By Dan Israeli
The Mets will move to Citi Field, being built in the parking lot just to the right of Shea. The corporate-sponsored park will receive $20 million annually from Citigroup Inc. for naming rights, and will feature a facade reminiscent of Ebbets Field. The Yankees, on the other hand, will move to...Yankee Stadium, just across the street from the current site. The new park will feature a facade similar to...Yankee Stadium.
It's easy to see which team was more concerned with preserving its history, and which team was ready for a fresh start. The truth is, can you blame either? The Yankees won 26 World Series titles while playing in "The House That Ruth Built," achieving dynasty after dynasty. The team has 18 of its own enshrined at the Baseball Hall of Fame, 16 of them have their numbers retired at Yankee Stadium's Monument Park. No other baseball team comes close in either category. The Mets on the other hand have won two World Series titles in 46 years of existence. The team has only one player donning a Mets cap in Cooperstown, Tom Seaver, and just three numbers hanging in left field at Shea. One of them is original manager Casey Stengel, a Yankee legend.
While some things always stay the same, others tend to change. While the Yankees have traditionally held ground as movers and shakers in the off-season, it is the Mets who have made the biggest splashes via trade or free agency over the past few years. In no winter was this more apparent than the past one, when the Yankees, coming off another disappointing first round playoff exit, decided to stand pat with their roster, namely their young pitching trio of Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy. The team did finally part with manager Joe Torre, who was replaced by former Yankee catcher Joe Girardi. The signing of the 43-year-old coach, along with management's resilience to deal any of their 20 something hurlers, illustrates the dawning of a new youth era in the Bronx.
The Mets, meanwhile, are coming off a disastrous September that saw their playoff hopes crushed in the final weeks of the season, and against a cream puff remaining schedule. They responded rather quietly for the majority of the off-season, but on January 29, made about as big of an impact as possible by trading for Minnesota Twins pitcher Johan Santana, a two-time Cy Young award winner and arguably the most dominant pitcher in baseball. It was one move, magnified by the fact that the Yankees were in the running for Santana, but refused to give up one of two of the aforementioned youngsters in a trade. If the team was willing to package either Hughes or Kennedy in a deal, it was speculated that the Twins would have sent Santana to the Bronx instead of Queens.
What hasn't seemed to change is the hype surrounding both teams as a new season begins, which has taken on a mystical form this spring as each franchise prepares to say goodbye to its current stomping ground. For the Yanks and their fans, it will be bittersweet to see the old stadium demolished, although Monument Park and other stadium staples will be relocated to the new park. For Mets fans, Shea's demolition should feel more like a rebirth than a funeral, no matter how miraculous or amazin' the 1969 and 1986 world champions were. There have been a lot more bad memories than good at the park, and it's safe to say that the neon baseball player silhouettes that adorn the stadium's exterior pale in comparison to the ancient aura of Yankee Stadium's front facade.
As a Mets fan, however, the one thing I wouldn't mind seeing pop up out of centerfield every so often is the Mets homerun apple. It was announced in February by Jeff Wilpon, the team's chief operating officer, that an apple will be part of Citi Field, although it was undecided whether the fiberglass structure at Shea will fill the role. This is one area where tradition should reign. Instead of having some computer generated image blast into the sky every time a homer is hit, I much rather have that moldy looking red delicious emerge from it's top hat, for years to come. The apple is a small reminder of what the Mets were, and that's all fans need. The future is now for the Mets, and Shea will soon be in the past. But as the saying goes, "always remember where you came from."
