So why a book on Shea Stadium? That’s not just the first question most people tend to think when they hear about this project, it is the first thing I thought about, too. So before I even started writing anything in the book, I wrote a chapter title: “Our Dump.” Because if 100 million people walked into Shea over the years, I must have heard 100,000,001 times: “Shea was a dump, but it was our dump.”
This book arrives 10 years since Shea was torn down to make way for a new, more expensive, corporate-branded, single-sport facility that is superior in almost every quantifiable way, except for the number of seats. The old parking lot is now the stadium—and vice versa. What people miss is the time gone by, and the people with whom they shared that time—or spent their time watching. It’s like when people say they miss the old neighborhood. What they really miss is their younger days—and nights.
They miss Mom and Dad packing everyone in the car and driving to a helmet day doubleheader. They miss the blue and orange paneling that was on the original exterior. They miss the vegetable garden in the right field bullpen. They miss the giant Mets sign over the 175-foot scoreboard that changed to Yankees during the two years they called Shea home during the 1970s. In the fall that sign turned into the Jets logo as the hydraulic apparatus under the stands transformed Shea into a place for football. Jets fans could make the lower section bounce. And Mets fans made the whole place shake as 55,000 jumped out of their seats in unison. And there were airplanes. An uncountable number of airplanes.
But what people remember—and still argue about—are the games. They like to give them names:
The Imperfect Game: where Tom Seaver was a rookie’s dunk hit away from retiring every batter.
The Black Cat Game: where one of the feral cats who called Shea home scared the pennant out of the 1969 Cubs.
The Shoe Polish Incident: where a black mark on a ball started a rally and led the Mets to the 1969 world championship.
The Ball on the Wall Game: where a sure home run by Pittsburgh in extra innings hit the top of the wall, bounced back into play, turned into an out, and led to the ’73 pennant.
The 25-Inning Game: the longest game played to a conclusion in one day. This 1974 game against St. Louis broke the record set at Shea in 1964, which the Mets also lost.
The Hendu Can Do Game: where after Tom Seaver’s banishment, Steve Henderson—one of the players the Mets got for Seaver—homered to complete a rally from 6-0 down.
The Lenny Dykstra Game: where crazy Lenny Dykstra, who didn’t even start, hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth in the playoffs to beat Houston at Shea.
The Mookie Wilson/Bill Buckner Game: where Boston’s solid first baseman was forever blamed for making an error, but his manager put him in that position. Probably Shea’s most memorable moment.
The Todd Pratt Game: where the understudy (Pratt) played in place of the injured superstar (Mike Piazza) and hit an extra-inning HR to clinch a playoff series.
The Grand Slam Single Game: where Robin Ventura ended a rainy marathon with a grand slam home run that was downgraded to a single when one of the runners turned to hug the runner. The winning run scored anyway, but he only got credit for a single.
The 21st century was not as kind, but you get the idea.
Of course, the Beatles played Shea. Twice. The Beatles and Shea forever changed the kind of venues that hosted big-name concerts. Shea saw lots of other big names including The Who, Rolling Stones, Police, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, and lastly, Billy Joel. Newly-elected Pope John Paul II said Mass at Shea in 1979.
The Mets, Jets, Yankees, and Giants all crammed into Shea in 1975 during the rebuilding of Yankee Stadium—173 games, plus a Grambling University football game and the Mayor’s Trophy Game (an exhibition game between the Mets and Yankees literally played for pride until that got old in the early 1980s). The chapters are brief and cover everything from the Home Run Apple to Mr. Met to Banner Day.
Getting back to the question I originally posed, why a book on Shea Stadium? Lyons Press asked me. And am I glad they did! People seem to be having as much fun with it as I had in writing it.