Park #19

September 13, 2005: New York, New York
Shea stadium is nothing special. There is really nothing on the outside of the stadium. The whole exterior of the stadium is just a giant blue dome, with no real discernable life of baseball. I walked around the outside of the stadium and everything looked exactly the same. There was nothing cool to speak of. As you get into the stadium, I thought I was transported into a football stadium, like RFK or Oakland. I mean, the place was just not impressive. All i could see was concrete ramps as far as the eye can see. I walked around the lower concourse and finally after a minutes of searching for signs of baseball, I found a ramp to the field and seating area. Well, no dice. Apparently if your seats are in the Mezzanine area, you are not allowed on the field level. As I said when I was faced with such a situation in LA, "this is crap". I'm sorry, but I think its idiotic to forbid ticketholders from entering certain seating areas before the game. This is especially true when there is no one at the stadium, I mean there were only like 10,000 at the game. What a load of horsepooh.
So, after my failed attempt at trying to see the field (how ridiculous does that sound), I went to the Mets team shop. There was not much to see there, and I wasn't gonna buy a Kaz Matsui teddy bear or crap like that. However, they did have a bigger than life size "Mr. Met" statue. Well, after my being denied seeing the field level seats, i decided to take out my anger on a larger than life mascot. So, I began punching the Mr. Met statue in the groin. You can see the picture at: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jefflazarus/detail?.dir=8bba&.dnm=9091.jpg&.src=ph
This made me feel like a big man, and I felt better.
Okay, so eventually we went up the ramps and went to the seats. We were sitting right behind home plate, in the Mezzanine section. First I need to comment on the guy sitting in front of me. He had one of the best mullets ever. The guy was about 5'4", but his mullet made him look like a giant. In addition to the normal mullet hair in the back, he had the hair on the top of his head completely spiked up. It was almost as if a mullet and a moehawk had come together to serve a higher purpose in life, like as if they had been created to work together to solve crimes.
So.....the stadium.....okay, there was so much orange and blue, I thought I had taken a time warp to the 1988 Cleveland Cavaliers. I swear, orange and blue everywhere in the stadium, it was crazy. I did think that the outfield was nice. In right you had a pretty good scoreboard, and in left you had the bleacher area, which i'm sure is a trip to see a game in. And then out in center field they have that big hat with an apple in it. That thing is pretty cool.
One little thing about Shea, it's like right next to Laguardia airport, which means that every 5 minutes an airplane flies right over the stadium. This was a little weird, and a lot annoying. At points, the noise of the plane going by was just as loud as the noise made by the fans. Not cool.
So, the stadium itself was not very impressive, but what was impressive was some of the people at the stadium. Now, there were very few fans at the game, and i already mentioned captain mulletman, but i need to let you know about the Great American Hero that is alive in our time. This man spends everyday at Shea Stadium-he is, The "Cowbell man". This guy goes around to all the sections of the stadium (he must be privileged for this honor), and he has a cowbell that he plays to get the crowd pumped up. He also lets kids play the cowbell too.
Not only does this guy have a jersey that has the #10, and has his name "CowBell Man" on the back, but he has a t-shirt underneath that says "More Cowbell". You can see pictures of this guy at http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jefflazarus/album?.dir=8bba&.src=ph, and go to picture #s 1421, 1422, and 1423. You will be most pleased.
Okay, so food. The hot dog was really good. It had the peppers and onions, which were extra tasty. This is because they didn't overcook the peppers and onions so they get stringy, they were actually a little crunchy which was very good. The dog itself was good too, the right bun:dog ratio. Also, they sold knishes at the stadium. Now, for those of you who dont know what they are, a knish is a jewish food that is mashed potatoes wrapped in a doughy pastry. I think this was the first time i had one (or at least the first time i could remember having one), and it was really good.
As for the game, the Mets SUCK. The Mets played the Nationals, and Tom Glavine really pitched a good game, he got into a lot of jams, but managed to get out of most of them. He pitched 7 innings and gave up only 3 runs. But the Mets hitting is just terrible. I think they got only five hits the entire game. They were lucky that the score was 3-2 in the 8th inning, then the dumbness kicked in. Jose Offerman pinch hit for Glavine (who by-the-way got an RBI single earlier in the game) and Offerman walked. So, the mets were in a good spot, no one out with a runner on first. Well, the next hitter, Reyes hit a grounder up the middle and Offerman just stood a first. He didn't run on a grounder. Well, of course they threw him out at second, and after that the offense went back to being anemic and didn't score. It was pathetic. They ended up losing 4-2.
Overall, Shea was not too great, it had a few good points, but I was not impressed overall. I'm gonna give it a C.
Well, 19 down, 1 to go.
Next stop: Home, Cleveland, Ohio.
Laz