By Jason Wirchin

For those of you who read my Shea Goodbye article, you probably noticed the sentimental approach I took in describing the stadium’s historic tenure in New York.  I was more reflective than disheartened, and felt as if a proper sendoff was in place.  After all, even though Shea was closing, the Mets were in the playoff hunt and I, along with millions of other fans, was in a generally good mood.  Maybe we thought this year would be different.  Maybe after 2007’s bitter collapse, the team could muster one more miracle to keep Shea open for just a little bit longer.  We wanted October.  We wanted it badly.  Funny how we all got excited only to be disappointed…again!

As another Mets-less postseason surges ahead, the best we can do is sit back and sulk.  With a bunch of low-market clubs vying for a championship, we might as well shut off our TVs and save some electricity. That’s about the only good that can come out of these playoffs.  Seriously, were you really tempted to see nine innings of classic Red Sox – Angels baseball? How about that sleep-inducing matchup between the Rays and White Sox? Even better, who wasn’t yawning in excitement when they heard about the Cubs and Dodgers?! As if things couldn’t have gotten any worse, just thinking about that Brewers – Phillies series makes an orgo midterm sound like fun! Eye openers? More like eye closers! Try to enjoy a single pitch of these games and you’ll reach REM faster than if you were to swig a bottle of NyQuil. 

Such is the fate of modern Mets fans.  We’re left with the remnants of a wasted season and cannot help but wonder, “Why?”  See, we never know what to expect because we never have anything to expect.  Following The Collapse of last year, our hopes for a better tomorrow were in limbo.  Not surprisingly, this year’s team dragged us on a loopy roller coaster ride, only to send us crashing at the end.  They brought us sheer joy and much needed optimism, but they plagued us with utter confusion and downright anger.
Why even stick with these losers? Why bother? It’s what Mets fans…do…that’s why.  Sure it would be easy to have your team make the playoffs every year and win all the time (cough, Yankees fans, cough).  But that’s just the thing – it’s easy.  Sometimes the best decisions are the hardest decisions.  Tell this to anyone who bleeds orange and blue and they’re bound to say, “I hate it when you’re right.”

Nevertheless, we should not allow the 2008 “Dud Squad” to move into Citi Field scot-free.  Remember, they did hold a 3.5 game lead in the division with 17 games to play.  And every fool in that horrendous bullpen couldn’t hit the side of a barn even if it killed him.  These were the Mets of a babyish Reyes, an un-clutch Wright, two petty Pedros, and a general manager with the wits of a Jell-O mold.  They died the way they played – immaturely, inconsistently, and in no way a reflection of solid baseball. So, with the final words on the final season at Shea Stadium, here’s a little ditty you may recognize:

Meet the Mess, Meet the Mess,
Teams come to the park to defeat the Mets,
Bring your catcalls, bring your spite,
Guaranteed to have a miserable night,
Because these ‘08 Mets stink as you can see,
Half of the team is on AARP,
Alou is a bum, Castillo’s a joke,
I’ve seen better hands on a snake,
So to Omar, Fred and Jeff Wilpon, hiring Jerry Manuel was a mistake!
Enjoy the winter, folks! We’ll see you at spring training!

By Jason Wirchin

“Next stop, Shea Stadium.”  Any lifelong Mets fan and experienced subway rider knows that those four words crackling over the 7 train’s speakers can only mean one thing:  home is near.  For 45 years, our beloved ballpark in Queens has provided us with memories to last a lifetime and summer afternoons to savor forever. Even if they meant emptying our wallets just to get there. But as another season draws to a close, this sky-high monument to the Boys of Summer (and many others) takes its final bow as it closes its doors and gives way to Citi Field next April.  So in honor of Shea’s last hoorah, let us take a trip down Roosevelt Avenue (to the corner of 126th Street, of course) and reflect on nearly a half-century of unforgettable moments, rockin’ concerts, and way too expensive hot dogs.

Bye-bye apple.

Built in 1964 in conjunction with the World’s Fair, Shea’s early years were marked by baseball…absolutely terrible baseball! In the Mets’ first year there, they won a dismal 53 games and lost 109.  Would you expect any better with no-names like Hawk Taylor, Bobby Klaus, and Roy McMillan in the starting lineup? Not exactly Murderer’s Row, huh!  Shea did host the All-Star Game that year, though it was the only time the Midsummer Classic ever came to Flushing.   Nonetheless, throughout most of the 60’s, the Mets never placed better than ninth in the National League.  Then came 1969.

