The X Factor

OK, time to clear the guilty conscience. While I did manage to visit all the newly opened parks during the summer of 2010, I was a bit delayed in writing up the posts. That, however, might help me make a point about the Mets’ new Citi Field. I know I’ve mentioned it before and at the risk of joining the ranks of those working in the department of redundancy department, some stadiums have just got it, and some don’t. If you don’t know, I’m now in Edinburgh, Scotland for my third year of law school and there is a show on over here in the UK called “The X Factor.” It’s just the equivalent of American Idol in the States where they try to find the person who has “the X factor” – well, let me be the first to tell you that Citi Field certainly has the X factor and no, I’m not talking about Xavier Nady! …Random 2006 reference? ...Anyone?

Anyway, Siobhan was kind enough to lend her couch for me to crash on so I Amtraked it (yes, that’s a verb, but did I spell it right?) down to NYC for a night of baseball and merriment - thanks SioTime! And fahhgettaboutit guy, the Mets done good. Sometimes it almost felt like some smartypants in their offices actually read my blog and took some criticisms to heart when designing the new Citi Field! (see generally Summer of Matt, post 36 “Meet the M-E-T-S: The 19 Hour Odyssey” discussing lack of condiment selection, waste of space, and general unfriendliness of stadium) Similar to the feeling at Comerica Park, Miller Park, and the other highly rated stadiums, I knew immediately Citi Field would be a good one. They kept one of my favorite parts about Shea, and that’s putting that day’s lineup in the form of huge baseball cards right when you walk in.



Before heading inside though, there were a few things I liked about the outside of the stadium. What was Shea is totally gone and paved over to provide parking for Citi Field’s patrons. All I could find that was left was the giant Home Run Apple that used to be in center field at Shea and would pop up with lights and fanfare whenever the Mets homered. The Johnsons were making their annual pilgrimage to NYC for a Mets game. They live in Oklahoma now but Roy, the dad, grew up in Queens and takes his wife and two sons there every year. He just got laid off last year though, from his job as a software developer, so this trip was extra special to him and his family. Apparently, they scraped what they could and saved every penny here and there in anticipation of the weekend. Good for them! Plus, I guess their car broke down on the drive over and they almost didn’t make it but a trucker pulled over and helped them out right on route 95! Anyway, enough about them, here’s a picture of the Home Run Apple and the Johnson family.



Did I get you? Hope so! That was all made up, I just couldn’t get a picture of the apple without some stupid family jumping in the way. Anyway, they also had some really cool “then and now” banners. My favorite was the one with Darryl Strawberry and Jason Bay. Don’t ask me why. The other thing I liked about the outside of the stadium were the bricks paid for by sponsors of the stadium. Can you find the funniest brick in the picture? I’ll give you a hint, it says “Go The Mets!” WTF? I would be so embarrassed if I were Chad Hemenway and Family.



So anyway, when I walked into Citi Field I was greeted by an impressive multi-level concourse.



On the bottom was a huge tribute to Jackie Robinson as well as the Mets Hall of Fame. The HoF had some absolute gems in it. For example, there were tons of pictures of Mr. Met and the championship teams and plenty of reminders about what happened in a certain year involving a certain city and a certain team who’s certain first baseman didn’t make certain that a certain ball rolled slowly into his glove, which led to certain panic among certain fans in the said certain city. Certainly didn’t need to be reminded about that as often as I was! There were some awesome things in the HoF though, like Donrus baseball card packs! This brought back SO many memories as soon as I saw them. ’89 Donrus cards were pretty much the height of my card collecting days.



Also, I found one magical loogey! I mean Keith Hernandez. Related: I didn’t help him move.



Moving along…

Game Notes:

I loved my walk around Citi Field. There were SO many good things about the stadium to take in. First, the condiments jumped right out at me. If you remember, Shea stadium had ketchup, mustard (albeit spicy brown) and that was it. No frills. Well, the Mets certainly changed all that in the new joint.



