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Shea Stadium
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William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, usually shortened to Shea Stadium or just Shea , was a stadium located in the New York City borough of Queens, in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. It was the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Mets from 1964 to 2008. Originally built as a multi-purpose stadium, Shea was also the home of the New York Jets football team until 1983. It was demolished to furnish additional parking for the adjacent Citi Field, the new home of the Mets.
960, the National League agreed to grant an expansion franchise to the owners of the New York franchise in the abortive Continental League, provided that a new stadium be built.
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Encyclopedia
William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, usually shortened to Shea Stadium or just Shea , was a stadium located in the New York City borough of Queens, in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. It was the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Mets from 1964 to 2008. Originally built as a multi-purpose stadium, Shea was also the home of the New York Jets football team until 1983. It was demolished to furnish additional parking for the adjacent Citi Field, the new home of the Mets.
History and design
In 1960, the National League agreed to grant an expansion franchise to the owners of the New York franchise in the abortive Continental League, provided that a new stadium be built. Mayor Robert Wagner, Jr. had to personally wire all National League owners and assure them that the city would build a park.
The Mets' inaugural season (1962) was played in the Polo Grounds, with original plans calling for them to move to a new stadium in 1963; however construction was delayed, and they played at the Polo Grounds a second season.
It was originally to be called "Flushing Meadow Park Municipal Stadium" – the name of the public park on which it was built – but a movement was launched to name it in honor of William A. Shea, the man who brought National League baseball back to New York. Earlier, New York City official Robert Moses tried to interest Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley in this site as the location for a new Dodger stadium, but O'Malley refused, unable to agree on ownership and lease terms. Preferring to pay construction costs himself in order to own the stadium outright, O'Malley wished to exert total control of its revenue from parking, concessions, and other events. The City, by contrast, wanted to build the stadium, rent it, and retain these ancillary revenue rights as a means of paying off its construction bonds. Additionally, O'Malley wanted to build his new stadium in Brooklyn, while Moses insisted on Flushing Meadows. When Los Angeles offered O'Malley what the City of New York wouldn't—complete and absolute ownership of the facility—he left for southern California in a preemptive bid to install the Dodgers there before a new or existing major league franchise could beat him to it.
After 29 months and $28.5 million, Shea Stadium opened on April 17, 1964, with the Mets losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates, led by Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski, 4-3 before a crowd of 50,312. Shea was a circular stadium, with the grandstand forming a perfect circle around the field and ending a short distance beyond the foul lines. The remainder of the perimeter was mostly empty space beyond the outfield fences. This space was occupied by the bullpens, scoreboards, and a section of bleachers beyond the left field fence. The stadium boasted 54 restrooms, 21 escalators and seats for 57,343. It was big, airy, sparkling, with a massive 86' x 175' scoreboard. Also, rather than the standard light towers, Shea had lamps along its upper reaches, like a convoy of semis with their brights on, which gave the field that unique high-wattage glow. Praised for its convenience, even its "elegance," Shea was actually deemed a showplace.
Shea was originally designed to convert from a baseball field into a rectangle field suitable for football using two motor-operated stands that allow the field level seats to rotate on underground railroad tracks. After the New York Jets football team moved to Giants Stadium in New Jersey in 1984, the Mets took over operation of the stadium and retrofitted it for exclusive baseball use. As part of the refitting, Shea Stadium's exterior was painted blue, and neon signs of baseball player silhouettes were added to the windscreens between 1986 and 1988.
The design also allowed for Shea Stadium to be expandable to 90,000 seats (by completely enclosing the grandstand), or to be later enclosed by a dome if warranted. In March 1965, a plan was formally announced to add a glass dome and add 15,000 seats. The Mets strongly objected to the proposal. The idea was dropped after engineering studies concluded that the stadium's foundation would be unable to support the weight of the dome; the park is located in a rather swampy portion of Queens.
Initially, the distances to the right and left field fences were each 341 feet. There was a horizontal orange line that decided where a batted ball was a home run or still in play. In 1978, Manager Joe Torre helped move the fences in to 338 feet in the corners with a wall now in front of the original brick wall to help alleviate disputed calls.
