These new stadiums…I don’t know if I’d say “I can’t STAND them” but I’m not sure if I’d be as charitable as you were in the WSJ. NYC’s baseball teams used to each have a stadium with history, with character. The uncomfortable seats, rusty metal and occasional pools of standing water at Shea reflected the blue-collar franchise and its fans perfectly. It was a place to watch a ballgame and that’s it. Beautiful utility, function over form.
Yankee Stadium, at least the post-renovation version was a pit, a dank, foul-smelling cavern. Humorless, charmless, hot, close concourses ringed the stadium, where the paint seemed to be in a perpetual state of peeling.
But. Oh, the “but.” When you came out of those concourses, towards an actual light at the end of the tunnel, it was like you entered another world. The air became fresher and cooler. The green of the Yankee Stadium field glowed lush as an emerald. It was unforgettable–everyone remembered the first time they saw it. It was epiphanic, to some fans a religious experience.
Now we have sterility. The same way that the condos and glass high-rise buildings are slowly ruining Manhattan and Brooklyn, these new stadiums, adorned with twice the number of corporate ads as the old parks, are ruining the spirit of New York baseball.
Thanks for the impressions on the new park. I can’t wait to get out there myself. From what I’ve seen in pictures, there’s a little to much Jackie Robinson going on and not enough Mets history. I appreciate everything Robinson’s done, but a little more 1986 would be nice.
I haven’t heard anyone mention this, but I wonder if there are any elderly former New York Baseball Giants fans who are seriuosly miffed at all the Dodgers references. After all, the Metsies still wear that old Giants orange “NY” on their caps, but Citi Field only honors their old rival.
Also I know its weird, but I appreciate the fish options at Citi Field. My parents keep Kosher and are health concious, so I’ll be glad to not endure my Dad nibbling on a pretzel while I throw down hot dog after hot dog.
Hope springs eternal. Or is it “hope in the spring is eternal”? I enjoyed your piece in the WSJ on the Mets. I am a long-suffering Kansas City Royals fan, and know only too well the agony of the late bullpen collapse. This and other problems have made the Royals of the last several years more like the Amazin’ Mets of old.
I would say to keep up your baseball-writer efforts and you just might land a beat writer job if acting and directing dry up, but given the rate at which daily team coverage is disappearing (along with the newspapers themselves), that might come across as more of a curse. (I wondered if in the midst of my praise I had any business critiquing, but – oh, well – watch those “hopefully’s”.)
If you are ever in or near Kansas City, you should, as the baseball fan you appear to be, visit the Negro Leagues Museum. It is a fitting tribute to some of the greatest ever to play the game, and also a monument to one of its prime movers and shakers: Buck O’Neill.
I think there’s definitely something to the idea that, even though Shea was an eyesore, a relic of a long-gone decade and architectural aesthetic, it was still the place where the Mets made history. I grew up in Seattle as a Mariners fan, and certainly felt a certain sense of nostalgia for the Kingdome when it was imploded, even though the rational side of me knew it was a dump that made watching baseball into a dreary, boring affair even on a gorgeous summer day. What the Mariners did in building Safeco Field, however, was incorporate little reminders of the Kingdome, or at least its most memorable moments, in various parts of a park: there’s a sort of abstract mural of Ken Griffey Jr scoring the winning run in the 1995 ALDS against the Yankees, as well as other pieces of history scattered around the park.
I went to plenty of games at Shea when I lived in New York, and I am sure there’s a truth to the ambivalence that most Mets fans feel towards CitiField. Still, it exists, so all that remains is to go create some new memorable moments.
Great article I just read in the WSJ. I was so pleased that they added the tasteful Sports section which allows for content such as this.
My own Mets nostalgic remembrance, albeit, from another perspective goes like this…
It was the fall of 1986 and I had just ordered anticipatory, celebratory Pizza for my entire fraternity as we watched my beloved Red Sox in the 10th inning with a 2 run lead. What happened next solidified me as a long-suffering Red Sox Fan.
Ironically, I was born in New York City and grew up as a Mets fan until moving to the North Shore of Boston at the ripe age of 7.
To this day, I support the National League team from New York and that storied team from Boston. Should they meet again in the fall classic, I will no doubt cheer for a different result than the one that rocked my World in 1986.
