Shea Stadium (Our 6th Stadium)
The driving force behind this trip was to visit the New York baseball stadiums, since both teams are building new stadiums scheduled to open for the 2009 season. Of course, that means we'll have to go back to NYC to visit those new stadiums in the not too distant future as well. ;-)
We started out with the NY Mets vs. Cincinnati Reds for a 1:10pm game Sunday afternoon. We took the 7-train from Times Square through much of Queens to the stadium. Right across from Shea Stadium is the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, where the U.S. Open is played, and also visible from the subway stop is the large wire-frame "Unisphere" from Men In Black movie fame (see pic).
We got to the stadium pretty early (about 2 hours) so we could tour the stadium, get some food (we were hungry), and pick up a Shea Stadium shirt for Sam's collection, plus, the first 25,000 fans in the gates got free Mets hats for Military Appreciation Day. When we got up to the stadium, they weren't letting people inside yet, so I ran around to the front of the stadium to take a picture while Sam waited in line. The doors opened just before I got back to her. As we got up to the front of the line, we saw they weren't letting people take in the free chips & 
popcorn they were giving away outside the stadium, so I threw away our empty bag plus the full bags we hadn't eaten yet. Unfortunately (as I soon realized), I also had my ticket in the hand with the bags that I just put in the trash. As a result, I had to dig through the trash, trying to find my ticket. I was having problems finding it, but Sam tipped the (luckily) not very full trash bin on its side and crawled part of the way in to retrieve my ticket! I knew I made a good choice when I married her! She did, however, refuse to re-enact crawling in the trash can to illustrate this blog article.
See our fancy camoflauge Mets hats!
Our seats were in section 29 of the Mezzanine level, box 671B. We were only 2 rows or so from the front of that level. We sat down 45 minutes or so before the game started, and unfortunately, our seats were in full sun. We decided about halfway through the 2nd inning to move up to the Upper Level to sit in the shade, since we were just sweating, burning, and uncomfortable in the sun.
While "our" Upper Level seats weren't quite as good, there was shade and a wonderful breeze that kept us nice and comfortable the rest of the game. We got to see a Mets home run (which causes the "Big Apple" to pop out of the top hat in center field (see pic), and in the end the Mets won the game 5-2. The only disappointment for me was the lack of Ken Griffey Jr. for the Reds. Evidently he had the day off.
The Home Run Big Apple. This was actually taken before the game started, when they just keep it out of the hat, but during the game it only rises out of the hat after a Mets home run.
A view into the new CitiField Stadium from the Upper Level in Shea, opening in 2009.
The skyline & logo at the top of the Shea Stadium scoreboard. 
A portrait by Sam. My hat looks funny, but that's because I'm wearing the free Mets hat over my Tigers hat. I didn't have to set it on the beer-y ground that way. 
A cute pic of Sam (as requested!) at Shea Stadium.
We started out with the NY Mets vs. Cincinnati Reds for a 1:10pm game Sunday afternoon. We took the 7-train from Times Square through much of Queens to the stadium. Right across from Shea Stadium is the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, where the U.S. Open is played, and also visible from the subway stop is the large wire-frame "Unisphere" from Men In Black movie fame (see pic).
We got to the stadium pretty early (about 2 hours) so we could tour the stadium, get some food (we were hungry), and pick up a Shea Stadium shirt for Sam's collection, plus, the first 25,000 fans in the gates got free Mets hats for Military Appreciation Day. When we got up to the stadium, they weren't letting people inside yet, so I ran around to the front of the stadium to take a picture while Sam waited in line. The doors opened just before I got back to her. As we got up to the front of the line, we saw they weren't letting people take in the free chips & 
popcorn they were giving away outside the stadium, so I threw away our empty bag plus the full bags we hadn't eaten yet. Unfortunately (as I soon realized), I also had my ticket in the hand with the bags that I just put in the trash. As a result, I had to dig through the trash, trying to find my ticket. I was having problems finding it, but Sam tipped the (luckily) not very full trash bin on its side and crawled part of the way in to retrieve my ticket! I knew I made a good choice when I married her! She did, however, refuse to re-enact crawling in the trash can to illustrate this blog article.
See our fancy camoflauge Mets hats!Once safely in the stadium, we stopped at Mama's of Corona for a famous hot turkey sandwich that received rave reviews from The Ultimate Baseball Road Trip. We personally thought the sandwich was good, but nothing exceptional. The hot dogs were tasty (Nathan's brand), and the beer was nice and cold (it was a pretty hot day).
Our seats were in section 29 of the Mezzanine level, box 671B. We were only 2 rows or so from the front of that level. We sat down 45 minutes or so before the game started, and unfortunately, our seats were in full sun. We decided about halfway through the 2nd inning to move up to the Upper Level to sit in the shade, since we were just sweating, burning, and uncomfortable in the sun. 
While "our" Upper Level seats weren't quite as good, there was shade and a wonderful breeze that kept us nice and comfortable the rest of the game. We got to see a Mets home run (which causes the "Big Apple" to pop out of the top hat in center field (see pic), and in the end the Mets won the game 5-2. The only disappointment for me was the lack of Ken Griffey Jr. for the Reds. Evidently he had the day off. We left the game a little early (half way through the 8th); partially to avoid the crowds on the subway ride back into Manhattan, and partially because we were antsy to see the rest of NYC.
The Home Run Big Apple. This was actually taken before the game started, when they just keep it out of the hat, but during the game it only rises out of the hat after a Mets home run.
A view into the new CitiField Stadium from the Upper Level in Shea, opening in 2009.
The skyline & logo at the top of the Shea Stadium scoreboard.
A portrait by Sam. My hat looks funny, but that's because I'm wearing the free Mets hat over my Tigers hat. I didn't have to set it on the beer-y ground that way.
A cute pic of Sam (as requested!) at Shea Stadium.
2 comments:
Oh yea, and in the little time spent in the sun at the game, Sam got a nice red hue on her back and shoulders... which caused uncomfortableness the rest of the trip!
Sounds like fun! I'm much impressed with Sam's foray into the trash can to retrieve your ticket, but also disappointed that there was no reinactment. Alas, my spouse is also unwilling to do reinactments for blogging purposes.
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