Originally, all of the seats were wooden, with each level having a different color. They were green, blue, red and yellow. The field boxes were yellow, the lowest deck of non-movable seats were red, the second deck seats were blue, and the top deck seats were green. The game ticket was the same color as the seat that it was for, and the signs in the lobby for that section were the same color as the seat and the ticket. Before the 1980 baseball season they were replaced with red, green, blue, and orange plastic seats.
The stadium was located close to LaGuardia Airport. For many years, interruptions for planes flying overhead were common at Shea, and the noise was so loud that radio and television broadcasts couldn't be heard. Later, flight plans were altered to alleviate the noise problem.
Home of the New York Mets
Shea Stadium was the home of the New York Mets since its inception in 1964, and hosted the Major League Baseball All-Star Game that same year, with Johnny Callison of the Philadelphia Phillies hitting a home run in the ninth inning to win the only Mid-Summer Classic held in the Queens ballpark. A month earlier, Callison's teammate, future Hall of Fame member and United States Senator Jim Bunning, pitched a perfect game against the Mets on Father's Day.
The stadium was often criticized by baseball purists for many reasons, even though it was retrofitted to be a baseball-only stadium after the Jets left. The upper deck was one of the highest in the majors. The lower boxes were farther from the field than similar seats in other parks because they were still on the rails that swiveled the boxes into position for football.
At one time, Shea's foul territory was one of the most expansive in the majors, which was typical for ballparks that were built during this era. By the 21st century, foul territory had been considerably reduced so that 70 percent of the seats were between the foul poles; at one time 75 percent of the seats were in foul territory. Also, Shea always used a natural grass surface, unlike other multi-purpose stadiums such as Three Rivers Stadium and Riverfront Stadium, which were built in the same era and style, and were also used for football.
Shea Stadium hosted postseason baseball in 1969, 1973, 1986, 1988, 1999, 2000 and 2006; it hosted the World Series in 1969, 1973, 1986, and 2000. Shea Stadium had the distinction of being the home of the 1969 "Miracle Mets" -- a team led by former Brooklyn Dodger Gil Hodges that defied 100–1 odds and won the World Series, this after recording seven straight seasons in last or next-to-last place. Shea became famous for the bedlam that took place after the Mets won the decisive Game 5 of the 1969 World Series, as fans stormed the field in celebration. Tommie Agee, Lenny Dykstra, Todd Pratt, Robin Ventura, and Benny Agbayani have all hit post-season, game-winning home runs at Shea.
Tommie Agee was the only player in the history of the ballpark to hit a home run into the upper deck in left field. The spot was marked with a sign featuring Agee's number, and the date of the event, April 10, 1969. Teammate Cleon Jones says the ball was still rising when it hit the seats, so it very likely could have been the longest home run ever hit at Shea Stadium.
In 1971, Dave Kingman---then with the San Francisco Giants; later to play for the Mets on two occasions—hit a home run that smashed off the windshield of the Giants' team bus, parked behind the left field bullpen
For many years, the Mets' theme song, "Meet the Mets", was played at Shea before every home game.
As of June 10, 2005, the Mets had played more games at Shea Stadium than the Brooklyn Dodgers did at Ebbets Field.
The last game played at Shea Stadium was a loss to the Florida Marlins on September 28, 2008. There was a "Shea Goodbye" tribute after the game in which many players from the Mets glory years appeared so that fans could pay their last respects to the players and the stadium the Mets called home for 45 years. The ceremony ended with Tom Seaver throwing one final pitch to Mike Piazza followed by a display of orange and blue fireworks.
League Division Series
Three National League Division Series have been played at Shea Stadium. The Mets have won all three, and never lost a Division Series game at Shea.
League Championship Series
Seven National League Championship Series have been played at Shea Stadium.
- * The decisive seventh game of this series was played at Shea Stadium, marking the only time that the Mets ever lost the deciding game of an NLCS at home.
World Series
Four World Series have been played in Shea Stadium.
