Shea patch … and asking your first Shea memory
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- November
- 28
The Mets will wear a commemorative patch on their uniforms this summer honoring their stay at Shea Stadium. Of course, the team will have the patches available for sale at Shea, but no word yet on whether they will market the patch on T-Shirts and caps.
Can you imagine them passing up that opportunity? Not me.
The patch got me to thinking about the first game I saw at Shea. In 1966, the Mets routed the Dodgers and Sandy Koufax, 10-4. My father took me to the game. He said “you have to see this guy pitch before he retires.’’
I ran into Koufax years later at the Yankees spring training complex in Tampa and told him the story. He laughed and said he remembered the game.
Hey, we have a lot of time before the Winter Meetings. If you’d like to chime in on your first Shea game, go for it.
By the way, here’s the patch ….
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on Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 at 2:27 pm by John Delcos.
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Gosh, to be honest, I can’t remember my first game at Shea, although I have a similar story.
Growing up I was a catcher and Mike Piazza was my favorite player going back to his Dodger days. For two straight years we went to Dodgers-Mets games with the hopes of watching Mike. Amazingly, both years he didn’t play, although I think he did pinch hit once. I was so annoyed. Luckily, my favorite player would soon come to my favorite team, and now older, I was able to spend my own hard earned cash to watch him play. Good times.
Can I imagine the Mets passing up a merchandising opportunity guaranteed to make them money? You bet your life I do, because they do it CONSTANTLY.
Could I buy a John Maine, Endy Chavez or Oliver Perez tshirt last season without having to custom-order it online? And before you say “what’s wrong with that”, besides the fact of having to pay shipping, and waiting for it to arrive, they weren’t the same as the regular player shirts.
I’m not even going to go into my rant about MLB’s attitude towards attire for women (unless you want your belly showing and want it in pink, go to the men’s section – that’ll sum it up)
I was in Boston last week and we took the Fenway tour. That merchandise shop was UNBELIEVABLE. You can buy a shirt for EVERY member of the Red Sox in EVERY color and almost every language. Every hat, every item you could want to buy, and that’s without jerseys, jackets, and other clothing that I didn’t even bother to go look at but the selection was mindboggling. I fully realize that the Red Sox merchandising potential is on another level but the Mets could improve on this score tenfold.
Why do the Mets have such crappy team/clubhouse stores? Why does the one on 42nd Street (at least they upgraded from that remote corner near the Citibank building) have very little selection – but an ENTIRE sale rack full of pink Kaz Matsui shirts? Why isn’t the one at shea bigger and open without having to go into the park with a ticket? Or don’t make that the main store, but then make the manhattan presences worthwhile.
So I completely believe that they will not do anything with this patch. I personally plan on trolling ebay for it and making something myself.
The only thing I remember about my first game at Shea was that it was April 1964. The first week-end they played there I believe. Elroy Face closed the game out, and that’s all I can remember. The game must have sucked!
PS: I’m glad the Mets have devoted their time to making a new patch instead of upgrading the roster.
Metsgrrl you are so right on. That story is so emblamatic of this team and why it is a second class franchise. Can’t risk spending on a superstar and can’t risk spending on a Tshirt. After all the guy might be traded!
Seaver against the Pirates on a Friday night in May 1973. Sat in the pressbox and was awed by the trajectory of a Wayne Garrett dinger. It looked from very different from what I had seen on TV.
I remember the colors, particularly the Mets blue sleeves and the green of the grass, being so vibrant. (We didn’t have color TV at the time.)
Also remember the smell of cigar smoke; in fact, everytime I smell cigar smoke now, I think back to May 1973 at Shea.
To Metsgrrl (RE: Merchandising): I read you about Fenway. All those years covering the AL, I saw it first hand. Actually, there is no reason not to have shirts available for each player.
You could even have a patch available with the player name or former players, and have it sewn with the appropriate number at the stadium. Why that’s not done, I have no idea.
In addition to the Red Sox, the Dodgers also have a clue when it comes to marketing their players. There are a lot of the newer or remodeled stadiums that have gift shops open all the time. Anaheim, Cleveland, Detroit, San Diego, Seattle, Colorado, Cincinnati are just a few of the stadiums where you can get a cap during your lunch hour.-JD
I guess I would have to go with supply and demand. Those are the two factors that drive those types of merchandising decisions.
I’m sure the amenities will improve at the new stadium, and, as the Mets (hopefully) become one of the premier franchises in sports, they will ramp up their capitalist endeavors.
What number is this Stokes gonna wear? I want to be the first to have his jersey! A new patch and a new bum in the bullpen. Man, I’m pumped for the season now!
my first shea game was Kranepool’s last. he flied out.
plus a foul ball almost popped back close enough to us to catch. it was really really cool.
so John, can you get us a patch?
1973, sometime during the summer. My sister (14, I was 11) drank about 8 gallons of Dairylee milk to get us “free” tickets. GAs, behind the plate, top of the upperdeck. Someplace I still have the stub. I think it retailed for about $2.
Also about that time, we used to wander the stadium. I remember sneaking into (and getting kicked out of) the diamond club. Of course I was dressed like a scrungy kid at the time (being a scrungy kid and all!)
I can’t much remember my first game at Shea (remember the one at the Polo grounds in 1962. A drunk three rows in back kept yelling “Drysdale, you’re a bum!” until the 7th inning when he
yelled at the 3rd base coach “Hey Durocher, what’s the matter..you got ants in your pants”. My father wouldn’t take me more than a game a year when his company bought bus tickets if the employees bought the tickets. Other than that it was “when you get a job, you can go to all the games you can pay for. Right now, watch on TV when it’s your turn (one tv per family then) or listen on the transistor radio”.
First game must have been the exhibition game against the Yankees in late August..Mayor’s trophy game. Yanks won 6-4, Roger Maris homered off Jack Fisher, Yogi put himself in the game and hit into a double play, fans yelled “We Want Casey” in the bottom.
The outside facade, escalators and no obstructed seats impressed me.
Outside of Games 6&7 of the 86 deries, and the clinching game of the ‘69 series, the greatest game ever at Shea was the 10-run 8th inning comeback against the Braves in 2000 on fireworks night, and I was there.
You are all jealous of me
MG and I have talked on occasion about the fact that I can’t get an Oliver Perez shirt (and I say “I” because I am the one Mets fan whose obsession with OP is legendary). Yes we can’t get Chavez, Perez or Maine shirts…but Moises Alou is our man and we knew he’d have him for two years MAX. It annoys me too.
Anyway, my first game at Shea was in May 1984, a Sunday game against the Astros. The Mets lost something like 10-2. I was disappointed they lost, but when I was there, I noticed an advertisement on the Diamond Vision for Memorial Day Monday that same month, for Sports Bag Day. I asked my dad – can we go to that? And of course, that started a long and loved trend of going to Mets games with Daddy-Oh.
And does anyone remember back in the day how Harry M Stevens absolutely ROCKED as the Shea vendor? None of this hot cocoa from a packet…they had pretty much the machines before they were popular. They used to have rockin french fries and this thing called a “pizza roll” that was like a gigantic egg roll but with cheese and sauce. I think I had it last in like 1989, but I still crave those suckers. RC and Diet Rite were on tap…I still prefer those sodas than to bottle pepsi anyday. Of course HMS no longer exists but I have great memories of how great the stands were back in the 80s :D
I remember my first game I watched was some time in the early 90’s and ayalia was pitching don’t remember much else ( I was only 5)