Shea For Sale

2,500 items are listed for sale from the former home of the New York Mets. Amazingly, Mets ownership is selling the 1969 and 1986 championship banners. In their defense however, these are not the original banners. They’re actually replacements used because of weather damage to several previous sets. Total sales on the Shea goodies is estimated to be $2.6 million (seats not included). Both the Shea homerun apple and city skyline will be sent to their new Queens home across the street, Citi Field. To all of the Mets fans who saved money on Playoff tickets this year, go buy a souvenir to remember the few good memories you can have about the place; the place that often brought more disappointment than a New York politician after being elected.

Welcome Housewarmings Eight Months Away

Our neighbors are moving down their respective blocks. Both the Yankees and Mets move into new homes in 2009. The Yankees will welcome fans to their baseball home opener in the Bronx at the new Yankee Stadium on April 16th. The Mets start their season at Citi Field in Queens on April 14th. Let’s hope their new digs are as great a place to visit and cheer as the old!

Mets To Ignore Their Roots On New Turf

In 1962, the New York Metropolitans (Mets) came into being as a baseball franchise. They were a consolation gift to National League fans still broken-hearted over the departure of their beloved, California dreaming Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants 5 years before. From their original logo and team colors (Blue-Dodgers, Orange-Giants) to their opening day ceremonies, the Mets were to be an amalgam of two teams with long histories in New York. However, it seems as though half of the team’s origin has been lost in the construction and celebration of their new Citi Field. Ebbet’s Field and the Dodgers are openly lauded while the Polo Grounds and Giants are nearly ignored. Though the Giants were always the third most popular team in town behind the Yankees and the Dodgers, they, their fans and those who cherish the history of baseball deserve much better representation at Citi Field.

In 2009, the Mets replace their Shea Stadium digs with the new Citi Field ballpark. The Yankees move as well from Yankee Stadium across the street to Yankee Stadium. No name change for them. No need. There’s something to be said for knowing one’s history and honoring tradition. Unfortunately for Mets’ fans, their team’s ownership isn't the best one to discuss history and honor.

P.S. Giants fans everywhere should demand that their team not be forgotten in Met's history like perhaps ... the Brooklyn Superbas.

Feng Shui Gives Yankees Win Over Mets

Feng shui (pronounced FENG SHUWAY) is the ancient Chinese practice of placing and arranging things in space to achieve the most agreeable harmony with the surrounding environment. Chi (pronounced CHEE) is the life force or spiritual energy within all things. What’s all that have to do with baseball, you ask?

Judith Wendell, a noted feng shui and chi expert declared the new Yankee Stadium superior to that of the Mets’ Citi Field. A variety of tests and “energy vibrations” she felt at each construction site convinced her of that. In other words, better feng shui in the Bronx will give the Yankees better chi than their cross-town rivals. Or, put yet another way … more chi, more wins. Great news for Bombers’ fans!

Both fields are scheduled to open for the start of the 2009 baseball season. Perhaps a new chant will rise up from the crowd to the facade in the Bronx on opening day … “We got chi! We got chi!”