Rob From U-Melt Remembers Shea
For the past two years Rob Salzer of U-Melt has been our go-to Mets fan. On the occasion of Shea Stadium’s closing and tonight’s U-Melt show at the Highline Ballroom, we asked the guitarist to share his thoughts on the Metropolitans home from 1964-2008. Take it away, Rob…
Many people say Shea is a dump, and needs to go. That may be true for current stadium standards, but also seems to be a superficial idea seeing as how the money needed to build Citi Field could actually feed an entire third world country.
That said (and I really think it needed to be said), I think more Mets fans loved Shea than otherwise. The very first baseball game I ever attended was in Spring of 1982, when I was all of three years old. Clearly, I can’t remember much about the experience – but I do know the Mets we’re playing the Cardinals and took the game to the tenth inning. Fittingly, they lost one to nothing against the then superior Cardinals.
READ ON for more from Rob about the closing of Shea Stadium…
I was fortunate enough to be at a Mets – Cards doubleheader in 1999- in the middle of McGwire’s steroid facilitated tear and the hayday of the Mets – Braves rivalry. I was fortunate because Mike Piazza crushed two home runs and John Olerud won the game in the 8th with a grand slam, and believe me, the whole stadium shook. It was pretty incredible.
I also had the misfortune of being at one of those quintessential Mets-blowing-the-lead-after-a- brilliantly-pitched-game by Johan Santana this year.
I’ve been to tons of games between all those memories, but the point is they’ve all been great times spent with friends and family – which I believe to be just about the most important aspect of life – and what the stadium looks like just doesn’t factor into that at all. So I loved the ugly dump in Flushing, despite the aesthetic flaws and failing infrastructure.
Now we look forward to Citi Field, which will certainly be state of the art, and the franchise can feel like it has a park to rival all the other new flashy parks. And it does look good; with the retro, almost Ebbets field look it will certainly resonate with long time residents of NY – especially those lucky enough and who have lived long enough to have seen a Brooklyn Dodgers game. It is truly a shame that many of these people won’t be able to afford to see the Mets at their new ballpark now, in all it’s modern glory. Let’s hope that the $600,000,000.00 ball park will last longer than the measly 44 years Shea did.
Thanks to Rob, and U-Melt’s manager Jason Greenberg for getting this together so quickly. And don’t forget to enter our quirky Gig Used Gear contest to win a batch of stuff from tonight’s concert.
I’m not a huge baseball fan now, but I have many great memories of Shea Stadium, going to games since I was a little kid. At one time I was a baseball fanatic. I never thought the stadium was an eye sore, but I guess it was a little outdated. To me it was a staple of the Grand Central Expressway, passing by Shea. It also holds a special place in my heart because when I was younger I had the pleasure of interviewing Bill Shea, Esq., the stadium’s namesake, for a school project. As busy as he was, he dropped everything to spill his guts about the stadium to a 9 year old fan. I’ll never forget it.
By the way – See ya tonight at Highline!!!
Shea Stadium in 1968, the year the Mets lost last place and won it all. I went to aboutten games that season, including my only World Series appearance. My folks used to buy Borden’s milk by the quart. We would save the coupons from the sides and trade them in for free bleacher seats. Later in life I had weekend season tickets. windy, yes. Loud airplanes a distraction, yes again. Unisphere left over from worlds Fair, yes. My favorite color combination is still that distinct orange and blue, regardless of where they play.
[...] on HT: Rob From U-Melt Remembers Shea addthis_url = [...]