Enjoyed your first hand account of the Mets home opener in their new state of the art ballpark. Good writing. Nice pictures. I agree with you about food choices. Baseball food is beer, hot dogs,brats, and pretzels. I live in Tampa Florida and have plenty of fine dining options for steak, sushi, and other culinary delights, outside of Tropicana Field. At “The Trop” we have a large Valencia Orange w/ a red straw pushed into it, sitting proudly atop of rightfield. At the Tampa Bay Rays 2nd of 3 games against the Yankees, the team owners gave out 36,000 replica AL Championship rings. Pretty nice. By Wednesday morning, there were hundreds of the rings on sale at eBay and Craiglist for $25 and up. Could be argued, a fine example of MLB and its fans today. Thanks for the opportunity to comment
I enjoyed your article on Citi Stadium. I think that every Citigroup shareholder should be given comps equal to the amount of money they have lost in its miserable stock–($8,500 in my little portfolio). I saw the first Mets games at the Polo Grounds in 1962, and many Giants’ games there. My father went to Yankee home games at Coogan’s Bluff before they built the original Yankee Stadium in 1923, and my grandfather last saw the Giants the year the original ballpark burned down in 1911. An article in the same section as yours talked about the number of times the home team lost a stadium opener. When the original Comiskey Park opened, the White Sox lost a three-hit shutout to the St. Louis Browns, but that did not deter the Sox from all night celebrations. The park was a wonder for its time. As a modern writer remarked about the game and the parties: “A mid-summer masterpiece cannot compete with a miracle.”
Will young Mets fans ever feel that way as they eat their fish sanwiches at the park that should have been named Two-Shea?
Great article in the WSJ. For a former Met fan now living in Atlanta (which means a new set of “long-suffering” issues), the article brought back pleasant — and unpleasant — memories. A good memory: I was there as a nine-year-old in 1969 when the black cat ran across the infield into the Cubs dugout on the night when the Mets stormed past the Cubs. A bad memory: Every game I went to in the early 1990s
That was next door to the loft I grew up in, and those fire escapes are gone now. The buildings are being renovated, part of the ever-changing landscape of New York.
Kudos to your “Making New Memories” piece. Admittedly thinking of you simply as an accomplished young (from my perspective) actress, I never expected such an articulate, insightful and entertaining article (I had a similar reaction to John Mayer’s columns in Esquire, so I am obviously guilty of stereotyping most “stars” as suffering from low intellectual capacities). I think that you deserve to have a periodic Mets column in the Daily News, Post or Times! Thanks for the “Memories”! (P.S. – use your celebrity status to lobby Mr. Wilpon to add some Mets memorabilia/historical display in the new venue. The Yanks have Monument Park . . . we need a museum to honor Casey, Gil, Tom Terrific, Mookie and others)
Great article. Can’t wait to see Citi Field firsthand.
Yes, I know that it could use some more blue and orange, and reminders of Mets glory days. But I consider it a “soft opening” and a work in progress. Jeff Wilpon has already promised to beef up the Mets paraphernalia. That worries me less than the state of the team itself.
I agree that Met fans are cautious this year. Like any good love affair, how can you learn to trust again when your heart is broken over and over again? And in so many dreadful new ways? Who can blame Met fans for rooting and simultaneously bracing ourselves for the worst? If it’s bad for us fans, it’s gotta be torture for the players. Every strike out, every fly ball, every man left on base (and there have been tons), seems like foreshadowing of a bitter end to come.
Yet, I still believe and will be out there cheering them on. Maybe this year, they won’t disappoint…yet again.
Great piece in the Journal. It reminded me that while spending the summer of ’74 with my relatives in the Bronx, my cousin George and his wife Dale took me to my first major league game at Shea. Of course being from the Bronx it was a Yankee game. The Bronx Bombers were sharing the Mets’ digs while Yankee Stadium was being remodeled.
Following an old timer’s game with Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford, the Yanks beat the dreaded Red Sox. That day I became, and still am a New Yorker. If only in heart and spirit.
I have been back to New York at least a dozen times since, but I never went back to Shea. I really do not know why. I never had anything against the Mets, and after all, I went to high school with Sid Fernandez (#50). Maybe it was because my relatives were from the Bronx, or maybe it was a quick subway ride from Manhattan. But now I wish I did.
Regarding your point about the pricey seats clearing out early. I think there is another, possibly more frightening explanation. I think all the people were still there, they were just watching the game on large flat screens in the Ebbets Club. By creating separate, exclusive “clubs” in the more expensive sections, Met management has created an environment that encourages fans to spend more time away from their seats and thus the live game going on on the field.. While I understand that management is trying to get fans to spend more money in the bars and restaurants, it is also taking away much of the noise, excitement and advantage of a NY crowd.
I was at the game last night and sat in seats that access to the caesar’s club. When you go into the Caesar’s Club, you feel like you are in an upscale airport lounge, complete with leather chairs, potted plants and faux Roman cornices. There are absolutely no pictures, signs or colors that would indicate that you’re at a Met game. As a matter of fact, there are more pictures of Rod Stewart (1) than there are of Jerry Koosman, Dave Kingman or Edgardo Alfonso.
I don’t want to jump to conclusions because it was a little cold last night to sit outside and watch baseball so this may change come July, but I fear that the Wilpons have taken away more than the Mets identity when they built their monument to a team that chose to abandon NYC over 50 years ago…they have taken away the spirit of a truly special fan base.
Really enjoyed your informative, and very well written article in today’s WSJ on the Mets new stadium. Excellent observations. I am old enough to remember when the Mets were the laughingstock of the entire baseball world, until they won a World Series!!!
Hope you were able to see Shef get his 500th in person! I was sorry to see the Tigers let him go, though understood why, and was glad the Mets picked him up. Hopefully he will help the Mets this year. As a Tigers fan the whole thing was bittersweet.
