Shea Stadium
		Shea Stadium, Flushing Queens, New York (visited many times from 1985-1990 and 1999 to the present) - Shea is not nearly the historical shrine that Yankee Stadium is across town.  However, there have been some amazing moments there (hence, the Amazin' Mets), most notably in 1969, 1973, and 1986.  The '69 team was left for dead heading into September of that year, trailing the Cubs by something like 10 games.  They made up the difference, got into the World Series, and soundly defeated the mighty Orioles for their first World Championship just seven years after their inception.  The '73 Mets went to the World Series as well, but lost to the powerful A's.  It was during the '73 season that Tug McGraw uttered the now famous
	"Ya Gotta Believe."  That rallying cry is as close to "Remember the Alamo" as Mets fans get.  1986 was the dream season.  A 108-54 regular season followed by exciting series against the Astros in the NLCS and the Red Sox in the World Series.  Many Yankee fans who had never liked the Mets became Mets fans, lest the Sox take a World Series.  There's not a sports fan in the tri-state area who doesn't remember or wasn't watching when Mookie Wilson's grounder skipped through Bill Buckner's legs, allowing Ray Knight to score the winning run and force a Game 7.  In that inning, the Mets had been down to their final strike, trailing 5-3 and losing the series 3-2.  The another Amazin' Mets rally began and the Sox never recovered.  Some say that Series was perhaps as defining to the Sox curse as any other event in their history.  As for some other particulars about Shea, the food is nothing to write home about and, in a unique twist, airplanes landing and taking off from nearby La Guardia Airport are constantly buzzing the stadium.  It is so loud that you have to stop your conversation until it passes and many players step out of the box to wait until the screaming turbines are gone.  The sightlines are average or maybe below average by today's standards.  The stadium is almost circular so it is feasible to have seats that appear good on a diagram or seating chart, but are so far from the action you'd swear you were 50 rows higher than your ticket says.  Unless you're a Mets fan, this is hardly worth the price of admission, poor parking situation, horrible traffic, and usually poor baseball that goes on there.                            Go Back to Main Stadium Page               Go Back Home!