Home of the Yankees
The New York Yankees played their home games in Shea Stadium during the 1974 and 1975 seasons while Yankee Stadium was being renovated. The move to Shea had been proposed earlier in the decade, but the Mets, as Shea's primary tenants, refused to sign off on the deal. However, when the city stepped in to pay for renovating Yankee Stadium, the Mets had little choice but to agree to share Shea with the Yankees.
Separately, on April 15, 1998, the Yankees also played one home game at Shea, against the Anaheim Angels after a beam collapsed at Yankee Stadium two days before, destroying several rows of seats. Former Mets star Darryl Strawberry, then playing for the Yankees, hit a home run during the game. Stadium operators partially raised the Mets' home run apple signal before lowering it back down, much to the delight of the crowd present.
Non-baseball events
Football
The New York Jets of the American Football League and later, the National Football League played at Shea for twenty seasons, from 1964 to 1983 (excluding one 1978 home game played at Giants Stadium). The stadium hosted three Jets playoff games: the American Football League Championship in 1968 (beat the Oakland Raiders, 27–23), an AFL Divisional Playoff in 1969 (lost 13–6 to the Kansas City Chiefs) and the 1981 AFC Wild Card Playoff game (lost 31–27 to the Buffalo Bills).
The Mets used their status as Shea's primary tenants to force onerous lease conditions on the Jets. Until 1978, the Jets could not play their first home game until the Mets' season was finished. Even after 1978, the Mets used their status as Shea's primary tenants to force the Jets on long road trips. The stadium was also not well maintained in the 1970s. The Jets moved to Giants Stadium for the 1984 season, after the Mets pressured the city into offering lease terms similar to the pre-1978 conditions. Fans ripped Shea apart after the last game of the 1983 season. Even the scoreboard operator had a field day, displaying the home team as the "N.J. Jets". In the end, New York City could not compete with the additional 15,000+ seats Giants Stadium offered.
It was at Shea Stadium in 1973 that O.J. Simpson became the first running back to gain 2,000 yards in a single season (and, to date, the only player to do it in 14 games or fewer).
The Jets' final game at Shea was a 34–7 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on December 10, 1983. The game marked the final appearance of Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw, who was 5-of-8 for 77 yards and two touchdowns during his brief stint. Earlier in the 1983 season, a Jets game against the Los Angeles Rams featured an 85-yard touchdown run by rookie Eric Dickerson, as well as a brawl between Rams offensive tackle Jackie Slater and Jets defensive end Mark Gastineau when Slater blindsided Gastineau after the Jet performed his infamous "Sack Dance" over fallen Rams quarterback Vince Ferragamo.
The NFL's New York Giants played their 1975 season at Shea while Giants Stadium was being built. The Giants were 5–9 that year (2–5 at Shea). Their coach was Bill Arnsparger and their quarterback was Craig Morton. That year, Shea served as the home field for four teams: the Mets, Yankees, Jets and Giants.
The football field at Shea extended from around home plate all the way to the outfield, with the baseline seating rotating out to fill left and right fields.
Soccer
The first soccer game held at Shea Stadium occurred during tournament play from the International Soccer League in 1965. New York United of the American Soccer League called Shea home in 1980.
Other events
One of the most significant concerts in music history occurred at Shea Stadium on Sunday, August 15, 1965, when The Beatles opened their 1965 North American tour at Shea Stadium to a record audience of 55,600. The Beatles played only 12 songs that night. "Beatlemania" was at one of its highest marks at the Shea Concert. Film footage taken at the concert shows many teenagers and women crying, screaming, and even fainting. The crowd noise was such that security guards can be seen covering their ears as the The Beatles enter the field. The sound was so deafening that none of The Beatles (or anyone else) could hear anything. Nevertheless, it was the first concert to be held at a major stadium and set records for attendance and revenue generation, demonstrating that outdoor concerts on a large scale could be successful and profitable, and led the Beatles to return again to Shea for a very successful encore in August 1966. The attendance record stood for eight years until it was broken at a concert by Led Zeppelin at Tampa Stadium in 1973.
