batting practice at Shea

Inspired by the words of Dana Brand, in his recent post telling about going to see batting practice at Chez Amazin', I bring you this generic memory from my days at Shea.

I don't remember exactly when I discovered batting practice. I don't know how I did either. It was some time in the late 1990s, maybe 1997 or 1998. It always seemed to appeal to me because I was a Mets fan who wanted to get up close and get autographs. Something about that back then was fun. You could hear the players joking around. You could really hear the crack of the bad when Mike Piazza got in the box. You could stand just behind the Mets dugout, touching the top of it, as I often did when I went.

From the dugout, players would pass right by you before disappearing into the abyss below. David Wright, Robin Ventura, Julio Franco. They all walked past. So did so many others. Some would stop and sign when you asked. Others said to hang on because they had to go hit or taking fielding practice. Some would come back, others wouldn't, and sometimes you'd be gone trying to get an autograph from somewhere else.

It was a time to be around some real fans. Those pushing and shoving, sometimes, to get to the front of the line to see that it wasn't Piazza who was signing. Others just wanted to get down that close because they never had before, or they knew that they'd never be able to sit that close when we all knew these were season tickets and we couldn't have them. For me, it was a little of everything. I only got to sit down there once. That post is coming tomorrow.

Ya, batting practice was fun. Shea had the music going. There was still daylight before a night game. Or it was just early in the morning for an afternoon game. Back in the days when I started going early, there wasn't as much separation between the field and stands. I don't remember the photo box being such a separation as it was towards the end. The dugout didn't have that railing and screen in front like they all do today. Players weren't physically forced to enter/exit the dugout through the two openings left, which would limit the good places to stand to get autographs.

The foul lines didn't have that extra section of off-limits premium seats until a few years ago. That really limited what you could do. I remember in the great 1999 season, I went to quite a few games, maybe 9 or 10. That's a lot for me to go to. Some of the fondest memories I have about going to Shea weren't the games I saw that year, but being at BP. I got Piazza's autograph behind the dugout and almost gave myself a hernia trying to reach and get my program back.

There was one or two times where I could hang out with Bobby V and some other fans just past the camera well along the foul line. He was always good about doing that and joked with us. Al Leiter was great too (of course, not on the days he pitched). I was hanging out in the RF corner with him and some fans after he had pitched the night before. It was that game in the final week of the season where he kept the Mets alive by beating Atlanta, and Yoshii was pitching that day (the game I went to). Al's just loose as can be at that point, hanging out with us, and he tells us "don't boo Yoshii every time he has a 3-ball count".

Sometimes, you'd get screaming line drives right down the line that you could reach over and grab bouncing off the dirt. I have a couple BP balls from that season alone.

Some of that fun fell away in the last few years of Shea, with all the obstructions and the new attitude brought on by Willie Randolph and Omar Minaya. Now we're all forced to be down the foul line where the obstructions are built-in at the new park. The fun days are now just fading memories.

My take on seeing a game at Citi Field

I'm going to break this up into a couple posts. First, I'd like to get some of the bad out of the way, starting with a few things that were (mostly) uncontrollable circumstances.

• It was hot. On the ride home, my car showed an outdoor temperature of 92 degrees. The angles of the April sun and where my seats were in the Upper Box in RF made for a nice combo for sunburn, but from behind and mainly on my left side. There was a little sunscreen left in my bag from my Spring Training trip (where I managed to NOT get burned), but it was too late when I went looking for it. I bring this up mostly because the stadium is angeled differently than Shea, so learning the sun patterns (as outfields know already) will take some time.
• This was a day game after a night game, so it was no surprise that the Mets did NOT take batting practice, so I can't really tell you how hard it is to get autographs when everyone is moving in and out (though without access to the dugout, I could only imagine). More on BP in a little bit later. The extra time, however, did allow me to get into different Field Level seats (down the lines and in the OF) to take pictures.

And now to the just plain bad... I am not going to mention some of the other points like ticket pricing-box office scams, lack of respect for Mets fans or their history, or the fact that the exit onto the BQE from the Grand Central going home clogs up the entire roadway from before the airport. Other blogs have done a fine job with these things, as well as the obstructions, and I contribute my opinions when I can.

The view from my seat. These are season ticket "box" seats. No offense to mini-plan holders or individual ticket holders, but these should be better than the others. The view would have been great if not for the LED ribbons that sit along the very small facade of the Upper Deck. For the couple games that I have from this season ticket holder, I'm right on the place where the seating angle changes in RF, and the LED ribbons follow.

A note on the photos - the camera angle and height seemed to be a bit higher than my actual eye level. You can see more of the field closest to me from the photos than I could actually see sitting in my seat.

As you can see, there was no view of the RF corner from the bullpen entrance/exit, to the corner, and down the line almost back to the infield dirt, and everything from the coaches box back to the dugout and seats was also obstructed. When you look on the Mets tickets page at the view from the seats, those photos are very misleading. I wonder if the view looks better in row 4 instead of row 2. When people came to sit in row 1 in front of me, the view got worse because THEY blocked the views of home plate, the pitcher's mound, and 1B. I had row 2 seats in the Mezz box from this same ticket holder at Shea, and there was never a problem seeing with or without people in front. If I were on the aisle, there was a plexiglass window at the bottom of the steps that may or may not further obstruct the view.

I'm trying to find a good photo to help illustrate this last point. I noticed a gap in the stands between the front row of seats and the field itself along the RF line (the Mets side) that I didn't notice on the LF (visitors) side. Walking around during BP, I saw a few Nationals players coming over to sign out in LF. It looked like they could reach or even step right into the stands. On the Mets side, there was that gap creating distance between players and fans. I hate to say it, but I think that was done on purpose. But it did not stop Bobby Parnell from coming over, and after a few minutes of reaching, coming into that gap (which leads into some tunnel under the RF seats) and signing autographs for a lot of people for a pretty long time. This was later in BP when only the Mets pitchers were out in the RF corner working, and even when that was done. In a related note, I saw Brian Stokes signing closer to the dugout (but in the "fans" area) but didn't get close enough to see if there was any structure in his way. I would like to see what this is all like when the Mets are actually taking BP as a team.


part 1 | part 2 | summing it up