30 Years As a Mets Fan – Birthday Games

30 Years As a Mets Fan – Part 9

Birthday Games

I’m sure that all baseball fans born during the baseball season can relate to this – wanting to spend your birthday at the ballpark watching your favorite team in action. I’ve been able to do this a few times in my life. I’ve also gone to games near my actual birthday as the Mets schedule and my schedule allowed, but those aren’t the same. When I was younger, and only going to 2 or 3 games a year, something like my birthday was a big deal on the schedule. These days, a weekend home game is an occasion for me to go to Citi Field.

In 1987, I went to Shea Stadium for my 9th birthday. It was the first Mets game in person since becoming a fan 6 months earlier. I don’t remember a damn thing about that game other than one play by Len Dykstra in CF that made Warner Wolf’s plays of the year. I was enamored by the Shea Stadium scoreboard with the lineups and out of town scores and I probably got excited seeing the Home Run Apple rise 4 times in the Mets 11-3 win.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN198704300.shtml

I honestly can’t recall any other birthdays spent at Shea when I was a kid. I think there might have been one or two that worked out.

I spent my 21st birthday at Shea with friends on a Friday night in 1999. That was a great night. Maybe one of the best I had at Shea. We were all into getting there at 4:30 pm to see batting practice and get autographs. It was around the time I started doing that. We had my favorite seats in the ballpark – Loge, Section 7, Row A. I even had another friend randomly walk up in the bottom of the first and claim the seats next to us, an unplanned surprise. We got to fight over a foul ball (I got bumped back into my seat and someone else broke their watch on the play). None of us got the ball. It’s still the closest I’ve ever come to getting one at a major league ballpark. And we got to heckle rising Giants star Jeff Kent from his days as a Met.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN199904300.shtml

As an adult, working for a living, it wasn’t as easy to just head into Flushing from New Jersey on a weeknight/day to celebrate my birthday. But for my 30th birthday, I decided I wanted to take off from work (baseball game or not). The Mets hosted one of those mid-week afternoon games (I think they were called “businessman’s specials” back in the day, but the politically correct term is really “get away day”) and this was a no-brainer. For it being a big birthday and the final season at Shea, I convinced my dad (who already had the day off from work) to get us seats behind the Mets dugout. It was one of the few places at Shea I hadn’t sat in yet, but I certainly knew the neighborhood from batting practice.

After our lunch in the Diamond Club and looking at some Citi Field previews, the start of the game ended up being delayed for about 45 minutes because of a broken water main nearby and the grounds crew couldn’t water down the field to get it ready for the game. Mets pitcher Nelson Figueroa, always a good guy and good for an autograph or three, came out of the dugout during the delay to sign for fans. I think it was my fourth autograph of his that season alone (counting Spring Training). Mets post-season hero-turned-regular season goat Oliver Perez was the starting pitcher for New York. And after an uneventful first inning, things came unglued for the Mets starter. He gave up 7 runs in the top of the second to the Pirates and hero of the delay Figueroa had to come in and finish the inning. Figgy settled things down, but the game got worse after he left.

I still call it the day that “Ollie Perez ruined my 30th birthday at Shea” and call Figueroa the “hero” of the day.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN200804300.shtml

I made it in for my birthday last year too. It was a Saturday and a big giveaway (one of the garden gnomes). It was another no-brainer. Friends all over the place. Some I planned to see, some I didn’t. It was lots of fun. I think I watched the game.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN201604300.shtml

Next year, I’ve said that no matter where the Mets are, I spend my 40th birthday there. It’s a Monday next year, so I might have to walk that statement back if I don’t want to travel some place to see a game alone.

The Mets of Twenty-Ten

2008 was a season with some hope, lots of negativity (at least until it was cleared up after midnight one night), but it ended with the world crashing down on us. 2009 was a season in which it seemed there was hope, but it was just hopelessly bad. 2010 seems like a blend of the two. We don't have the injuries (at least not en masse like we did last year). There was lots of hope at the start of the season. The bullpen pitched well. We had a good streak at home. But it's all regressed into that blend of the past two seasons. I'm starting to feel the same type of negativity around the club (from the fans and what some in the media are writing) that we saw in 2008 (and that went on for a good couple of weeks for a move had to be made). I see the same lack-of-quality club we had a year ago (something that can't change over night).

Right now is a critical time in the Mets' 2010 season, and it's a critical time in the history of the franchise. They're playing the Yankees, a team that always seems to have our number (maybe not on the field, but in our collective heads). 3 losses here, which I can't rule out, for the last-place Mets, could really bury hopes for the 2010 season. It could show the collective pop culture that the Mets are losers (consider one or two good seasons out of 10, considering that 2007 and 2008 weren't good because of the way they lost). It could become a sequel to "The Worst Team Money Can Buy".

I've been saying for about a year now that the only way for the Mets to be on the right track is to clean house, remove the players and management that have had the stigma of losing over the past 5 seasons, and start fresh. It can't happen overnight. Remember that's basically what they needed to do after the original version of "The Worst Team Money Can Buy". They took a few years to rebuild into decency for the late '90s. They need to do it again.


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My Last Days At Shea - Part 4 - In My Life

This is part 4 in a 4 part series on my last days at Shea Stadium. This is the story of the "Shea Goodbye" ceremony.

