Mets Fireworks

Went out to watch the Shea Stadium Fireworks, a yearly event, usually on July 3rd or the last home game right before the 4th of July.

We set up by the Home Depot in College Point, across the bay from the Marina. The parking lot was compeltley packed, people parking int he roadwya as well. We hopped a wood fence nad bushes and hung out int he shrubs to get some photos without obstruction or immediate light pollution.

http://www.philderner.com/pichost/mets1.jpg

http://www.philderner.com/pichost/mets2.jpg

And, as usual, the Mets got destroyed on fireworks night! It doesn't matter how good or bad they are in any one season, fireworks night is always a loss, a bad loss, and obviously, no one leaves from the sold-out crowd, which leads to 53,000 angry people at Shea booing and cursing, and so on... 1999 - Franco pitches in a 15-2 loss to Atlanta. Not John Franco.. Matt Franco. I was there in 2001 to see Kerry Wood and the Cubs 2-hit or 3-hit a truly lacklustre Met team. 2003 was a big (11-3? 11-4?) loss to Montreal - a game I decided not to go to at the last minute.

The sole exception that I can think of was 2000, when, with the Mets down like 8-0 or 9-0 (to Atlanta again), they scored 10 in the bottom of the 8th to pull out a win.

Just got back from the game myself. Yeah, the game sucked, but the fireworks were neat. I've gone the last couple of years - a good friend has been going for about 12 years with a big group (they buy about 6 rows of seats) and tailgate before and after the game. Kinda makes you forget about the lousy ballgame.

I'm a huge Mets fan, but I refuse to pay the platinum ticket level to watch a game against a usually irrelevant team just to see the fireworks when I can watch from outside.

Nice shots, Phil. :)

Excellent photos! I half heartedly watched the fireworks while still stewing about the Mets loss.

nice photos. i was landing at LGA on the 4th (runway 22) and i saw fireworks from the plane.