Shea Stadium

Shea was one of the original multi-purpose doughnut stadiums.

The #7 train ran right past Shea Stadium.

The stadium for the US Tennis Open at Forest Hills was right across the street.

First game: August 30, 2000. I was in New Jersey for a consulting visit at at our Greater Media sister station WMGQ/Magic 98.3 in New Bunswick, so it was business trip I didn’t ha e to pay for. Basically I was there to do a “seagull report.” That’s where you fly in, eat something, shit all over everybody and fly out.

I was actually staying overnight. No one at the station invited me to dinner, so I decided to take in a Mets game. I drove through the Lincoln Tunnel…always a frustratingly slow crawl…parked at the Port Authority garage (site of a failed bombing attempt in 2017) and took the #7 train to Shea Stadium. This is the same train where Braves pitcher John Rocker complained about the diversity of riders. It is very diverse, as is NYC everywhere, but Rocker got in trouble for needlessly complaining about it. The ride was just fine. Shea was less so.

I had an excellent box seat looking down the first base line that I bought on the internet. First time I had done that. It was a solo spot designed for a wheelchair. This was stop #12 on my World Ballpark Tour. Astros at Mets. Shea was pretty basic, and each section was separated by chain link fences so you couldn’t walk all the way around. Crappy concessions stands. Planes flew low and noisy overhead on a regular basis. The New York Jets originally played at Shea and it was easy to see why they picked the name Jets.

Future horrible Red Sox shortstop Julio Lugo played 2b for Houston. Hall-of-Famer Jeff Bagwell, whom the Sox stupidly traded for Larry Andersen in 1988, played 1st. The Mets won 1-0 on a Benny Agbanayi passed-ball steal of home. Agbayani later played for Boston in 2002 and wore #50, as he did with the Mets, a homage to Hawaii, his home state. At the 7th inning stretch they played “Cella Luna.” It was a quick game. done in 2:25. Shea was not great, and chain link fences kept you from walking around much, but it was better than I expected given that it typically ranked as one of the worst Major League Ballparks. I have never actually had a bad time at a ballpark.

Interesting thing about the foul poles: they’re orange. The only place in MLB where you see that. I didn’t know why they do this until 2016 when one of the groomsmen at my daughter Kara’s wedding, a Queens guy, told me that the reason the Mets use the colors orange and blue is a tribute to the two MLB teams who left New York in 1958. The orange is for the Giants, the blue is for the Dodgers.

When a Met hits a home run the Big Apple in center field slides up into place. This one was for a Carlos Delgato dinger in the 2nd inning off Carlos Silva. Carlos off Carlos.

Caitlin and I went to Shea the night after her first work day in NYC after graduating from Providence College. I had taken her to a luncheon at the Tavern On The Green for the 2007 Women in Media Gracie Awards. Magic 106.7 was winning two for the show “Exceptional Women“…meaning this was another business trip I didn’t have to pay for. I got her back to work after the luncheon. Caitlin, having just arrived in NYC, was temporarily staying her Aunt Helen’s condo in Brooklyn. I swung by the condo later to pick up Caitlin to head to Shea. 

Second game: June 18, 2007. Mets hosting the Twins in Interleague play. We drove to Shea and parked for $14. $3 cheaper than at Yankee Stadium and less than a third of what it costs ($45) to park at a private lot a few blocks away from Fenway. Citi Field, the new Mets ballpark, was under construction in the parking lot next to center field.

Torii Hunter, famous in Boston for the upside-down failed attempt to catch the David Ortiz grand slam at Fenway in the 2013 ALCS played CF for Minnesota. This was his final year playing for the Twins. At third they had Nick Punto, who was the forgotten part of the big 2012 Red Sox salary dump thanks to the generosity of the Dodgers. Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and Carl Crawford were the big names in the deal. The Sox got no players of note in return.

New York won easily, 8-1, shutting out the Twins until the 8th. This was also a quickie, running only 2:38. I drove Caitlin to her apartment and then hauled-butt to JFK Airport for the jetBlue flight home.

That was another adventure. After dropping Caitlin back in Brooklyn I took some “shortcuts” to get to JFK without getting stuck on the Long Island Expressway. (a/k/a The World’s Longest Parking Lot). Helen’s shortcut worked well, and I got to Hertz around 5:30. Plenty of time to drop the car off and take the tram to Terminal F.

That’s when a great day went downhill. The tram wasn’t working and they were doing a shuttle bus. So I trudge my way down to the curb and wait for the bus, which takes forever. When it finally arrives it is packed. The first stop is Terminal A, so this will take a while. There are a lot of travelers trying to haul their luggage onto the bus, and the driver is saying there’s no room. People are yelling in what sounds like different languages.

We finally get to Terminal F at 6:10PM. The flight is at 6:40. I try to check in for my jetBlue flight at a kiosk and I get the message that I need to go to the agent counter. That would be the counter that has a snake line of people trying to check luggage. I glance up at the screen listing the flights. It’s at an awkward angle from where I am standing, but I think it says canceled. When I finally get to the agent I ask if I read that correctly. She said, yes the flight was canceled, but she’d get me on the next flight at 8:30. Would I prefer a window or an aisle? Aisle, always. Oh, she said…there’s only one seat left. It’s a middle. Then why ask me?

She hands me the boarding pass. I would have sworn that she told me it was an 8:30 but no, it’s a 10:30. I call home to tell Kathy I’m not getting home by 8. It’ll be more like midnight. I’ve got about four hours to kill now, so I go grab a bite at place near the gate. Not great, but it was near the gate and I found a plug on a column where I could charge my phone. That was a major coup at the time.

From time to time I’d check the screen and the EDT kept changing. From 10:30 to 10:50. Then to 11:20. Then 12:10. Then 12:50. On it went. We finally boarded the plane at 2:20. Wings up at 2:40. That’s after waiting eight hours. When we hit 10,000 feet captain came on and said, “We know you have choices in airlines. Thanks for choosing jetBlue. Now sit back and enjoy your quick 41-minute flight to Boston.”

At Logan my Boston Coach ride home was duly waiting. I finally hit the sheets about 4 AM.