Shea Goodbye
Blogger's note: This blog's going to be a little different for the next few weeks. Put simply, this election has burned me out on politics, so taking a page from what my chosen candidate John McCain did a few days ago, I am suspending my campaign... coverage. Only in my case, it's for good. From now until Election Day, it'll be all sports and entertainment in this space, because I think I serve all of us a greater good (myself included) by providing a nice escape from all the tension of current events. Hope that you the reader understand and continue to enjoy this blog!
Way back in March, I entered myself in the lottery for tickets to the final game at Shea Stadium. I didn't get picked. So when single-game tickets went on sale shortly thereafter, I bought two tickets for the second-to-last game. I'd say the way things turned out, I was pretty fortunate. And so it was that Saturday afternoon, I found myself seeing one of the great pitching performances in Mets history with a nice young lady from Orlando...
OK, I should back up, because every good story has a good back story to go with it...
See, the previous two years I've gone to Shea with my good friend Jay, back when he lived in Albany (which served as a nice halfway point and an opportunity to turn it into a full weekend trip). However, he has since moved to Orlando and I don't know if you've noticed, but flying anywhere has become a genuine pain in the ass... just ask my mom, who was stuck in an airport in NYC overnight last month after not one but TWO connecting flights back to the 'Cuse were canceled.
Anyway... I was joking to him that he should fly up here anyway as I was unable to find a taker for my second ticket as of just a few days ago. He called back a few hours later saying, "You still have that extra ticket?" Duh. He replied that a co-worker of his would take it... a female co-worker, who just happened to be a Queens native and a huge Mets fan. So she took the weekend to fly up to NYC to join me for this special occasion. Now that is dedication to your team.
Now I've never actually driven to Shea before... the standard protocol the previous two years was to drive into Manhattan, find a parking garage, and hop the 7 train to Shea. After the game, Jay and I would make a day of it, going to Manhattan where hilarity would ensue... sometimes involving overpriced cheesecakes. Since I was going solo on this trip, it had to be a one-day round trip and I pretty much had to go straight to Shea. Luckily, I got there early enough to get a nice parking space next to the Mets' future home, Citi Field. This is going to be a beautiful stadium when it opens next year, although I'm a little peeved about how tough a ticket it will be since there will be 12,000 fewer seats.
I met up with Ali, my guest for the ballgame (not, as my SU friends joked, my "blind date") and we headed in. Since I've never been quite so early to the ballpark, we went down to field level to catch batting practice and try for autographs. Unfortunately, we missed the Mets, but luckily they did have Nelson Figueroa signing pretty much everything people handed him. So Ali and I left our spot along the right field line, went over to the dugout... and missed him. We went over a little further... and missed him. Finally, I realized that we should not have moved in the first place and raced back over to our original spot just in the nick of time to get our programs signed. Lesson learned: patience is a virtue... although usually not the case with New York sports fans.
As we finally resolved that mini-crisis, it started to rain. I should note that the whole trip down was a misty, foggy mess and as we headed up to our upper deck seats, one could certainly see the Fog of Impending Doom settling in on the ballpark. Perhaps symbolic, considering that our team had once again blown a sizable division lead in September and was barely clinging to life as far as making the postseason. So there was a nice long rain delay, and the game started over a half-hour late.
Once it began, however, we were treated to a riveting performance by Johan Santana. The Mets shelled out a lot of money and prospects to pick him up from Minnesota, and he reportedly demanded to start this game with our playoff hopes dwindling. You've gotta love that in an ace pitcher, wanting the ball, going out on 3 days rest, and pitching an absolute gem. The whole stadium rose and fell on every pitch he threw, got progressively louder with every strikeout, and the chants of "Jo-han" also got louder and louder. Some don't like 2-0 baseball games because they want to see action, but games like this, especially in such a tense situation, are one of the things I love about this sport. Getting to watch a master at the top of his game was such a thrill, and when Santana finished up his complete game 3-hit shutout, a Shea Stadium crowd got to go nuts one last time. Strangers high-fiving strangers, sporadic chants of "Jo-han" and "Let's Go Cubbies" (because the Cubs were playing the Brewers, the team we trailed for the wild-card) erupting as the masses left the stadium, a fantastic feeling.
