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October 01, 2008

Retrohump - Shea Stadium

[Mike Piazza & Tom Seaver closing the joint down]

Sunday was the last day of service for Shea Stadium, the Mets home for 44 years. It hosted its last baseball game ever which ended with a loss by the home team that not only ended the career of the Mets only ballpark, but also the Mets' playoff desires. On the very last game of the season for a second year in a row. This sudden halt to Shea's primary purpose forced me to suddenly face the fate of demolition in an unexpected way. Forcing me into heavy reflection mode towards the big blue hulk of dated stadium architecture in Flushing, Queens.

As with most days this September, it began hopeful amidst the see-sawing drama that seems to always define the Mets, possibly never more so than this season. Just one day after a masterful and career defining pitching performance by squad ace Johan Santana the team fell flat offensively and the bullpen was about as useful as a guitar in my talentless hands. Sigh. Oh those Mets.

The Mets ability to fall on their face while the glorious possibilities of post season baseball is within sight would be way funnier (though it probably is outside of New York) if it wasn't for all the heart wrenching and awful, just awful losses that I watched over and over again this season. I should mention that this was always voluntarily and never under duress, though the more I think about it the more I feel like I was totally held hostage to my allegiance. Sports are funny like that. Complete irrational exuberance and deep psychological connections to millionaires playing a child's game. If you are not a sports person it can be difficult to understand, because really there isn't any resemblance of logic or sense to be found in passion so strong that it ruins your nights. Now all us Met fans have to look forward to is months of second guessing and a long winter preparing for next season. Once the anger and disappointment subsides fans will unanimously agree that next year will definitely be the year. Hope springs eternal until that first 2009 pitch is thrown (hopefully a first pitch strike).

Rant aside I'm not here to abuse this web soapbox with pity party indulgences and then reach for a thin connection to music for a cheap post to satiate my grief. Instead I wrote this to shine a bright ballpark spotlight on the very real musical history that took place inside the hallowed, albeit battered (like my spirit) walls of Shea Stadium.

Beatles @ Shea Stadium

The video is dotted with dry, laconic verbal notes from terribly edited press junket sound-bites of the fab four. "It was great", "just amazing", "it just knocks you out, it makes you feel so good inside", "fantastic". "Shea was great because it was organized well". Adorable. Just like (most) of my Shea memories.

Speaking of posterity, here's a list of things I learned watching this clip.

1. Be comfortable with the eventuality of being completely wrong when forecasting. Radio personality Murray the K warmed up the crowd with words he might want to take back. "Welcome to what will be probably the biggest concert ever in the history of pop music."

2. Incessant high decibel screaming was an annoying byproduct of early rock and roll concerts. Foreshadowing moshing, camera phones, and your pick of the litter from the general asshole behavior that can go down when humans convene together and disregard normal standards of personal space.

3. There is something sad about the reality of not being able to say the Beatles played "here" while catching a Mets game next year. Just as sad as any other great Mets memory that will soon to be deprived of its real live, geographical actuality. Quite the existential crisis for adherents to historical accuracy, especially during the mythicized tales we envision telling our kids. Shea Stadium is no more. Unlike the rejuvenating powers of the winter baseball "season", there will not be another huge, touchstone show from a history altering rock band like the Beatles. Or maybe not, as we learned with #1.

It should be noted the Beatles weren't the only musical act to entertain the masses at Shea Stadium. As recently as last July Billy Joel performed (click to see a mesmerizing video of Joel's stage rig from the perspective of a remote controlled airplane). Over the years bands not called the Beatles also passed through ol' Shea: Jethro Tull (1976), The Who, with the Clash opening(!) (1982), Simon and Garfunkel (1983), The Police (1983), the Rolling Stones (six night run in 1989), Elton John & Eric Clapton (1992), and Bruce Springsteen (2003).

-- -- --

Next year the Mets, along with their history of finding fantastic ways to destroy championship aspirations, jerking fans around before failing completely, and their remarkable abilities to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, will move across the way to a new, shiny, beautiful, state of the art and by all accounts dazzling new stadium called Citi Field. Maybe Shea's burial can mark a new beginning of triumphs for these humbled Mets. Something that might can someday serve as a spark for good things. Something that just might delay the consistent crushing of my heart. Fuck.

Billy Joel & Paul McCartney - "Let It Be" - Live at Shea Stadium 7.18.08

Damn you Paul and your poignant words!

Posted by Merry Swankster at October 1, 2008 05:30 PM

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