Up until the summer of that year, the Mets continued to play one mediocre game after another and it seemed as if ‘69 was bound to turn out like the club’s previous seven seasons.  However, by the All-Star break in July, the Amazins’ had moved into second place in the National League East, trailing the Cubs by only 4.5 games in the standings.  Remarkably winning 37 of their last 48 games, the team took over first place on September 10, and clinched the division crown on September 24 in a 6-0 win over the Cardinals.  They went on to defeat the Braves in the League Championship Series and slaughtered the Orioles in five games to win the World Series at Shea on October 16. The lovable losers were losers no more and ruled as the Kings of Queens.

Following their first championship in franchise history, the Mets returned to the Fall Classic in 1973 – with the help of Tug McGraw’s “Ya Gotta Believe” mantra – only to lose to the Athletics in seven games.  For the next decade, the team hit its doldrums and it wasn’t until the mid-1980’s that the Shea faithful began to feel the winds of October start to blow.  In 1986, the Mets dominated the National League.  Finishing the regular season in first place with a 108-54 record and a 21.5 game lead over the Phillies in the division (oh, how nice that would be today!); these Bad Boys were a team of destiny.  They were unruly, they were obnoxious, but they were good, really good!  After defeating the Astros in a six-game National League Championship Series, the Mets found themselves back in the World Series.

After losing the first two games at home and winning the next two out of three up in Boston, the team returned to Shea facing elimination.  But this trip home would be different.  The reason? Game Six.  On October 25, in front of a paid crowd of more than 55,000, Boston was one out away from winning their first title in 68 years.  Yet these Mets would not back down, and, perhaps with a little help from the baseball gods Mookie Wilson’s slow roller up the first base line somehow found its way under Bill Buckner’s legs and…, well, the rest is history.  Two days later, the team won its second Series.  Shea shook.  Queens quaked.  The Mets were once again champions of the world!

In 1988, Shea had playoff fever yet again.  This time, though, the magic of ‘86 had worn off and the dream was not to be.  After losing a seven-game NLCS to the Dodgers, that ass-haulin’ squad from just two seasons earlier was slowly dismantled and a new era of Mets would enter the scene.  Nothing spectacular came from the 1989 to 1998 teams, the next two years finally gave Mets fans reason to believe.  Having clinched the NL wild card in 1999, Bobby Valentine’s bunch found themselves in a spot to win the Division Series at home.  Up three games to one versus the Diamondbacks, back-up catcher Todd Pratt came to the plate in the bottom of the tenth with the score locked at three.  One swing of the bat was all it took as Pratt launched a series-clinching homer over the wall that just eluded centerfielder Steve Finley’s glove.  Radio announcer Gary Cohen called it best: “It’s outta here! It’s outta! Pratt hit it over the fence! Mets win the ballgame!”

Goodbye giant scoreboard.

The Mets proceeded to face the Braves in the second round of the ‘99 playoffs, and despite Robin Ventura’s famous “grand slam single” in the bottom of the fifteenth to force a game six; Atlanta squashed the hopes of so many eager fans as they won the series (but lost to the Yankees in the Fall Classic – nice!).  Speaking of those damn Yankees, 2000 was a year for the ages.  In the first Subway Series World Series since 1956 (when the Yanks played the Dodgers), the Mets battled their cross-town rivals in a fan-crazy media frenzy.  The city was ablaze in blue, orange, and pinstripes, and what better place to host the middle games of the series than at rickety Shea.  The Mets salvaged the first game at home, but that was all.  The Bombers went on to win the Series two nights later.

After a six-year layoff, Willie Randolph’s boys roared through the rest of the National League in 2006.  Dubbed a relentless pursuit for the postseason, the team’s journey from Game 1 through Game 162 was marked by one stellar win after another.  Clinching the franchise’s first division title since 1988, the dynamic duo of Reyes & Wright propelled the team past the Dodgers in the NLDS and into a classic second-round showdown with the Cardinals.  Forced to a defining Game 7, Shea was the scene for two of the most exhilarating and heart-breaking events in club history.  Following Endy Chavez’s superman catch to rob Scott Rolen of a home run in the sixth, Carlos Beltran took a called third strike to end the game, the series, and the dreams of Mets fans from Manhattan to Montauk. It still hurts.