The first major music event to play Shea Stadium after The Beatles successful run was the Summer Festival for Peace on August 6, 1970. It was a day-long fundraiser which featured many of the era's biggest selling and seminal rock, folk, blues and jazz performers including: Janis Joplin, Paul Simon, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Steppenwolf, The James Gang, Miles Davis, Tom Paxton, John Sebastian and others. The following year Grand Funk Railroad and support act Humble Pie played a sold-out show at Shea. The concert sold out the Stadium faster than the Beatles' previous shows had done. Some of the concert's performance was included on the album, Live: The 1971 Tour.
The stadium has hosted numerous concerts since, the most recent being a two-night engagement by Billy Joel on July 16, and July 18 2008. The concerts were dubbed the "Last Play at Shea," and featured many special guest appearances, including former Beatle Paul McCartney who closed the second show with an emotional rendition of the Beatles classic "Let It Be." Other artists that joined Joel on stage for the show were former Shea performer Roger Daltrey of The Who, Tony Bennett, Don Henley, John Mayer, John Mellencamp, Garth Brooks, and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.
Although Joel's Concerts were widely hailed as the last musical performances at Shea Stadium, renegade rockers Kuff and the Buttheads, a musical group from New York known for their Mets parodies, performed a small concert for a limited number of guests inside Shea Stadium the last week of the season.
Before Joel's concerts, the last performer to play there was Bruce Springsteen along with his famed backing band; the E Street Band in early October 2003. Other acts that have headlined at Shea are Jethro Tull with opening act Robin Trower in July 1976, The Who with opening act The Clash in October 1982, Simon and Garfunkel in August 1983, The Police with opening act R.E.M. in August 1983, the Rolling Stones with opening act Living Colour for a six-night run in October 1989, and Elton John & Eric Clapton in August 1992.
During his tour of America in October 1979, Pope John Paul II was also among those hosted by Shea Stadium. On the morning of the Pontiff's visit, Shea Stadium was awash in torrential rain, causing ankle-deep mud puddles, and threatened to ruin the event. But as the Popemobile entered the stadium, the rain stopped.
On December 9, 1979, as part of the halftime show of an NFL game between the New York Jets and New England Patriots, a model airplane group put on a remote control airplane display. The grand finale was a red 40-pound lawnmower. Its blade flew into the stands hitting John Bowen of Nashua, New Hampshire. Bowen died six days later. On November 17, 1981, a $10 million damage suit was filed by the man’s father in the Federal District Court in Brooklyn. Named as defendants in the negligence suit were the New York Jets Football Club, the Radio Control Association of Greater New York, and the man who designed, built and furnished the model airplane.
In 1987, Marvel Comics rented Shea Stadium to re-enact the wedding of their two characters Spider-Man/Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson.
Recently on VH1's documentary series 7 Ages of Rock, Shea Stadium was named the most hallowed venue in all of Rock music.
In Godzilla: The Series the stadium was destroyed in a fight between Godzilla and Crackler.
Shea Stadium was used in the 70's for filming the movie The Wiz. They used the exterior pedestrian ramps for a motorcycle chase scene with Michael Jackson & Diana Ross.
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the stadium became a staging area for rescuers, its parking lots filled with food, water, medical supplies, even makeshift shelters where relief workers could sleep. Ten days later Shea reopened for the first post-attack sporting event in New York where the Mets beat the Braves, behind a dramatic home run by Mets catcher Mike Piazza.
Distinguishing characteristics
Unlike the crosstown Yankee Stadium, Shea was built on an open field (on top of a garbage landfill), so there was no need to have it conform to the surrounding streets.
Before Shea Stadium closed in 2008, it remained the only stadium in the Major Leagues with orange foul poles. This tradition will be carried on at Citi Field as the foul poles there are the same color.
Banks of ramps which provided access from the ground to the upper levels were built around the outside circumference of the stadium. The ramps were not walled in and were visible from the outside. The ramps were originally partly covered with many rectangular panels in blue and orange (two of the team's colors). These panels can be seen in the 1970s movie The Wiz; it used the exterior pedestrian ramps for a motorcycle chase scene with Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. The 1960s-style decorations were removed in 1980. The banks of ramps resulted in the outer wall of the stadium jutting out where the banks existed. In some of the recessed bays between the banks, huge neon lights formed the figures of baseball players.
