Growing up in Port Washington, one end of the LIRR line that runs to Shea, I saw many Mets games growing up. I was always a Yankee fan, but generally until adulthood I saw more Mets games every year in person.
So, while I have always derided Shea as big, ugly, concrete dump with no character at all, I will miss the place very much. I have a lot of great memories there, some of the games themselves (Gooden's 1-hitter in '84, the Scioscia playoff homer in '88, etc), and some just of the company I was with, or the events surrounding the game.
It's forever entwined in my childhood and adolescence.

Josh -- have safe travels, man. Alex Belth told me about this great Thai place near Jackson Heights that you can find here:

http://www.thaicuisine.com/r/0399.html

Also, you might want to check out the italian market at Arthur Avenue in the Bronx (which made quite an impact on me when I was there in June). I hope you'll go to Yankee Stadium too...

Wow,what a long undistinguished career.

Check out Foley's on 33rd by Broadway if you're in the area. It's across the street from the Empire State Building and claims to have over 4000 signed baseballs in the bar. The bathroom walls have tremendous sports pages plastered to the wall, including the 04 ALCS choke coverage. You can sit at the bar, look up and see signed jerseys from players who have been in the bar or donated to it. Also, chairs from stadiums(old Tiger Stadium, Fenway, etc). I think you'd love it!

My most distinct Shea memory is that it's the only stadium where I've seen fans tip ushers after being helped to their seats. It was a strange site, big Italian dudes and Orthodox Jews and families of four all slipping a few bucks for help finding their rows in the half-empty obstructed view upper deck.

And yet, for all the hoopla, only one stadium gets Billy Joel to celebrate its team movin' out. And it ain't in the Bronx...

Enjoy your trip

4 Billy Joel sucks though - so that's okay with most Yankee fans that he plays Shea and puts divets in the Mets field.

3 , 4 : Thanks for the recommendations. On this trip I'll only be in NYC long enough to see a Mets game one day and a Stooges show the next, with possibly a disconcerting but necessary visit to the new, polished reincarnation of the International Bar (I spent my twenties in the grimy original International).

I know Eddie K. played for the Mets in 1962, but he wasn't "an original Met," if I recall correctly. He was a September call-up, after having been signed by the organization as a teenage free agent.

I'm no Metsian scholar, but I think the term "Original Met" is reserved for the 25-man roster that started the season. By that stringent definition, Marv Throneberry isn't an "Original Met" either, however.

I've never forgiven Ed Kranepool for his feud with Chico Escuela. He borrowed Chico's soap and never gave it back.

Correct, Eddie K wasnt' an "Original" Met, but did play in the '62 season.

Seeing that card reminds me of some of the hapless but lovable crew Eddie had as teammates in 1976: Bob Myrick, Benny Ayala, Roy Staiger, Bruce Boisclair, Jack Heidemann, Hank Webb.

It also reminds me of an old flannel Mets uniform my mom got for me back in 1974. The home Mets jersey, pants, black belt and cap. And the number on the back- "9". George "The Stork" Theodore.

Ah, those were the days.

6 : I'm not sure if I recommended anything there. But enjoy the Stooges. Iggy Pop is a lot more entertaining than Carlos Delgado these days.

10 : Whoops, meant to link to 2 and 3 not 3 and 4 .

11 Also Josh, if you're flying into LaGuardia and plan to use public transportation, you probably want to take the Q-33 bus to Jackson Heights and catch the Subway into Manhattan. Right outside that Subway entrance are two AMAZING Mexican food stands. YUMMY! Best Mexican food I've ever had.

I love Ed Kranepool! He just always seemed such an average Joe. I remember going to a double header against Pittsburgh, and in one game he hit a foul home run, which so disappointed me, followed by a real home run, which I thought was so amazing. I was pretty slow running the bases in Little League (those few times I ever got on base), so I identified with ol' number 7.

He also came to speak at my temple, and he now buys cars from my uncle.

Although I have a lot of great Shea memories -- the Stable Dogger (an unstable hot-dog vendor in the 1980s), buying dollar flags from veterans in the parking lot every July 4 when the Mets were home, seeing Bob Dylan play with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band a few years back, and being there for Game 7 in 1986 -- I can't say that I'll be shedding any tears.

The Mets are nominally my NL team, but I really haven't got into them much the past couple of years.

