I did it, I signed up and got one of the lucky 23 tickets that Hofstra was giving away for all Undergraduate students to attend a NY Mets game at Citifield for FREE! It was going to be a game against the Atlanta Braves the team that Chipper Jones butters his bread for. Not a fan of Chipper Jones so I wanted to see the NY Mets sweep them under the rug. I was really excited I got one, thought it would be a mad house and I will admit I was a bit nervous as I didn't want anyone to think that I was going to be a chaperone. I hurried from my class that day to get across campus to get on line as early as possible. I wondered it I wouldn't be able to go well, honestly because I am as old as Shea Stadium was I thought they may want me to give it up to a younger student. Alas none of the fears nor concerns came to be, I was third online and the students in front of me actually didn't give me the stare down and I actually had a great conversation with some male students about the manager Jerry Mannual and his lack of energy! Funny, that when I mentioned that I would like to have seen Bud Harrelson as the manager of the team, the three of them looked completely puzzled and perplexed. Oh yeah, that is because I am over twice their age and they would have no idea who Bud Harrelson was even though he was the LI Ducks manager for a few years! Oh yeah again, some of them are not from Long Island, oh this was all going to be quite interesting to say the least. I would have to curb the old timer stuff and stick to the more current past and present players, ha, ha this will be fun! I realized that morning on my way to Hofstra to meet the other lucky students, that it is hard to talk about the newer players without bringing back the past. The "great ones" as I call them, I was looking forward to seeing the Hall of Fame Museum for sure and for once would have to miss an inning to go and view it. I am the type of fan that gets to the game early, makes sure all the necessites are taken care before finding my seats, tips the seat checker guy/gal if you get one and then sits back enjoys the game and waits for the hot dogs, peanuts, soda, pretzels sellers to come to me. Unless you were at Shea and had the nose bleed seats up in the upper atomsphere where they never sold anything, I don't wander around, or even go to get refreshments, I don't like to miss a thing!
The new Citifield does make it easier to not miss anything if you should decide to get up and get that tap beer you see everyone carrying and don't want to pay the extra money for the beer guy to come around, crack a cold one open pour it into that squishy plastic cup. I am not a beer drinker but I have past a few beers in my life time down the row of fans without spilling a drop! I always found that truly neighborly, the only place you can pass someone food and then their payment and everyone has a good time doing it, so why do people get so quick to not to lend a hand to their fellow neighbor outside the stadium? It must be something about the atomsphere or maybe it is the aroma of hotdogs and pretzels that makes people love one another even when your team is losing. I was looking forward to going back to Citifield for my 6th time, first one this year though. I got to see 4 NY Met games and the highlight of the agnauratly year was seeing Paul McCartney from the top center row for Citifields first ever concert. That concert is another blog for sure, I had goosebumps for a record 5 hours, it was amazing!
Thinking back I remember at Shea Stadium if you were on line waiting and you heard the crowd cheering you would run off the line and to the nearest exit down the long narrow lanes that would lead you out to the seats, they were like entrances to the Roman Coliseum, very high walls on either side and slightly sloped upward so you couldn't just look down to see the field, you would be looking at the sky. They were now flat panel plasma screens back then in the consention areas, the crowd was your sound byte. Citifield is far more open and I would love to see the budget for the amount of screens/monitors that were purchased and installed around the entire stadium. I can't say for sure, but they may even be one in the bathroom, but I didn't look around as I just want to get in and get out and not waste a second. I remember watching Citifield being built behind Shea Stadium 2 years ago, thinking to myself it is so small and how will ever get everyone in there? Well it is better than I thought but it is lower than Shea Stadium, the nose bleed section is really not bad, in fact it is really good, you don't get that feeling that you are going to fall flat on your face if you stand up and a slight wind blows behind you. I remember the last game at Shea that I took my two year old granddaughter Isabelle to the last season until it would be ripped down and sold off, we got seats up in the nosebleed section, well let me tell you, that kid sat on my lap the whole time and I didn't let her out of my grip, I didn't even let her stand up behind the seats in front of us, it was so steep I feared she would fly across the stadium, walking up those stairs and then back down with her, was the scariest moment I ever had with her...I don't miss those seats, Citifield doesn't go as high it is so much better.
To be continued....
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