Shea.....I mean Citi Field

Last fall my brother's blog was a long obituary and tribute to Shea Stadium. I felt much of what he stated in those blogs. We didn't go on huge vacations when I was a kid. Heck, we were 5 minutes from the beach, took swimming lessons (2 weeks of the summer that it was guaranteed to rain.) There was a weekly bus to the library. My brothers played little league and we went to those games all summer. Sometimes we went to DC or Virginia or PA to see my aunt and Uncle and that was nice. I got to Gettysburg, the Smithsonians, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, Mount Vernon, etc.

But my best memories of the summers growing up were swimming in the Sound and.....following the Mets. We would watch those dumb bas***** lose game after game and sometimes pullout a win. We watched them on the old independent station, channel 9 WOR-TV. When they weren't on TV we listened to them on the radio, sometimes taking my dad's old transistor down to the beach to listen when we dared to leave the house if a game were on.

The summer always culminated with my dad taking his 2 weeks vacation. He joked that they were "honey-dew" vacations, "Honey do this, honey do that." But he always made time to take us to Shea for a game. The first game we went to the Mets played the Reds (the Big Red Machine of the 70's) The best had been on a losing streak of course but they beat the Reds that day 12-2. I still remember it. My brother Steven wanted to collect hats from the different ball teams and my dad had bought him a Reds hat. He got harassed leaving the stadium wearing that hat!

Sometimes we brought a neighbor kid, David, or one of the younger kids brought a friend. My grandfather would go with us and my aunt too. Mr. Shea (yes there is a Mr. Shea) went to Catholic schools in NYC and loved the nuns and would have a nun's day and give them tickets for their families. So we got to go to a few games from my Aunt Margaret. (a sister of St. Joseph in Brooklyn, still teaching 8th grade!)

Every time I have been to Pittsburgh stadium, it was to watch the Mets, win or lose. I'm a fan. Jack spent his first birthday at a Met game at Pirates stadium and got on Diamond vision. My sister and her husband were in for a visit.

The kids first game at Shea, we had seats in section QQ in the upper deck. Andrea swore there were seats past us, but no...Shea Stadium stopped at QQ. We had the last seats in that stadium and the kids were 5 and 3 the summer of 2000! It was crazy. Fireworks nite, sell out game (56,000+) they were playing the braves and we hated the braves that year. What a great game! Mike Piazza got a grandslam homer in the 8th and the Mets came from behind to win 12-8 or something. My brother Matt has it taped from "Mets Classics" (My family is crazy for them!)

We always try to get to a game each summer, sort of a family reunion place."Let's meet at a game!" It is fun and nostalgic and win or lose we always have a good time. Usually I am with a sibling and they can help with the kids, or do the driving or at least be a co-pilot. This was my summer of true Independence because I was meeting Annie and her new beau at the game and I had to drive myself. The train takes too long. The game was at 7 and I left at 2:15! No traffic and we got there by 4:15. The parking lot was sparse and these kids that were parked next to us were grilling Nathan's hot dogs and offered us some. I was not prepared with anything to eat beyond goldfish crackers. That was the best hot dog! The kid had a charcoal grill. They had everything, hot dogs, hamburgers, camp chair and table and don't let people tell you New Yorkers are rude. They were high school kids and they were so nice and friendly and polite. It was refreshing.

I thought we would see a win. It was the top of the 9th and they were winning 7-4. I took kate for nachos...("Now? the game is almost over?!") well I get back to my seat and the game is tied and then extra innings and to make a too long blog short, they lost! 12-7. The Mets suck.

But we had a nice time at Citi Field. Because we got there early we saw some batting practice, looked at the misplaced tribute to Jackie Robinson (we played for the Brooklyn Dodgers NOT the Mets) used the batting cage, threw balls at the dunk tank, bought some T-shirts (Daniel Murphy and David Wright!) This one candy shop had a Mr. Met made out of jelly beans. And we got to spend the nite with Annie and James.

Sorry for blabbing, enjoy the pictures.

Cowbell Man

Jelly Bean Mr. Met

David Wright (sigh)