On a differnt note, thanks for giving baseball a female voice/face. I think if the pool of women who understand baseball was larger the world would be a better place. I have a two year old daughter (the light of my life!) and I certainly plan on teaching her the game, taking her to games and how to score.
Thanks for your articulate and enjoyable WSJ piece on the Mets and Citifield.
I grew up on the top floor of an apartment building across the LIE from Shea Stadium, born of a New York Baseball Giants father and a mother from the Midwood section of Brooklyn, whose own mother had me take a baby picture in a tiny blue cap with a white “B” on it even though her beloved Dodgers, like the Giants, had left for California the year after I was born. Shea for me was being able to see the glow of the stadium lights from my bedroom window during games on humid summer nights; where my dad took me to my first game and almost snagged a foul ball hit by Willie Mays, then of the visiting Giants, that somehow made it to the railing opposite our seats in the distant upper deck, which then did not seem too far from the field; and the low but audible din of the radios virtually all the boys in my fifth grade class had snuck into their desks to listen to that fifth and final game against the Orioles in ’69, and knowing that we lived close enough to the stadium for the Mets truly to be our team.
I’ve been back to Shea many times since, including with my own son, though we’ve moved further and further away; we make our first pilgrimage to the new digs next Saturday. I’ve read the architectural appraisals of Citifield in the Times and the New Yorker (lack of connectivity to the adjacent neighborhoods; plopped among the auto repair shops); heard the criticisms that Citifield sacrifices the Mets’ own history to remake them as Brooklyn Dodger wannabes; and wondered like you whether the creature comforts of Citifield will distract the fans from the true business at hand.
I think it all boils down to this. Whether your personal painful Mets memory is Don Bosch getting thrown out at home by 30 feet trying to stretch an improbable triple into an inside the park homer, Craig Swann suffering through a meaningless August in the early ’80s, or Carlos Beltran unable to get the bat off his shoulder to end game 7 of the 2006 NLCS against the Cards only a few innings after Endy’s immortal catch at the wall seemed to guarantee a victory, when times were hard at Shea, there was never a place to hide. Now, among the walkways, fancy foodstands and lounges of Citifield, there are plenty of places to hide. The only question is, will we want to?
Julia
Good article in the WSJ. Did you know that the manager who led the 1969 Miracle Mets to their first World Championship, Gil Hodges is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame: Gil Hodges played 18 seasons as the Dodgers first baseman: hit 370 home runs: had seven straigh season where he drove in more than 100 RBI: won the National League’s first three Golden Gloves : was a eight-time All-Star: Played in seven World Series and twice hit game winning home runs: after only one game with the Dodgers in 1943 he traded Dodger Blue for Marine green and earned a Brone Star for courage under fire —–so why don”t the Mets fans get their guy into the Hall of Fame.
Jay
Start a Mets blog and you can join the unofficial official Joan Whitney Payson Society (e.g., smart baseball chicks writing about the Mets). we’d love to have you. Every time I watch someone throw a lame first pitch, I remind them that when you got the chance to do that in 2006, you had a WIND UP! You had clearly practiced! It was awesome and obviously memorable.
Keep writing about baseball. We need someone else besides Alyssa Milano to represent.
Appreciated your comments in the WSJ. Nice to hear from a “real” fan although time doen’t allow you much historical perspective at your realtively young age. I was on the other end of the Mets’ Opening Day loss as I live in San Diego and barely tolerated last season’s 99 game loss. So for us, spoiling the Mets’ opener was cathartic. Ironically, my “hometown” Cleveland Indians had the opportunity to spoil the Yankees new stadium opener as well. Count your blessings – I was privileged to be in New York last summer, not only to witness the last All Star game at old Yankee Stadium, but also to take the 7 train to Shea and see the Mets. 2 solid franchises only a train ride away – I’m jealous!
Julia,
Nice article in yesterday’s WSJ. As a Mets fan for life (due to a father who was originally a Dodgers fan but couldn’t switch to the Yankees once they left for LA), I’ve also “lived and died” with the Mets. Even logging onto ESPN to catch the games from 2-4am, over my blackberry, for 34 nights in a row while in Italy a couple of years ago, as my now late father in law was dying in an ICU and I had night duty. I agree that food at a ball park should consist of hot dogs and similar items, not sushi or fish, but I’d never order it to begin with as freshness is probably questionable anyhow. Too bad the man with the signs behind the 3rd bade dugout, that used to read “Tom Terrific” or something pithy when the Mets won or lost, is no longer around. But, at least the Wilpons brought over the Homerun Apple…
While I was sorry to see Shea go, maybe the new stadium will bring better karma to a team that needs to no longer feel a chip on its shoulder.
Keep up the good work.
Jamie Gerard
I enjoyed your article in the WSJ and am happy to know that you’re a Mets fan!
