Silver Lining

And, thusly, the Final Home Opener at Shea Stadium has come and gone. What began with excitement, anticipation and reflection had given way to misery and depression, another loss at the hands of our nemeses, and trying somehow to find a silver lining on a day that had gone horribly wrong at the hands of a continually impotent offense and a pair of pitchers that can't get the outs the need to get.

So, with that in mind, let's take a look at some photos to remind us of what we can look forward to, after having spent a warm, sparkling spring day in Queens.
Rolling up on the 7, my first look at Shea in 2008. One last season about to get underway. You can see the Citi Field light towers rising above Shea as you pass 111th Street.

The crowds were already pretty good by time I arrived, which was around 11:30. But I was about to experience firsthand what I'd seen in photos prior. You have no idea until you see it for yourself.
First, there's this. Rather than walking out and sucking in that fresh Stadium air, now we exit the subway, to mostly darkness. The staircase was indeed finished in time, and here it is, in all its glory.

Then you step out, and this is the first thing you see. Citi Field itself, rapidly nearing completion. Gone is most of Stengel Plaza, the road that the ramp used to go over has been truncated, now beginning near the Shea ticket booth.
In its place, mass MTA presence. The Metrocard Mobile on one side...
...A cute, canopied token booth on the other side...
...A new area to meet and convene...
...Some dirt and dust...
...And a reminder that we are, indeed, almost home.

Given the opportunity, I took some time to walk through what is now a new parking lot, built to the right of the new staircase (if you're walking down it), away from Shea, and towards Citi Field. Here's what I saw.
Plenty of people were out and tailgating before the game, more than I've seen in a long time. It's an odd juxtaposition, with the construction literally going on in the background.
A closer look at the Rotunda...The construction elevators are a nice touch. There's the David Wright elevator and the Carlos Beltran elevator...
I'm a big fan of the light towers...
And down by 126th Street...

And looking back...

Making my way back towards Shea...
Past the stairs (It's awfully weird without the ramp, but given the way Citi Field is being built, the space needed and the configuration of the plaza, it really was more in the way than I had thought)...
Past meets present...
And...Welcome to Shea!
There's not much new inside Shea this year. That wouldn't have made much sense, considering it's days are dwindling. Outside, however, we have a veritable tent city. First, where the tents used to be, there's now a satellite team store...
The ticket booth, which remains unchanged...
And about a zillion vendor tents lining the perimeter of the stadium. Finally, through the masses, to Gate C, and inside...
"Well, here we are, Pismo Beach, and all the clams we can eat!"

-Bugs Bunny

(Better shot, without the netting)

It's difficult, but I tried to capture a shot of what things used to look like here...
The Cup, The Strength, and the signs...
Views from the Upper Deck...
A nice view from our seats...
And, some bonus video, too! First, the introduction of Johan Santana...

And the Mets starting lineup...



A closer look reveals the construction workers looking in on the festivities...
Here's the moat around Citi Field...
Citi Field LF corner...
And the blowing of the Shofar, and the beginning of the 2008 National League season in New York!

Oliver's Army...
Wright at the plate in the bottom of the 1st...
At some point, there was some rhythmic clanging echoing in from Citi Field, at a point in time when there were two strikes on a batter. We initially thought it was a new noise being played. Turns out there was work going on...
Schmoozing in the 6th...
Things were pretty much downhill from there.

This game wasn't any different than the two games before it. The Mets can't hit, and they didn't hit a mediocre pitcher in Jamie Moyer, or the three relievers who followed, at all. Schoeneweis and Heilman then vomited the game up in the late innings. Yes, Schoeneweis got the DP ball he needed, and lost it when Delgado pegged Utley in the back, but he dug his own hole before that anyway. We were wondering where Feliciano was, and it turned out that he didn't even arrive at Shea until the 7th inning. This for reasons that have yet to be explained. But Schoeneweis did it to himself is what it boils down to.

It's depressing, especially when you consider that the Mets bullpen is just as lousy as every other bullpen in this division. But at least those bullpens seem to get it done when they really need to. The Mets bullpen can't do that. Two games in a row now, Heilman has been entrusted to keep a 1-run deficit at 1 run and managed to turn the deficit into 3 runs. Not good, and not acceptable.

The Mets are too good of a team to play like this all season, that's a given. Teams go through bad spells and play poorly, that's a part of the game. And the division isn't good enough to get away from them. But if there's more to this slump, if there is truly a nagging tightness with this team working as if it were a hangover from last year's finish, well, we're probably screwed before we even get started.

I hope I'm wrong. Just like I hope they somehow manage to get their act together with the egress problems.
Even with a lot of people leaving early, it was still jammed at the staircase. The line to get on the Passerelle to the LIRR was even worse. Police were blocking people from walking onto Roosevelt Avenue for some reason. I don't know. We ended up walking down to the Main Street station and taking the train back. Of course, by time we got back to the Shea stop, it was empty.

So, what, if any, silver linings could we take from today? We spent the train ride home asking ourselves this over and over.

It was a nice day out. Really nice. The sausage and peppers were delicious, as always. There was a really cute girl sitting in front of us. We didn't get into any fistfights (although there were several). We got to take a nice walk and get a good cardiovascular workout on a nice afternoon after the game. We got seats on the subway on the ride back. We didn't get angry and strangle each other.

We should have started a Car Fire...