Citi Field- New Home of the New York Mets

Posted on 24. Sep, 2009 by Corey in All, General Baseball.

Last night I had the chance to attend a game at the new Citi Field, home to the New York Mets.  The stadium sits in Queens directly next door to the old Shea Stadium. There is not a single memory left of Shea, as it is now a parking lot for Citi Field.  I was lucky enough to pick a hotel that is in walking distance to the field, so I did not need to find transportation to the game.  Had I needed it, I could of taken the Purple Line #7 train, that drops you off at the door.  You may remember the #7 train to the Mets game made famous by former big league ball player John Rocker.

Approaching Citi Field appears very plain to me.  As I took my complete walk around the place, there is not much on the outside to look at.  The structure is mainly brick, which makes it look very nice.  Fans have the chance to buy a commemorative brick that surround the outside grounds by the main gate.  There a number of flags of old time Mets lining one of the stadium walls.  The funniest thing I saw was the “Auto Part” district that lines the right field gate area.  There must be around 100 auto parts stores where one can take their car to get fixed.

Although the location appears nice, with plenty of parking and public transportation around, I was a bit shocked the Mets choose this area to build in.  A major downside to Shea Stadium was the proximity to LaGuardia airport and the constant airplanes flying overhead.  As you can see in this picture, the planes are still there quite often.

You really do not see tailgating much at professional baseball games any more, but I did catch a few groups of people in the parking lot.  Has to be weird to grill a hamburger where the old second base at Shea Stadium use to be.

After completing my walk around Citi Field I decided to enter the main gate behind home plate, instead of a VIP gate like my ticket said I could.  The main gate is also called the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, that honors the first African-American baseball player in the Major Leagues.  My pictures don’t do justice to how nice this area is and about all the history it covers.  There is nothing Mets in this foyer, and it is all about Jackie.

As my walk began through the field level at Citi Field, I was disappointed in the concourses.  I found them to be very dark and closed in.  There was no Met history on the walls and I could have lost sense for where I was for a minute walking between the bases.  Listening to Mets fans, the lack of history in the new field is a major bummer to them.  Things did open up once you reached the outfield.

I became immediately impressed with the food at Citi Field.  Anyone who knows me well knows that food is very important to me, especially when judging a stadium.  One of the first concession stand areas that we went to was called the “World Market” and featured a freshly made Sushi Bar.  I was also shocked to receive a free sample of an Oriental Stir Fry and chicken wings that were for sale.  I mean, a free sample of food at a baseball game? I would of thought I was at Costco or something.

I had never seen fresh fruit at a game until last week when I attended a Reds game, but make this number two.  All the fruit was priced at $1.50, and I cannot imagine it being a very popular choice for fans to buy.

I am not sure if this is a good thing or not, but  most of the concession stand menus listed the calories that each item contained. In today’s society, this is very important for most people to know, but I can say that it can also scare you off to some of your favorite items.

Thanks to my buddy Ian, I took his recommendation and ordered dinner at the Shake Shack.  It appeared to be one of the most popular stops in Citi Field as the line remained very long for quite a while.  You could order your burger several ways and I also had a chocolate and vanilla milkshake to wash down my burger.  Saving room for later, I decided to skip the french fries on the side.

On display was the 1969 World Championship Trophy won by the Mets for fans to get their picture taken with.  It is not every day that you can stand so close to baseball’s greatest prize.

I arrived at the stadium so early that I was able to catch some of the Atlanta Braves batting practice.  I had seen 139 batting practice sessions this season with the Dayton Dragons, so they do not excite me like they use to .  I did get a kick out of seeing a Braves batboy in charge of the “bucket.”  The “bucket” sits behind a screen just beyond second base.  All the players toss the balls that are hit during batting practice to this bucket for them to be collected and reused for the next round of hitting.  In the minor leagues, the previous days starting pitcher is in charge of the bucket, a job that is not well liked by the pitching staff.  So I found it funny to see that in the big leagues a batboy is in charge.  Even more reason for minor league pitchers to hurry up and climb the ladder to the big leagues.

To me, Alyssa Milano will always be little Sam from the TV Show Who’s The Boss, but today she is also a die hard baseball fan.  Milano loves her some Los Angeles Dodgers and she talks about when she use to go to games, she would have nothing Dodgers that she could wear.   Milano then started her own clothing line that is now sponsored by Major League baseball and is carried by a number of teams. Some of it is available for sale here.  There is also a special store of her stuff in Citi Field.

Against my wishes, Pepsi won the battle of the sodas at Citi Field. There is even the “Pepsi Porch” in right field for fans to sit in.

Both of the teams bullpens are located in right center and are together in a double bullpen stacked on top of each other. I have to say that I am not a huge fan of this.  Members of both teams bullpens can talk or watch each other throughout the game.  I feel like this is not the proper time to socialize and they should be separated a bit more.

I found Mr. Met, the Mets mascot roaming around before the game. Should of, but didn’t get my own picture taken with him.

Another huge favorite of mine is the out of town scoreboards, where I can check on all the other teams playing around baseball. The newer ones, like this one at Citi Field, has some extra details showing you how many runners are on base, outs, and who is pitching.

Topps baseball cards sponsors the starting lineup and they place giant cards of the players playing in the left field concourse. I know I have seen this done other places, and I think it is kind of cool.

The New York Mets retired numbers are located on the left field wall. I find is interesting that Tom Seaver and his number 41 is the only ‘player’ number to be retired.  The other two Mets numbers are for former managers Casey Stengal and Gil Hodges. Of course, number 42 is for Jackie Robinson.

The New York Mets championship flags are also posted on the left center field wall. The way this team has been playing this season, some work needs to be done to add another!

One of the most famous sites at Shea Stadium was the giant apple that popped up after every New York Met homerun. There is a new apple at Citi Field that comes up in center field, but they did bring the old one over for display. I did not get to see a homer during the game, but the apple did come up during the seventh inning stretch.

A scoreboard picture of David Wright…since Ian has a man crush on him and wanted as many pics as possible…

My good buddy Dan Hoard, the Triple-A announcer for the Pawtucket Red Sox and also broadcaster of University of Cincinnati football and basketball games, recently released his “Ten Commandments.“  I read those with great interest and tended to agree with Dan.  Well, Number Ten was broken by the guy sitting in front of me.

The next group of pictures I am going to share are random shots around Citi Field.  All in all, I was very happy with my experience seeing the Mets in their new home.  The stadium has a ton of angles to it, leaving each seat a very different view.  The stadium as a whole is not very open in the outfield, but really does not need to be.  I was very pleased with both of their very large scoreboards in the outfield that gave tons of information and stats on each player when he entered the game.  I would of enjoyed more history on the New York Mets, but maybe that is something they are planning to add later.  I had very good seats that allowed me to order food from a waiter without having to leave my seat if I choose. I was also able to take my ticket and enter any of the various clubs and suite levels throughout the stadium for a look.  Also going with the times, there is a ton of advertisement in the ballpark.  I found it quite amusing that EVERY staff member at Citi Field has some sort of Nike work uniform on.  Citi Field is not going to crack my top 5 list of favorite stadiums, but I was impressed and pleased with my overall experience.  Can’t wait to get to Yankee Stadium and once again complete my 30 Major League parks.

One Response to “Citi Field- New Home of the New York Mets”

1. NYC- The Big Apple « Corey Brinn dot Com says:

   September 29, 2009 at 8:36 am

   [...] In case you missed my posts from the other day, here is one of the new Yankee Stadium and one on the new Citi Field. [...]