'Shea Stadium' Recounts Ballpark, New York History
Shea Stadium, by Jason D. Antos 128 pages $19.95 Arcadia Publishing ISBN: 0738554561
BY LINDA J. WILSON

In November 2006, South Carolinabased Arcadia Publishing, the leading publisher of books on local history in the United States, released Whitestone, part of its "Images of America" series, by Jason D. Antos. In a review published in the Nov. 22, 2006 edition, the Gazette called Whitestone "a welcome addition to the 'Images of America' series [that] will find a place in the library of anyone who cares about preserving the past, even as the future approaches inexorably."

An unavoidable part of the inexorably approaching future is the fact that shortly before the 2009 baseball season begins, Shea Stadium, the 43- year-old home of the New York Mets, will become a parking lot and the Mets will play home games in the new Citi Field next to it. All that will remain of Shea Stadium, besides memories, will be Antos' contribution to Arcadia's "Images of Baseball" series, Shea Stadium. "Soon [Shea Stadium] will vanish, and it is my hope that Shea Stadium will be used as a keepsake for baseball fans both locally and across the country," Antos, a local history writer and active member of the Queens Historical Society, and a lifelong baseball fan, said.

According to Antos' Introduction, the idea of a stadium rising from the one-time ash dumps that became Flushing Meadows-Corona Park first saw daylight in 1940 when Andrew J. Kenny, president of the Chamber of Commerce of the Rockaways petitioned the city government for a sports and entertainment facility in the vicinity of the 1939 World's Fair. The concept languished until 1956, when Brooklyn Dodgers' owner Walter O'Malley asked for improvements to Ebbets Field, the home of the Dodgers. City officials pooh-poohed the request and the offended O'Malley took his Dodgers to Los Angeles in 1957. The Giants, New York's other National League team, moved to San Francisco at the same time, leaving New York City with only the American League Yankees.

Asked by then Mayor Robert Wagner to bring another ball team back to New York City, attorney William A. Shea first tried to purchase an existing National League team. When his attempts failed, he then sought to create a third baseball league. League officials decided, sensibly, that there was room for only two baseball leagues in America and in 1962 created two expansion teams: the Houston Colt 45's (later the Houston Astros) and the Metropolitan Baseball Club of New York, Inc., a name selected by Joan Whitney Payson, a 54-year-old heiress and one-time part-owner of the Giants, who had voted against the Giants' departure and joined with Shea in seeking a new National League team for New York City. Their successful efforts brought the new team to the Polo Grounds in Harlem in 1962, where the Mets played until their new stadium opened.

Also playing at the Polo Grounds and awaiting the new stadium's opening was a football team originally known as the New York Titans. The team's dismal record brought it to the verge of extinction until Leon Hess and Sonny Werblin bought it in March 1964. In new uniforms of green and white, to match the gas stations in Hess' empire, the renamed New York Jets moved into the new stadium in 1964. They would play home games at Shea Stadium for the next 20 years.

After 29 months of construction punctuated by battles with the state Assembly and cost overruns that kept the project in doubt, the new stadium opened and another battle arose over what the facility should be called. City Councilmember Erick Treullich of Richmond Hill, joined by colleagues Edward Sadowsky of Flushing and Thomas Cuite of Brooklyn, successfully pushed for the new stadium to bear the name of the man who did the most to bring it from a dream of Parks Commissioner and World's Fair Corporation president Robert Moses to reality and on Jan. 15, 1963 by a vote of 20 to 2 the City Council officially named the structure William A. Shea Municipal Stadium.

Antos' Shea Stadium is not a history of the Mets, although the National League expansion team has played in the stadium since the municipal sports facility opened on Apr. 17, 1964 and its story and that of its home ballpark are inextricably linked. It is the history of a stadium conceived and built originally to hold football as well as baseball games and which has served as a venue for concerts, a papal visit and in 1970, a crusade by evangelist Billy Graham. Its opening delayed to coincide with the opening of the 1964-65 World's Fair, Shea Stadium in its time has become what Danny Murtaugh, manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, to which team the Mets lost, 4-3, on Opening Day 1964, predicted: a showplace and "one of those must see places for all tourists to New York, like the Empire State Building, Radio City or the Statue of Liberty". The Queens Chamber of Commerce seconded his opinion in December 1964 when the chamber Building Awards Committee called Shea Stadium "the most beautiful ballpark ever built" in conferring a prize on joint contractors P.J. Carlin and Thomas Crimmons.

In five chapters, "In The Beginning", "A New Stadium Is Born", "Shea Stadium And The Community", "Shea Stadium's Greatest Moments And Players" and "Shea Stadium And The Future", Antos presents a biography of the stadium's 44 years in existence and its ultimate fulfillment of Murtaugh's prediction. Antos researched local newspapers, the Queens Borough Public Library and the city Department of Parks and Recreation, which agency is responsible for building and maintaining the stadium, to compile the material for Shea Stadium. Many of the more than 200 pictures that profusely illustrate the book are from the author's private collection, and it is obvious that Shea Stadium is a true labor of love.

It would be impossible to compile a history of a ballpark without noting at least in passing some of the records amassed by the team that calls it home and the events that have occurred within its walls and Shea Stadium has many such records. The Mets lost the first game they played in their new ballpark, but went on to earn five Eastern Division championships, two wild card titles, three division series, four National League pennants and two World Series trophies. Shea Stadium refers to the ballpark as "community oriented" and does its best to reinforce that claim with a chapter covering the various concerts and other events that have been held within its confines. Shea Stadium was the site of two Beatles concerts in 1965 and 1966 and six Rolling Stones concerts in 1989 and performances by the Ice Capades in 1970, the Summer Festival for Peace in 1971, the Who and Simon and Garfunkel. Pope John Paul II made an appearance at the stadium in 1979, a year after an International Convention of Jehovah's Witnesses sold out the entire ballpark. After 9/11, according to Antos, Shea Stadium was the scene of two great acts of public service- one when the ballpark was used as a depot for food and supplies for the rescue efforts, and the other 10 days after 9/11, when Mets catcher Mike Piazza hit a game-winning home run- "an amazing comeback for the Mets, for New York City and its citizens," Antos said.

As with a great many Arcadia publications, Shea Stadium occasionally suffers from a lack of attention to basic copy editing and proofreading. The title "World's Fair" should be capitalized wherever it appears, and putting a dollar sign in front of the number 10 eliminates the need to follow the number with the word "dollars". "Hank Aaron is the all-time home run champion with 755." reads a caption on page 97. San Francisco Giant Barry Bonds surpassed Aaron's record by one home run on Aug. 4, 2007, demonstrating that the author of any book involving sports statistics would do well to avoid sentence constructions that present records as immutable.

These minor caveats aside, Shea Stadium is invaluable for anyone interested in the histories of Queens, of New York and of baseball. Besides, it's just a plain, good read. Arcadia did themselves and their readers a favor when they added Jason Antos to their list of authors.