Your obervation about the new Citi Field not having a reference to the Mets of old was again mentioned by sportswriter Mike Vaccaro in today’s Post. While we are all excited about the memories that will be created in the new stadium, the Mets definitely need to maintain a connection to their colorful and rewarding past, most notably the seasons of ’69 and ’86. And, although the Mets may have had a number of sub-par seasons at Shea, they still had many memorable players, including Gil Hodges as mentioned above by Jay, Willie Mays, Tom Seaver, Ron Swoboda, Gary Carter and Mike Piazza, just to mention a few. As for Gil Hodges, I agree with Jay that it’s about time that Gil was voted into the Hall. Gil not only has the numbers, but he symbolized everything that was good with baseball, including his dedictation to his team, family, country and community. I played Little League baseball in Brooklyn with Gil’s son, who at the age of 12, stood taller than any of his peers, a strong reflection of his father, although not destined to follow in his Dad’s baseball footsteps.
My Dad, who was probably the most die-hard Mets fan (you can go to the NY Post archive from 10/09/1999 and an article written by Adam Miller) passed away last year and was laid to rest in Holy Cross Cemetary in Brooklyn, just a short distance from Gil Hodges. It is indeed fitting that a great player and a passionate fan are resting near each other – a reminder that we Mets fans must always remember what made us great – a long history filled with passion and love for the game.
Let’s make this year one of reflection and appreciation for all of the wonderful Mets memories, of great players, heart-wrenching losses and warm summer days filled with hope. And to Jay’s point about Gil, let’s pray that the sportswriter’s finally correct their error and honor Gil for his documented accomplishments and contributions to the game.
I enjoyed your article in the WSJ, nicely done. I live on the Northshore of Chicago; your right about the charm of Wrigley, with the low frills and terrible Old Style Beer … that is the charm. That and the day games or course which remind us of the joys of skipping.
The tradition of keeping the Midwestern roots with hot dogs and local beer make sense like getting a brat in Milwaukee. I am from Detroit, so I have been to Ford Field, and its cool, new, great food, looks like a mall, but not as cool as old Tiger Stadium and the bleacher drunks and potheads in the old days when it got closed down for a summer for excess.
I agree have some local fare but Sushi at a Mets game?
Let me get this out the way right away: I HATE naming rights. I have been boycotting, if that’s the right word, to the best of my ability, any corporation that participates in the world’s oldest profession. The college bowl games, of course the stadiums and fields and parks, and all the other events where they pay just to name it so that I am forced to see it or read it whenever something takes place with regards to it. Everytime I read a story and there’ a mention of the john’s name, I think oh the reporter got paid; that’s good. And if the john’s name is mentioned more than once then I really get concerned that maybe I’m right.
At least the yankees kept the name the same (I was hearing rumors that they were offered $50,000,000 per year to change the name). At least the subway stop didn’t get the john’s name.
To me, the idea of advertising is to tell me about your product or service. Fine. But to think I’m going to buy it just because you paid for the name of a marathon or a park, well, I am not swayed by that attempt. An example, if you will: When “E.T.” came out, the had a promotion with Reese’s Pieces. I like the candy, but as long as E.T. was pictured on the bag, I did not buy it. Why? Because it would be thought by them that I bought it just because of the ad on the bag. I don’t take to being thought of like that. In a more current scenario, X-Men is being tied to papa johns. Well, besides the fact that p-j sponsors a college bowl game, I wouldn’t buy the product because of the tie-in. I will wait for the movie to come out on DVD and then I’ll add it to my netflix queue.
And don’t get me started on the idea of being the official this or that of a team or organization. Like the mets did an objective taste test to decide that pepsi would be the official soft drink of the mets (or is just the stadium?). No, they went with whichever company was willing to pay them the most money.
And celebrity ads or shilling, another waste. If I was looking to buy a plane, yeah, then I’d listen to what John Travolta was saying if he was talking about planes. So unless their testimonial is based on actual knowledge and experience, just put in an unknown person. Just give me the facts and I’ll make my own decision.
For the record, I used to care about the mets. I was at the 1973 Harrelson / Rose fight (i.e., playoff game). After the 1994 strike, I stopped caring. They all showed it was a business and not a game.
I never got to watch a game at Shea Stadium, but hope to watch one at Citi Field sometime in the next few years. I am a pretty new Mets fan but that is only because I was born and raised in Kansas. The reason I am a Mets fan, you ask? Because of the 6’7, 230lb, right-handed pitcher that I call Pelf. I have known him since he was a freshman in college and he might be one of the nicest and funniest guys I have ever met. Give him some time. . . he will show NY what he is about here soon. . .I am sure :]
ps – so happy to know that you are a mets fan and not a yankees fan.
These new stadiums…I don’t know if I’d say “I can’t STAND them” but I’m not sure if I’d be as charitable as you were in the WSJ. NYC’s baseball teams used to each have a stadium with history, with character. The uncomfortable seats, rusty metal and occasional pools of standing water at Shea reflected the blue-collar franchise and its fans perfectly. It was a place to watch a ballgame and that’s it. Beautiful utility, function over form.
