50 Days 'till Shea

It's 50 days until the first game of the last season at Shea. LHJ and I drove by the two stadiums today (it's impossible to call Citi just a construction site anymore-- the whole structure is up, they're bricking the sides, and they're almost done with the area that will hold the Mets offices), and since I wasn't driving I took a good, long look at the new stadium both ways. Though I still doubt I'll even be able to get into the park the first season, I have to say that I'm pretty excited about the new ballpark. It's going to be fun to watch my team in on a home-field that was actually designed for baseball.

But I'm not a Shea hater, not by a long shot-- in fact, it would be fair to call me a Shea fan. I know it's old and falling apart and there are places in the stands where you can hardly see anything (though I don't know why people buy those tickets, but that's another post), but it's also the only place the Mets have called home in my lifetime, the field on which they won their only World Series of my lifetime. It's a deeply sentimental place for me for those reasons alone, and even with all the evidence you need looming just behind center- and right-field, it's hard to believe that come Opening Day 2009, Shea Stadium will no longer be standing.