I miss Shea Stadium

Katie July 28, 2011 0 Comments

Last Tuesday night I headed out to Citi Field with my family for my birthday to see the Mets take on the Cardinals.  It was also Ike Davis Bobblehead night – but Ike has been sidelined with an ankle injury for a while so he was not in the lineup.  Neither was my favorite player, David Wright.  Jose Reyes had just been activated off the DL though – so at least there was one familiar face in the line up! (I exaggerate, there was more than just Jose)

The game was great and the Mets won 4-2.  It was incredibly hot though, even for us just sitting in the stands.  I spotted Ike Davis in the dug out during the game – and he was wearing a JACKET!  Not sure how he could do that, but maybe the clubhouse was cold and he kept going in and out of the dugout.

When the game was over and we got back to the car – the family was talking about how much we missed Shea Stadium – the old home of the Mets.  But more importantly, we miss the box seats!  Before you would have 4 tickets and you’d be “boxed in”  with 2 seats in one row and the other 2 seats behind.  There was a rail to the right or left with another box and then on the other side a staircase.  You never needed to get up to let someone out unless it was the person sitting next to you, so those people who feel the need to get up and out of their seats over and over during games don’t bother you.  Also for me, it was a lot easier to get up out of my seat when there was the rail in front of me to pull up on.

Now at Citi Field, all of the sections are rows so you are force to get up to let other people through and back and forth… It is also harder to have a conversation with everyone in a row.  I was sitting next to my Dad, so if I said anything and my Mom wanted to know what my Dad would repeat it and my brother was on the end so it sometimes got repeated to him too.  With the box seats, I usually sat in front with my brother and then could just turn around to talk to my parents without a problem.

Otherwise, for the most part, I like the “modern” upgrades to Citi Field.  Although the other thing I would change is the fact that if you take the elevator down because you can’t or don’t want to navigate the stairs – there is pretty much no way to get to the team store in the rotunda.  You have to go to another entrance to be let back in. What I didn’t realize was that besides showing your ticket again, you also needed to get patted down again.  I of course realized this once the woman there grabbed me and completely caught me off guard and therefore ended up with me being off balance.  It would have been nice if she was like “I need to pat you down” and didn’t just grab at me.  Fortunately I was able to keep my balance and not fall – but seriously if you see someone with a leg brace on it might be a good idea to give them a heads up if you are going to grab them.  Actually, it might be a good idea to give ANYONE a heads up that you need to grab them…