Yankee Stadium, at least the post-renovation version was a pit, a dank, foul-smelling cavern. Humorless, charmless, hot, close concourses ringed the stadium, where the paint seemed to be in a perpetual state of peeling.
But. Oh, the “but.” When you came out of those concourses, towards an actual light at the end of the tunnel, it was like you entered another world. The air became fresher and cooler. The green of the Yankee Stadium field glowed lush as an emerald. It was unforgettable–everyone remembered the first time they saw it. It was epiphanic, to some fans a religious experience.
Now we have sterility. The same way that the condos and glass high-rise buildings are slowly ruining Manhattan and Brooklyn, these new stadiums, adorned with twice the number of corporate ads as the old parks, are ruining the spirit of New York baseball.
Thanks for the impressions on the new park. I can’t wait to get out there myself. From what I’ve seen in pictures, there’s a little to much Jackie Robinson going on and not enough Mets history. I appreciate everything Robinson’s done, but a little more 1986 would be nice.
I haven’t heard anyone mention this, but I wonder if there are any elderly former New York Baseball Giants fans who are seriuosly miffed at all the Dodgers references. After all, the Metsies still wear that old Giants orange “NY” on their caps, but Citi Field only honors their old rival.
Also I know its weird, but I appreciate the fish options at Citi Field. My parents keep Kosher and are health concious, so I’ll be glad to not endure my Dad nibbling on a pretzel while I throw down hot dog after hot dog.
But yeah, overall the place seems really cool.
Hope springs eternal. Or is it “hope in the spring is eternal”? I enjoyed your piece in the WSJ on the Mets. I am a long-suffering Kansas City Royals fan, and know only too well the agony of the late bullpen collapse. This and other problems have made the Royals of the last several years more like the Amazin’ Mets of old.
I would say to keep up your baseball-writer efforts and you just might land a beat writer job if acting and directing dry up, but given the rate at which daily team coverage is disappearing (along with the newspapers themselves), that might come across as more of a curse. (I wondered if in the midst of my praise I had any business critiquing, but – oh, well – watch those “hopefully’s”.)
If you are ever in or near Kansas City, you should, as the baseball fan you appear to be, visit the Negro Leagues Museum. It is a fitting tribute to some of the greatest ever to play the game, and also a monument to one of its prime movers and shakers: Buck O’Neill.
I think there’s definitely something to the idea that, even though Shea was an eyesore, a relic of a long-gone decade and architectural aesthetic, it was still the place where the Mets made history. I grew up in Seattle as a Mariners fan, and certainly felt a certain sense of nostalgia for the Kingdome when it was imploded, even though the rational side of me knew it was a dump that made watching baseball into a dreary, boring affair even on a gorgeous summer day. What the Mariners did in building Safeco Field, however, was incorporate little reminders of the Kingdome, or at least its most memorable moments, in various parts of a park: there’s a sort of abstract mural of Ken Griffey Jr scoring the winning run in the 1995 ALDS against the Yankees, as well as other pieces of history scattered around the park.
I went to plenty of games at Shea when I lived in New York, and I am sure there’s a truth to the ambivalence that most Mets fans feel towards CitiField. Still, it exists, so all that remains is to go create some new memorable moments.
Great article I just read in the WSJ. I was so pleased that they added the tasteful Sports section which allows for content such as this.
My own Mets nostalgic remembrance, albeit, from another perspective goes like this…
It was the fall of 1986 and I had just ordered anticipatory, celebratory Pizza for my entire fraternity as we watched my beloved Red Sox in the 10th inning with a 2 run lead. What happened next solidified me as a long-suffering Red Sox Fan.
Ironically, I was born in New York City and grew up as a Mets fan until moving to the North Shore of Boston at the ripe age of 7.
To this day, I support the National League team from New York and that storied team from Boston. Should they meet again in the fall classic, I will no doubt cheer for a different result than the one that rocked my World in 1986.
No, you can’t buy nostalgia.
Enjoyed your first hand account of the Mets home opener in their new state of the art ballpark. Good writing. Nice pictures. I agree with you about food choices. Baseball food is beer, hot dogs,brats, and pretzels. I live in Tampa Florida and have plenty of fine dining options for steak, sushi, and other culinary delights, outside of Tropicana Field. At “The Trop” we have a large Valencia Orange w/ a red straw pushed into it, sitting proudly atop of rightfield. At the Tampa Bay Rays 2nd of 3 games against the Yankees, the team owners gave out 36,000 replica AL Championship rings. Pretty nice. By Wednesday morning, there were hundreds of the rings on sale at eBay and Craiglist for $25 and up. Could be argued, a fine example of MLB and its fans today. Thanks for the opportunity to comment
I enjoyed your article on Citi Stadium. I think that every Citigroup shareholder should be given comps equal to the amount of money they have lost in its miserable stock–($8,500 in my little portfolio). I saw the first Mets games at the Polo Grounds in 1962, and many Giants’ games there. My father went to Yankee home games at Coogan’s Bluff before they built the original Yankee Stadium in 1923, and my grandfather last saw the Giants the year the original ballpark burned down in 1911. An article in the same section as yours talked about the number of times the home team lost a stadium opener. When the original Comiskey Park opened, the White Sox lost a three-hit shutout to the St. Louis Browns, but that did not deter the Sox from all night celebrations. The park was a wonder for its time. As a modern writer remarked about the game and the parties: “A mid-summer masterpiece cannot compete with a miracle.”