After getting turned around a couple of times trying to make it out of Flushing (you mean all the cars are backed up in that left turn lane because that's the CORRECT WAY to go? I shouldn't go in the opposite direction to save time? Whoa...), I was on my way home, thrilled for the experience. I'll admit that it was dulled somewhat by the events of yesterday... knowing that such a gem was ultimately all for naught due to one final bullpen implosion that ended our season. Believe me, if you choke once, doing it again doesn't make it easier to take... especially since we followed up last year's biggest-ever September choke with another embarrassing first: first team ever to lead by at least 3 1/2 games with 17 to play in back-to-back seasons and not make the playoffs either year.
Who do I blame for this? Clearly it's GM Omar Minaya's fault. I mean, credit where credit is due, he got us Santana, he got us useful players like Church, Tatis, and Schneider, but the biggest problem this team had last year, the reason we blew the division in '07 was the bullpen. I wrote in this blog one year ago that Minaya needed to blow up the bullpen and start over. He did NOTHING. And so the biggest problem from last year became the biggest problem this year with the same result. In my book, that means you are not doing your job. I'd like to think he'll get the message and fix things this offseason, but I honestly have NO confidence in him right now.
That said, I did watch the closing ceremonies for Shea Stadium after the last out yesterday. It was certainly a much more gloomy mood for the proceedings than we would have liked, but seeing all the greats come back was awesome... Willie Mays was there, Yogi Berra was there... Dwight Gooden finally came back to Shea. He was my first favorite baseball player when I was a kid, back before his career spiraled downward due to cocaine use (and back before I even knew what cocaine was or what it did to people). Then, after everyone cleared off the field, only Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza were left, and Seaver went to the mound one last time (his "office", he loved to call it), and threw a pitch to Piazza. Then the two walked out through center field together, pausing occasionally to wave to all the fans, then they walked through the gate and closed it behind them, closing the stadium forever. I'll admit I teared up a little. Even though I only went to 3 games there, I certainly have a lot of reverence for the place, and some may say it's a dump but I never thought so.
So now the Mets will move into Citi Field next year and due to state laws against the sort of thing, they will not be blowing up Shea like they've done with other defunct stadiums. Instead, they have to tear it down piece by piece. I've got a better suggestion... in light of the last two Septembers, they might be better off burning the place to the ground to get the stench of these back-to-back chokes out and to make sure none of that follows the Mets over to the new place. Oh well, life goes on and for those of us whose last Shea Stadium experience was the Saturday game, we leave Shea behind with fond and happy memories.
Way back in March, I entered myself in the lottery for tickets to the final game at Shea Stadium. I didn't get picked. So when single-game tickets went on sale shortly thereafter, I bought two tickets for the second-to-last game. I'd say the way things turned out, I was pretty fortunate. And so it was that Saturday afternoon, I found myself seeing one of the great pitching performances in Mets history with a nice young lady from Orlando...
OK, I should back up, because every good story has a good back story to go with it...
See, the previous two years I've gone to Shea with my good friend Jay, back when he lived in Albany (which served as a nice halfway point and an opportunity to turn it into a full weekend trip). However, he has since moved to Orlando and I don't know if you've noticed, but flying anywhere has become a genuine pain in the ass... just ask my mom, who was stuck in an airport in NYC overnight last month after not one but TWO connecting flights back to the 'Cuse were canceled.
Anyway... I was joking to him that he should fly up here anyway as I was unable to find a taker for my second ticket as of just a few days ago. He called back a few hours later saying, "You still have that extra ticket?" Duh. He replied that a co-worker of his would take it... a female co-worker, who just happened to be a Queens native and a huge Mets fan. So she took the weekend to fly up to NYC to join me for this special occasion. Now that is dedication to your team.
Now I've never actually driven to Shea before... the standard protocol the previous two years was to drive into Manhattan, find a parking garage, and hop the 7 train to Shea. After the game, Jay and I would make a day of it, going to Manhattan where hilarity would ensue... sometimes involving overpriced cheesecakes. Since I was going solo on this trip, it had to be a one-day round trip and I pretty much had to go straight to Shea. Luckily, I got there early enough to get a nice parking space next to the Mets' future home, Citi Field. This is going to be a beautiful stadium when it opens next year, although I'm a little peeved about how tough a ticket it will be since there will be 12,000 fewer seats.