Playoff appearances aside, the stadium has had no shortage of “Amazin’” moments.  In April 1997 on the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s first game in the Major Leagues, Commissioner Bud Selig officially retired number 42 throughout all of baseball, as President Bill Clinton and Jackie Robinson’s widow, Rachel Robinson, looked on.  And who could forget that stirring Mike Piazza home run in New York’s first sporting event since 9/11?  With tens of thousands of uneasy fans packed into Shea, the place served as a house of community, a house of togetherness. As Piazza’s shot soared majestically over the centerfield fence, New Yorkers, at least for a night, had something to cheer about.

Although they are the ballpark’s primary tenants, the Mets aren’t the only team to have ever called Shea home.  The Jets played their home games there from 1964 to 1983 and the Giants, in 1975.  Shea actually hosted both New York football teams, the Mets and the Yankees, in 1975 as Yankee Stadium underwent renovations.  Pity the schedule makers that year!
More than just an all around sporting venue, however, over the years Shea has served as quite the musical scene.  From The Beatles’ landmark concerts in 1965 and 1966, Shea has hosted the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Jethro Tull, The Who, The Police, Simon and Garfunkel, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Bruce Springsteen.  This past summer, Billy Joel played two concerts to commemorate the stadium’s ultimate season.

So as autumn arrives and leaves the traces of summer behind, we salute Shea one final time.  We will miss its deplorable parking, $20 foam fingers, stray cats, and ear-shattering sound system; and we’ll never forget the constantly flooded bathrooms (which resemble Temples of Doom, if anything else).  Granted, it has its quirks, but they’re our quirks.  What else would you expect from an outdated heap of steel and concrete nestled between Queens’ best junkyards and the Whitestone Expressway?  As Citi Field looms ominously over the centerfield fence, it’s clear that Shea’s days are through.  The last beer will be sold, the last out will be made, and the last fans will leave the turnstiles.  But regardless of when our beloved park falls to the wrecking ball, that big ol’ blue, cookie-cutter of a stadium will always remind us of what it means to be a kid again.  As tough as this is to say…..Farewell, dear friend.  Thanks for the memories.

By Habib Aminy

The top news this past week was the “fundamentaly strong economy” faltering even more and the presidential debates which were just like any other presidential debate, filled with rhetoric, hyperboles, castigation and the same BS promises by politicians. Quoting Nikita Khrushchev, “Politicians promise bridges when there are no rivers.” As an informed American, it’s demoralizing that these politicians who have the power and money to make a difference create more problems than what they “fix.” One of the many reasons why sports is interesting and politics is depressing is because there is nothing shady to what you’re watching or any corruption unless you are watching the MLB with steroid infested players, the New England Patriots, or the NBA with its gambling referees. The headlines of the past sports week comprise of the amazin’ Mets failing to make the playoffs, Allan Houston coming back to the Knicks, Brett Favre’s record day against the Cardinals and Sugar Shane Mosley’s fight against Ricardo Mayorga this past Saturday night.

As I predicted in last issue’s article, the Mets choked and will miss the playoffs. My prediction came true when the Mets lost to the Florida Marlins in their final game at Shea Stadium.

Having alcoholic beverages spilled is the ultimate sign of victory

If Family Feud were to have a question on how the Mets lose, the top answer would most certainly be their bullpen. With the game tied 2-2 at the top of the eighth, former Atlanta Braves first baseman Wes Helms hit a bomb off Scott Schoeneweis. Dan Uggla then hit a homer as well, this one off Luis Ayala, to make it 4-2. Though this game wouldn’t be classified under the embarrassing major league leading thirty blown saves by the Mets bullpen, the pen clearly didn’t do their job again, and it didn’t help that the offense couldn’t hit against Florida’s pitchers. David Wright mirrored Barack Obama’s diplomatic style after the game saying, “We failed. We failed as a team. There’s no pointing fingers. There’s no excuses. We as a unit didn’t get the job done.” Had David Wright followed John McCain’s style, he would have stated, “My friends, my friends, I did my job. The bullpen were terrorists and that’s why we didn’t make the playoffs. We need to get rid of these terrorists or we will always miss the playoffs.” As the Mets experienced “Shea-Ja Vu,” the Brewers are heading to the playoffs after a 26-year hiatus. Such an occasion calls for a champagne celebration best equipped with Michael Phelps swimming goggles, the majority of the Brewers styled.

