Big Shea

Approaching Shea Stadium on the No. 7 train, Apr-2001. This photo is taken through the dirty window of the train car.

The seating bowl, Apr-2001.

You can’t see it here, but the Throgs Neck Bridge is often visible past left field. This shot is from Sep-1993.

• Location: Roosevelt Avenue between Grand Central Parkway and 126 Street, Flushing, N.Y.
• Opened: 1964
• Closed: 2008
• Demolished: 2009
• Home team: New York Mets, National League (1964-2008); New York Yankees, American League (1974-75, one game in 1998); St. John’s University Red Storm, Big East Conference (2000); New York Jets, American Football League (1964-65), National Football League (1966-81)
• Capacity: 55,777

Chronological Tour: Stop 1

Rating: 3 baseballs

Most people complained incessantly about Shea, saying the upper deck seats were way too high, the wind howled through there like nobody’s business, and when planes took off from nearby LaGuardia Airport, they couldn’t hear themselves think.

They were all valid complaints, but the Mets did everything possible to keep Big Shea (named for William Shea, a New York politician who was instrumental in bringing National League baseball back to the city in 1962 after a four-year absence) a serviceable facility while they worked on their new imitation Ebbets Field in the parking lot. In August 2006, the Mets broke ground for Citi Field, beyond center field closer to 126 Street, which opened in 2009. Shea was torn down several weeks before the new park opened.

Ticket prices rose in the last few years of the park, as the club had to pay the stars who turned it from a pretender into a contender. But at the end, a game at Shea was still more affordable than at its counterpart in the Bronx, and it was very possible to enjoy a game here.

Actually, the Yankees were tenants of Shea on several occasions. While their park was under renovation in 1974-75, they played their full schedule here, sharing the facility with the Mets. They returned for a single game in April 1998, when a structural failure caused Yankee Stadium to be shut down for a few days for inspection and repair.

Note: My impression of Shea was colored somewhat (rose-colored, one might say) because Shea was the first place I saw a game in my life. I grew up a Mets fan, and there’s still a hint of that somewhere even after I’ve seen parks numbering in the hundreds and I’ve come to “root, root, root for the home team” no matter where I roam. The 98 games I saw at Shea (95 Met games, one Yankee game, one minor league game, and one college summer league game) are, as of Shea’s closing, the most I’ve seen at any professional park.