So the season is over. Playoff hopes are gone. And all in the blink of an eye. A day that started with a bit of uncertainty now has a concrete ending. Shea Stadium has seen its last official pitch, and all that was left was the closing ceremony. A bit of a wait to set up the field. Not a good wait. Most fans stayed around after the loss to see this. It looked like a few couldn't bear to watch the rest.

Mr. Met came out to tear down the last number to reveal a Citi Field logo at the end of the countdown. Boos, but not for Mr. Met, but rather what his actions revealed (oh what a telling sign that was).


There was a great parade of former Mets and those affiliated with the club since the opening of Shea. A good mix of the different winning eras and some of the losing eras. Howie Rose read with excitement each name as the player came out from a bullpen down the side warning track to the edge of the infield grass. Quite a collection of the different white Mets jerseys. I could sense an order towards the end when they got to what I call the Mets dignitaries (Strawberry, Piazza, Koosman, Gooden, Seaver). They're all a bunch of names who's numbers belong painted on the outfield wall with the other retired numbers. There were a few players that I felt should have been included and names mentioned in their absense (such as the only manager to take the Mets to the playoffs and not be represented in some way, the first basemen from the greatest infield ever, or the "ace" of the staff before they got good again a dozen years prior to this parade). There also should have been something for the other teams that played at Shea, especially the Jets (the program from the final game had all that). Imagine Tom Seaver and Joe Namath on the same field together.

The best name to appear in terms of sentiment was Doc Gooden. A long time in absence from the Mets and Shea (he last appeared at Shea in a day-night doubleheader pitching for the Yankees against the Mets the same day that Clemens beaned Piazza in the other now-defunct ballpark). That felt really good to see him back in the good graces of Mets fans.

A video tribute to Mets baseball at Shea. A great scene of former Mets and former teammates coming together behind 2nd base from their different respective entrance lines and embracing. Doc and Darryl together in Mets jerseys for the first time in about 18 years.



The players came off the field towards home plate to touch the plate one last time, each to more ovation, and then one last pitch. Tom Seaver, the "franchise", and best pitcher the Mets have ever had, throwing to Mike Piazza, the greatest catcher that the Mets have ever had. Then they walked into the sunset together and out through the centerfield fence (the same place that I entered the field myself the day before) to the music of The Beatles' "In My Life" (and briefly before it, Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World". I will never be able to listen to "In My Life" again without thinking of this moment. I started to break down into tears when the song came on. One year later, listening to the song typing this, the same thing is happening.


The lights went off, it was close to sunset, fireworks went off, and that was it. At 6:22pm on September 28, 2008, Shea Stadium was closed for business. Nobody rushed the fans out of the ballpark. I got to stay for some time before I felt like I had to get my dad home. I walked slowly out for the last time.

"In My Life" was a very fitting song. I vaguely remember it on a history of the Mets video from the 1980s. And of course the Beatles connection to Shea. I think "In My Life" came on right when Seaver and Piazza hit the spot where the Beatles stage was for their first Shea concert behind 2nd base.

But the lyrics. Click that link and read the lyrics and tell me that it isn't the best set of lyrics for that moment.

Photos from the day:



Photo Day at Shea | The Santana Game | Shea Goodbye | In My Life


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My Last Days At Shea - Part 3 - Shea Goodbye

This is part 3 in a 3 4 part series entitled "My Last Days At Shea", celebrating the first anniversary of the closing of Shea Stadium. This is my story of the final game at Shea.

This was a tough ticket to get. Every real Mets fan wanted one. I got mine through the luck of the draw. Since late in the 2006 season, I was part of a group that split up season tickets (4 seats in the Mezz box, first base side, just out from the camera well). We had enough people in the group so that everyone had tickets for 4 games. We also had a rule for the premium games that you could only take 2 tickets instead of 4 (with the tradeoff being 2 tickets to another game at the end of our draft, meaning probably a weeknight in April against the Nationals). For whatever reason, 10 people ahead of me passed on the finale. That made it kind of easy to get.

To gameday itself, I had my dad with me. We had been going to games together at least once per season since my first game in 1986. We arrived at the ballpark around 10am. In all the years of going to games at Shea, including a few opening days and playoff games, I had never seen the place so crowded that early. Lines to get in at every gate. People just kind of looking around. And it started raining, so batting practice was more of a quiet time for fans to walk around and reflect on however many years they had spent there. More chances to walk around taking pictures of "empty Shea". More time to have one last walk down each concourse.

I saw a bit of commotion in the Loge concourse where the MeiGray group was selling for the first time Shea memorabilia (I have many posts accounting my delivery of these items and visiting the warehouse a few times). I figured in order to get what I wanted, I needed to stop, look through the catalog, and figure out what I had written down in the past on my "wish list". I wish I had known they were going to be there selling things.

Rain delay and just too much time to kill before starting the game. You can only walk around slowly so many times. The Mets had a very important game to play. They could clinch at least a tie for the Wild Card, possibly making the game acutally not the last game at Shea (either a playoff game or the playoffs). Confusing. But the Mets by the 7th inning simplified matters, as did the Brewers in their game against the Cubs.

Just like many other games for what Gary Cohen called "team tightrope", the Mets had an early lead, things were looking good, and it didn't last. After the rain delay, the Mets game started around the same time as the Brewers game. Both games ended around the same time. Both games' results were set at about the same time a few innnings earlier.



The season was over. Shea was closing. And then a way for the closing act.

I've decided to make this a 4 part series

Photo Day at Shea | The Santana Game | Shea Goodbye | In My Life


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No Place I'd Rather Be

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.