I met up with Ali, my guest for the ballgame (not, as my SU friends joked, my "blind date") and we headed in. Since I've never been quite so early to the ballpark, we went down to field level to catch batting practice and try for autographs. Unfortunately, we missed the Mets, but luckily they did have Nelson Figueroa signing pretty much everything people handed him. So Ali and I left our spot along the right field line, went over to the dugout... and missed him. We went over a little further... and missed him. Finally, I realized that we should not have moved in the first place and raced back over to our original spot just in the nick of time to get our programs signed. Lesson learned: patience is a virtue... although usually not the case with New York sports fans.
As we finally resolved that mini-crisis, it started to rain. I should note that the whole trip down was a misty, foggy mess and as we headed up to our upper deck seats, one could certainly see the Fog of Impending Doom settling in on the ballpark. Perhaps symbolic, considering that our team had once again blown a sizable division lead in September and was barely clinging to life as far as making the postseason. So there was a nice long rain delay, and the game started over a half-hour late.
Once it began, however, we were treated to a riveting performance by Johan Santana. The Mets shelled out a lot of money and prospects to pick him up from Minnesota, and he reportedly demanded to start this game with our playoff hopes dwindling. You've gotta love that in an ace pitcher, wanting the ball, going out on 3 days rest, and pitching an absolute gem. The whole stadium rose and fell on every pitch he threw, got progressively louder with every strikeout, and the chants of "Jo-han" also got louder and louder. Some don't like 2-0 baseball games because they want to see action, but games like this, especially in such a tense situation, are one of the things I love about this sport. Getting to watch a master at the top of his game was such a thrill, and when Santana finished up his complete game 3-hit shutout, a Shea Stadium crowd got to go nuts one last time. Strangers high-fiving strangers, sporadic chants of "Jo-han" and "Let's Go Cubbies" (because the Cubs were playing the Brewers, the team we trailed for the wild-card) erupting as the masses left the stadium, a fantastic feeling.
After getting turned around a couple of times trying to make it out of Flushing (you mean all the cars are backed up in that left turn lane because that's the CORRECT WAY to go? I shouldn't go in the opposite direction to save time? Whoa...), I was on my way home, thrilled for the experience. I'll admit that it was dulled somewhat by the events of yesterday... knowing that such a gem was ultimately all for naught due to one final bullpen implosion that ended our season. Believe me, if you choke once, doing it again doesn't make it easier to take... especially since we followed up last year's biggest-ever September choke with another embarrassing first: first team ever to lead by at least 3 1/2 games with 17 to play in back-to-back seasons and not make the playoffs either year.
Who do I blame for this? Clearly it's GM Omar Minaya's fault. I mean, credit where credit is due, he got us Santana, he got us useful players like Church, Tatis, and Schneider, but the biggest problem this team had last year, the reason we blew the division in '07 was the bullpen. I wrote in this blog one year ago that Minaya needed to blow up the bullpen and start over. He did NOTHING. And so the biggest problem from last year became the biggest problem this year with the same result. In my book, that means you are not doing your job. I'd like to think he'll get the message and fix things this offseason, but I honestly have NO confidence in him right now.
That said, I did watch the closing ceremonies for Shea Stadium after the last out yesterday. It was certainly a much more gloomy mood for the proceedings than we would have liked, but seeing all the greats come back was awesome... Willie Mays was there, Yogi Berra was there... Dwight Gooden finally came back to Shea. He was my first favorite baseball player when I was a kid, back before his career spiraled downward due to cocaine use (and back before I even knew what cocaine was or what it did to people). Then, after everyone cleared off the field, only Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza were left, and Seaver went to the mound one last time (his "office", he loved to call it), and threw a pitch to Piazza. Then the two walked out through center field together, pausing occasionally to wave to all the fans, then they walked through the gate and closed it behind them, closing the stadium forever. I'll admit I teared up a little. Even though I only went to 3 games there, I certainly have a lot of reverence for the place, and some may say it's a dump but I never thought so.
So now the Mets will move into Citi Field next year and due to state laws against the sort of thing, they will not be blowing up Shea like they've done with other defunct stadiums. Instead, they have to tear it down piece by piece. I've got a better suggestion... in light of the last two Septembers, they might be better off burning the place to the ground to get the stench of these back-to-back chokes out and to make sure none of that follows the Mets over to the new place. Oh well, life goes on and for those of us whose last Shea Stadium experience was the Saturday game, we leave Shea behind with fond and happy memories.
posted by Dave | 11:36 AM
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