A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews.

 
Ode To Shea

Am I the only Mets fan who will miss Shea Stadium when it is razed by a bulldozer and replaced by a replica of all the other "modern" stadiums?

Aren't Yankee fans going to miss Yankee Stadium?

It's amazing how so little (if anything) has been written this week about the fact that in a few years, New York's two major league baseball stadiums will be no more.

When it was constructed in the early 60's, it was ultra-modern, but supposedly Shea Stadium is now a dump. Objectively, it doesn't have very much character, and there are better places to watch a game.

Funny, nobody mentions that Madison Square Garden comes with corner blindspots making part of the ice or court invisible to almost all fans. MSG is identified as a "mecca" even though, if not for the fans, it would be a lousy place to watch a game.

I attended my first baseball game at Shea Stadium twenty-five years ago, on Sunday, June 15, 1980. It was jacket day and the Mets lost 3-0. The previous night, the Mets won 7-6 on Steve Henderson's three run homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

I'm all for progress, and with the Mets picking up much of the cost, it's hard to complain too strongly about a new stadium for the Mets.

But isn't anyone else going to miss the place where every Mets home game since 1964 has been played, where the Mets won the World Series in '69 and '86? The 410 sign in dead centerfield, the field still suited best for pitching and defense in a sport that (at least until this year) has become home run obsessed?

The stadium where Lenny Dykstra's homer won Game 3 of the '86 NLCS, where Tom Seaver pitched so many gems including the decisive '73 pennant clincher, where Keith Hernandez cut down so many bunts, where Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry provided so much promise in the mid-80's and Gregg Jefferies did the same in late 1988, and where Robin Ventura, Todd Pratt and Benny Agbayani hit those unforgettable homers in the 1999 and 2000 playoffs?

And perhaps most importantly, when the new stadium is built, will it too be visible - first from a distance and then from up close - from the window of the 7 train?
posted on 6/17/2005