Will young Mets fans ever feel that way as they eat their fish sanwiches at the park that should have been named Two-Shea?
Great article.
Great article in the WSJ. For a former Met fan now living in Atlanta (which means a new set of “long-suffering” issues), the article brought back pleasant — and unpleasant — memories. A good memory: I was there as a nine-year-old in 1969 when the black cat ran across the infield into the Cubs dugout on the night when the Mets stormed past the Cubs. A bad memory: Every game I went to in the early 1990s
…Another somewhat obscure question. I just watched raving, where is the loft where Zooey goes down the fire escape?
That was next door to the loft I grew up in, and those fire escapes are gone now. The buildings are being renovated, part of the ever-changing landscape of New York.
Kudos to your “Making New Memories” piece. Admittedly thinking of you simply as an accomplished young (from my perspective) actress, I never expected such an articulate, insightful and entertaining article (I had a similar reaction to John Mayer’s columns in Esquire, so I am obviously guilty of stereotyping most “stars” as suffering from low intellectual capacities). I think that you deserve to have a periodic Mets column in the Daily News, Post or Times! Thanks for the “Memories”! (P.S. – use your celebrity status to lobby Mr. Wilpon to add some Mets memorabilia/historical display in the new venue. The Yanks have Monument Park . . . we need a museum to honor Casey, Gil, Tom Terrific, Mookie and others)
Great article. Can’t wait to see Citi Field firsthand.
Yes, I know that it could use some more blue and orange, and reminders of Mets glory days. But I consider it a “soft opening” and a work in progress. Jeff Wilpon has already promised to beef up the Mets paraphernalia. That worries me less than the state of the team itself.
I agree that Met fans are cautious this year. Like any good love affair, how can you learn to trust again when your heart is broken over and over again? And in so many dreadful new ways? Who can blame Met fans for rooting and simultaneously bracing ourselves for the worst? If it’s bad for us fans, it’s gotta be torture for the players. Every strike out, every fly ball, every man left on base (and there have been tons), seems like foreshadowing of a bitter end to come.
Yet, I still believe and will be out there cheering them on. Maybe this year, they won’t disappoint…yet again.
Dear Julia,
Great piece in the Journal. It reminded me that while spending the summer of ’74 with my relatives in the Bronx, my cousin George and his wife Dale took me to my first major league game at Shea. Of course being from the Bronx it was a Yankee game. The Bronx Bombers were sharing the Mets’ digs while Yankee Stadium was being remodeled.
Following an old timer’s game with Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford, the Yanks beat the dreaded Red Sox. That day I became, and still am a New Yorker. If only in heart and spirit.
I have been back to New York at least a dozen times since, but I never went back to Shea. I really do not know why. I never had anything against the Mets, and after all, I went to high school with Sid Fernandez (#50). Maybe it was because my relatives were from the Bronx, or maybe it was a quick subway ride from Manhattan. But now I wish I did.
Thank you for helping me remember that day.
Great points in the WSJ piece.
Regarding your point about the pricey seats clearing out early. I think there is another, possibly more frightening explanation. I think all the people were still there, they were just watching the game on large flat screens in the Ebbets Club. By creating separate, exclusive “clubs” in the more expensive sections, Met management has created an environment that encourages fans to spend more time away from their seats and thus the live game going on on the field.. While I understand that management is trying to get fans to spend more money in the bars and restaurants, it is also taking away much of the noise, excitement and advantage of a NY crowd.
I was at the game last night and sat in seats that access to the caesar’s club. When you go into the Caesar’s Club, you feel like you are in an upscale airport lounge, complete with leather chairs, potted plants and faux Roman cornices. There are absolutely no pictures, signs or colors that would indicate that you’re at a Met game. As a matter of fact, there are more pictures of Rod Stewart (1) than there are of Jerry Koosman, Dave Kingman or Edgardo Alfonso.
I don’t want to jump to conclusions because it was a little cold last night to sit outside and watch baseball so this may change come July, but I fear that the Wilpons have taken away more than the Mets identity when they built their monument to a team that chose to abandon NYC over 50 years ago…they have taken away the spirit of a truly special fan base.
Really enjoyed your informative, and very well written article in today’s WSJ on the Mets new stadium. Excellent observations. I am old enough to remember when the Mets were the laughingstock of the entire baseball world, until they won a World Series!!!
Hope you were able to see Shef get his 500th in person! I was sorry to see the Tigers let him go, though understood why, and was glad the Mets picked him up. Hopefully he will help the Mets this year. As a Tigers fan the whole thing was bittersweet.
