Shea

Shea

Greetings from Hoboken. Since that doesn't sound exciting, I decided to start the weekend off with a trip into New York City. Specifically, I ordered a ticket to the Nats-Mets game at Shea Stadium. It took about an hour and a half to get from my hotel in Jersey City to Queens.

It's always entertaining to see a city through the eyes of its sports fans. ("Hey, what's that guy doing coming here with a Boston jersey?" "Better than a Yankees jersey." "Yeah, but still...") The seat was excellent. On the loge level (just above field level), and almost directly behind home plate (as you can see from the album above). It seemed to be a great place for catching foul balls...at least two headed into the adjacent section and one was nabbed on the concourse in front of me.

I decided not to provoke the New Yorkers by displaying any outward signs of Nats fandom. In fact, I did not see one single piece of Nats gear on any fan. I quietly cheered the Nats on to a 2-2 tie, which they held into the 7th, and then...I left. It was really cold, and I had to get up at the crack of dawn to make it to the conference I'm actually here for. I tried to hang in longer, but yet another pitching change sent me headed back to the subway. So I only was able to hear the crowd roar as the Mets scored the game-winning run.

By my count, that's 8 major league baseball teams I've seen home games for.

• Baltimore Orioles (2001, and before)
  
• Cincinnati Reds (1989)
  
• Minnesota Twins (2002)
  
• Montreal Expos (2002)
  
• New York Mets (2007)
  
• Oakland A's (1993)
  
• San Diego Padres (1993)
  
• Toronto Blue Jays (1999)