Shea Stadium memories

[mark_lamonica]

Share your favorite memories from games watched and time spent at Shea Stadium.

[Just wondering]

Mark Lamonica? From Ozone Park? I played bball with a Bobby Lamonica from SMGH

[Maureen]

I will never forget Lenny Dykstra's walk-off home run in game 3 of the playoffs in 1986. The chants of "LEN-NY, LEN-NY" reverberated throughout the stadium long after the game was over. It was electrifying.

[Brian]

mark_lamonica wrote:

Share your favorite memories from games watched and time spent at Shea Stadium.

Its an ugly facility not much memories either...

[Valley Stream HS]

Cutting school as we always did back in 1973...it was quite a surprise to see the three hated deans of our high school...seated DIRECTLY behind us at Shea as we watched the Mets play the Reds for the NL pennant.The only thing that saved us...was the fact they they, too...had been playing hookey ! Ha ! Couldn't touch us !

[METSFANINAZ]

One great memory was a game against the Phillies. The team was exciting again and there was hope of a World Series.

Doc gooden was hit by a pitch and he charged the mound. Darryl Strawberry came out swinging and the stadium erupted. Chants of "Darryl, Darryl" and "Let's go Mets" exploded around the stadium.

The Mets won the fight and the game.

[METSFANINAZ]

Another great memory was when I was about 13. My buddy and I finally were able to come alone to a game from Long Island. we took the LIRR to the #7.

We were told by our parents that the best way to get good seats was to buy a cheap ticket and pay the ushers to let you move up.

We were young and stupid. We started in the loge and tipped an usher $10. He happily moved us up. Then we tipped another usher in the same section $15. Next thing we knew we were in the orange seats. We tipped another usher $10 and were only a few rows back.$35 in tips on a $7 ticket- seems we got ripped off. But it was great fun as the game was a true double header.

[Donna Bauer]

I could probably write a book about all of the wonderful experiences I have had at Shea throughtout the years( and maybe one day I will) but the hightlights of my "Shea Experience" took place mainly during the 1999-2000 seasons!

Not only were those teams fun to watch but my friends and I got many chances to see some of the players out of their element. We actually got to be quite friendly (platonically of course) with Todd Zeile, Todd Pratt, Vance Wilson(we love catchers! LOL), Rey Ordonez, Bobby V and especailly Mike Piazza.

A wonderful bond was formed with that team. My friends and I enjoyed each and every moment that we shared with them....both at Shea and on road trips. Nothing can replace the fun we had watching our boys play baseball and unwinding after the games.

During those 2 years we attended about 30 games each year at Shea and went on 4 or 5 road tips.
Each of those players above were absolutly the best. Some of them left us tickets on the road and made it a point to sign tons of autographs for us.

The two most wonderful people from those years were Bobby V and Mike Piazza. At one game in Philly in 2000, we had purchased our own tickets for one of the games and when Bobby found out he actually "yelled at me". He saw us at BP and asked us where we got out tickets from and we told him we had bought them. He proceded to yell at me from the field in front of all of the people watching BP. He told me to remind him that night for him to get us tickets for the next 2 games and told me to never buy my tickets again for a road game as long as he was the manager.....I was speechless. He was mad that we didnt ask for free tickets.....GOTTA LOVE THAT GUY.

As for Mike Piazza well what can I say. I still have to pinch myself every time I realize he knows who I am.....After all he is MIKE PIAZZA FUTURE HALL OF FAMER...But he also is one of the most genuine people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. We actually share the same taste in music...WE ARE METAL HEADS... LOL. So I have been able to have more than a few lengthy discussions with him about our music(usually on the road over a cocktail or two). Every once in a while he would co host a local metal radion show in NY (Q104.3..Eddie Trunk ROCKS). And he knew I listened all the time.

It seemed like he was always ready to talk about METAL after a game..like it was his way to leave it at the park. One day when I had a pass to be on the field to watch BP at Shea he was changing the music he comes to bat to and actually asked me what song I thought he could use....imagine Mike Piazza asking me to choose his at bat music!!

He also treated me and my group of friends absolutly wonderful, even inviting us to see him inducted into the Italian American Sports Hallof Fame in Chicago in Nov 2006. Of course we went.

And one of my friends and I were at CBP the day after he found out him and his wife were expecting thier first. He saw us in the stands watching BP and came over to us to tell us the great news and said we were the first people he had told besides his family. WOW we felt special!

But my favorite thing about SHEA is all of the wonderful people I have had the pleasure of meeting and becoming friends with- Kathy, JoeC, Dee, Linda, Suz, Carol, Mary, Rose, Patrice, Samantha, Lisa, Matt,Maria, Joe S ETC and all of the wonderful employees who put up with us each day!

Because of meeting all of these people I have had the pleasure of being featured in a documentray about METS FANS.....WOW....what a wonderful place SHEA has been in my life..........
I WILL MISS HER!

[roger43]

i think my favorite Shea memory was during the vince coleman years when whomever was contracted to paint Shea, bought the wrong color and they painted it anyway.

[Leon Pavone]

To my suprise when I open this page of shea Stadium . I saw a photo of myself leaning over the Mets dugout the night they Won the 2006 Eastern Divison Title it was a great night. I have been to almost every historical game at
Shea Stadium since it has opened part of me
will hate to see it go.

