BALL IS BACK! we start at CITIFIELD!

(a tribute to shea--we miss you old girl! http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_about/parks_history/bat_sports/32109_3-29-1964_Shea%20Stadium%20night%20game-NY%20Mets%20and%20SF%20Giants-lg.jpg)

We went today to citi-field for the first time--mets and red sox exhibition game...very cool!!!

First, if you want to go, do the train if you can--the cluster that is parking there is simply 100 times worse than it used to be--if you can go REALLY early and tailgate you might have a chance--we got there closer to game time--and we literally drove around the park for 45 minutes before parking under an overpass and catching a shuttle bus that dropped us at the foot of the LIRR and we had to walk up and over...

The ebbetts field feeling is very evident in the outter construction--it really is a beautiful stadium--the jackie robinson pavillion is stunning...inside--some areas arent completed yet--and the exposed plywood and concrete are in stark contrast to a lot of fancy brick work...

One thing that you didnt feel when at shea that you DEFINITELY feel here is a sense of segregation--the stadium has been broken up into "clubs" and if you dont have your ticket (even into the last inning) you aint getting in to that section--lines were LONG just to get into the ceasers club seats we had--the seats were about the same size as previous--we sat in the 300 level, first row, third base side--and the view was excellent--and what we didnt get was the WIND--now, i know that it was windy there today--and trash whipped all over the field--but this place is like a sieve! walking through the first level just to get to the second level escalators (poor placement for people moving for sure--though, they do still have outside stairwells) there was simply no protection from the wind--it was like a wind tunnel and you were supposedly inside!

since it was a blow out we walked down to the lower level to try and move closer to the field--the security guards were STILL checking tickets to go down in the 9th inning--so the moving around we used to do at shea is a thing of the past...

all in all, its a quirky park--the outfield warning track is almost a zig zag of overhangs and curves--they sure are going to have to get used to playing balls off those crazy walls...

i cant say i didnt like it--but the buildup was really hard to meet...the franks are still the same--and thats a good thing Will post up some pictures when i get the chance...

now on to fenway for mondays opening day!

Last Visit to my very first baseball park...

Kids running the bases at Shea Stadium-Our last visit--Photos by Oystergirl

I was born in Brooklyn, and have long loved the stories the old guys told on the street about Ebbetts field--having a ball park in the middle of your neighborhood while growing up as a kid must have been wonderful! I have an Ebbetts field t=shirt that my poppi gave me, and also a Brooklyn Dodger cap that i proudly wear, even though i dont root for the Dodgers (booo Manny! lol) and i was born after they tore the field to oblivion and put up an apartment building in its place, that cast a shadow on the building a lived in as a child...so close and yet so far...

I have always LOVED baseball...anything baseball--but my very first game was at Shea Stadium when i was young...i dont remember the team, i dont remember the game, all i remember was going to this GIANT blue stadium and loving all the people there and the crowd and the ROAR when a ball went out of the park--and the hokey big apple popped up out of the giant top hat--it was magic...and it hooked me.

Years later, I found my American League love of baseball in the Red Sox, through my husband and love poppi, but the Mets were my first team--my National League Love--and believe me, we almost didnt marry in 1986 when my team WON...:)

Having been blessed to go to ALL the old ball parks in existence today--Wrigley, Yankee, Fenway and SHEA??? shea is THAT old? 1963 makes it OLD? wow...somewhere along the line people forgot about history--forgot about the FEEL of baseball--forgot that old can be a beautiful thing and instill a feeling of timelessness to the game...Fix it up instead of tearing it down i say...but that might just be ME...

And so, this past weekend, a group of us went to Shea Stadium for the very last time...It was quite moving to me--and i got to sit in the very seat that i had always wanted to sit in--when as a child i looked up to those upper reserved boxes and thought--that seat is so high--the one on the very end--almost like you were flying over the stadium like another jumbo jet taking off out of Laguardia...yep--884A...the LAST seat in the house...overlooking the visitors bullpen...and i was in heaven--and i remembered all the games i had seen there--and the time i saw the Rolling Stones there and had never SEEN so many people in my life, the whole stadium shook on its foundations...and i remembered how lucky my poppi was to get a ticket to a World Series Game there for the famous Subway Series...how much joy--and heartbreak that stadium had given me over the years--and in its demise--i feel somehow decreased...

The kids got to run the bases--and i got a tiny piece of the outfield grass and some of the dirt from the warning track--that i will have to share with my crazy lovely nutjob friend nor who is a rabid met fan...

Citipark looks cool--12,000 less seats--less cheap tickets for the regular guy--i am sure i will go--but it wont be the same as saying--hey, its nice out--lets go to shea and sit in the cheap seats...

Goodbye my giant blue friend--you will be missed....

You wicked rock! Oystergirl

Welcome one and all....

Buck Dharma-Northern Lights-Albany, NY-photo by Oystergirl

Hiya everyone! Sooo many people have been bugging me to start blogging about all my wonderfully fun times over the years--a lot of that time has been spent following the amazing Blue Oyster Cult, the amazing Mets and the Amazing Red Sox...I am an adventurer by nature and I absolutely adore a good time! In the coming weeks i will be putting up photos from my adventures, sharing other stuff and basically having a great time! On tap, photos from our last game at Shea Stadium with the Mets, where the kids got to run the bases...our last trip to Boston to see the Sox with my nephew AJ for his birthday/christmas present (his first game! ya! and they won!)...and our trip through tropical storm Hanna to see Blue Oyster Cult play in Danbury Ct, on sept. 6, 2008. Seriously--what a TRIP that trip was! got some great pictures and had a TON of fun!

so, come in and hang out and party--please comment if you feel the need or want to get in touch--i will also be putting up my link to twitter if i can figure it out!

hugs all--you wicked rock! alex