Shea Stadium

From Ballpark Roadtrip

Shea Stadium

Flushing, NY

Florida Marlins @ New York Mets

May 24, 2002

The Road Trip

Well, we'll pick up our journey with the end of the game in Philly the day before:

The Phillies game ended around 6:00 and rather than fight traffic we decided to hang out in the parking lot at the Vet for a while; we just couldn't get enough of the great scenery! Joker brought a baseball and we had a few gloves so we played catch in the parking lot for a while, hoping one of the Phillies scouts would be on his way to the his car and notice some untapped talent. Mike and Joker were throwing each other deep fly balls they'd have to catch on the run when Mike tossed one deep to the warning track. Joker was a little slower in fatigues and combat boots and couldn't quite catch up to it. It took an Astroturf hop on the asphalt and headed into another group of tailgaters. Right off the hop, it drilled the mini-van right in the driver's side door! Joker went over to play the ball off the "wall" and negotiate with our fellow parking lot strandees. Fortunately, one of the guys was also in the miltary and likely far outranked by Joker, an Army Captain. The ball didn't do any damage and Joker hung out for a while with the guys we almost killed or broke their car.

We finally decided to pack up the mini-van and make our way to Manhattan for dinner and some partying, stopping at Horshack's along the way to drop off/pick up some clothes. Mike was pretty familiar with New York City having grown up nearby in Connecticut so we knew where we were headed unlike our typical meandering through cities after ball games. We parked down in the East Village and went to a small relatively unknown sushi restaurant named "Go" on St. Marks Place, it's one of Mike's favorites for very good sushi at a decent price without the need for reservations. After dinner we went to a bar called McSorely's, Mike and Lumpy have been there many times and always take "newcomers" to the city there if at all possible.

Now, we can make a whole website just dedicated to McSorley's, but we'll tell you a bit about this PERFECT bar for a pre or post game drink. Opened in 1854, it's considered the oldest continuously running pub in Manhattan, located on E. 7th St. btw. 2nd and 3rd Ave, with the most character of any place we've ever been, period. There is often a line on weekend nights but rather than the typical velvet ropes of NYC, they have a wooden traffic "horse" to corral the line. There is never a cover, and they allow women in, which they didn't do until the early 70's in the wake of the women's lib movement. The bar smells like 150 year old puke, urine, mold, and beer, with all kinds of dust covered trinkets on the walls. Everything in the place is black, white, or brown, giving it a very sepia look if it weren't for the patrons. Unlike any bar we've been to, McSorley's has rules, they are unwritten but nevertheless understood:

1) You must be drinking if you are in the bar.

2) When you order beer you get 2 at a time and that's the way they are priced (i.e. $3.50/2)

3) No women allowed - later repealed

Now this is a drinkin' bar! Speaking of drinks, don't expect a lot of choice, it's either "light" or "dark", house brand, on tap. They will occascionally have some cans of soda and maybe a potato salad or ham sandwich available, but this place is about the beer. The bar is usually mobbed but the typically off-the-boat-Irish bar keep will find you as you try and work your way through the crowd. If you walk in with a group of 6, and say 3 of you prefer light and the others dark, you would tell the bartender "3 drinking light, 3 drinking dark". There is one size beer poured in a small glass mug. The bartender will fill hist fists with mugs, dip them elbow deep into one vat full of a solution(cleaner), then dip them into another vat (rinser), and then under the taps, and finally hand you 6 light beers and 6 dark beers, every drinker always getting 2 at a time.

Despite having been to McSorley's many times, there was something we never realized which add's to the character of this heavenly place. There is a pay phone on the wall near one end of the bar. Apparently, if you look up the phone # to McSorley's you get the pay phone. Well the staff is never close enough to answer the phone so the partons must have to do their deed. We realized this after the first time it rang and Mike picked it up. The caller, of course, asked for directions and Mike told them where it was located. Someone noticed that the bartender looked over as if to make sure Mike didn't jerk the people around and give them bum directions which is exactly the first thought that went through his mind. Fortunately, he erred on the side of caution otherwise we might have been permanently banned from the premises and have to get disguises to come back (sounds like a Seinfeld episode). We were there for only about 15 minutes to have a couple rounds and move on and Mike must have answered the phone 5 times in that short period.

After leaving McSorley's, we headed further down 7th St. to another favorite of ours called "Brewski's". Mike and Lumpy happened to stumble upon this place after a previous McSorley's trip and found this to be another place of character in this Russian neighborhood. On their first trip here, they made friends with the bartender "Joe" who's real name was Yusef. One loud local came busting in that night and immediately shouted a greeting to Yusef, "Hey there, Russian Bear!" So ever since then, Mike and Lumpy refer to this place as Russian Bear or Russian Beer, you pick, either is very appropriate, much better than "Brewski's."

