send off had me in tears from beginning to end, and I wasn't even around for most of that history.

Seeing Mike Piazza and Tom Seaver walk from home plate, out to center field, and "shut the door" on Shea Stadium has me teary eyed even writing about it.

Goodbye, Shea. You served us, the fans, admirably for 45 years. We'll all miss you, but we'll never forget the memories we saw within your walls.

Game Recap: Marlins 4 -- Mets 2

See you next season.

Goodbye, Shea Stadium. Hello, Citi Field.

Pitching Performance

Oliver Perez was spectacular for five innings. Through the first five, he allowed only one hit. Coming out in the sixth, Perez allowed three straight hits, with one run scoring. Another run was charged to him when Joe Smith entered the game with the bases loaded and issued a walk, driving in another run, charged to Perez.

Perez walked three and struck out six. He needed 85 pitches, but couldn't get out of the inning in the sixth.

Could have been the last start for Perez as a Met. His first five were simply spectacular, even after taking a ground ball off his pitching hand, but the sixth was a huge speedbump and he couldn't get over it.

Re-sign Oliver?

Smith stayed in the game after the walk and got two big outs to escape the inning with only two runs scoring. Brian Stokes pitched the seventh, allowing a hit and striking out one.

Smith will be back, Stokes should be.

With the game tied in the eighth, Scott Schoeneweis came on to face pinch hitter Wes Helms, a righty. Schoeneweis stayed in the game, and promptly allowed a home run into the bleachers. Luis Ayala entered the game, and he let up a solo home run to Dan Uggla. Ayala ended up throwing one 1-3 innings, allowing two hits and that earned run.

Don't know why Schoeneweis wasn't removed once Helms was announced. He's terrible against righties. Hindsight is 20/20.

Pedro Feliciano and Bobby Parnell each got an out in the ninth as the Mets tried to rally to win.

Both should be back. Maybe Parnell gets some more grooming in the minors, but it all depends what Omar can do this offseason.

Offensive Output

What offense? Five runs in three games isn't going to cut it.

The sole runs came in the bottom of the sixth inning, after Robinson Cancel drew a pinch hit walk, Carlos Beltran belted a two-run homer into the bleachers, tying up the game.

And that was it. That's all. They had more chances sprinkled through the game, but just couldn't get it done.

The Rest of the Story

Endy Chavez entered the game as a defensive replacement, and made another wonderful catch. Going back on the ball, mere feet away from where he made his catch in '06, Chavez tracked one down on the track, jumped, and snagged it out of mid-air. The parallels are frightening.

David Wright had his nine game hit streak snapped.

Game Ball: Carlos Beltran.