The Mets’ inaugural season at CitiField has mercifully come to an end. It was quite a mixed bag at the new CitiField. The stadium is one thing, and the performance of the Mets at their new home is a story of its own.
The Mets home opener at their spanking new ball park was on Monday April 13th. The Mets were behind, when Wright hit a game tying three run HR. The Mets eventually lost 6-5. Who would have guessed that David’s HR would account for 10% of his total for the season? I was at the next two games; a win on Wednesday and another 6-5 loss on Thursday. Remember Delgado’s first inning three run blast, on a 3-0 pitch from Jake Peavy? One month later Delgado was gone for the season. The baseball gods were frowning upon the Mets.
Shea, especially in the last decade, was a nicer park than people said or wrote. I had seats down the right field line – in a four seat box, so no long row (of 24 seats) to walk through. OK, so I did have to turn my head towards home plate to watch the game. So what if I now have chronic neck pain. My initial reaction was that CitiField was lacking in certain ways. At CitiField, the outfield walls and dimensions were irregular and quirky. Left field had such a high wall, that it seemed impossible to hit home runs over it. Also so many seats had club rights – Delta, Ebbets, Caesars, Excelsior, Sterling, Empire. What does that get you? The right to buy expensive food, but in a private setting away from the commoners. In most clubs, you can’t even see the field, but only watch the game on TV.
As “spring became the summer” (per Neil Diamond), despite the Mets’ weak play, CitiField started to grow on me. Firstly, there is ample parking. Not once did I need to park by the junk yards or shuttle from the Worlds Fair grounds. Entering through the Jackie Robinson Rotunda was special. I enjoyed walking the field level circumference, stopping to watch the game, from different vantage points. The center field area became the place to congregate, get great food, and hang out, while still watching the game.
The problem as it turned out, was the Mets’ play on the field. Among other problems, their lack of home run power was astonishing. We all thought that CitiField was too much of a pitchers’ park, and impossible to hit home runs. But the statistics do not bear this out. At CitiField, the Mets hit 49 home runs, compared to the road teams 81. On the road, the Mets hit 46 home runs, and their home team opponents hit 77. Not only did the Mets hit more home runs at CitiField than on the road, but in total, there were more CitiField homers than on the road homers. That’s 95 Mets home runs vs. 158 opponent home runs. The Mets finished last in home runs in all of baseball. In contrast the SF Giants were next to last, having hit 122 home runs, and the Yankees were first with 244 home runs.
Sounds like it wasn’t the ball park but the players. According to the statistics, CitiField is a fair park, with an advantage to the pitchers. Imagine how many CitiField home runs there would have been, had the Mets batted Jeter, Damon, Texeira, A-Rod, Posada, Matsui, Cano, Swisher, and Melky. Melky’s 13 home runs would have led the Mets.
In conclusion, 2009 at CitiField had some good, but mostly the bad, and ugly. All Mets fans can do is keep faith that in the future there will be many fun, and exciting times at CitiField. And at some point, some winning times.
I couldnt agree more with your article on citifield. The Mets didnt have the players to hit homeruns and get the job done on the field, the field is clearly a pitchers park but i do not think it has anything to do with the power outage on this team..the mets don’t have any power in the lineup.
If the mets played well this season we would all love the new stadium, but since the performance from the team was poor at best our memories of this stadium are as well
A Citi Field Assessment:
1. The Good – It’s a new state of the art baseball only facility with exorbitant prices on parking, tickets, food, souvenirs, etc. It is new, at least.
2. The Bad – A hometeam that gets outplayed in its home ballpark. The Mets were out homered, out hustled. and outdone in what should have been their showcase. Case in point, the play of the Bronx Bombers” in the new Yankee Stadium. If this continues the Mets will continue being a second rate team in this city.
The Ugly – The 2009 NY Mets in a runaway. They did nothing towards dispelling the agnst of the last two September meltdowns. Yes, there were injuries. How does that ove come poor play, missed bases, dropped fly balls and a popup, failure hitting in the clutch, etc. It brings to mind the words of Casey Stengel, “Can anyone here play this game?”
While the “core” is promoted by the organization, waht have they done towards establishing a legacy. The have one but is being know for futility. It’s time for re-evaluting players, whether or not the intestinal fortitude exists and, if a potential trade becomes available, why shouldn’t the trigger be pulled? It appears as though noothing else could be worse. If nothing is done or accomplished this off season, then say “goodbye” to Omar Minaya and Jery Manuel.
Any Mets fan who references either the Spankys or the Fillies in a positive vein during a negative rant on the home team deserves to have their blogging rights terminated.
The point is would the Yankees lineup have struggled to hit homeruns at Citi Field like the Mets did. If your answer is no, then it’s not the Park, it’s the Mets.