Thanks to some awesome tickets from Gerry and Dale (via Mayor Randy), we were able to visit Flushing's finest ballyard one last time before they demolish the old place. Cal held his ground as the only Mets supporter among our group, Cubs pitcher Rich Harden tossed a ball to Margaret, and a fantastic time was had by all.
Shea is a dump, no question about it, but I had some awesome days and nights there over the years. Here are my top 5:
-Yankees v. Oakland A's. My first memory of the place was a Yankees baseball game against the Oakland A's that was played at Shea while Yankee Stadium was being rebuilt. I remember that Walt and Paul took me there, and that Catfish Hunter was throwing for the A's. And I remember that the game was sold out by the time that we got there so we watched the game from the 7 train platform in right field.
-Saints v. Jets. Walt had Jets season tickets and took me to see the hapless Saints. Ever seen fans with bags on their heads at games? That all started with this team. They were horrible, and they beat the Jets for their only win of the season on a freezing cold December day.
-Rolling Stones October 1989. My first Stones show, and it was almost perfect. They played every song you could hope to hear and lived up to all the hype that preceded them. Oh, and Eric Clapton joined them on stage.
-Last Springsteen show at Shea. The last night of the Rising tour in October 2003. A marathon show that lasted close to 4 hours included rarely-played rockers like 'Quarter to Three', 'Seven Nights to Rock' and 'Twist and Shout.' But the real highlight was an appearance by Bob Dylan, who joined Bruce for 'Highway 61 Revisited.'
-The Clash (and The Who), October 1982. Again, I was at Shea with Walt and Paul. We stood in right-center field with close to 70,000 fans, but it felt much closer and intimate to me. The Clash bounded on stage with typical punk swagger and ripped into 'London Calling', and I haven't looked at rock and roll the same way since. The punk fans went nuts, while the Who fans shouted boos and threw things at the stage. The Clash imploded shortly after, playing only 15 more shows with the core of the band intact. I barely remember the set the Who played. It was easily one of the greatest nights of my life.
2 comments:
Good times Rich.
Way to see the old bag out.
I'm sad to see it go; I spent many an afternoon there in the 60's with my grandfather who had box seats and thought Ed Kranepool was a "great kid". Those were the days of Ron Swoboda, Cleon Jones, Bud Harrelson, and others more illustrious. It was fitting indeed that we passed Shea en route to our grandfather's funeral.
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