After the Jets left Shea, the exterior of the stadium was painted blue and white, two of the Mets' team colors.
In 2003, large murals celebrating the Mets' two world championships were added, covering the two ends of the grandstand. The 1986 mural was removed after the 2006 season because of deterioration (the wall was re-painted solid blue, and a window was opened on the Mezzanine level where fans could view the progress of Citi Field), but the 1969 mural survived until the final game in 2008.
The scoreboard was topped by a representation of the New York Skyline, a prominent part of the team logo. Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were kept unlit, with a red-white-and-blue ribbon placed over them. The scoreboard was demolished in October 2008, but the skyline was preserved and will be put on display at Citi Field.
For the 2007 and 2008 seasons, the construction of Citi Field was visible beyond the left and center field walls of Shea.
In Shea's early years, fans could "guesstimate" the distance of home run balls, since there were several signs beyond the outfield wall, measured in feet from home plate, in addition to the nine markers within the field.
Home Run Apple
The Home Run Apple came out of a magic hat after every Mets home run at Shea Stadium First installed in May of 1980 as a symbol of a Mets slogan "The Magic Is Back!" (the hat said, 'Mets Magic, but was changed in the mid 1980's to a simple "Home Run'). Although some believe the apple was placed at Shea due to New York City being nicknamed "The Big Apple", that is not true. A newer, bigger apple has been placed in center field at Citi Filed; Shea's original Apple will ultimately be installed outside the ballpark's front entrance, but is currently being temporarily stored at the right center field entrance gate until outside construction is complete.
Demolition
In accordance with New York City law, Shea Stadium was dismantled, rather than imploded. Stadium fragments and memorabilia were sold to fans; the company with the rights to sell memorabilia was given two weeks after the final game to remove seats, signage and other potentially saleable/collectable items before demolition was to begin. The seats were the first ($869 per pair plus tax, a combination of '86 and '69), followed by other Shea memorabilia such as the foul poles, dugouts, stadium signage, and the giant letters that spell out "SHEA" at the front of the building.
After salvaging operations concluded, actual demolition of the ballpark began on October 14. On October 18, the scoreboard in right field was demolished, with the bleachers, batter's eye and bullpens soon to follow.
By November 10, the field, dugouts and the rest of the field level seats had been demolished.
By mid-December, all of the Loge level seats and a good portion of the Mezzanine level seating were gone as well, leaving only the outer shell remaining.
Demolition work on the upper deck began by January 1, 2009. The next day, all that remained of sections 26-48 of the upper deck were the steel framework. By January 8, the steel framework for sections 36-48 of the upper deck had been completely removed; all that remained of the "Live & In Person" advertising banner at the top above Gate A was the extreme right portion with the Shea Stadium Final Season logo. As of January 15, the far left field portion of Shea was completely demolished and the left field upper deck (sections 25-47) was stripped to its steel framework. The remaining letters at the top of the ballpark behind home plate were taken down on January 21. Approximately two-thirds of the stadium's outer superstructure was gone by January 24.
On January 31, Mets fans all over New York came to Shea for one final farewell to Shea Stadium. Fans took a tour of the site, told stories, and sang songs. The last remaining section of seats was demolished on February 18. Fans stood in awe as the remaining structure of Shea Stadium (one section of ramps) was torn down at 11:23 AM that morning.
It has been announced by Mets Chief Operations Officer Jeff Wilpon that home plate, the pitcher's mound, and the bases will be immortalized in the parking lot.
External links
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- of Shea Stadium, by Newsday.com
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- by Corey Kilgannon, The New York Times (New York edition), September 30, 2008, page B3 [retrieved on October 3, 2008]
- by James Barron, The New York Times, New York edition, October 11, 2008, Page A17, retrieved on October 12, 2008 [Relatives grieve over ashes smuggled into and left under or over Shea and Yankee stadiums.]
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