" This book is a must for all Mets fans !!"
First off I would like to wish everyone yet again a Happy New Year, and I hope you didn’t drink and drive – because as the old saying goes “ you might hit a bump and spill your drink !”
But now back to business. I always cower in horror on Christmas Day whenever I visit my Father in-laws house because my wife’s sister usually gets me the most mind blowingly bad presents known to man. One year she got me one of those ceramic cow banks that you can get in any souvenir shops in New York City. This cow was painted red, white and blue and when I looked at it after unwrapping it , it seemed as though it was taunting me with its glassy stare. She says that she got me the cow because of its name – SEXIST ED!!! I generally would chalk this up as her not knowing me that well because I had just married her sister but the gifts in subsequent years have gotten worse ! Another year she got me a “ Tarzan – The Musical!!” t-shirt and hat ( I wonder where she got that from ). Yet another year I received a Antonio Bandaras cologne ( I’m serious !!).
But this year there was the usual crap – Adams Family on Broadway shirt, gift card to a store I don’t frequent etc. But she also got me something that I truly love and enjoy and I want to recommend to all of my readers.
My sister in- law got me the book ” Shea Stadium – Images of Baseball” by Jason D. Antos. and it encapsulates the entire lifespan of Shea Stadium in glorious black and white photographs. It also gives a brief history of New York National League baseball with pictures of the Polo Grounds as well as Ebbets Field.
There are awesome pictures from Shea Stadiums construction – from the ground breaking – to just before her demolition.
There are pictures of everyone from Casey Stengel to Dwight Gooden , Tom Seaver to Tommy Agee. Hell even Joe Torre is on the cover !!
It also touches on the many concerts that were held there as well as Papal visits.
But the best this that this book conveys is the spirit of Shea, and how much us Mets fans miss it so. Yes it was in the parameters of the 21st century a dump, but to us it was a Mecca of Baseball, a place where we could go and feel at home.
I just hope that we will feel that way abouty Citi Field in the next forty years .
And with that said … HERE COMES THE INFAMY !!!
Mets alumni celebrating birthdays today are :
Jack of all trades from ’08-10, Fernando Tatis (1975).
Fernando was one of those diamonds in the rough that Omar Minaya loved. In his first season with the Mets he reinvented himself as a good late inning pinch hitter who could also play decent defense in the infield as well as the outfield. He would win the “Comeback Player of the Year” award for his reemergence after being out of baseball for three seasons. He would sign a two year contract with the Mets after the ’08 season and his numbers tanked. It seemed like every-time he would come to bat with runners on base he would ground into inning ending double plays.
Sadly on this date in 1977 , one time Mets reliever, Danny Frisella died in a freak dune buggy accident by his home in Arizona .
Yes folks it is official – there are just three months (90 days) until the Mets open the 2011 season against the Florida Marlins in Miami and 97 days until the Mets 2011 home opener against the Washington Nationals at Citi Field.
I am currently blackmailing Mo Vaughn with pictures that I took at his New Years Eve bash last night. These pictures show him inebriated and wearing nothing but his Baby New Year costume !!!
6 comments
stickguy
1/1/2011-11:26am at 11:26 am (UTC -4)
quite the image on old Mo there.
I actually miss Shea. At least the field level. A nice warm afternoon in the field boxes, perfect. I wasn’t interested in the food anyway (maybe a dirty water dog to tide me over and absorb some of the beer!). And so what the bathrooms were kind of stanky, at least the field was perfect. And nothing said Mets baseball quite like the upper deck boxes shaking and swaying during a late game rally (and I am still surprised they never collapsed!)
and I’m sure as the years go by, the memories will get fonder as I remember the games and companions, and forget the leaky sewer pipes in the upper reaches.
Ceetar
1/1/2011-11:46am at 11:46 am (UTC -4)
I have that book.
I miss Shea too, some of the warm summers chilling for BP on the field level. It was cozy and home, but I’m also ecstatic that we have a new park. I have a feeling if we got to watch another game at Shea now, we’d be disappointed. Especially if it was raining. heh. It did have a nice charm to it though.
metsfan4decades
1/1/2011-12:55pm at 12:55 pm (UTC -4)
After attending many games at Shea in my youth, due to circumstances I hadn’t been back there since opening day 1987. I made one last trek that last season of ’08 in late July as the Cardinals beat the Mets in 14 innings on a Pujols HR off Heilman.
I was like a kid in the candy store. The sites, the smells, the excitement all came rushing back. Oh, it cost me physically for the next week or so but it was so worth it. Only thing that could have made it better was the Mets holding on for the win.
Except one thing….those women’s bathrooms were downright disgusting. I haven’t been to Citi yet but I KNOW those gotta be better….
metsfan4decades
1/1/2011-12:48pm at 12:48 pm (UTC -4)
Love that book too. And Happy New Year to all.
As an avid reader, I finally got my long awaited Kindle DX. Pretty cool as the first web site I went to on their web browser was this one. (It’s really not meant to surf the web like on a laptop but it can be done.)
After going through all the free books for download and trying to decide on which one I wanted to start with, I stumbled on ‘The Bad Guys Won’. Yeah, I read it years ago and yeah I had to pay for it, but I couldn’t resist. I just took a break as Ray Knight steps up to the plate in Game 6, bottom of the 10th.
90 days until Opening day – ugh….
hazmet
1/1/2011-1:52pm at 1:52 pm (UTC -4)
Happy New Year to all and another great snapshot into the life of RJ. We do Christmas each year at our place and it alway’s evolves into my Father in Law from Italy debating with my Brother in Law from Germany which is better Italy or Germany. Oy, my wife and I usually need to leave the room along with by B-laws kids. Best to leave that xenophobic discussion on its own. This year was amusing as my wife has now decended to the point of not caring about proprieties and as such decended to ask my B-law if he was Colonel Klink as he peered through one lens of his eyeglasses to read something. This followed with her shaking her fist yelling “Hogan…..”. F-Law & B-Law then debated what is the deal with “muslim gangs” in Europe and how the Germans & Italians never had gangs. Bwahhaa haa haa. Rich stuff, never heard of nazi’s or the mafia before. ehhhh, sigh…. I guess this is where the saying “you know it’s family since they’re either embarassing you or they’re dead” comes from.
Anyway, so glad to put 2010 in the rear view mirror. Baseball & professionally it just sucked all the way around. Fortunately, there’s alway’s an opportunity to change what we don’t like if we’re willing to ride out the transitional rough spots. And that’s where we are with our Mets crew too. I’m looking forward to 2011 as a season with no serious expectations and hopefully more new young faces earning their wings and broken down pieces being removed from the picture. Like the 1-1-11 date today we’re at a new beginning and I can’t wait.
Mr North Jersey
1/1/2011-6:41pm at 6:41 pm (UTC -4)
2011 IS HERE!
Happy New Year R.D.M.
Happy New Year Everyone!