With both the Yankees and Mets out of the playoffs, the local newspapers are finally going to report on real sports like football, basketball and hockey. Yes, hockey is a sport that is far more athletic and entertaining than baseball. I make this complaint about the newspapers over-posting on baseball because it is disappointing to have reporters post BS articles for seven months about baseball players’ lives. For example, do we have to know how Alex Rodriquez likes men, or how the Mets bullpen watches Déjà Vu before every game. As for the Mets, Yankees and my Braves there is always next year. Though this past year was a disappointment, to say the least, for all these capitalistically talented teams that are all for “orgy spending,” one must commend Larry “Chipper” Jones for winning the National League batting title, hitting .364 for the year.

Moving onto the NFL, Brett Favre had an amazing game as the Jets defeated the Arizona Cardinals. Throwing for a franchise tying record of six touchdowns, and going 24-for-34 for 289 yards and an interception, Brett Favre silenced all the critics and has kept hope alive for Jets fans. His counterpart, Kurt Warner, statistically went bananas throwing 40-of-57 for 472 yards with two touchdowns, though the four turnovers by Warner (two interceptions and two fumbles) were critical in that it led to Jets scoring every time. Had it not been for seven turnovers by the Arizona Canaries, this game would have been far closer because both defenses were pathetic.

Moving on to the entertaining, yet loser loaded, Knicks, another boneheaded move was made by the Knicks’ management in signing 37-year-old veteran, Allan Houston. Absent from the game for a good five years, there is heavy doubt as to whether the move was a wise one; to be more precise, the Knicks need big men that play defense like Marcus Camby or Tyson Chandler. There are also rumors that Stephon Marbury’s contract will be bought out in the upcoming weeks and will be released as a result. It is sad that it has come to this in the Starbury Saga because Stephon gave it his all when he did play. Only time will tell what will happen with Marbury and Houston because the Knicks have seventeen players on the roster and teams are only allowed fifteen at the start of the season. If I were a betting man, Jerome James’ and Marbury’s contracts would be bought out.

The Mets stay true to their tradition of sucking.

Closing out this week in sports is this past Saturday night’s fight between Sugar Shane Mosley and Ricardo Mayorga, which can be described as humorous. Mayorga’s punching accuracy was horrendous at 12% compared to Mosley at 40%. Mayorga spent more time cheering and pumping his fist than actually punching Sugar Shane. He was also more accurate in hugging Mosley at almost 1000% accuracy. Mosley, on the other hand, was just beating the hell out of Mayorga, and I give credit to Mayorga for being Mosley’s punching bag. The final round was entertaining, with Mosley delivering left jabs and left hooks with Mayorga getting dizzy and what not. Mosley knocked out Mayorga with fifteen seconds left in the final round, and Mayorga got up at about seven seconds left. Then, with one second, left Sugar Shane puts the icing on the cake, getting the second KO with a devastating left hook dead on in the middle of Mayorga’s face. In closing I leave you with a thought, why are the Mets known as the “Amazin’ Mets”?

By Habib Aminy

With the start of the NFL season this past week, I was elated because it’s that exact time when baseball is almost over after a thousand games with the real man’s game beginning this year with last year’s Super Bowl champs, the New York Giants, trying to repeat in the upcoming season.

The week’s main headlines were about how the Patriots were going to perform against the Jets without their captain, Tom Brady, how bad the Giants would beat the Rams, and if the Mets were going to push their division lead over the Phillies even more, or somehow choke like they did last year. Also in the headlines was how Michael Phelps fared on Saturday Night Live, which honestly doesn’t need any more mention because it was that bad. But anyone that wins eight gold medals gets a free pass in my book. Unfortunately Michael Phelps wasn’t the biggest laughingstock of the week, that award goes to Defensive Coordinator Rob Ryan of the Oakland Raiders who had one of the best tantrums ever this past week after the Oakland Raiders lost 41-14 to the Denver Broncos. 

Moving to the NFL, the Rams felt their last game against the Philadelphia Eagles was an anomaly and that they had a chance against the Giants. Of course, you like that quality in a team and believe that they have a chance, but sometimes optimism shows the reality of how bad a team really is. Déjà vu for the Rams yet again in Week two and they looked even worse than they did in Week one. The Giants basically took the horns out of the Rams and made them look like sheep out there in a blowout win, 41-13. The only time the game was close was when the coin was tossed and the score was 0-0. Eli Manning was having a field day with the secondary of the Rams going 20-29 for 260 yards and throwing touchdown passes to Plaxico Burress, Amani “Its Not a” Toomer, and Ahmad “Barbaro” Bradshaw. The running game was unstoppable and statistically they had one yard less than the Rams had of total offense in the game, 201 total yards of the Rams compared to the Giants’ 200 yards of run offense. As Jim Rome would say, the Giants are “pha nominal.” The Giants are now 2-0 and go home to face the Cincinnati “Criminals” Bengals next Sunday on CBS at 1 PM.  My prediction for that game is Giants 42-Bengals 14.

