My Last Days At Shea - Part 2 - The Santana Game

This is part 2 in a 3 4 part series on my last days at Shea. I bring you now to the final Saturday of the season, the penultimate scheduled game at Shea. At the time, the Mets season was hanging on by a thread. One loss and it's over. Scoreboard watching to see what Milwaukee and Philadelphia would do to possibly get us in the playoffs desipte another late-season collapse.

I had never sat in the bleachers in left field. I'd always wanted to. Nothing special about being out there other than it was different. But I didn't want to leave Shea for the last time without having sat there. I'd sat just about everywhere else at Shea (speaking in terms of general areas). I'd been looking for a way in for probably the last 2 seasons. They didn't sell individual tickets out there, only groups. OK, how do I get myself into a group that can get me into the picnic area and bleachers? I can fake the interest if it gets me out there. I don't care what game it is.

And stepping up to the plate was GaryKeithAndRon, the charity organization run by Lynn Cohen, wife of Mets TV play-by-play man Gary Cohen. Their "main event" group outing, penultimate game at Shea. Too perfect. No need to fake interest here. If there's one group I'd want to support it's one affiliated with fan favorite broadcasters Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, and Ron Darling. Picnic bleachers, 1,200 Mets fans, season on the line. This has the making of a great story. Let me add one thing, thrown in by the GKR group - anyone from the group wearing their t-shirt gets to walk on the warning track for the National Anthem. So now I get to sit in that elusive part of Shea, AND I get to be on the field. I was just glad the rain held off long enough to get the game in without much of a problem (there was about a 1 hour delay and the threat of heavy rain for the entire weekend).

I'm out at the ballpark early (as always, the first LIRR train from Penn Station to Shea), we get in and get our commerative pins and towels and I go to check out the sights (during BP). A different perspective on looking at "empty Shea" in its full vivid color. I get my food, GKR merchandise sale (I bought 3 more t-shirts), and appearances by Gary and Ron, all with a delay in the game while the fans are told to line up in the back to come out on the field. Somehow, with the delay and extra time and whatever else it was, I managed to be the first person standing in one of the two lines. I've got the camera ready to capture this one. First person on line isn't walking behind people to come on the field, only someone from the stadium security leading the group. First person on line gets to go as far down as they'll let us (which was to the foul line initially, then when the crowd swelled up so much, it was over the line and down a few feet).


For the game, well, it became known as "The Santana Game" in Mets lure, just like "The Imperfect Game" and some others. Our new ace Johan Santana came out on 3 days rest and pitched a complete game shutout (it was later revealed that he had a bum knee for at least that game and possibly even the entire month of September). Mets win 2-0. He kept the season going one more day. And that's another story.

A big "thank you" goes out to Lynn Cohen and the rest of the GKR group for setting this up, timing it perfectly in the Mets season, and allowing us onto the field. At the time of this writing, I have 5 of their t-shirts now and am looking forward to the 2009 "main event" group outing at the new ballpark on the final weekend of the season.


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


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My Last Days At Shea - Part 1 - Photo Day At Shea

The first anniversary of Shea Stadium's final game is upon us. So it's time to write about my last days at Shea. And I don't mean to infringe upon the title of the new book "The Last Days At Shea" by fellow blogger Dana Brand (which you can buy from amazon.com linked to on the right half of this blog). This is my story.

I start with a less exciting game. Actually games. I was at Shea's final doubleheader, a "regular" doubleheader to boot (as opposed to those greedy day-night doubleheaders). The story starts back in August when I got a new digital camera (I had one already, but after almost 5 years, they've improved in quality to the point where pictures look good). I decided that I wanted to have a day to spend at Shea to say goodbye. Walk around the park, poping out from different sections in different levels, taking pictures, and just looking around. It was easiest for me to find a weekend game, and there was a 4:05pm game against the Braves in September, so I didn't have to be up early in the morning and I could get some nighttime photos after the game with the neon signs illuminated (and yet not have to rush back to make the last train back to NJ). Anyway, 4:05pm game, timing worked out. Until it rained the day before and the Friday game was cancelled (acutally, there were 6 games postponed on Friday including in both NY stadiums). That led to 21 games being played on Saturday (with 5 doubleheaders played and one postponed). I saw 2 games on the single, cheap, back row Mezzanine ticket I had for Saturday. Good. 2 games to spend walking around Shea taking pictures. I get both daytime and nighttime photos. Perfect.

The games, for as much as I saw (and listened to on the radio), were somewhat of a microcasm of the 2008 Mets season, especially in the first game. Santana pitched for national TV, the Mets had a lead in the 8th, Santana left the game ahead 2-0, and 2 pitchers later in the 8th, the Mets were down 3-2. Jon Niese pitched and won in the 2nd game going 8 strong innings and the Mets won 5-0 in front of about 10,000 fans left in the ballpark.

It was also my first glimpse of the MeiGray Shea catalog (which at the time seemed like picking out the items in Grandma's house that you wanted to take before she was put in the old folk's home). Some sort of pre-sale and preview of items. Enough about them for now, other than to say cataloging the items must have like being a kid in the candy store.

I think walking around the inner ramps of Shea was like walking a condemmed man down the Green Mile. It was a last look, somewhat captured on (digital) film, from just about every part of Shea. One thing in particular I wanted then, that I was thinking about this week reading some posts from other Mets blogs, was getting what I call "empty Shea", where I can see the broadness of the seating bowl and its different levels in their full colorful glory before the fans in their various colored jerseys filled in the seats. When I think about Shea, I want to remember the colors. Citi Field makes those memories even more colorful.

In the end, I walked the concourses on each level, I got out to see the field from different angles (just to have fresh pictures of what that all looked like), and I even got what I call my "postcard" shot from the last row in the Upper Deck looking out to the entire field. I got everywhere except to the outfield bleacher seats. At the time, I still hadn't been there. That was going to change.

This is a very small sampling of photos from that doubleheader day, as well as the final two games.



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


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