I'm going to start posting stories of my days at Shea. Stories help keep it alive.
In the 2008 season, I got to Shea about 10 times. One of those was in mid-June for a Saturday night game. It happened to be Father's Day weekend, which was the weekend right before Willie Randolph was fired. Summer time humidity localized over Queens and all the negative energy surrounding the Mets club at the time made for a night of heavy rain and thunderstorms.
I got to see at least 1 reason WHY Shea needed to be replaced (I was in a bit of denial before this). I've heard about it in the press box. I was standing at the food concession on the Mezz level behind home plate with a couple friends, eating, waiting out the rain (after driving in from NJ not knowing what was ahead). And it started raining on us. Well, dripping.
Even in the seats under cover, there were seats getting dripped on. That's where we watched a few members of the Texas Rangers using the tarp as a slip-n-slide.
Before we went out to watch the other club have fun and knock the then-manager, a really big line of storms moved in. I think it was actually overhead. I'll swear you could see the lightning flashes through the seating tunnels and out the exterior of the stadium. After one very loud clap of thunder, I starting thinking...
If this is the end of the world, there's no place I'd rather be.
