So I’m home…and I’m devastated. For all intents and purposes the “traveling” part of my trip is over. Having only the two New York stadiums and Boston left to go I took the train to Queens for a day trip and I plan on doing the same for a weekend trip to the Bronx. [See, Duke? I told you this trip was made up of “planes, trains and automobiles!”] The day trip to the Mets game was pretty intense though. I woke up at 4:30AM to catch my 6:05 train to New York City and didn’t return until after midnight. The day started out pretty rough when on the T to South Station I realized I had booked my ticket for the next day! I think I may be developing an allergy to online reservation systems. Some of you will remember the near disaster in Minneapolis that lead to a roller coaster ride at the Mall of America as well as the mishap in Milwaukee. It turned out not to be that big of a deal as, after spending an anxious 10 minutes or so in line, I was able to change my ticket to the correct day (for an extra $30) and board the train about 45 seconds before it pulled out of the station!
Taking the train was an interesting experience. I read a book for most of the trip down and generally enjoyed not stressing out about trying to beat everyone to New York. With all the stops though, I think it actually may have been faster to drive. Pros and Cons I guess...C’est la vie… Whatcha gonna do?... Win some lose some. OK, I’m done. When I got to Penn Station I was quite happy I had been to the city on a few other occasions for work. I think otherwise I would have been pretty overwhelmed. I found my way to the right subway pretty easily and headed out to Shea Stadium.
En el tren a Shea Stadium había anuncios completamente en espanol! Yo nunca he visto esto. Que magnifico, verdad?
Game Notes:
The first thing I saw upon exiting the train was Citi Field. The Mets’ new stadium is coming along quite nicely and should be ready for opening day 2009. I took a ton of pictures myself but I never seemed to get a great angle. This poster inside Shea gave me a much better perspective than my pictures.
Please note: light of God shining down on center field not included.For reference, Shea Stadium is currently located in what will be a parking lot to the left. I said should be ready for opening day 2009 because the construction workers there were a bit suspect. I don’t know if this was break time or what but you can see guys on all three levels just kind of hanging out. They also spent most of the game in these areas just watching the action.
There are two things I’d like to point out about the next picture. First is above the ticket window there are pictures of the players in the Mets’ lineup that day (they hadn’t yet updated it from the previous night because Johan Santana is on the far right and he didn’t pitch in the game I saw). That was pretty cool though and the only other team to do something similar was the Cincinnati Reds, though theirs was on a much smaller scale. The second thing about this picture is the line at the ticket window. After I just get done bragging about my “park savvy” I used in Washington I can’t believe I didn’t try to find another ticket window in New York. This line took forever. It was senior citizen’s day at the ballpark and I have nothing against them as a group of people but it is a fact that sometimes they take longer to do things. And that’s all I have to say about that.
The last thing I want to mention about the outside of Shea Stadium is the dearth of scalpers. I did not see or hear one person openly trying to buy or sell tickets anywhere around the stadium. The Mets have signs posted next to the ticket windows admonishing patrons that they are not allowed to resell tickets for any price, but that is similar to most stadiums around the country. Maybe they actually enforce it in New York?
In stark contrast to places like Tampa or San Diego which were very family and kid friendly, Shea Stadium is a no-frills, all business, pure baseball stadium. The typical ballpark smells were the first thing that hit me when I walked in. The air was filled with the aromas of grilled sausages, popcorn, hot dogs and, unfortunately, hot people. The concession areas at the stadium were extremely cramped. Shea is a great test of my theory on “if you have the space, you can build it right.” Well, apparently 1964 didn’t get that memo. There is a tremendous amount of wasted space in the underbelly of the park and trying to move anywhere was a nightmare. The official attendance of the game I saw was 48,755 (85% capacity) but that had to include season ticket seats sold because the place looked maybe half full. I really would have hated to try and move around during an important game or one where they sold out. This picture is just one example and it was taken very early in the day. As game time approached I felt more and more like a sardine.
One side note about the picture above – on the far right you can kind of see the self-serve style the Mets used for some of their food stands. I didn’t find that very often around the rest of the country and it reminded me of Roy Rogers. We used to stop at the one on Rt. 95 north of Hartford, CT on the way back from Long Island. I miss it, I used to put SO many pickles on my burgers, it was awesome…but I digress.
Anyways, the Mets food options were kind of limited but a few things were worth mentioning. Much like the rest of the park, the condiment selection was absolutely no-frills.
