Citi Field sucks

I was at "Citi Field" for the first time tonight.

It seems to me like they tore down a perfectly usable Shea Stadium so they could have an excuse to jack up the ticket prices. And the taxpayers paid for it twice: the first time in the form of hundreds of millions of dollars of financing to help construct the stadium, and the second time to bail out Citibank (the owner of the naming rights). Maybe it's because of the time of the year, or because the Mets are finishing the season 23 1/2 games out of first place (as of this moment), but the crowd seemed completely lacking in enthusiasm or energy. I was sitting down in the expensive seats, and maybe a third of them were occupied. The rest of the people who owned the $180 tickets apparently chose to throw them out. I guess they couldn't even give them away.

It wasn't like Shea Stadium back in the 1980s when the fans were energized. No one did the wave. Do they still do the wave at baseball games?

I have to admit that I haven't been a Mets fan since they traded away Lenny Dykstra. That was a pretty unforgivable offense.

* * *

A regular commenter who chose to remain anonymous in order to comment about baseball writes:

Is it even possible to have enthusiasm at a baseball game? It is one of the most boring sports to watch. I've never been at a game where the crowd had energy.

If you truly care about the outcome of the game, then baseball isn’t boring at all. It becomes an extremely tense experience, because often the entire outcome of the game might be determined by a single swing of the bat.

But, I haven’t been much of Mets fan since the 1980s, so yes, for me the game was pretty boring. Being 24 games out of first place would, perhaps, make the outcome of the game not too interesting even for diehard fans.

Comments

[ironrailsironweights.wordpress.com]

One of my co-workers who went a couple of months ago was bemused by the Jackie Robinson statue. He pointed out that it should be at Dodger Stadium.

[Anonimnik]

And look at Lenny now- pawning off his rings:
http://www.cnbc.com//id/33147341
And representing himself in his bankruptcy case:
http://dealbreaker.com/2009/10/lenny-dykstra-objects-to-the-f.php

[HS: He was a great baseball player, but a crappy businessman.]

[Caligula]

People need to realize that public financing of stadiums is invariably a blackhole to the taxpayer. Baseballprospectus ran a series of articles a few years ago that shows all the economic models that new stadiums bring economic stimulus to an area to be pretty much a complete farce. Though I suppose it isn't any different from the other kinds of waste taxpayers pay for.

[James B. Shearer]

"... The rest of the people who owned the $180 tickets apparently chose to throw them out. ..."

What makes you think those tickets were ever sold?

[Yawner]

Is it even possible to have enthusiasm at a baseball game? It is one of the most boring sports to watch. I've never been at a game where the crowd had energy.

[sabril]

"but the crowd seemed completely lacking in enthusiasm or energy. I was sitting down in the expensive seats"

Maybe there's a connection here? Many times I have been to Fenway Park in Boston. I almost always sit in the bleachers (the cheap seats). The crowd has always been great.

[ironrailsironweights.wordpress.com]

Baseball's slow, clockless pace is actually part of its charm, in a way that's hard to define but easy to perceive. In sharp contrast is The Most Important Sport in the World, which is deliberately slowed down to accommodate endless arrays of commercials for cars, beer, life insurance, mutual funds, and limp-d*ck drugs, as befits its status as television's whore.

Of course, any man who doesn't worship The Most Important Sport in the World is regarded as a freak and weirdo at best, and some sort of f*gg*t at worst. I'd say more, but I have an appointment to have my anus bleached.

Peter

[OneSTDV]

"A regular commenter who chose to remain anonymous in order to comment about baseball"

Is baseball that touchy of a subject?

[It's unamerican to criticize the Holy Trinity of Baseball, Football, and Basketball]

[Wade Nichols]

I've been to both Citi Field and Yankee Stadium this year, and I believe Citi is the better of the two. I've also been to Dodger Stadium, Oakland A's, Seattle, and Detroit this year. I liked Dodger Stadium a lot, Seattle was nice also. Oakland A's stadium sucks! Citi Field seems similar to Detroit. I didn't care for Yankee Stadium, too much glass and plastic, and cheapy plastic seats.

I think the new stadiums (Citi, Yankee, Detroit) are all trying to much to follow the Baltimore Orioles template - open design, high end eating, etc. But maybe Baltimore was copying someone else?

"It is one of the most boring sports to watch."

It's analagous to life - long stretches of boredom, punctuated by brief periods of excitement. Soccer can be boring also, despite the constant movement.

[SFG]

Selling off the naming rights was what pissed me off. IMHO, that's for tiny towns. Boston has Fenway, the Yankees have Yankee Stadium. We had Shea, named after the guy who brought us back a second baseball team. Why'd we have to go and sell it off to some bank?

