Citi Field just doesn't feel like home. Maybe it's because the Mets haven't had success there yet. They haven't had any big moments there. It could be because people are still going there more for the food than the baseball team. It could be the fact that some fans are perpetually unhappy with something going on in the park or even the park itself. Maybe tickets are just so out of peoples' price range that not enough fans are actually there. It's probably a bit of all of those things.
Shea was home. For one thing, it was simply called Shea. Stadium wasn't necessary. Thanks to naming rights deals and the constant search for more ways to bring in money it's getting harder and harder to have that kind of nickname for a ballpark. Recently the Jake in Cleveland became Progressive Field but because it's the same stadium, people can still call it the Jake. You can't do that with Citi Field. It's something all its own and it definitely isn't Shea.
Shea was a part of every fan. The upper decks would seemingly cheer with the fans as the upper decks would sway when the crowd got excited. Yes, that was terrifying to experience, but it was simply part of Shea. It had enough history to be the good and the bad. It even had it all in my lifetime. The 2000 run to the World Series, the emotion of September 2001. The 2006 dominance and pennant race, the 2007 collapse. The heartbreaking yet very Mets-like loss in the last game ever there in 2008.
The different colored seats. I knew the levels by color more than I knew what they were really called. My first baseball game wasn't at Shea, but the first game I remember is my first game at Shea. One of the few times I sat in the orange seats. Right behind the Mets dugout in 2001. Some player threw packs of Bazooka gum onto the top of the dugout. Mostly, I sat up in the green seats. I could see everything and when I think of being at a baseball game, that's the view I see. Whatever that level was, three rows back, right behind home plate. I sat all the way up in the red seats for the game after I went on the field for Little League day.
Most of my baseball memories are from games at Shea. Sure she was a dump but she was our dump.
Let's Go Mets!
Shea was home. For one thing, it was simply called Shea. Stadium wasn't necessary. Thanks to naming rights deals and the constant search for more ways to bring in money it's getting harder and harder to have that kind of nickname for a ballpark. Recently the Jake in Cleveland became Progressive Field but because it's the same stadium, people can still call it the Jake. You can't do that with Citi Field. It's something all its own and it definitely isn't Shea.
Shea was a part of every fan. The upper decks would seemingly cheer with the fans as the upper decks would sway when the crowd got excited. Yes, that was terrifying to experience, but it was simply part of Shea. It had enough history to be the good and the bad. It even had it all in my lifetime. The 2000 run to the World Series, the emotion of September 2001. The 2006 dominance and pennant race, the 2007 collapse. The heartbreaking yet very Mets-like loss in the last game ever there in 2008.
The different colored seats. I knew the levels by color more than I knew what they were really called. My first baseball game wasn't at Shea, but the first game I remember is my first game at Shea. One of the few times I sat in the orange seats. Right behind the Mets dugout in 2001. Some player threw packs of Bazooka gum onto the top of the dugout. Mostly, I sat up in the green seats. I could see everything and when I think of being at a baseball game, that's the view I see. Whatever that level was, three rows back, right behind home plate. I sat all the way up in the red seats for the game after I went on the field for Little League day.
Most of my baseball memories are from games at Shea. Sure she was a dump but she was our dump.
Let's Go Mets!
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