These carts were self-serve and had almost any topping you could want. Ketchup, mustard, relish, jalapenos, sour kraut, lettuce, tomato, and on and on. AMAZING! Seriously, best condiment selection in the country. Well done. Also, BEERS.



Wow! Seriously, almost anything under the sun. Of course, the old adage of “buy-the-draft-because-you-get-20-oz-for-$7.00-instead-of-paying-$7.75-for-16-oz-poured-into-a-cup” rang true once again but the selection was nevertheless impressive. The prices, overall, however weren’t so hot. I mean, it was New York so I was expecting to pay through the nose for just about everything, but still. The counter to this, of course, is that Citi Field offers you any kind of food you could possibly want. The selection and unique variety really stood out. The Mets certainly are turning the experience of a baseball game into more of a night on the town than your father’s hot-dog-and-a-soda-boom-done kind of night. The best thing about this paragraph is I promise it's the only one to use so many hyphenated word combinations. The best thing about the food at Citi Field, though, was the alternative options.



Wow! They had gluten free hot dog, sausage and hamburger rolls, and gluten free beers! Excellent. They also had something similar to the Twins’ farmer’s market except this thing was apparently international.



I’ll move on from food now, but the overall selection pretty much tops anywhere else in the country. Walking around was relatively easy too – save for the very top concourse. The Mets had enough room to build the new place and the concourse at the top of the stadium could have been wider, considering the amount of fans up there for any given game. Another thing that was cool about walking around were the freaking cup holders on the standing room railings!! The Phillies had, yes had, the best standing room places in the country until now, but the Mets one-upped their neighbor to the South. They put cup holders into the standing room railings so now the beers wouldn’t fall over and you have more room for your food. Genius. The irony, though, is that the Mets don’t offer standing room tickets for sale. Kinda weird, no?

The Mets also borrowed right-center field from the Phillies. Well, no, not literally, but this looks an awful lot like the standing-room concourse out in the outfield in Philly.



The last bit from my lap around the stadium was the upper right field corner. If you remember, I went to the very furthest seat down the right field line in Shea and took a picture. I was high up and FAR away. Seriously. But in Citi Field it wasn’t nearly as bad (nor as steep!) except the view surrounding the stadium left a little to be desired. See both below.






OK, that’s probably enough about walking around. How ‘bout some high points and low points, huh?

High Points:

-It was Irish night! That means I got an Irish themed Mets cap and there were tons of Irish steppers and a bunch of fiddlers banging around before the game. These kids on the big screen were banging away for a solid 15-20 minutes before game time.



The players didn’t know how or where to warm up because there were so many little tikes whirling and dancing all around the outfield. Also, the last song that was played lasted over 9 minutes. These kids had SO much energy and endurance.



-The Mets, unlike an unnamed other team who happens to be from New York City as well, allowed fans unfettered access to the lower bowl of the stadium during batting practice for to make with the taking of the pictures. I got some great shots of nearly every angle of the stadium. That’s how to do it, guys!



-The luxury space at Citi Field looked really nice from the outside but I really couldn’t see too much of it, which was yet another good thing (are you listening, Cleveland??).

-Despite seeming like a very large park, Citi Field still retains its intimacy – much more so than St. Louis or the other parks that got lost somewhere along the way.

-They called it “fried dough,” which is what it is. It’s not “funnel cake.”

-The amount of little kid and family oriented activities was on a par with or exceeded that offered at any other park.

-OK, this next one is NOT laughing at the gentleman in the wheel chair. It’s to make fun of the captain-obvious security person who gave me a chuckle. These fans were trying to find their section and some of them had seats right up the stairs and as I walked by I heard an exchange that included, from the security woman, “well, you guys can go up, but the chair has to stay down here…” Ummm, yeah, thanks a lot captain obvious!



-The bathrooms were spacious and clean – throughout the entire game.