That’s it, the Mets don’t mess around. No jalepenos, no sour kraut and certainly no “effin relish.” That also meant, though, that were was no yellow mustard, only the spicy kind; points for that one! There wasn’t anything close to a “Met Dog” (frankly, I don’t know what that would even mean...a slice of pizza served on a bagel with lox and cream cheese?) and the prices were right up there with or exceeded those at Nationals Stadium. The one unique thing the Mets did do was to list the calories of everything they served, even the beer ($8.00 16oz bottle and $9.50 24oz can). That was a little unexpected but kind of helpful. Check out those peanuts, huh?!
The seating area at Shea was MASSIVE. For those of you who didn’t do the math above, the capacity is 55,601 and, crowded though it may have been, I think it would have been really impressive to see the stadium filled to capacity. To top it off, they have that kind of capacity while only having room for a few hundred people in the outfield! Speaking of which, I think that was the worst part of Shea. The place really was a dump. I know it’s old and they’re moving into a new stadium soon but they’ve really let it go. The scoreboards are awkwardly disconnected and so small that Budweiser has a billboard add larger than both of them combined. Also, this must have been a time period phenomenon because Dodgers stadium was built in 1962 but the colors of the seats in Shea are totally random. Blue and orange make sense, but where do you get Red and Green from? I climbed up to the very top row of the upper deck in right field and took some shots from the seat furthest away from home plate.
Have a look at the stairway, I mean, that thing was STEEP! The upper deck at Shea was definitely the steepest outdoor upper deck in the country. Tampa and Arizona have it beat but those stadiums have roofs and I’m not sure why domes can be steeper but I’m not going to take the time to figure it out. Instead, how about we all get distracted by Flushing Meadows which was pretty much right next door. Did anyone see the Nadal/Federer match at Wimbledon this year? I say greatest match I’ve ever seen, many say greatest ever.
High Points:
-I settled into an upper deck seat behind home plate before the game and when the first Giants batter was announced he immediately was greeted with a bellowing “YOU SUCK!” from an already intoxicated Mets fan a section over from me. Fair stereotype or not, I thought this was quintessential New York fan and it definitely started the game off on the right foot.
-I liked this shot I took during the game.
-Another great thing I’m still not over yet about being back in the northeast is the palpable ballpark buzz at most of the stadiums. Shea was half full and yet it was no exception. The white noise/chatter was there, the scoreboard hardly had to do anything to get the fans involved in the game and I think it’s just SO much more enjoyable to watch a game in that kind of atmosphere.
-I’ve heard it a bunch in my lifetime but I was still excited to hear “Meet the M-E-T-S” (complete with bouncing-ball video montage!) blaring through the sound system prior to the game.
-The aforementioned spicy mustard packets were certainly a highlight of the day.
-The pretzel I purchased was exceptionally warm. Usually stadiums have heaters and serve pretzels warm but this thing was out of control…in a good way.
-I bought a grilled sausage inside the stadium and it was delicious.
-I may get in trouble for this next “high point” but I think it’s something that needs to be addressed. The men’s room at Shea was absurdly cramped and, like I said, I would hate to try to move around during a sold out game but it also had one of the most unique things I’ve seen not just at a ballpark but anywhere in the country. Ready? The toilet seat is on springs! The “home” position is up and, frankly, I think it’s one of the best ideas I’ve ever seen. Why isn’t this more prevalent across the country? What is bad about this idea? Of course, that leads to the larger point of women always yelling at guys to put the seat down but why shouldn’t ya’ll have to put it UP? It’s the same amount of effort that needs to be exerted by either party. I understand the consequences can be worse for those with the XX chromosome but I still don’t think the constant berating is fair. Instead of arguing though, why don’t we just put springs on all of our toilet seats?!
-I thought this was pretty funny. What’d I say about no frills, huh?
-There was a certain raw, undeniably New York quality to the ushers, fans, vendors and the actual stadium itself that, to me, screamed Mets. For better or worse, at least the stadium had some character.
-The last high point at Shea happened completely by coincidence. I went to the other side of the stadium to get some pictures of the scoreboard and all of a sudden my long lost little Jewish brother started sprinting up the stairs right towards me. It was funny, I couldn’t resist. Please don’t report me to any governmental agencies…he was sitting in the next section over, right across the aisle.
