The start of the 2011 baseball season is now less than 3 weeks away. I’m looking forward to the upcoming season and believe my Tigers have a shot of making the playoffs. Last year was the first year I didn’t visit any major league stadium in quite a while. Although I was at Harbor Park for about 60 days and I saw a handful of spring traning games in Flordia so I did get my baseball fill.
Since 2000 I have visited 29 different major league stadiums and will rank them from least favorite to most favorite with stories about what took place. Some teams will be listed twice since they have replaced new stadiums and yes I did make it to Montreal because the Expos moved to DC. So without further ado…
#29. Shea Stadium, former home of the New York Mets
Times visited: 2
Dates: 7/26/03 vs. Cincinnati (L: 8-3), 7/13/2008 vs. Colorado (W: 7-0)
What I can recall. I actually drove to Shea Stadium in 2003 as part of my six stadiums and six days tour and it was my last stop. The stadium wasn’t located in the best of neighbors although I felt safe in the outside the parking lot, it was what I have to drive through to and from that made me nervous. The team was struggling in ’03 and would finish last and losing early to the Reds didn’t help matters as the crowd was out of it from the first inning. The most dramatic thing that happened was that a fire took place across the street of the parking lot I parked in. The stadium seemed really hard to get around and the color of the ballpark didn’t appeal much to me. It just seemed dated, although it wasn’t like the cookie cutter stadiums of the 70s, it didn’t seem to hold the charm of many ballparks. While Shea was home to the Mets for a number of years people talk more about Shea being host to the Beatles big concert here and Billy Joel playing the last show here (see this blog).
I did go back for a second visit for a Sunday night game, this time taking a Subway. On the way to the ball park there was a guy who was talking to his son must have this the following line about 30 times. “Do you know where we’re going today, Shea Stadium.” No where to move on the Subway since it was packed and he didn’t shut up until we got to the ballpark. The energy on this night was incredible since there was more than 50,000 people at Shea and the Mets scored early and often.
I have yet to make it to the new Mets’ Stadium which was being built next to Shea when I was there in 08. I do look forward to checking it out.