My Top 10 Shea Stadium Memories

In 1999, I was able to experience post season baseball at Shea for the first time, and I quickly learned just how different the crowd can be in October. The place was full of life, standing up from first pitch to last. It was game four of the 1999 NLCS, the Mets were facing elimination down 3-0 to Atlanta, but John Olerud wasn’t ready to let his team fall victim to the Braves powerhouse. After hitting a homerun earlier in the game, Olerud came through off Mets nemesis John Rocker with an eighth inning two run single to put his team ahead, forcing game five which would set the stage for Robin Ventura’s ‘grand’ heroics. Following the game four win, I would make a postseason return to Shea until 2006, when I was at game two of the division series, which saw Tom Glavine pitch six shut out innings in a win against the Dodgers. Two weeks later, I was back at Shea for game six of the NLCS against St. Louis. The Mets were down three games to two, and had the unproven John Maine starting against Cards ace Chris Carpenter. Jose Reyes got the party started early; hitting a lead off home run in the bottom of the first, and the Mets wouldn’t look back, as a 4-2 victory would force a game seven. I had flown home from school for game six, not having tickets for a potential seven or a flight that would have allowed me to get back, but when an offer came for a game seven ticket, I rushed to change my flight and come up with a hefty price tag for a ticket I knew I might never have another chance of getting my hands on. Game seven, trip to the World Series on the line at Shea Stadium. It just didn’t get any better than this. I ran into Tim Kurkjin from ESPN before the game, and asked him who he liked, and he told me he had picked the Mets to win and was sticking with them. If Tim felt the Mets were winning, that was good enough for me. It didn’t matter that Oliver Perez was starting despite having an ERA north of 5, or that the last game seven the Mets played in an NLCS saw them lose to the Dodgers in 1988. This was going to be different. And it certainly appeared that would be the case after the Mets scored first, and Perez pitched five easy scoreless innings. In the top of the sixth, with a runner on and only one out, Perez was facing Scott Rolen, who connected with a Perez pitch launching it deep to left field, chasing Mets outfielder Endy Chavez back to the wall. In a defining moment in Mets history, Chavez made a spectacular leaping catch, fully extending his arm over the wall and pulling the would be home run ball back into play, and throwing the ball back in to double off the runner on first. To this day, I can still hear the roar of the crowd when Endy made what is known to Mets fan simply as “the catch”. Of course that would be the last time fans would get to cheer that night, as Aaron Heilman surrendered an eighth inning home run to Yadier Molina, and Carlos Beltran left the bat on his shoulders with the bases loaded, striking out looking against Cards closer Adam Wainwright, sending St. Louis to the World Series. 56,000 people have never sounded so quiet, and watching the visiting team celebrate winning a pennant on my field was heartbreaking. I never though I’d leave Shea Stadium so emotionally crushed (little did I know what the team had in store for me last Sunday). As rotten as it was leaving game seven, the memory was a once in a life time sort of experience, and although they lost, the Mets, and Endy Chavez that night along with Jose Reyes the night before and John Olerud back in 1999, showed me that there is nothing in the world that compares to playoff baseball at Shea.

2. July 18, 2008

Billy the Kid rocks Shea

Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined looking back on the hundreds of times I went to Shea that the second greatest night I’d ever spend there wouldn’t feature a single pitch being thrown or a single swing being taken. Back in July, I hit the jackpot of jackpots in landing floor seats to the second of Billy Joel’s ‘Last Play at Shea’ concert series. I had only been to a concert of any kind once before, and while I considered myself a fan of Mr. Joel’s, I was hardly the fanatic worthy of the seats I was lucky enough to get. I only knew the words to a handful of his songs, and couldn’t name half of the ones I heard by the time I left. But a number of things happened that night which have changed a whole lot of that. Since that concert, I find myself listening to his songs, all of them, dozens of times a week, knowing the words to most and anxiously searching on-line for an announcement of another tour. I also got to experience Shea Stadium in a way I never had before, being able to walk around the field and explore everything from the outfield wall to the dugouts to standing in straight-away center field, just admiring the 50,000 people looking down upon the stage. It was overwhelming to say the least. I was also able to scoop up some grass and dirt from Shea, knowing I would never have another opportunity to do such a thing. By the time the concert started, I had already gotten my money’s worth, or so I had thought. During a three-plus hour performance, Mr. Joel played all of his biggest hits, along with some of his lesser known gems, while welcoming a number of big name guests to join the stage with him. Tony Bennett, Garth Brooks, Steven Tyler and Roger Daltrey all took the stage to amaze the crowd, but it was the final guest of the night who may have stolen the show. It had been more than 40 years since the Beatles took the stage at Shea, but Mr. Joel made sure the place wouldn’t be torn down without a final goodbye from one of the Fab Four’s shining stars. Sir Paul McCartney was introduced, singing two songs to a euphoric crowd who walked out in such a state of shock that it was unusually quiet for what had just happened inside. Piano Man, Movin’ Out and Scenes from an Italian Restaurant had Shea rocking like it was an October night with a championship on the line, while Sir Paul playing Let It Be was perhaps as spine chilling a moment as I’ll ever experience.

1. September 21, 2001

Baseball returns to NY after 9/11, Piazza wins it with Home Run in eighth

This was about more than baseball.

This was about showing the world we weren’t afraid, and that were going to pick ourselves up off the mat, and go on with our lives and prove that we could be bent but not broken. September 11, 2001 was a day that permanently changed the lives of every American. Living in New York City, I had a front row seat to the events which shook us to our very foundations. I also had tickets to a Friday night game at Shea only ten days later, not knowing if the game was going to be played, and if it was, whether or not it would be worth going. Once we knew the Mets and Braves would in fact be playing, the decision was easy. That was the first season I had my Tuesday-Friday season ticket plan, so the tickets were ours and we knew there was nowhere else we’d rather be than at Shea. The night was emotional to a point where you simply had to be there to appreciate. The crowd was excited to be back but cautious and still very much hurting from what had taken place less than two weeks prior. The replica skyline that rests above the scoreboard had a ribbon covering the World Trade Center. The American Flags waving around the ball park suddenly took on new meaning. Both teams took the field during the anthem, and greeted each other before the game to display an act of unity. Mark Anthony and Diana Ross sang, and the place was ready to watch some baseball, and distract itself for the first time since the tragedy. The game was tied at 1 going into the eighth, when the Braves took a 2-1 lead. While most fans would probably agree just being at a baseball a baseball game was distraction enough, walking out of Shea with a loss wouldn’t have helped lift the morale’s of New Yorkers who sorely needed a reason to smile. Trailing 2-1, on a night when New York’s true heroes were honored, Mets fans had their own hero put on his superman cape. In a moment scripted too perfectly for a Hollywood film, Mike Piazza hit a long, two run homer giving the Mets a 3-2 lead they wouldn’t give back. To this day, watching the replays give me goosebumps each and every time, and hearing the crowd erupt was a sound that still never goes away. The moment was so powerful, and so emotionally uplifting that people weren’t sure whether it was more appropriate to cheer or cry. It had been an inning earlier when Liza Minnelli sang New York, New York during the seventh inning stretch, eliciting a worthy standing ovation and cheer. But it was Piazza, the heart of a team who, if only for a night, sewed the hearts of a city with a swing that even he admits was probably bigger than any other he’s ever taken. Personally, watching my favorite player hit a home run to win a game would be special any night, but it was obviously considerably more special under the circumstances. On a night when baseball was serving simply as a way to think about anything other than the falling of those towers, it was mission accomplished thanks to the bat of Mike Piazza, who gave his team a win, and a city a reason to smile again.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?