While the Giants seem to keep doing business without that much media attention, the Jets had the opportunity to show if they were actual contenders in the AFC East. Week two’s opponent was last year’s AFC representative for the Super Bowl, the much—despised New England Cheatriots. To those who don’t know, Tom Brady is out for the year and with that the AFC East is up for grabs. Out goes Brady and in comes Matt Cassel, who hasn’t started a football game ever since he was in high school, to take over the reigns of the Patriots offense. Even with Brett Favre, the Jets lost to the Patriots 19-10 and New England further added on to their NFL record for 21 straight regular season wins. There weren’t that many big plays like there were in the Giants game but as Jets CB Darrele Revis said, “yeah, it’s a lost opportunity. There were things we didn’t take advantage of, and we have to do that if we’re going to beat a team like the Patriots.” That basically sums up the Jets game. On 1st and goal at the 1-yard line, the Jets ran the ball three times without scoring a touchdown. You don’t have to be John Madden or an NFL expert here, but come on Eric Mangini; if you have Brett Favre you use Brett Favre to finish the deal in that situation. The lone touchdown for the Jets was by Chansi Stuckey from Favre.

The Jets are still games away from putting themselves on the level of playoff teams in the AFC. How many games they are away from being a playoff team is up in the air, but it’s not like they are that far away from that level. Limiting Randy Moss to two catches for only 22 yards is amazing, and the Patriots to only 19 points is very good as well, but they couldn’t stop the Patriots running game when it mattered in the fourth quarter. Penalties killed the Jets as well and Jay Feely missing a chip shot field goal doesn’t help either. Offensively, just give Brett Favre a little bit more time in understanding the offense and the mistakes he made in the game will turn out to be positives later on. Lavarneuas Coles said it best, “it’s only one game. Our season doesn’t hang on one game. We still have 14 more left to play.” Sure it’s one game, but it was a game that the Jets should have won. Next up for the Jets are the San Diego Chargers who just lost controversially in the most dramatic game this season against the Broncos 39-38. I don’t see the Jets beating the Chargers and here’s my prediction: Chargers 30- Jets 20.

Dreadfully moving onto baseball the New York Mets seem to be going through the same routine like last September in which they embarrassingly gave up a seven-game lead with 17 games left to the Phillies who made the playoffs while the Mets didn’t. After Sunday’s games the Phillies are a game in back of the Mets after my Atlanta Braves took the series from the Metropolitans. The Mets added onto their league leading blown saves, 27 to be exact, in both wins for the Braves. With 14 games left in the season for the Mets it is time to treat each game as a must-win because they got comfortable last year around this time and just blew it big time. If the Mets collapse like they did last year, this would be the first time since 1994 where a New York team hasn’t been in the MLB playoffs. The Knicks were actually good back then and the New York Rangers won a Stanley Cup in ’94. We shall see what the Mets do in the upcoming weeks but I really hope they don’t make the playoffs so Newsday and the New York Times stop reporting on America’s so-called “favorite” past time.

Moving onto the joke of the week, Defensive Coordinator of the Oakland Raiders, Rob Ryan, had one of those interviews that will be played in those Coors Light commercials in the upcoming future. That’s how bad it was, but it was hilarious with respect to what he was saying. This is coming after getting obliterated by the Broncos last Monday night 41-14 in which the Raiders defense clearly had no idea what was going on with defense. He also called out the head coach, Lane Kiffin, and to many players, considered him heroic for standing up for them, unlike the head coach who publically brought down the team.

Here are Rob Ryan’s quotes from the interview and I advise every sport’s fan to find a video of it.

“I’m hired to be the coordinator. That’s what I do. If it goes great, that’s great. If it goes like fuck, you’ve still got the same damn guy up here. I’ll be the same guy up in front of you next week when we kick ass. But I’ll be the same guy if we stumble again. Hell, I’ve been through some tough times. Look at this (removes hat), I’ve got gray. This is that National Fucking Football League. You’re not going to be on point every week. Am I pissed off about Monday night? You’re damned right. It’s on me, and come on, guys, enough’s enough.”
Rob Ryan deserved an Oscar for his 18-minute tirade and there is buzz about him taking over the head coach position real soon. Great Job.

With that it’s a wrap like Christmas and until next time, keep hope alive, you are somebody.