I enjioyed the handful of times that I went to Shea with Metfan friends, but I think the only park that I didn't enjoy was Oakland ALameda. I did kind of wish that some team preserved one of those concrete ashtrays, like Wrigley and Fenway are preserved from a previous era.

I guess a couple of them will still exist in the AFC West.

Kranepool by the way still holds all-time Mets records for games, ABs, hits, total bases, doubles, sac flies, and GIDPs.

He is truly amazin' in that he held on to set all those records, despite the fact that the Mets were always trying to trade him. When that didn't work, they exposed him to the '69 expansion draft and waived him while demoting him to the minors -- still nobody bit!

Krane was a stockbroker in the offseason and put together a group of investors that tried to buy the Mets following 1979. If they'd succeeded, Kranepool surely would have hung around and played a few more years. He was only 34.

There is not a whole lot of nostalgia for Shea, but there is definitely a palpable undercurrent of resentment over the new place: That it will cost so much more, have so many fewer seats, and run roughshod over Mets history while celebrating Fred Wilpon's Ebbets Field jones. This of course is taking the Mets completely by surprise: Nobody wants to blow up Shea more than the Wilpons.

Enjoy your last look -- you will see the new place is almost done.

I don't understand the hate for Shea Stadium. the exterior is a bit ugly, but I think it's a great place to watch a game. Who cares if there are bright orange seats?

I agree it's a fun place to watch a game. But the concourses are dark and narrow, seating is tight and cramped, and there are many bad seats (top rows of the loge and mezz offer restricted views; Upper Deck reserved are a million miles away). The player amenities are comparatively bad too from what I understand, so there's a decent argument to replace it or at least do a very extensive renovation. I kinda liked the exterior, especially the panels which very much offered up a snapshot of the times when the Mets were born.

The problem with the Mets is they don't understand their fans and are so uneasy with their own history, and this faux-Dodger shrine they're building is only going to confuse things more.

Regarding those seats: The Mets today said they are selling them at $869 per pair. If they sold them all they'd make $24 million!

Good on you, Josh. I wish I would have respected the chance to saunter through Milwaukee County Stadium in it's final days. I should have brought my 1982 Topps Charlie Moore card, and basked in the fall sun, absorbing the surroundings. It would have been better than my actual painful final memory of the place being a 12-11 loss to Oakland, as Jose Valentin struck out swinging with the bases loaded in the rain to end it. Try hard to soak it up, with your memory that shouldn't be hard. Hopefully the Mets can swing a win for you.

Ah, what can you say about Ol' Number 7...

Historically, he is to the Mets what the Williamsburg Bridge is to the city of New York.

As to the Mets not understanding their fans, reference Brian Biegel's excellent op-ed piece from last Saturday's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/opinion/02biegel.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

And as for Shea, I shall miss it dearly.
It's all I've ever known.

Nice place? Try going in April, on or about Opening Day. Parkas required for anyone over the age of thirty, and suggested otherwise. (Taking kids is a felony.)

And I used to do that when those seats--which are no great shakes--were $6-8, not $20+.

If we talked about both stadia, NYC residents and workers would realise how much RudyG f*ck*d them in his last two days in office.

You know how some teams (like the Orioles) retired their old ballparks by having their all-time greats come out and line up at their old positions?

The Mets should do that in the last game at Shea, only with a bunch of the mediocrities who have typified Mets baseball over the years.
Imagine Alex Travino waving to the fans from behind home plate ... Kranepool jogging out to first ... maybe Tim Teufel at second ... Frank Taveras resuming his honoured place at shortstop ...
And so on.

I'll miss Shea quite a bit.

It's not fancy or luxurious like these modern ballparks, obviously, but it's provided me everything I've ever needed when watching a ballgame. It's also nice to head out there after work on a whim and buy a cheap ticket. I doubt that spontaneity will be possible at the new park.

Shea Stadium - Fun House
Carlos Delgado - Raw Power (though for much of this season he was more like the Idiot)

22 : "It's also nice to head out there after work on a whim and buy a cheap ticket. I doubt that spontaneity will be possible at the new park."

Great point. Cheap tickets are a thing of the past. The new place will be smaller and a lot more expensive. The target clientele is the rich and corporate, and so it's tough luck for the rest of us.