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Shea Stadium lives on in memory

By Ryan Chatelain, amNewYork Associate Editor | ryan.chatelain@am-ny.com

September 26, 2008

Mets fans take in the game at Shea Stadium for the last season. (RJ Mickelson / September 24, 2008)

Seaver. Strawberry. Gooden. Hernandez. Wilson. Carter. Franco. Piazza. Wright. All these baseball greats have called Shea Stadium home at one time or another.

With the Mets currently locked in a tight race for the National League playoffs, fans are hoping that the team will extend the stadium's 44-year run past Sunday, when the last regular season game is played there.

Regardless of the outcome this weekend, the many memories born inside the blue hulk in Flushing will live on even after the stadium is demolished and the Mets move next door into Citi Field next year.

Shea has been the home to four World Series teams, including two that went on to win it all. It's where the '69 Mets made their improbable march to a world title and where a stroke of luck during Game 6 of the World Series in 1986 paved the way for another Amazin's title.

It's also where for decades fans have shrugged off naysayers with the cry: "You gotta believe."

Mets fans recently shared their most memorable Shea Stadium moments with amNewYork.

Brought to tears
On Oct. 25, 1986, Jason Lee scored last-minute tickets to Game 6 of the World Series. Never mind that his tickets were in the nosebleed section.

Lee will never forget when Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner let Mookie Wilson's ground ball skip between his legs, as Ray Knight scored and gave the Mets an epic 6-5 victory. Two nights later, the Amazin's sealed their second world title.

"I cried like a baby," said Lee, 36, of Manhattan. "I've still got goose bumps talking about it even now."

Left behind
Ellen Quigley was 11 years old when she attended Game 5 of the 1973 National League Championship Series with her two older brothers, who were ages 20 and 19.

When the Mets recorded the final out against the Reds, earning a spot in the World Series, Quigley's brothers stormed the field with other jubilant fans but forgot one thing: "My brothers left me in the stands by myself," said

Quigley, 46, of Brooklyn. "They went down to get pieces of dirt and get their souvenirs.

"They were lucky that I was scared so I sat where I was, and I didn't move. So when they got backs to the seats, I was still there."

The beacon of Queens
Chuck D, founder of the famed hip-hop group Public Enemy, is one of the Mets' most famous die-hard fans. Although he has seen his share of games from inside Shea Stadium, his earliest memories of the ballpark came while admiring it from afar.

"When my dad took the Van Wyck [Expressway], you were always impressed by the fact that the lights would be on, and you could see inside the semi-crescent stadium with the fans inside and the game going on," said Chuck D, a Long Island native.

A fan is born
Will Bishop can pinpoint the moment he became hooked on the Mets.

On Aug. 22, 1998, Bishop, then 13 years old, was in the crowd when Mike Piazza hit a grand slam against the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was Piazza's fourth grand slam of the season, the most in the majors. The Mets won 9-4.

"That was really when I fell in love with this team," said Bishop, now 23, of Long Island. "It was probably the best moment I ever had out here, and I just went nuts."

Darryl's debut
On May 6, 1983, the struggling Mets inserted a 21-year-old phenom into their lineup for the first time.

"I was there when Darryl Strawberry made his debut," said David Sepulveda, 42, of Bethpage, Long Island.

Strawberry was less than stellar in his first game, going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, but he bounced back to be voted National League Rookie of the Year that season. Strawberry then represented the Mets in seven consecutive All-Star Games from 1984-90.

"Looking back through all these years, knowing that I was at a game where such a famous ballplayer started out, I always feel good about it," Sepulveda said.