Saturday, September 27, 2008

Shea Goodbye - Part 1

Today we were going to go to CW Post to see a college football game, but since the weather was damp we decided to see the movie Eagle Eye. When we cam home the Mets were in the fourth inning.  Johann Santana pitched a complete game as the Mets beat Florida 2-0.  Later in the afternoon the Cubs beat the Brewers so tomorrows last game will have meaning since the Mets can still win the wild card.

Let me use today' journal entry to recall some of the games that I saw at Shea.  I got tickets with my 9th grade classmate Alan Metzer to see the second game played there on April 18, 1964.  On the subway we saw from a distance our Spanish teacher Miss Singer.  The Mets lost that game to the Pittsburgh Pirates but when we returned to Spanish class on Monday we discussed the game in Spanish.  In June of 1964 I went to my second game with my dad and sister right after my junior high school graduation.  Later in the 60s I usually went with friends a couple of times a year to Shea.  In the 70s when I lived away from Queens I would always make sure I went to one or two games a season when I visited my parents.

In 1978 I saw Fuzzy for the very first time.  He was and still is a diehard who sits in section one of the upper deck.  He and his crew of diehards would be there for every game.  In Queens Bnai Birth singles I might Howie who was another diehard who sat with Fuzzy's gang.  I never took a date to a ball game until I met Karen in the early 80s.  Lee's first game was in 1993 as Florida beat the Mets.  That was a terrible year for the Amazins since they had a worse record than an expansion team.  In recent years we have purchased a 7 pack which included a game against the Yankees.  This year our 7 pack included the last regular season game to be played at Shea.

>>>More tomorrow

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Bruce-I was at the first Mets game at Shea Stadium on April 17th, 1964. I went with my father. I will be going to the last Mets Regular Season game on September 28th, 2008. Some of my highlight games are April 22nd, 1970 when Tom Seaver struck out 19 batters and the last 10 in a row. I was also at game 4 of the 1969 World Series when Ron Swoboda made a great catch. I was also at all 3 games of the 1973 NLCS against the Reds including the game when Bud Harrelson had the famous fight with Pete Rose. I also went to all 3 World Series games in 1973 against Oakland. Probably the greatest game I saw at Shea was game 4 of the 1999 NL Division Series when Todd Pratt hit a walk off HR to win the series. There are other great games I saw as well but too many to mention.-snofan1

 
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