Our review of Citi Field - Home of the New York Mets - Day 33 (6/22)

The Mets normally play the roll as the stepchild to the Yankees in this town.  But after seeing their new park that just opened two years ago, I would have to say Citi Field would rival just about any park in the MLB.  Michael, however, didn't like it as much as I did.  I've been to the old Yankee Stadium three times in my life and we will see the new one this Friday night, but I will bet it will be hard to live up to the great experience and beautiful ballpark that the Mets have over in Queens.

First, we had a great day as a family.  Since we had covered most of the fun NYC stuff that every tourist has to do on Tuesday, we decided to make an afternoon of bowling at some alley in NJ.  We had a blast.  For the first time, Helen almost beat me.  It came down to the final frame, but ultimately she knew what time it was - heh heh.  Watching Andie and Michael bowl together is always funny - especially when they try to explain to each other what they are doing wrong.

Anyway, the weather had been cloudy all day and it looked like it might rain.  After we got back from bowling, it was time for Michael and I to head out to our game.  It is normally a about an hour drive during rush hour to get from our hotel at the Newark Airport to Queens, but unfortunately, on the way I missed an exit off of the Turnpike and ended up on a road that led only to the Holland Tunnel to get to Queens - BIG MISTAKE!  Michael and I ended up spending the next hour crawling along trying to get to the tunnel and then got stuck in another jam crossing over into Manhattan to get to Queens.  We hoped to be at the park by 6 and we didn't get there until 7:30 (game was to start at 7:10).  But luckily we got bailed out by a huge rainstorm that delayed the game for an hour so we didn't miss anything.

As you can see, driving up to the park you get a great view of the rotunda outside of Citi Field.  The outside of the field was built to resemble the old Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and from the pictures and video of Ebbets that I have seen, it looks remarkably similar.

The outside of Citi Field is very impressive

Excuse the raindrop on the lens.  It POURED down rain.

When you walk in, the inside of the rotunda is entirely devoted to Jackie Robinson.  As huge Jackie Robinson Fans, Michael and I dug that.  Another thing that was nice is that all around the stadium, the Mets are very proud of their past.  Many of the old players like Tom Seaver, Rusty Staub, and Mookie Wilson are very involved with making announcements on the big screen for the team and they have a whole museum devoted to the team since it came into existence back in 1962.

Inside the stadium, the place looks great.  Our seats were in the second row from the bottom in the top deck right behind home plate and we could see everything.  The one think that I've noticed about all the new parks is that they seem to make the park seem small and intimate on the inside.  That's great for the experience.  In the old parks, if you were in the upper deck, you'd be lucky if you could read the numbers on the players.  Anyway, the views from around the stadium were great.  The one thing I especially liked was the quirky wall configuration in right field.  It's much like AT&T Park in San Francisco.  The main scoreboard in CF is ginormous and gives you all the information you need.  There is also another smaller board in RF and a full out-of-town scoreboard in the upper deck in LF.  I think that was the only thing I would change.  I would have put it on the wall in LF to make it easier to see.

Then of course there were the other two things that made it great - the food and the fans.  Michael and I had the usual fare - a hot dog and a drink.  The dog was from Nathan's.  Can't go wrong there.  And Mets fans were very cool.  Much more tame than I expected.  I've been to Yankee games where the things coming out of their mouths even made me turn red.  But Mets fans were very cool and knowledgeable.  What was really cool was that in the 7th inning, we moved down to the lower deck and watched the game from the mezzanine.  One of the ushers saw that I was standing there with Michael and asked me if I would like to take him down to the sit near the dugout to watch the last couple of innings.  Very classy!  We took him up on the offer of course.

The view from our seats

The boys!

The RF layout is cool.

The Amazin' Mets 1969 championship trophy

And finally, speaking of classy, if you've read this blog from the beginning, you know that Helen sent out an email to all of the major league teams without us knowing and asked them if there was anything they could do for Michael and me when we visited their stadiums.  Only one team responded - the Mets - and here is what they did for us.  The game didn't end until the 13th inning when the Mets won on a bases loaded hit batsman. 3-2.  We left after the 9th Inning since the drive from Queens back to Newark was quite a ways.

As for me, I give Citi Field a very high grade!  For me, it's about a 9/10.  Anyway, here's Michael's take:

I didn't like Citi Field as much as my dad.  I expected a lot more after I saw it from the outside.  The outside is very cool.  The inside not so much.  The Jackie Robinson museum wasn't much of a museum.  It only had some pictures and a big "42."  They should have done much more.  The hot dog was okay until I found that they don't use regular mustard.  All they had was some crappy deli mustard.  The big screen scoreboard was nice and it was really nice to see our names up on it.  I thought the scoreboard in CF would be bigger for some reason.  And I was disappointed that I didn't get to see the big apple pop out because the Mets didn't get a home run.  Overall, I give it 5/10.

Well there you have it.  Thursday, the family takes a trip over to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty and then we plan on taking it easy the rest of the day.  Friday, we will go into Manhattan again and do some sight seeing, and then take the subway up to the Bronx as a family to see Yankees take on the Colorado Rockies in the new Yankee Stadium.

Baseball Adventure - Day 32 - NYC with the family (6/21)

Tuesday was a lot of fun with the family.  With Helen and Andie joining us, we spent a nice day touring Manhattan.  We took the train in from our Newark Airport hotel into Penn Station and then ventured around town.

First up was a trip to FAO Schwartz.  That's a cool place to visit.  Even cooler, was that we escaped from there without buying anything.  The guy doing magic was awesome.  We still can't figure out how he did some of that stuff.

The kids first time ever on a NY subway.  Always an adventure.

Helen and Michael on the big piano

Next up, we went over to Central Park and spent a couple of hours walking around taking in the sights, and we did a horse and carriage ride too.  In all the times I've visited NYC, I had never been to Central Park.  I remember as a kid, my first images of NYC were the movie Warriors and then Escape from New York.  Central Park looked nothing like that.  Very cool and Helen and the kids had a great time.  And check this out, while we walking in Central Park, we had the most crazy thing happen.  Michael was sporting his ASU ballboy shirt.  A guy was walking with his wife and little girl by us and noticed it.  He asked if we were from AZ and then we started talking.  After we talked for a couple of minutes it turns out that he was a friend of mine from my undergrad days who I hadn't seen in 20 years.  His name was Sean Green and he ran track from '86 to '90 at ASU.  He lived on the same dorm floor as my friend from KC - Dallas Eubanks and he also knows my friend Nick.  What are the chances of that happening in Central Park, NY - about a trillion to one?

Helen and I on the carriage ride in Central Park

My babies

Michael sopping wet in Central Park

My friend Sean and I who I haven't seen since 1990.

Then we took the subway down to Ground Zero.  I thought it was important to show the kids the site and Helen had never been there as well.  The sad thing about the area is that it's been nearly 10 years and there's still nothing there but a big hole in the ground.  It looks like there is some building going on, but it's not nearly enough 10 years after the fact.

Ground Zero

Still not much going on 10 years later

Finally, we headed back to Times Square to eat dinner.  The kids dug that.  All the lights, the people, the energy.  You can't beat Times Square for getting a feel for NYC.

The family in Times Square

After a long day, we caught the train back to Jersey.  Tomorrow, it's a Mets game at Citi Field.

Statue of Liberty

A pretty lousy weather day, but what a great sight nonetheless.