Touché To Shea

Yesterday, I made my final visit to Mighty Shea Stadium.

Peter and Martha hire a bus every year and take the minions on a field trip to Shea, or to Yankee Stadium, alternating years. Since 2008 is the last year both parks are alive, the bus is making trips to Queens and the Bronx this summer.
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Lucky Peter and Martha.

Mistah and I have always heard stories about those bus trips, but we're too cheap broke to afford the trip. I mean, Major League Baseball has tons of money, and we have so very little money -- why should we give what we have to them? But Paul, the King of the Cranes couldn't make it, so donated his ticket to me.

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Shea is going to be replaced by Citi Field, which is growing right in Shea's backyard. It's a beautiful looking park, reminiscent of the old Ebbets Field.

We arrived at Shea, parked on a grassy knoll, and got out the coolers. Peter and Martha pack about 17 coolers of beer, plus grinders for everybody. There's Peter, next to the Peter Pan bus.

Oh, hello Petah!

It was Jewish Heritage Day at Shea, so the players' names appeared on the scoreboard in Hebrew. I was happy to hear that, since I didn't recognize the letters, and thought it was finally all over for me.

That's Mr. Met with Keith Hernandez, announcing there are only 17 days left at Shea. Mex has bulked up. Too much shrimp scampi.

After doing their beer chores, Peter arrived at the seats with the rest of us . . .

. . . followed by Martha.

Kimmy and Jimmy were in the house . . .

. . . and so, of course, was I.

I could not stop taking photos of the gorgeous field with the new park blooming behind it.

Mistah Schleckah is NOT the only photographer in this family.

Fran and Maddie kept score.

Although that's Carlos Delgado up at bat,

it was Carlos Beltran who hit two home runs.

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Yay! Us!

It was t-shirt give-away day, and those shirts are nice. 100% cotton, thank you very much.

Despite Beltran's heroics, the Mets had their usual bullpen woes, and there were a lot of huddles going on out there on the mound.

"Break it up, guys, break it up."

LaGuardia Airport is right around the corner and Owen, as per, counted planes. The total for 2008 was a paltry 119, compared to 2007's 158.
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See? There's that shot again.

I smuggled in contraband. What? I can't afford $9 beers.

I'm anti-God Bless America, because it has nothing to do with baseball. But I like this moment because it preceded my Hightpoint of the Day -- the playing of Take Me Out To The Ballgame. . . in Yiddish.

When Owen's not busy being a reporter or a bartender, he's a Hollywood Movie Star.

John's boy Dave wore his fuzzy pink good luck hat all day. Fat lot of good that did.

The Astros tied it up in the top of the 7th, and the rally caps came out in the bottom of the 9th . . .

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Fat lot of good that did. Houston scored 2 in the top of the 10th.

And the bad guys won, 6-4.

Peter was awfully sentimental about the demise of Shea for someone who pretends not to be a Mets fan.

Bye, Shea.

The peeps headed home. . .

. . . and we headed back to our bus.

And said see ya later to New York and the Mets and Mighty Shea.

The Kids on the Bus will see you next year . . . at Citi Field.