Low Points:
-I was reminded why I’m glad I did the bulk of this trip in April/May. Not only was it senior citizens day, I think it was also “every summer camp in New York City” day. Far too many unruly children were clogging things up all over the stadium. I would have taken more pictures but I don’t want people to start getting the wrong idea so I’ll just tell you that I’ve never seen so many blocks of colored tee shirts in my life. Every camp or group had matching shirts and I want to know what happens when two large groups wearing neon green pass each other in the concession area. Like I said, it’s really crowded and what if some kids get spun around and start following the wrong group of shirts?! I’m really curious as to what the contingency is in that situation.
-I was a little concerned by the passion these fans displayed towards Mr. Met. They were putty in his hands…I wonder what would happen if he ran for office? And for those of you wondering about the title of this picture, yes I did take 7 shots of Mr. Met. I’m a little concerned about that as well.
-I touched on this above but Shea did not use its space well at all. The shell of the stadium is really large and it seems like they had plenty of land to build on but really did waste a lot of what they had to work with. Inside the concession areas there were huge gaps of dead area between the ramps and where they served the food. Sitting in the outfield for a baseball game can be awesome. Only a few hundred fans per game get that privilege at Shea; that’s not right. Hopefully Citi Field will remedy these problems.
-I didn’t get pictures from all of the usual angles at Shea because the caste system reared its ugly head again. To recap, at Dodger Stadium you can only access your section or higher, at US Cellular Field if you have a ticket to the upper deck you can only access the upper deck and at Shea Stadium if you do not have a field level ticket you are not allowed into the lowest level of the seating bowl. We clear?
-This was one of the few stadiums around the country that charges a premium to buy food from vendors. Generally things only cost .25 more and I guess I agree with that principle but it still was a low point for the game.
-Some songs are synonymous with prominent closers. Trevor Hoffman runs into the game to “Hell’s Bells” in San Diego, Mariano Rivera comes in to “Enter Sandman” in the Bronx and Fenway has been pushing “Shippin’ Up to Boston” on Jonathan Paplebon. Billy Wagner has been one of the best closers in baseball for more than a decade and I was absolutely FLOORED when he came into the game to “Enter Sandman.” EVERYBODY knows that’s Rivera’s music…or so I thought. Originally I was outraged at this egregious offense but a simple Google search actually revealed that Wagner started using the song three years before Mariano did. Here’s a picture of the “offender”. Sorry Billy!
-There was a group of children sitting near me for the second half of the game who were die-hard Yankees fans (or, more probably, band wagon, don’t-know-any-better Yankees fans) who took great delight in trying to start a “Where is Joba?” chant. I really wished their chaperones had informed these brats that we were at a METS game. They then started all sorts of Yankees/Jeter/Joba related chants. That was a blast, really. I swear I didn’t move my seat shortly thereafter.
-I was severely underwhelmed by a certain usher’s ability to take a decent picture of me. This is what I ended up with.
-This had nothing to do with the game but I witnessed a fascinating sociological phenomenon at Penn Station before taking the train home. I walked in to a sea of fish-eyed people staring at the board where they list what track your train will be on. I really didn’t get it. Almost without exception, the track listing would be posted about 10 minutes before a train was supposed to depart. I found no point in standing there with everyone else staring at the board. I did a lap around the station, weaved in and out of people as they stood stoic, staring at the board. It was kind of like what happens on an elevator. Why stand facing the doors watching the numbers tick by? In college, my social psychology professor made us do an experiment where you get on an elevator and stand “backwards.” Try it, it’s fun :-)
Overall Grade: C+
Game Stats:
Teams: Mets vs. Giants
Final Score: 7-3 Mets
WP: Scott Schoeneweis
LP: Sergio Romo
Time: 3:10
Announced Attendance: 48,755
Ticket Price: $20.00
Parking Price: N/A
Trip Stats:
Home team record: 20-8
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 10702
Speeding Tickets: ZERO!
States Visited: 27
Countries Visited: 2
Districts of Columbia Visited: 1
Beds slept in: 32
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: New York Yankees
Favorite Park: Petco Park (Padres)
Stadium Grades:
Marlins: D
Rays: B
Braves: B-
Rockies: B+
Mariners: B
Giants: A-
Athletics: C
Angels: B-
Dodgers: B+
Padres: A
Diamondbacks: B
Rangers: B-
Astros: B-
Blue Jays: C
Tigers: A-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B
Royals: B
Twins: B-
Brewers: A-
White Sox: B
Cubs: B+
Pirates: C+
Orioles: B
Phillies: A-
Nationals: B
Mets: C+
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