Goodbye Shea

[Matt Molnar]

Only fitting that the home of so many disappointments over the decades is closed down with another big one.

Looking forward to Minaya not picking up any bullpen help yet again this off-season.

[moose135]

Thanks for the memories. I attended my first game at Shea in June, 1969, and my final game a few weeks ago. There were good times and bad, but I enjoyed every visit to Big Shea.

"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart.
The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again,
and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings,
and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you
to face the fall alone."
- A. Bartlett Giamatti

[NIKV69]

Why did he pull that pitcher? What an idiot. Not only did they have no relief pitching but a manager that totally sucked IMO. Sad ending. I attended a few games at Shea. Though I never thought it was a pretty place there is history there. Farewell.

[moose135]

Watching the farewell ceremony brought a tear to my eye. Seeing all those old Met players brings back so many memories! Classy way to say goodbye - Seaver throws the final pitch to Piazza, and the two of them walk out through the center field gate one last time.

[cancidas]

saw the fireworks after the game from the office at LGA. at least i can say that i went to games at both yankee and shea stadium.

[Tom_Turner]

Watching the farewell ceremony brought a tear to my eye. Seeing all those old Met players brings back so many memories!

Yeah, me too. Not easy to see athletes grow old.

Highlights -

> Return of Dwight Gooden. (yeah!)
> Getting Yogi and Willie - My God... I wouldn't have bet on that. So
great they showed.

Good picks on returnees by Wilpon & company -

> Dave Kingman & George Foster. Man, those guys had their issues, but
George is more than not a good egg, and for all of Kingman's issues,
he left his heart out on the field. He didn't cheat you in terms of
effort.

> Felix Millan - so solid. Not a native NY'er I don't believe, but he
used to take his kids to Coney Island. A down to earth guy, who played
to win. And who ever choked up more on a bat? Right up to the
trademark. We'll never see a batting stance like that one again.

> Al Leiter - Good to see the backstage politics are over for this
event. He too left his heart out on the field for us.

> George "The Stork" Theodore - The fans wanted to see him.

> Robin Ventura & Todd Ziele - Nice combo there.

GLARING OMISSIONS...

Why didn't they invite David Cone and John Olerud back? They belonged
there! And Bobby V... Sucks they didn't appear to be invited.

Observations - Lenny got fat. Oh well. Big Deal.

The Tom Seaver / Mike Piazza exit was overdone. But thats nitpicking I
suppose. More than ever, it appears Piazza is one of the real "good
guys" in baseball.

Again for the 2nd time Rey Knight and Davey Johnson not being able to
make it? I guess perhaps they really don't want to come back?

Was Mookie out there? Did I miss that?

Tom

[flyboy 28]

Never did get out to Shea. I had two free tickets for earlier this month for donating blood but couldn't due to scheduling. Sorry I missed out! Glad I got to Yankee stadium though.

[moose135]

GLARING OMISSIONS...

Why didn't they invite David Cone and John Olerud back? They belonged
there! And Bobby V... Sucks they didn't appear to be invited.

Again for the 2nd time Rey Knight and Davey Johnson not being able to
make it? I guess perhaps they really don't want to come back?

Was Mookie out there? Did I miss that?

Mookie, Knight and Johnson were named at the start of the ceremony as ones who were unable to attend. Bobby V is living and managing in Japan, may not have wanted to make the trip back. Newsday had an interview with him in the paper today.

[Gerard]

>Observations - Lenny got fat. Oh well. Big Deal.<

Did anyone see the interview with him in the stands the other night? I thought they were talking to someone who had a stroke. Not only did he
not look good but his voice sounded odd. A buddy of mine in work thought the same thing. Maybe those steroids caught up with him.

[Matt Molnar]

>Observations - Lenny got fat. Oh well. Big Deal.<

Did anyone see the interview with him in the stands the other night? I thought they were talking to someone who had a stroke. Not only did he
not look good but his voice sounded odd. A buddy of mine in work thought the same thing. Maybe those steroids caught up with him.

