looks like the facade comes in big premade sections, nieve of me to think it would be real masonry work I guess… probably the only economical way to do it I suppose.

It looks like the exterior facade should be just about complete by opening day the way they are going.

Lookin’ good!

The House That Wright Built

The mild, snowless winter we’ve been having so far is no doubt helping the pace of construction.

I remember when CitiField was just a patch of dirt.
They grow up so quickly, I tell ya.

Not sure if it’s because I live outside of NY, or because I grew up at Shea, or my Dad’s experiences at Polo Grounds, but I have to say I have extremely mixed feelings about this transition.

I know Shea is old, and junky, but I go back to the Field of Dreams speech when Mann says of “the field” “It will be as if they were children again. The memories will be so thick, they will need to brush them away from their faces.”

In that movie, it was the players coming back from the dead. But in reality, that link to the past is the park. One of the wonderful things about going to Shea with my kids is being in the same place I grew up as a fan. The ghosts of great Mets past like Seaver and Mex and Piazza intertwine with the countless Hubie Brooks’ and Steve Hendersons. As games are being played, I see them, but I also see the countless games I’ve seen there in the past.

Shea is my ballpark, and as beautiful as CitiField will be, it will never be my park. I will still love the Mets if a passion that is far stronger than any rational human being should have for a sports team, but I’m really coming to mourn the loss to come. Far more than the cemetary where my Grandma Mary and Grandpa Lou–the two biggest Mets fans I’ve ever known–lie, it is Shea that is the physical place I can connect to my most vivid memories of them and the team they taught me to love.

Time must march on, I know. But I envy the Cubs and Sox, and even the Dodgers fans for the hallowed ground they have to share. Sometimes, my father would go on and on about the Polo Grounds–what he saw, what it meant to him. I only now understand, or am beginning to understand, those feelings.

Sorry to be maudlin, but can’t help feeling this way.

Matt, thanks for the site and opportunity to rant about stuff like this.

A—-Freaking—-men….

My father brought me to my first major league game in 1964, at Shea. I was 9 years old. I remember a lot about that game. Seeing Casey, and drinking my first Yoo-Hoo are the 2 that I remember
most.I still like Casey and Yoo-Hoo, but I can’t wait for the new
stadium. I won’t miss Shea.
I hope they don’t spoil the atmosphere of the new stadium by
blasting that irritating music and other noise. Let there be quiet
between batters and innings so that Mom’s and Dad’s can talk to
their kid’s and explain the game. Let the fan’s chat with each
other too. This pointless loud noise that’s taking over has got to go.

Well, I’m obviously in the minority, at least among these posts. Just for the record, I never said I wanted them to halt construction and stay in Shea. Just relating the very mixed feelings about when I walk into that new ballpark, it won’t have the same feeling of history. I won’t immediately see the grand slam single, the Pratt game winner, Benny’s blast against the Giants, or eating grapes with my Grandpa in the Mezz as he explains to me how Dave Winfield is about to light up Neil Allen to win it for the Padres–and then promptly did it.

I’m all for new memories–I’m just sad that the place that holds so many old wonderful ones is going, as needed as that might be. It might be a dump–a terrible dump–but it’s my dump, and I will miss it.

I grew up in Kew Gardens Hills, about 2 miles south of Shea on the Grand Central, and used to pass the stadium every day on the school bus. When I was a kid, Shea to me was all things good like spring, summer, baseball cards, green grass, no school, et al.

My uncle lived in Jackson Heights in the ’70s and used to take my brother and I to a game every year.

I’m 42 now and I have a million great memories of Shea. But its day is long over. The Mets deserve a new place to play and we fans deserve a stadium that we can be proud of.

All that said, it’s the name that gets me. You can bet that other stadium will never have a corporate sponsor name.