-A high point that was mentioned at Shea back in 2008 was the hearty “YOU SUCK!” that greeted the very first Giants player to step to the plate. Well, the Mets fans still got it. Every single player on the Phillies was booed heartily after he was announced. I know they have a division rivalry and all but I get the feeling this had more to do with Joey New York Fan than the Phils.

-The striking presence of the structure as one exits the subway, the aforementioned beer prices, food selection (gluten free!), cup holders on railings, and the hat I got for Irish night were also high points.

-Also, it’s just a pretty park.




Low Points:

-The biggest drawback about Citi Field, and I mean by a long shot, were the scoreboards. Honestly, they maybe couldn’t have got this worse, especially after seeing the bang-up job the Twins did with their new place. The Mets, for some inexplicable reason, make fans stare at two giant, almost duplicative scoreboards when some of us are just craving something, anything else! Look at this and zoom in:



We get that it’s Raul Ibanez, twice. The line score for the game, twice. His BA, HR, RBI, OBP, SLG percentages, each twice. His position, twice. His picture, twice. Seriously? I mean, counter argument would be that not everyone can see the scoreboard like in St. Louis. But I’m here to refute that – I thought the scoreboard sightlines were great all over the park. So what gives, NY? On a related note: the out of town scoreboard is tucked way high up in left field and hardly anyone can see it and certainly wouldn’t notice it unless they were looking for it.

-Food Prices were too high, but it was still New York.

-Forgot to mention – I got fries with some sort of bacon flavored cheese dip. This would have been good in theory but the cheese stuff was practically frozen and made for tough going. Low point.



-The closed captioning on the scoreboard was woefully behind – jokes were ruined, fire/escape instructions were being relayed during candy bar ads, and it was just bad all around.

-A couple in front of me got into an absolute BRAWL and were trying to be quiet, but we’re talking New Yorker quiet. Eff bombs were flying this way and that and it was pretty distracting.

-Speaking of my seat, I got kicked out by fans with real tickets in the bottom of the fifth inning. What the heck? I thought LA was on the west coast??

-Does everyone know what LEED Certification is? Basically, LEED certification provides independent, third-party verification that a building project meets the highest green building and performance measures. I should have mentioned this, but the Twins’ new park is LEED Certified! And while the Mets claim to have undertaken a green initiative:

http://www.allbusiness.com/environment-natural-resources/pollution-monitoring/8940322-1.html

They clearly have not. I only snapped one picture but all over the park there were bags full of aluminum cans mixed in with trash. The flip-side to this argument is that “it gets sorted out at the landfill” but I’ve been quite dubious of that position for years now. The Mets get a thumbs down in this category until someone takes me to the landfill and proves otherwise.



-The last low point was that there just wasn’t much happening during the game. For all the hype and buzz in the stadium early on, it all just faded away and the game was quite boring. The fans weren’t that into it, the scoreboard didn’t do too much to help (which is good, in theory, when the fans are into it on their own. see e.g. Fenway Park!).

I think that’s all I’ve got! See you on the other side of New York!

Overall Grade: A-

Game Stats:
Teams: Mets vs. Phillies
Final Score: 8-4 Phillies
Extra Innings: 0
WP: Roy Halladay
LP: Jenrry Majia
Time: 3:09
Announced Attendance: 30,071 (78.7% full)
Ticket Price: $23.00
Parking Price: N/A

Trip Stats:
Home team record: 23-9
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 10,702
Speeding Tickets: ZERO!
States Visited: 27
Countries Visited: 2
Districts of Columbia Visited: 1
Beds slept in: 35
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: Yankees (Yankee Stadium)
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 (2008): B-
Brewers: A-
White Sox: B
Cubs: B+
Pirates: C+
Orioles: B
Phillies: A-
Nationals: B
Mets: C+
Yankees: B
Red Sox: A-
Twins (2010): B+
Mets (2010): A-