The 2008 baseball season will be the final season that the New York Mets play in Shea Stadium. For 34 years, the Mets have played at Shea. It is clearly far behind most other baseball stadiums in terms of technology, cleanliness, and luxury seating. You can see automobile junkyards over leftfield, the scoreboard is old, and the speaker system is shoddy. Quite frankly, many visitors, notably the dopes broadcasting on TBS, have made fun of Shea and practically called it a dump. Every year, they criticize the stadium and its press box. You know the old saying: It may be a dump...but it's our dump.

For many Met fans, Shea Stadium has become a second home. We've laughed, moaned, cried, and cheered at Big Shea. Shea Stadium is a place that has had its share of historical moments, though they are often overshadowed by those of Yankee Stadium, located about twenty minutes away. Some of those moments that come to mind include watching the Amazing Mets roll over the Baltimore Orioles in 1969. There was the unforgettable 1973 season that saw the last place Mets surge during September to win the NL East with a 83-79 record. Who can forget the Pete Rose Bud Harrelson fight during the playoffs when the Mets upset the powerful Big Red Machine? Some will remember seeing Joe Namath throwing his beautiful deep spirals when the Jets played at Shea. There's the incredible comeback of the 86' Mets in Game Six of the World Series. The entire 1986 playoffs was as memorable as any post season, though it is often overlooked because of the Buckner boo-boo. And perhaps one of the most stirring moments in Shea's history was the first day day baseball resumed following 9/11, and Mike Piazza's mammoth homerun which sent Shea into a frenzy. It was a homerun for New York, and not just the Mets.

Shea has hosted many great players through the years: Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Willie Mays, Tug McGraw, Nolan Ryan, Rusty Staub, Gary Carter, Keith Hernandez, Mike Piazza, Pedro Martinez, David Wright, Joe Namath, John Riggins......the list goes on and on. And let's not forget the ultimate concert hosted at Shea: The Beatles.

But through all of this, there are other memories that occured at Shea....memories that don't make the record books. What will some of us miss most about Shea Stadium? It could be the memory of going to our first ballgame with our Dad, as was the case with me. It was being part of a big crowd for the first time in our lives. It was watching batting practice, and having an opposing player toss me a batted ball from the massive right field of Shea. It will be remembered for hugging complete strangers next to me and in the parking lot after being there to see the Mets clinch the pennant in 86'. It will be remembered for calling into work sick every opening day to be with your friends for the day, eating hot dogs and drinking a Coke. It will be remembered as a place some of us dreamed as kids of playing in one day when we got older. And for some of us, it will be remembered for the day we were finally able to take our own son to Shea Stadium for the first time, and seeing his face light up with joy upon seeing a baseball stadium for the first time, that he had only seen on television.

Those are some of the memories that Shea Stadium will hold for many of us...especially me. So go ahead and call it a dump. Laugh at it if you'd like. Continue to call it a dirty place. Be grateful if you'd like that it will be facing a wrecking ball after the season. For visiting players and announcers, sure, it may be a dump....for many of us fans, it's a sacred and beautiful place that holds special memories. Shea is our home...was our home...will always be our home, even in memoriam. And when others applaud the implosion of Shea Stadium, I, like many of my fellow Met fans, will cry like little kids. We'll cry just as we did when Wayne Garrett popped out to 3B to end the 1973 World Series. And our hearts will have been broken again.


Court Adjourned!