It’s 40 days until the Mets’ home opener on April 13th! But Met fans have several great chances to see Citi Field even before that Monday night showdown against the Padres. As noted here on citifieldblog.com over the past several days, the brand new park will play host to a Big East contest between St. John’s and Georgetown on Sunday, March 29th. Although that game has already sold out, tickets can of course still be found on Ebay, StubHub!, or even from your local scalper.
If you can’t make it to the Big East matchup, you can still take in one of two exhibition games between the Mets and the Boston Red Sox later that same week. Tickets for the April 3rd and 4th games (that’s Friday and Saturday) go on sale this Friday, March 6th, at 10 AM. First pitch on the 3rd (a Friday) is scheduled for 610PM, and the teams will square off at 110PM on Saturday the 4th.
Through the miracle that is the Internet - along with the folks at StubHub! - I’m proud to say that I’m already (in theory) the proud owner of two tickets for the Mets-Sox game on April 3rd… bought the pair in time to give to my son for Christmas, in fact. I grew up with Shea Stadium, and while the past 35 years or so have been wonderful, I’m dying to see Citi Field in action.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not a Shea-hater like so many of you out there. I’ve heard all the criticisms, how it was a ’sterile’ place, ‘cookie-cutter’, and so on. I never bought any of that, and never will. Like so many others, I grew up at Shea (not only on baseball, but on football too)… those were the days when the Jets actually had a place to play in New York.
I saw Rusty, and King Kong, and the spectacular defense of Rey Ordonez. I saw Randall K punch out Bonds and Bonilla and Van Slyke in succession. Watched The Kid smack an extra inning home run on a freezing day in April. Damn near caught a foul ball off the bat of Doug Flynn. And hung around during rain delays in the hopes of sliding down to the ‘good’ seats when the tarp came off. It was with an immense sense of fulfillment that I took my son to his first Mets game at Shea a couple of years back. But I’m looking forward to seeing the new digs.
Baseball is a game of tremendous history; so much more so than football or hockey. And what could be more historic than watching the first Mets game ever at their new stadium, as they host their rivals from the ‘86 World Series? My son will be able to tell his son (or daughter) that he was there for the first game the Mets ever played at Citi Field - even before Opening Day. Maybe even tell his children, “I went to the first game back in 2009, the year the Mets finally won the World Series again!”
When do you plan to visit Citi Field for the first time? Share your thoughts with us… post your comments or send us an email… Scott can be reached at… scott@citifieldblog.com
