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Mets fans excited for new season, stadium

By David Freedlander | dfreedlander@am-ny.com

April 8, 2008

Their beloved if dumpy stadium is on its death bed, their team is mired in mediocrity, and their ace pitcher is gimpy, but nothing could cool the baseball fever of the Mets faithful camped outside of Shea for one last home opener there.

"It's going to be a bittersweet season," said Joe Ferguson, 49, of West Babylon. "You hate to see Shea go, but the new stadium is going to be great."

Sparkling new some would say overly precious -- Citi Field is rising next door. The $800 million dollar stadium is on track to be open for the first pitch of the 2009 season.

Some, though, say the new stadium, with 13,000 fewer seats but more luxury boxes, will be strictly for the upper-income baseball fan.

"I've been coming to opening day every year, but I don't know if the regular fan will be able to afford tickets to the new park," said Chris Cullen, of Long Island, after he finished pouring a Budweiser into a plastic cup. "It's going to be strictly for the corporate crowd, and the companies will buy up all the seats. I don't know what was wrong with the stadium we have. The Colosseum in Rome in 2,000 years old, you don't hear people talking about tearing that down."

But the final season of Shea Stadium began the way the last one ended. In 2007, an epic late season collapse by the Mets let the hated Phillies slip by them for a place in the playoffs.

The Mets yesterday couldn't hold off the Philadelphia 9 again, as the Phillies rallied for a 5-2 victory.

But on a day when the beer flowed freely, and the air smelled of grilled hot dogs, and tailgaters shouted to be heard over the din of the ubiquitous planes flying in and out of La Guardia, the focus wasn't on what may happen next year but what Mets fans were certain would come out of this one.

"I think this is going to be the best Mets team ever," said Erica Stow, 26, of Medford. "It's a New York year. First the Giants won the Super Bowl, then you got the Rangers in the playoffs. If you're a true Met fan you don't care where they play. The last game at Shea is going to be the Mets winning the World Series."