Few remember that Shea Stadium-and indeed the Mets baseball club
itself-arose out of a dispute between two oversized egos: New York City
official Robert Moses and Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley. While
O'Malley wanted complete control over a new stadium and all of its
concessions in Brooklyn, Moses insisted that the stadium be built by the
city in Queens and leased to the Dodgers. The impasse led to the Dodgers
following the Giants out to the West Coast, where The City of Los
Angeles granted O'Malley all of the concessions he had sought in New
York. With now no National League team in the New York area, the
National League office awarded a new franchise to the city in 1960 on
conditional that it fund and build a new stadium, which the Mets (and
later the AFL Jets) would lease. The stadium was named in honor of
William Shea, the person most responsible for returning National League
baseball to New York. Over its forty-four year existence Shea Stadium
witnessed a colorful cavalcade of sporting and entertainment events, all
detailed in this lively, skimable tribute to a memorable New York
landmark. It's all here: the memorable games; the unforgettable
characters such as Tom Seaver, Joe "Willie" Namath, and Seinfeld buddy
Keith Hernandez; and even the solemn moments such as when Shea was used
as a staging area for first responders after 9/11. By the time of its
demolition in 2008, the Mets had played more games at Shea than the
Dodgers had ever played at Ebbets Field, and the stadium had hosted
seven National League Championship Series, four World Series, three Jets
playoff games, and the American Football League Championship game in
1968.
