Knee deep in the hoopla

To build their Citi into its final form as their true home, the Mets need to stink the place up, with the aroma of stale champagne after celebrating a clincher at home for the first time at the park

By Ryan Kelly

I’m part of a Facebook group called “Remembering Shea Stadium.” It’s harmless enough. People mostly older than me post photos of Shea, mostly grabbed straight from Google Image Search. (It’s infinitely more interesting when people post their own photos, especially Kodachrome slides from the 60s and 70s - literal little windows into the past). Often the refrain feels like “The Chris Farley Show.” Remember this? Remember that? That was awesome.

Sometimes, this pining for the past drags the present into it. I wish we still had Shea. Citi Field’s just not the same.

One thing that’s striking, looking at old photos of Shea is how dingy it looked so soon after opening. It might have been inevitable — I’m not sure how much of a chance pastel-painted seats and gleaming white concrete had against years of weather and neglect. Shea got treated like a subway station by a city that couldn’t afford to take care of its subway stations.