I saw that, I don't know what the point of it was. Even more weird is the fact that he writes a stock investing column for TheStreet.com.

[PhilDernerJr]

Steroids wouldn't have an effect like that on someone.

Anyone have video of any of the ceremony? I'd love to see it.

[Lezam]

It sucks that we didn't go all the way this year, the last year in shea. We were doing so well too.

Here's to new beginnings... hopefully next year we will take it all the way.

[pgengler]

Back in June, I picked up tickets to the last game (my financee is a Mets fan and loves Shea, and had mentioned she would have loved to go to the last game, so we did).

We made the mistake of driving to the stadium. Took me an hour and a half to find somewhere to park (even with prepaid parking) and even then it was on the grassy median of one of the roads. At least the start time was pushed back to 2 or I'd have missed a couple of innings.

Of aviation interest, LGA was departing 13, and the planes were turning out right over the stadiums (Shea/Citi Field). Lots of nice banks but the low overcast wasn't so good for taking pictures.

Anyway, as for the game, it was a fast-moving slow game for a while (lots of quick innings without a lot going on). Pretty early on, the Cubs went up 1-0 on Milwaukee, and everyone cheered. I saw a bunch of "Cubs Fan for a Day" signs in the crowd. The Marlins made a nice play in the bottom of the third, when Perez tried to lay down a sac bunt. Cantu grabbed the ball and fired to second. They tried for the double play but Perez beat the throw at first. Pretty close though.

Perez pitched a good game until the sixth, when Maybin doubled and Baker singled him in. (Lots of boos for that one.) Marlins put another guy on and then Jacobs hits a sac fly to center. Beltran threw to third (way too late for a play) instead of second where he probably would have had the guy. Perez intentionally walks Uggla, loading the bases with one out, and then he's gone. Gets a nice cheer as he leaves the game. Joe Smith comes in and promptly walks Willingham, scoring a run. Plenty of boos for that. Managed to get out of the inning without any further damage, and then Beltran homered in the bottom of the sixth to tie it. The crowd went wild over that one.

In the seventh, Endy Chavez came into play left. He had two nice plays that inning, first quickly fielding a shot off the wall, keeping it to a single, and then making a nice running grab to end the inning.

Then came the eighth. Schoeneweis comes in to start the inning and gives up a homer to Wes Helms, and then gets pulled. Booed off the field. Ayala comes in and gives up another homer. Sometime in the middle of all this the Brewers scored two more runs, putting them ahead. More boos. The Mets had a chance in the bottom of the eight, after Reyes doubled and Beltran walked with two outs. Delgado couldn't make it happen, though.

Lots of "Off the field!" chants at the Marlins once the game was over.

-- INTERMISSION --

Pretty quickly after the end of the game they started setting up for the ceremony. Every so often a couple of Marlins players would come out of the dugout and scoop some dirt, always to boos.

Mr. Met came out to center field to take off the last number on the countdown out there. Plenty of boos when the last number came down and revealed a Citi Field logo.

I don't suppose anyone here knows why all that measuring was necessary for placing the photos in the outfield?

The ceremony itself was nice, I thought. First they introduced some family from important/long-time people in Shea/Mets history (like Shea's kids) and announced some of the players that couldn't make it. Then it was onto the ones who could.

For each of the players they had some video clips and some (brief) narration about their history with the Mets. Most of the players were from the '69, '96, or '00 Mets, with a couple from other years in the team's history. They all lined up along the edge of the infield before moving down the base lines for one last chance to touch home plate.

Then Tom Seaver walked out to the mound and Mike Piazza crouched behind home plate for one last pitch. They shook hand, hugged, and walked off out through the fence in center field.


I took a lot of pictures that I haven't even started to go through yet. I'll try to get some of them up tonight.

[Tom_Turner]

One thing is certain...Arsonist Blowenweiss and Heilman will never be invited back for any type of festivities.