Baltimore and Washington

Last weekend, as noted on this site's facebook page, I took a baseball road trip to Baltimore and Washington to see each stadium for the first time in person. I had my father with me, and we met my cousin and his 6 year old son in Washington on Sunday.

click to read on...

a mixed review

Someone pointed me to the review of the 2 new NY ballparks from Sports Illustrated. Most of the Citi Field review is on page 2. I do want to quote two paragraphs though. It doesn't look like a totally positive reivew, which is good since it means that it's not Mets propganda. The story is credited to Alex Belth, SI.com.

And there's the rub. As tremendous as the Robinson Rotunda is, it seems out of place, even indulgent, because of the lack of corresponding Mets tributes. This is not to suggest that the Mets build a similar monument for Tom Seaver. Yet the lack of balance has left many Mets fans grumbling. The Mets have a history worth celebrating, but its invisibility at Citi Field underscores the organization's inferiority complex. Perhaps it is a great Freudian slip, Fred Wilpon saying that his team is just a poor stand-in for the Brooklyn Dodgers, the team he'd really want to own.
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A man happily stuffed his face with a Shake Shack burger and looked up at a plane. "Same old, same old," he said. Music blared from the sound system as the plane roared overhead. He waited 20 minutes for his burger and said that it was worth every minute of it. "This place is nice," he said, as ketchup dripped onto his shirt. "I'd like it even better if I was a rich man."

Some reviews of the new ballpark

I don't want to beat the topic to death. That would be like digging my grave and then having to watch baseball from inside it from the next 45 years. But I do want to point out a couple reviews that are more objective, and DON'T cover the idea of a lack of Mets stuff that I seem to be fixed on.

• First is in a series from Author/Professor/Mets fan Dana Brand, from the books "Mets Fan" and "The Last Days of Shea". He's an English Professor at Hofstra, and when I was a student there in the late 90s, the English Department and I had a mutual understanding that I wouldn't bother them, and they wouldn't bother me. He's written two blog posts so far in what looks like a series. His blog is one of those listed on the left, but I'll link to the first two parts of his review. Part 2 points out some of the architectural and physical differences between Shea Stadium and Chez Amazin' and how they play out.
  
  
  
  1. My Response to Citi Field, Part I: What I Love and What I Like
  2. My Impressions of Citi Field, Part II: The Crowd and the Quiet
  3. My Impressions of Citi Field, Part III: Seeing and Feeling
  
  


• The other came from a comment to a blog post by Newsday Sports Media Columnist Neil Best. His blog itself I consider a must read and very informative for anyone into sports, not just criticism of what's said on TV. The specific post was some explanation from Mets Executive VP Dave Howard over the sightlines at Chez that was given to Mike Francessa on WFAN. The comment that I'll link to is from someone who used the moniker "13,000 Less Affordable Seats". It's also put into context in Neil's later post as the winner of his weekly comment contest. The commenter was able to break down the obstructed views over the Promenade section.

So who plays here?

I wanted to spend today (Saturday) reading the reviews from Friday night's game experience at Citi Field on other Mets fan blogs. It didn't happen. Instead, at the last minute, I got a ticket to the game. So I went. And here's my take.

It's a beautiful baseball stadium. The architecture of the bricks, the signs for concessions and seating. It's all great. But there's something missing (and I do hope that it will be fixed before the real opening day a week from Monday). I was walking around, and stopped and was talking to this lady. She's pointing over to the field and asked me who plays here. I paused, knowing what she meant (as opposed to thinking that this lady is just stupid), and couldn't answer her. I think my response was "you're right".

There was something missing. There was nothing on the field, or in the seating bowl that was visible, that let you know that this was the Mets stadium. There was no Mets logo behind home plate - it actually didn't look like there was room for it. Nothing on the facade (I hate to pull comparisons in my review, but) like we had the collage on the facade at Shea. Nothing on the walls (yet?, except for ads). Our retired numbers were there in left, on the upper wall. There was plenty of room for more (hint hint). Nothing showing our history of championships and achievements (like we had at Shea). Nothing that showed the Mets colors. It may be a stretch, or a nod to the NY Giants baseball club, that the outfield wall is black with an orange line marking a Home Run. But I didn't see our orange and blue.

There were some Mets markings - on the exterior of the stadium. Very nice touch with, I'll call them windscreens, showing different players in Mets history along the wall by the left field entrance. Of course there are several Mets team stores (of a few different names) - something that actually showed the Mets logo.

Someone commented to me that there were no airplane or subway races on the scoreboard. No Mr. Met making the rounds (an April fool's joke could be that Mr. Met was suspended for violating MLB's performance enhancing drug policy). We didn't see Jose Reyes's Spanish lessons. I would think that most of that was missing because the fans weren't really watching the game. I hope that's the reason.

I got over to the two sights that I wanted to see - Shea's Home Run apple, and the Shake Shack with the Shea scoreboard skyline on top. I must say, those scoreboards are HUGE. Especially when you're standing behind them out in Center Field.

The scenery will take some getting used to on TV and in person. It will take some getting used to seeing OUR ballpark NOT be open in the outfield. The view from the higher up Right Field Promenade seats have a view of Flushing Bay, and that will take some getting used to (SNY should get someone over there to get it on TV). The view coming down the Grand Central Parkway or Whitestone Expressway or the 7 train or the LIRR is different, and it will take some getting used to seeing the approach without that big blue structure.

Looking back at it, I have an interesting comparison. I can really only compare to stadia that I've been to. There aren't many of them. But I there's 2 that I see a lot of here. One is Pac Bell Park (or whatever phone company it is now) in San Francisco. The lower level at Pac Bell wraps around and has the open concourse, just like Citi Field does, but with different scenery in the outfield. The other I see a strong comparison to is Arthur Ashe Stadium from across the train tracks at the Tennis Center. Arthur Ashe Stadium has the beautiful design on it's upper level concourse (I don't know the other levels), but it's a neutral-feeling stadium (right, it hosts an individual sport called Tennis, and once a WNBA game), and that's what I felt about the concourses at Citi Field. I'll leave it at that.