On a differnt note, thanks for giving baseball a female voice/face. I think if the pool of women who understand baseball was larger the world would be a better place. I have a two year old daughter (the light of my life!) and I certainly plan on teaching her the game, taking her to games and how to score.
Best regards,
Brad
Thanks for your articulate and enjoyable WSJ piece on the Mets and Citifield.
I grew up on the top floor of an apartment building across the LIE from Shea Stadium, born of a New York Baseball Giants father and a mother from the Midwood section of Brooklyn, whose own mother had me take a baby picture in a tiny blue cap with a white “B” on it even though her beloved Dodgers, like the Giants, had left for California the year after I was born. Shea for me was being able to see the glow of the stadium lights from my bedroom window during games on humid summer nights; where my dad took me to my first game and almost snagged a foul ball hit by Willie Mays, then of the visiting Giants, that somehow made it to the railing opposite our seats in the distant upper deck, which then did not seem too far from the field; and the low but audible din of the radios virtually all the boys in my fifth grade class had snuck into their desks to listen to that fifth and final game against the Orioles in ’69, and knowing that we lived close enough to the stadium for the Mets truly to be our team.
I’ve been back to Shea many times since, including with my own son, though we’ve moved further and further away; we make our first pilgrimage to the new digs next Saturday. I’ve read the architectural appraisals of Citifield in the Times and the New Yorker (lack of connectivity to the adjacent neighborhoods; plopped among the auto repair shops); heard the criticisms that Citifield sacrifices the Mets’ own history to remake them as Brooklyn Dodger wannabes; and wondered like you whether the creature comforts of Citifield will distract the fans from the true business at hand.
I think it all boils down to this. Whether your personal painful Mets memory is Don Bosch getting thrown out at home by 30 feet trying to stretch an improbable triple into an inside the park homer, Craig Swann suffering through a meaningless August in the early ’80s, or Carlos Beltran unable to get the bat off his shoulder to end game 7 of the 2006 NLCS against the Cards only a few innings after Endy’s immortal catch at the wall seemed to guarantee a victory, when times were hard at Shea, there was never a place to hide. Now, among the walkways, fancy foodstands and lounges of Citifield, there are plenty of places to hide. The only question is, will we want to?
Julia
Good article in the WSJ. Did you know that the manager who led the 1969 Miracle Mets to their first World Championship, Gil Hodges is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame: Gil Hodges played 18 seasons as the Dodgers first baseman: hit 370 home runs: had seven straigh season where he drove in more than 100 RBI: won the National League’s first three Golden Gloves : was a eight-time All-Star: Played in seven World Series and twice hit game winning home runs: after only one game with the Dodgers in 1943 he traded Dodger Blue for Marine green and earned a Brone Star for courage under fire —–so why don”t the Mets fans get their guy into the Hall of Fame.
Jay
Start a Mets blog and you can join the unofficial official Joan Whitney Payson Society (e.g., smart baseball chicks writing about the Mets). we’d love to have you. Every time I watch someone throw a lame first pitch, I remind them that when you got the chance to do that in 2006, you had a WIND UP! You had clearly practiced! It was awesome and obviously memorable.
Keep writing about baseball. We need someone else besides Alyssa Milano to represent.
Caryn Rose
metsgrrl.com
There is room enough in this baseball world for both me and Alyssa Milano.
But yes, I did practice my wind up. Thanks.
Appreciated your comments in the WSJ. Nice to hear from a “real” fan although time doen’t allow you much historical perspective at your realtively young age. I was on the other end of the Mets’ Opening Day loss as I live in San Diego and barely tolerated last season’s 99 game loss. So for us, spoiling the Mets’ opener was cathartic. Ironically, my “hometown” Cleveland Indians had the opportunity to spoil the Yankees new stadium opener as well. Count your blessings – I was privileged to be in New York last summer, not only to witness the last All Star game at old Yankee Stadium, but also to take the 7 train to Shea and see the Mets. 2 solid franchises only a train ride away – I’m jealous!
Julia,
Nice article in yesterday’s WSJ. As a Mets fan for life (due to a father who was originally a Dodgers fan but couldn’t switch to the Yankees once they left for LA), I’ve also “lived and died” with the Mets. Even logging onto ESPN to catch the games from 2-4am, over my blackberry, for 34 nights in a row while in Italy a couple of years ago, as my now late father in law was dying in an ICU and I had night duty. I agree that food at a ball park should consist of hot dogs and similar items, not sushi or fish, but I’d never order it to begin with as freshness is probably questionable anyhow. Too bad the man with the signs behind the 3rd bade dugout, that used to read “Tom Terrific” or something pithy when the Mets won or lost, is no longer around. But, at least the Wilpons brought over the Homerun Apple…
While I was sorry to see Shea go, maybe the new stadium will bring better karma to a team that needs to no longer feel a chip on its shoulder.
Keep up the good work.
Jamie Gerard
Julia,
I enjoyed your article in the WSJ and am happy to know that you’re a Mets fan!