So after McSorley's we go to this other bar, Russian Bear, which has about a dozen rotating beers on tap and a menu of well over 100 bottles. There is one element to Russian Bear which separates it from every other bar we've been to: there is an O scale model train running on a track suspended from the ceiling. Not impressed yet? All of the box cars are of old breweries, most of which we consider marginally drinkable, like Schlitz, Schafer, Meister Brau, Pabst, etc. The train doesn't run all the time, you have to ask Russian Bear nicely if he will run the train. He'll probably huff and grimace as if it's a tremendous chore, then reach behind the bar to pull out a controller with frayed wires everywhere. A flip of a few switches and lights and sounds come on and the "Brewski's Express" makes a journey over our heads. After precisely 1 lap, Russian Bear shuts off the train and goes back to pouring beer. Again, another Seinfeld-esque experience a la "Soup Nazi". Unfortunately, Yusef was not there the past few times and it looks like this place has changed hands. The new bartender is a nice guy named "Graham" who isn't as stingy with the train as Yusef, but you still have to ask for a demo of the train. I think he actually let it run 2 laps when we were there!

After Russian Bear, we felt the need to check out Coyote Ugly while we were in the neighborhood. We assume most are familiar with the premise because of the move and we had to see if it lived up to the hype. The theme is: western dive bar in the middle of the city with outrageous all female bartenders who entertain the customers by dancing on the bar and doing body shots. There is no cover but they check I.D.'s at the door, we strolled in among a bunch of sailors in town for "Fleet Week" which would help to rowdy up the atmosphere on a Thursday night. The room is very narrow with a few tables and some arcade games in the back. The beers are pretty cheap and the house special is Pabst Blue Ribbon in the can. We were thinking that it would be a bunch of dudes oggling these bar tender chicks who once an hour or so stand on the bar to parade for tips. Well the "ogling dudes" part is on the money but at least one of the 3 or so bartenders was always on the bar dancing, getting the guys cheering, doing body shots with other female bartenders or swinging from the pipes overhead. Between all of us, we've been to every wild place imaginable from San Francisco to Florida to New York to Amsterdam, and there was something great about Coyote Ugly. After soaking it in for a while, Mike turned to Lumpy and asked, "So what do you think?" His simple and direct yet matter-of-fact response was "Best bar ever." And that was the end of that conversation. After a longer time and some more beer, the philosopher in each of us started to come out and we wanted to get down to the bottom of Coyote Ugly and analyze exactly what the charm was. We think we stumbled upon the true nature of this place: the bartenders are obviously the draw and there is something they all have in common, they are all sexy and attractive but flawed in a way that makes them almost attainable. We mean that in the most flattering way as if to say, they are not stripper material, they aren't silicon enhanced, they don't need to do this for the rest of their life, it may only be a side job, none of them are waiting for the big break and they look like the girl next door. Not like a Playboy "Girl-next-door" where they find some stripper and dress her in jeans and a T-shirt. These girls are very friendly and actually convince you that you have a shot. While we were there, several off-duty girls were there joining in the action and helping out the on-duty bartenders. There's a scene in the movie where the girls are told to never bring their boyfriends to the bar and this obviously is due to the attainability factor. This bar will become a permanent stop on our McSorley's-Russian Bear circuit.

After we could handle no more of Coyote Ugly, we headed down to a beer bar called D.B.A. for one last drink before heading back to Mike's in Connecticut. If you like imported beer and want dozens of choices which you've never even heard of before, go here. Joker would demonstrate his European beer expertise after living on base in Germany and recommend Hoegarden, which was a great Belgian white beer. If you like this you may also like a Ducth beer Wieckse Witte.

We'd head back to Mike's place in Connecticut and crash for the night, anticipating a 7:00 game at Shea on Friday. We rolled out of bed Friday morning and got down to the catch the 11:30 train which would put us in Manhattan for 1:00. We were planning on going to the Museum of Natural History because they had a special exhibit called Baseball as America which was essentially a touring Cooperstown. We took a couple cabs up from GrandCentral Terminal and went into the exhibit to be greeted by the San Diego Chicken.There was a brief film at the begining and then you strolled through cases and cases of displays and memorabilia. They did not have the most exclusive of items at this display but that is good because we'd hate taking a trip to Cooperstown and finding that a certain item we were looking forward to seeing was not there because it was on a touring exhibit. With that said, the items on display were amazing and we spent a couple hours looking at everything and barely scratched the surface.One item we found particularly interesting was an actual scouting report filed on Mike Piazza after his senior year in high school which gave him very mediocre marks. As the story goes, Pizza almost became a car salesman if his family didn't have an "in" with Tommy Lasorda who found a way to get Piazza drafted by the Dodgers and turned into a catcher from a first baseman. They had a gift shop with some great merchandise at very fair prices; Mike picked up an "old school" Pirates hat.

