September 27, 2008

Lets tear down Citifield and keep Shea Stadium


This shows both the Polo Grounds and Shea Stadium. Hit the little square near bottom right to make this youtube video fit the entire screen. Hit escape to shrink it again.

This Sunday will be the last regular season game at Shea Stadium, very possibly the last game of any kind at the great old ballpark.

I've been to Shea maybe 200 times since the 1960s, with virtually every one of my family and friends.

Up until the early 1970s, nearly everyone in Bay Ridge was a Mets fan. The celebrations after they won the World Series in 1969 cannot be described.

Shea was for the most part a ballpark for the working man. When I was a young teenager, you could buy a ticket to the upper deck for $1.30.

Next April, they'll be moving to a creepy luxury place named after some bank, and I'm not very happy about it. The prices for tickets and food will be shocking. The average fan will not be welcome. In a small way, this is like the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn again, half a century later.

I'd rather blow up Citifield and keep Shea Stadium for another 44 years. Lend me a backhoe, and I'll drive out to Flushing and start the job tonight.

A wonderful era in New York baseball ends today. It was such fun. Goodbye, Shea Stadium. The fans will miss you a lot more than they think.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The greed of the Mets (and Yankees) organizations will be their shame!!!

Anonymous said...

Damn the price is to expensive. Also it looks like they are making baseball for the rich class and not the middle class anymore

Anonymous said...

The whole world is greedy - was and always will be. I will definitely miss Shea. I guess I will be able to go to a game in 2 years or so when the hype winds down and the phony fans stop going.

Paul S. Rabin said...

It's remarkable how politically incorrect it is to say anything bad about Citifield, due in part because Shea Stadium was the butt of so many jokes. I dunno, you went to Shea to watch a ball game and that's what you saw, a ball game. Clear views of the field from just about everywhere, plenty of seats. I hvaen't been to Citifield yet but from what i can gather, the Mets have done a good job of making sure the game is secondary to all the other attractions they have there. Maybe with the way they've been playing the last few years that's a good thing.