I recently wrote an essay for my Honors English Class at school, and luckily I was allowed to write about the Mets. The essay is about Shea Stadium and how it makes me feel when I am anticipating a game that I am going to. Admittedly I hyped Shea up to be a bit more than it actually is, but the facts I gave are true. Please read it, and give me your feedback in the comments section (I received a 90 on the essay, mainly because of punctuation mistakes):
Shea Stadium, in Flushing New York, is a sanctuary for millions of Mets fans around the world. The place where the “Bad Guys” won, where New York was re-united by a single swing of a bat, where the legendary “Beatles” played, where dreams are made, and where players can become legends. April 17, 1964 was the grand opening of the Stadium, and with it came a new team and a new life style for many New Yorkers. About 5 months later, the first Jets game was played in Flushing. Over the next 40 years various highlights took place at Shea Stadium: the “Beatles” sang two concerts within a span of two years (1965-1966), two world championships for the New York Mets (1969 and 1986), a “The Who” concert, three Bruce Springstein concerts, and of course the site of the 2000 Subway Series between the Mets and the Yankees. Dozens of memorable events took place there, and now it was my turn to attend a game.
It was August 31st, the Mets were half a game out of the wild card, and they were facing the current wild card leaders, in the Philadelphia Phillies. With a New York victory the Mets would be catapulted into the wild card lead, and would seemingly carry that momentum all of the way through to the playoffs. Well, at least that was my opinion and that of most Mets fans. Pedro Martinez, the Mets best pitcher, was pitching and the anticipation for the Wednesday night game was unreal. The game was scheduled to begin at 7:10 PM, but I couldn’t wait till then. The night before the game I couldn’t sleep at all. In anticipation of the game, I listened to sports talk radio for nine hours until daybreak. The moment I awoke I immediately called my friend and we got together to draw posters and paint our faces blue and orange.
After creating five signs we began to project the night’s starting lineup, and we even started to predict the game pitch-by-pitch, inning-by-inning. We turned on ESPN at around 2:00PM and we watched the Chicago White Sox play the Texas Rangers. During one of the commercial breaks, an ad for baseball appeared, featuring Pedro Martinez. Pedro Martinez was shown striking out various batters and the commercial ended with Martinez saying “I Live for This.” At that moment, like a firecracker, my excitement burst out of me and I exploded out of my chair, as did my friend. We both started screaming and pushing each other, pumping each other up and we decided to leave immediately. At 3:00 in the afternoon the game was four hours away and yet, we were already in the car on the way to Flushing, NY. We arrived three hours before game time and we were expecting to be the only fans at the stadium.
To our surprise the number of fans already seated was staggering. The cars and buses, that followed us from the beginning of our trip, began to unload, and we were swimming in a sea of Mets jerseys. We started to walk by the multiple tailgate parties and the aroma from the cooking hot dogs was intoxicating. We ran into a friend of ours from school and he let us sample one of the hamburgers he was grilling. I never tasted anything so delicious in my life! The beast of a stadium was upon us and we were a mere 30 yards away from entering. After swiftly surpassing security, we all bought our Mets yearbook. Next, we decided to head to our seats. As if the stadium’s history was watching us, we trotted towards our seats in a straight line. We weren’t talking, but we were in awe of the various posters hung up throughout the inside. Mike Piazza’s home run that united New York after the attacks on the Twins Towers was present. You could still feel the electricity from the game 20 years ago when Ray Knight rounded third base following the error by the notorious Bill Buckner in the infamous “Game 6”. Pictures of Hall of Famer, Tom Seaver, and Mets legend Keith Hernandez also were amazing images to view.
After passing the posters we found the tunnel which would lead us to our seats. I touched the handrail leading to my row and when I looked at my fingers the colors matched my face. I was energized. As if we were in a movie we saw the historical field emerge into our field of vision. First the left field wall appeared, than came the centerfield wall, and finally the right field wall. This was our home for the next six to seven hours, and it was our Mecca for life. We have entered our own personal sanctuary and we were not planning on watching the game while sitting. We spent the next six hours listening to the roar of the crowd and hearing the sweet sound of the ball making contact with wood. We cheered our tails off, never once sitting down in our seats.
Unfortunately, the Mets were defeated that day and August 31st has become known as the Met’s “D Day.” The Met’s season fizzled out, along with our fuse, and whatever excitement was left. However, there is always next season when another tale will be written, and when another memorable event will be added to the list.