[Park Slope Pubby]

I went a couple of times earlier in the season, when the Mets were still in it, and had a good time. The crowds were big, they did the wave, they were enthusiastic. I loved Shea for all kinds of personal reasons, but this was fun too.

The Citifield food was much better than Shea. i ate delicious lime flavored Mexican corn on the cob. There's a food court, lots of different kinds of food, prices weren't bad.

Bottom line in my opinion: how much fun a game is has everything to do with where the home team is in the standings, and very little to do w/ the stadium itself. I wouldn't go to Citifield now, but early in the season it was a lot of fun.

[HS: "i ate delicious lime flavored Mexican corn on the cob." Last time I went to Shea, I had a delicious Italian Sausage on a hero roll, with a Budweiser. That's REAL ballpark food.]

[ironrailsironweights.wordpress.com]

"It's unamerican to criticize the Holy Trinity of Baseball, Football, and Basketball"

Not quite. It's okay to criticize baseball for being too slow paced and too tradition bound ("your Dad's sport"). While criticizing the sport of basketball is not as acceptable, it is permissible to criticize the NBA on a few specific grounds (too much individual showboating vs. team play, lack of effort during much of the regular season, and endless playoffs).

It goes without saying that the Most Important Sport in the World is a completely different story. Both the sport itself and its professional incarnation in the NFL are completely beyond criticism. Merely abstaining from criticism is not enough; you must actively like the sport and never miss an opportunity to extol its virtues.

Note: criticism of the other one of the Big Four sports, NASCAR, is still just barely permitted, either on the way races are conducted ("turn left for 500 miles") or based on its traditional fan base ("What has 200 legs and 400 teeth? 100 NASCAR fans.") but that's changing rapidly as its popularity continues its explosive rise. NASCAR soon will be as immune from criticism as the NFL.

Peter

[Bob Sykes]

I don't think people have much interest in baseball unless they grew up in one of the original, pre-expansion cities. In those towns, baseball enjoys a primacy it has no where else, and a tradition handed down from father to son.

When I was a boy, almost all games were day games, and the season started later and ended earlier, so the weather was usually warm. A day game in the stands is infinitely more enjoyable than a night game. The day ambience is summer-relaxed, warm sun, hot dogs, friends chatting idly, wandering around the stands (usually empty then at Fenway). An then the brief excitement of a home run or double play. The real tension in in the batter-pitcher confrontation. Nothing better than Bob Gibson vs Yaz. Driving around or hanging around summer afternoons with the game on the radio--the sound track of my youth.

[Jim Johnson]

Shea Stadium was a grade A shithole. I understand the desire to build the new stadium, but when the financial crisis hit before the opening, it was a travesty that Citibank kept the naming rights... I believe it was a 600 million dollar deal that, essentially, we the tax payers footed the bill for.

It also doesn't help that the Wilbons are crappy baseball people and, in the new stadium's first year, fielded a crappy team (the worst injury luck I've ever seen also played a part in that). Everything went wrong for them with CitiField. It's a shame because, from what I hear, it's a nice place.

Also, Lenny Dykstra was a hell of a player, a crappy business man, and an even worse douchebag.

[ironrailsironweights.wordpress.com]

"I don't think people have much interest in baseball unless they grew up in one of the original, pre-expansion cities. In those towns, baseball enjoys a primacy it has no where else, and a tradition handed down from father to son."

People who played baseball in kids' leagues or in school often remain interested in the sport as adults. In this respect baseball stands in sharp contrast to soccer, as millions of children play soccer but most drop it like the proverbial hot potato upon reaching adolescence. I would attribute this difference to baseball's greater role in American culture.

Peter

[Kevin K]

"I don't think people have much interest in baseball unless they grew up in one of the original, pre-expansion cities. In those towns, baseball enjoys a primacy it has no where else, and a tradition handed down from father to son"

I grew up an Astros fan and have been my whole life. There are many, many fans of teams like the Rays and Rockies and Mariners and Angels. Just because you don't know them, doesn't mean they don't exist.

Mets had once in a century horrible luck all season. They have some good players.

[Peter A]

It's quite acceptable to criticize professional basketball, and I hear people do it all the time. It's less acceptable to criticize college basketball (a sport I find completely uninteresting).

[Sideways]

"Do they still do the wave at baseball games? "

Baseball fans look at people who do the wave at games the way HS looks at proles.

Anyway, it's weird to see a defense of Shea. I don't know if Citi is a good stadium, but Shea was reviled, one of the two or three least-liked in the majors (and the Twins have a new stadium opening next season, which would have bumped Shea up to #1 or 2)