Your obervation about the new Citi Field not having a reference to the Mets of old was again mentioned by sportswriter Mike Vaccaro in today’s Post. While we are all excited about the memories that will be created in the new stadium, the Mets definitely need to maintain a connection to their colorful and rewarding past, most notably the seasons of ’69 and ’86. And, although the Mets may have had a number of sub-par seasons at Shea, they still had many memorable players, including Gil Hodges as mentioned above by Jay, Willie Mays, Tom Seaver, Ron Swoboda, Gary Carter and Mike Piazza, just to mention a few. As for Gil Hodges, I agree with Jay that it’s about time that Gil was voted into the Hall. Gil not only has the numbers, but he symbolized everything that was good with baseball, including his dedictation to his team, family, country and community. I played Little League baseball in Brooklyn with Gil’s son, who at the age of 12, stood taller than any of his peers, a strong reflection of his father, although not destined to follow in his Dad’s baseball footsteps.
My Dad, who was probably the most die-hard Mets fan (you can go to the NY Post archive from 10/09/1999 and an article written by Adam Miller) passed away last year and was laid to rest in Holy Cross Cemetary in Brooklyn, just a short distance from Gil Hodges. It is indeed fitting that a great player and a passionate fan are resting near each other – a reminder that we Mets fans must always remember what made us great – a long history filled with passion and love for the game.
Let’s make this year one of reflection and appreciation for all of the wonderful Mets memories, of great players, heart-wrenching losses and warm summer days filled with hope. And to Jay’s point about Gil, let’s pray that the sportswriter’s finally correct their error and honor Gil for his documented accomplishments and contributions to the game.
Vic
Awesome article Julia! Never knew you were such a big Mets fan. That’s pretty cool.
Go Mets!! They better start hitting with runners in scoring position or else its going to be a long season.
Hello Julia:
I enjoyed your article in the WSJ, nicely done. I live on the Northshore of Chicago; your right about the charm of Wrigley, with the low frills and terrible Old Style Beer … that is the charm. That and the day games or course which remind us of the joys of skipping.
The tradition of keeping the Midwestern roots with hot dogs and local beer make sense like getting a brat in Milwaukee. I am from Detroit, so I have been to Ford Field, and its cool, new, great food, looks like a mall, but not as cool as old Tiger Stadium and the bleacher drunks and potheads in the old days when it got closed down for a summer for excess.
I agree have some local fare but Sushi at a Mets game?
Let me get this out the way right away: I HATE naming rights. I have been boycotting, if that’s the right word, to the best of my ability, any corporation that participates in the world’s oldest profession. The college bowl games, of course the stadiums and fields and parks, and all the other events where they pay just to name it so that I am forced to see it or read it whenever something takes place with regards to it. Everytime I read a story and there’ a mention of the john’s name, I think oh the reporter got paid; that’s good. And if the john’s name is mentioned more than once then I really get concerned that maybe I’m right.
At least the yankees kept the name the same (I was hearing rumors that they were offered $50,000,000 per year to change the name). At least the subway stop didn’t get the john’s name.
To me, the idea of advertising is to tell me about your product or service. Fine. But to think I’m going to buy it just because you paid for the name of a marathon or a park, well, I am not swayed by that attempt. An example, if you will: When “E.T.” came out, the had a promotion with Reese’s Pieces. I like the candy, but as long as E.T. was pictured on the bag, I did not buy it. Why? Because it would be thought by them that I bought it just because of the ad on the bag. I don’t take to being thought of like that. In a more current scenario, X-Men is being tied to papa johns. Well, besides the fact that p-j sponsors a college bowl game, I wouldn’t buy the product because of the tie-in. I will wait for the movie to come out on DVD and then I’ll add it to my netflix queue.
And don’t get me started on the idea of being the official this or that of a team or organization. Like the mets did an objective taste test to decide that pepsi would be the official soft drink of the mets (or is just the stadium?). No, they went with whichever company was willing to pay them the most money.
And celebrity ads or shilling, another waste. If I was looking to buy a plane, yeah, then I’d listen to what John Travolta was saying if he was talking about planes. So unless their testimonial is based on actual knowledge and experience, just put in an unknown person. Just give me the facts and I’ll make my own decision.
For the record, I used to care about the mets. I was at the 1973 Harrelson / Rose fight (i.e., playoff game). After the 1994 strike, I stopped caring. They all showed it was a business and not a game.
I meant the Mets deserved a new ball park because Shea notoriously an eyesore.
I think we can all agree on that. Even flying into LaGuardia, Shea looks like an eyesore.
I never got to watch a game at Shea Stadium, but hope to watch one at Citi Field sometime in the next few years. I am a pretty new Mets fan but that is only because I was born and raised in Kansas. The reason I am a Mets fan, you ask? Because of the 6’7, 230lb, right-handed pitcher that I call Pelf. I have known him since he was a freshman in college and he might be one of the nicest and funniest guys I have ever met. Give him some time. . . he will show NY what he is about here soon. . .I am sure :]
ps – so happy to know that you are a mets fan and not a yankees fan.