Fans: It'll Always Be Shea, Whatever Execs Say

The powers that be can call it what they may, for dozens of Queens residents who have cheered on their boys of summer over the best and the bleakest of seasons, the home of the Mets will always be Shea Stadium.

"They can give it a new name, but for longtime fans, a Mets home game will always be played at Shea," said Daniel Morena, 30. "The Mets and Shea, they just go together."

Fans in pubs across Western Queens on November 11 agreed with Morena, refusing to "Shea" goodbye to the Mets original home field.

"I was nine years old in '86," said Carol Gaitlin. "I climbed trees, played stickball and made it to Game Six. I can still smell the grass we tore off the field after the Mets won the World Series that year. I have a chunk of that grass in a scrapbook. I guess now I can tell my kids it was from the real, original home of the Mets. Damn, that makes me sound old."

For generations of Mets fans, Shea Stadium was a field of dreams. It was the place where National League baseball returned to New York City more than a dozen years after the Dodgers skipped town and a stomping grounds for a new series of cross-town challenges with those "Damn Yankees."

Many fans said they e-mailed the Mets management in recent weeks in hopes of getting them to name the new stadium after Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson. Those hopes were dashed late last week, when the Internet blog hotfoot.com reported that a worker at the site of the new stadium had spotted a sign that read, "Citi Field Coming In 2009".

The Shea name officially became consigned to history with the Mets' announcement on Monday that Citigroup, the nation's largest bank, would be laying out about $20 million a year to see the Citi Field name adorning the new stadium.

"I don't care what they do," said Ray Sanseveiri, 39. "They can install heated seats, add a sushi bar and hire a brass band. I just want a place to go to watch the Mets play ball. As long as the damn field has a pitcher's mound and a smooth slide into home plate, I don't care about the rest. Forget all that extra stuff. Just let them bring home a series championship already. We can taste it."--Liz Goff