After walking through the exhibits we were starving and what more could you ask for than the memorabilia to continue to the cafeteria. They had a ballpark hot dog sampling in the cafe where they would rotate through a group of authentic ballpark hot dogs like the Dodger Dog and Fenway Frank. We had our choice of about 5 different dogs which would change from day to day. The most popular among our group was the Chicago dog, not named for a team or park but nevertheless part of our baseball experience. The Chicago dog is a steamed Vienna beef frank on a poppy seed hot dog bun with tomato, a kosher pickle spear, chopped onion, green relish, mustard and small hot sport peppers. This sucker was really hot and brought us to tears but nevertheless, we ate every single pepper. You can get the same exact dog in the O'Hare airport from a cart so if you're ever passing through, don't skip the opportunity..

The Park

Shea will fall into the category of Cinergy Field and the Vet where we just sort of wince when people ask what what we think of the ballpark. It's a round symmetric park with lots of foul territory making it tough for hitters to create some action and tough for fans to get close to whatever action they can muster up. The stadium is location in Flushing a.k.a. Queens, a.k.a. New York City, take your pick. It's right near the U.S. Tennis Center where the U.S. Open is held and the site of World's Fair relics. One great thing about Shea is that the subway stops at the stadium so it's easy to get to without the frustrations of driving and parking and having to keep someone sober to get us home. You can hop the 7 train from midtown Manhattan and relax for 45 minutes or so on your way to the stadium at a cost of $1.50.

Unlike the Vet, we were unaware of any side attractions at the stadium and pretty much just stayed in our seats and drank beer through the game. A character trait of Shea is the top hat in the outfield from which an apple (i.e. "The Big Apple") emerges when a Met hits a home run. We did notice that on the top of their scoreboard, their is a Manhattan skyline upon which they placed a ribbon to cover the World Trade Center post 9-11.

The Game

We were a little concerned getting in to the game because of all the post 9-11 precautions but it wasn't too bad and they let us in with stuff (like camera bags) that they were originally claiming were banned. Ben, Melissa and her dad were coming from New Jersey and based on when they called us saying they were leaving, we thought there was not way we'd get there in time. We waited until about 30 minutes before gametime and most of us went in a left Dauber behind with the tickets. He was going to hang out for a few more minutes and then leave them at Will Call. Andre and his brother were separated from us before we got the subway out of Manhattan and were still MIA. Somehow, shortly before gametime, all missing parties had arrived at their seats.

The Mets Bucks lasted about 2 minutes as the frist round of beers broke the bank. Shea sports typical ballpark prices, maybe a little higher because it's the northeast as beers run about 6 bucks -n- change. Our seats gave us a great view even though with all the foul territory you end up a little far from the field. This would be our first opportunity at the coveted "foul ball". We were having fun and were more into hanging out with each other than watching the game, especially since we hadn't seen Ben and Melissa for quite some time. We don't remember who was up, but all of a sudden a foul ball comes rocketing over our heads. Well, it hits and empty chair a few rows above us, then ricochets back and almost hits us in the head as it falls out of the upper deck. This was definitely a blown opportunity as our hands were filled with beers and we were helpless. The positive side is that we didn't make a rookie mistake and drop our beers in the effort to catch the ball; that would be a sin!

One thing about New York baseball is the fans have grown to be more concerned with everything else except the game. You'll see fans talking on cell phones all game (see Bill up top?) or they come in the 3rd and leave in the 7th, just to "be seen". The fans at Wrigley and the Jake were more into following the game action closely and rooting for their team. That's not to say the NY fans don't support their teams, just that they hang out a talk a lot in the stands so we fit in perfectly on this particular night. When the game started to get close we focused on the action, but we really had a good time with a crowd of 12 in the roadtrip at Shea.

Lumpy and Mike had a detailed discussion before the roadtrip as to whether or not Lumpy could wear his "Jeter Sucks" T-shirt to the game and not wory about serious hassles. He was advised that the "Jeter Sucks" shirt would absolutely be welcomed within the confines of Shea Stadium considering that they were playing the Marlins (not Yankees). However, it would be very unwise to sport said shirt anywhere else in New York City, as doing so would be like wearing a "the Pope Sucks" shirt in Rome. So Lumpy wore another shirt over the top and removed it once we were in our seats.