[Eugene]

Fathers Day, June 21 1964 Sunday doubleheader remember those but they were the norm back then. Opponent was Philly. Jim Bunning pitching the opener and pitched into history with a perfect game. Although I didn't realize at the time it was the first perfect game ever pitched by an NL pitcher.

[great northwest]

One vivid memory from the 70's was that the stadium once had allof those cool orange and blue squares on the exterior--I thought that made the stadium really stand out from the outside.

[great northwest]

Also, April 1976--Mets home opener vs. the Expos--I got seats right behind home plate with my mom and dad and Mets win opener and Dave Kingman hits a homer.

[Ed Baker]

My two friends and I were 14, and after cutting all our classes that day, we attended the first opening day in ’64. The field box seats were yellow in those days, and because we had small yellow pieces of cardboard that we held tightly in our fingers so they could not be clearly seen, we snuck into seats about four rows behind the Met dugout. We soon discovered that William Shea, the man for whom the stadium was named, was sitting several rows behind us. It was a thrill to discover we had better seats than him, and we got him to autograph our science notebooks, which was to create some interesting but forgiving questions from our science teacher later that term. As brash kids, we even got Casey Stengel to doff his cap slightly when he returned to the dugout after a trip to the mound to be greeted by three screaming teenagers calling out to him.
In later years I took my future wife to games and happily discovered how her normally reserved personality became borderline insane when rooting for the Mets.

[a gift to his daughter]

I have such wonderful memories of Shea Stadium and the Mets throughout the 70's. I have my father to thank for those memories. My father introduced me to the wonderful game of baseball at Shea. We had season tickets to the night games. I learned to keep score, eat plenty of hotdogs and I had the biggest crush on Wayne Garrett. The experience was priceless. I got to know and love baseball, and my DAD!

[cquinn]

i think one of the greatest moments had to be Mike Piazza's return to Shea with the padres. He hit two homeruns in one of the games and got a standing ovation on the first. On the second the fans wanted a curtain call-for an opposing player. thats the only time i have ever seen that and it was well deserved after all that Piazza did.

[Steve Schwartz]

Although I'm a huge Yankee fan now, I have to admit that most of my childhood baseball memories took place at Shea.
My mom & dad took me to my first major league game ever, it was a night game in 1969 vs the then expansion Montreal Expos. For some strange reason, I remember Larry Jaster was the Expos pitcher. Through the years, I attended Mayor's Trophy Games (Mets vs Yanks), Old Timer's Days, Helmet Days (my friend Kenny got mugged for his helmet, but that's another story), many a doubleheader and of course, games sitting at the very top (with the Glen Oaks Little League).
Loved Agee, Shamsky, Kenny Boswell & Gil.
And to this day, when I sit in the stands and look at the out-of-town scoreboard, I get that feeling in the pit of my stomach and my mind goes back to a simpler time. I look at Chicago and picture Billy Williams & Fergie Jenkins; Pittsburgh with Clemente & Stargell; St Louis with Gibson, Brock & Torre; SF with Mays, MCCovey, Marichal & the good Bonds; Philadelphia with Richie Allen & Jim Bunning; LA with Wes Parker & Willie Davis; Atlanta with Hank Aaron & Rico Carty; Cincinnati with Bench, Perez & that other guy. Also, Wynn, Colbert & Staub.
Baseball will lose a great monument to the game when Yankee Stadium closes, but a part of my heart will break when Shea closes it's doors for the last time...

[Howard Millings]

I was 12 years old when I finally went to my first baseball game. I was then, and have been, a huge Yankee fan since I was five, but I didn't care. I was going to a ball game. My father should have been the one to take me, but since he passed away in 1960, it was my Mom (Frances) who took me to my first game on that most memorable day.

It was Father's Day, 1964. My Mom and I took the Long Island Railroad to the World's Fair in Flushing that morning. Around noon, we crossed the parkway to see the Phillies play the Mets in the newly built Shea Stadium. It was amazing, alright, to see everything in color - the grass, the seats - what a sight.

I was a fairly knowledgeable baseball fan, even for 12 years old. So, in the third when a younger boy sitting behind me said to his Dad that Jim Bunning was pitching a no-hitter, I looked at my Mom and let out a low laugh. "No way", I looked at her and said.

Well, the rest is history, of course. Bunning went on to pitch a perfect game, and the huge Shea Stadium crowd went wild, very appreciative of the fact that we witnessed history.

Now, I'm 56. That moment is still very fresh in my mind. I even have the scorecard from that game. And, there were more games and more great memories.

Although Mom passed away a few years ago, I still have that Amazin' memory of my first ball game. Thanks Mom, and thank you, Shea Stadium, for all the memories.

[DAVID]

I agree,2000 was a great time when the Yankees danced on the melts graves at shea and all the melt fans were crying when the Yankees won their 26th world championship,and when Clemens beaned piazza in the head and threw the broken bat at him,and in 2006 when beltran choked with the bat on his shoulder,or in 2007 when the melts lost 8-1 to the marlins and choked away 2007,yes,these were all great memories in that purple and orange sewer dump in queens!