It's my Citi

Tonight I made my long anticipated debut appearance at Citi Field, the new home of the New York Mets. Since I did it after visiting the New Yankee Stadium, here now is my opinion/reaction to the new Mets ballpark.

Let's start with things I hate/don't like at all. Obviously numero uno is the ripoff Dominos pizza logo that some genius came up with for the inagural patch and all of the Citi Field marketing materials. We're talking about the #1 market in the country, how the f did anyone think that they could pass the Dominos Pizza logo off without anyone noticing? Okay, so that's terrible. Moving on, it would be easy to jump on the bandwagon and bash the lack of Mets memorabilia and history, which the team has already acknowledged and is working to fix with the building of a Mets museum. While walking around the outside my friend Scott and I discovered that there is plenty of space in Citi Field for them to build this, so it's not that much of an issue. It was stupid to not have it built into the stadium from the beginning, but c'mon, these are the Mets, you had to expect something like this. Or how they were going to paint over Doc Gooden's signature on a wall in one of the fancy restaurants. Great idea by Doc and the bartender who encouraged him to do it, and another piss poor idea by the Mets brass. Fortunately New Yorkers aren't exactly the most passive bunch and after word got out the PR backlash was so great that they had to leave the signature and encourage other former players to sign as well. Honestly it was easy to expect this, these are the same guys who were going to build Citi Field without a new home run apple, or bring the original home run apple over from Shea - until the fans again raised their voices and shouted out "What are you f'ing nuts?" Besides those, other things I had a problem with - so many ad billboards, all over the outfield wall and hanging from every ledge; if you're sitting on the right field side the flagpoles in the Pepsi Porch partially block out the info on the electronic scoreboard which shows the actual stats for the players; same issue as with the new Yankee Stadium, namely, put the information on the big scoreboard and put the players pictures on the smaller one.
Anyway, with the ads, I suppose I can't get really upset about the amount, every stadium from now on is going to be ad filled because there's no other way to pay for these new state of the art stadiums. Fortunately none of the ads were obtrusive and actually do a fairly nice job of framing the Citi Field jumbotron, rather than leaving it out on it's own like some weird floating lcd screen. The flags blocking the view was annoying and they should fix that after the season. They could easily be placed in left center field in a gap between the stands and the jumbotron where they wouldn't be blocking the view of anything. I'm not sure how no one realized that would happen when the plans were drawn up, but since it's only moving a pair of flagpoles it shouldn't be a tough fix. I mean, it's not like they have to consider moving the outfield fences back because home runs fly out of the ballpark like whoa.

So those are the problems with Citi Field. Maybe it sounded like I was digging too hard to find something to be mad at, considering that most of the issues are either already being addressed or are simple fixes, which is quite possible because in all honesty the bad is so far outweighed by the good. Here, I'll spell it out for you:

Citi Field is Amazing

The Jackie Robinson rotunda is one of the, if not the, most beautiful entranceways to a ballpark I've ever seen. It's spacious, elogant and really quite aww inspiring. But the journey doesn't even start there. Right outside the gates are bricks purchased by Mets fans, adorned with special messages, names of family members, or just proclaiming their undying love for the Amazings. It's at this very first step that you begin to realize that there's something different going on here than at the New Yankee Stadium. But I'm not going to explain what it is to you just yet, you'll have to read the rest.

Once you're inside the ballpark proper you can take a few steps in and get a view of the diamond. It was overcast and a bit drizzly when we got to the ballpark and even so, the grass was so green it felt like my first game all over again, like I had never been to live baseball game before. It was a great feeling.
My friend Scott and I walked around the stadium since we got there about a solid hour to 45 minutes before game time. The stadium is done in a sort of light orange brick all around, which gives it a bit of an old time feel, despite all of the new amenities (see Camden Yards for an example). There are tons of restaurants and eateries, and although I couldn't get into any of the fancy restaurants like the Acela Club or the Ebbets Field Club or even the Excelsior Club, I was more than satisfied with what's available. One subtlty I noticed and appreciated - you can't get a Philly Cheesesteak anyway that I saw. For those of you who are not well versed in the New York Mets, their most hated rival (at least at present) is the Philidelphia Phillies, so the lack of cheesesteaks is a very New York way of handling a rivalry. Okay so back to the food that actually is there. Brick oven pizza, chicken rolls, a tacqueria, catch of the day seafood, sushi, a world market cafe (a popular thing in NY and maybe some other cities), footlong hot dogs, Italian sausage as well as, as previously mentioned, it's own Shake Shack and Blue Smoke. Not to mention, in the centerfield area near Blue Smoke and Shake Shack there is a small hut which is just stocked with beer. What a fantastic idea.

One thing that I thought I would hate was the area with a dunk tank and wiffle ball field. The thought of it angered me as I shouted in my own head, "what the hell is this here for? You're here to watch a baseball game!" But being at the ballpark early and walking around I realized what the point was. Citi Field isn't just for the game, it's a place you can enjoy yourself before the game as well. Now sure, if you're out there playing wiffle ball during the 7th inning of a close game you're a jerk but during batting practice or an hour before the first pitch - it's a great idea. And when I saw Mr. Met walking around and all the little kids smiling and happy, it dawned on me. This isn't an abomination of baseball, it's a great thing. When they put this section of the ballpark together they followed the song - "bring your kiddies, bring your wife, guarenteed to have the time of your life." We kept walking around, got up to the Pepsi Porch, which helps to add to that "old time" feel with it's classic Pepsi-Cola signage and the porch itself which overhangs into right field. Unfortunately there was some sort of private event going on so we couldn't get down there, but was able to look into the bullpen gate area where the original home run apple now sits for excited photo ops. From my view I could look down and see the old apple and then look out to center field and see the new apple. That old apple was always so big when I was a kid, and now I could see families standing right in front of it, and it didn't look so big. I looked out into center field and the new apple is massive. No matter who was standing next to it, that apple would look monumental. I looked back down and saw another family lining up in front of Shea's Home Run apple. I looked up at the Pepsi Porch, the new apple, down at the field and up at the scoreboard and suddenly the thought hit me. I can't wait to take my kids to their first game here.

It's just a feeling you get from Citi Field, when you walk in you feel like it's home. That's something I didn't get from the billion dollar palace in the Bronx. That stadium is gray, it's cold and it's impersonal. Baseball is played there. Citi Field has life, it's got spirit, it's got personality. There's color and energy all around. From the Pepsi Porch (Pepsico headquarters are in Purchase, NY), to the Mo's Zone (short for Modell's) to the Bob's Discount Furniture billboard, a Shake Shack and Blue Smoke with the old skyline from Shea on top of it, to Mama's of Corona to the much talked about original home run apple - the ballpark is New York.

And even though the game wasn't close, the Mets blew out the Cardinals 11-0, it got loud. The Yankee game I went to was fairly close, even though they were playing the worst team in baseball (coincidentally the game I went to was the only one that the Yankees won against Washington) but it never seemed alive. But like I said, that's nothing for me to worry about.

The simple fact is this - Citi Field is beautiful, charming and everything a ballpark should be and what Mets fans deserve. It'll be a treat to watch games there for years and years to come.