In it’s 45-year history, Shea Stadium played host to baseball, football, boxing, soccer, the pope, The Who, and The Beatles. It started 60 years ago today with the team that called Shea home for its entire existence.
The Mets and Pirates opened the multi-purpose facility on a Friday afternoon in conjunction with the nearby World’s Fair, despite the park not being fully complete. The same could be said for the baseball team that now resided in it.
Among the many features in place was an 86′ x 175′ right-center field scoreboard, one of the largest in Major League Baseball and the seating capacity to accommodate 55,601 fans.
For the Mets, no amount of hospitality could help the results. Jack Fisher threw the first pitch, Willie Stargell hit the first home run, and Pittsburgh got the first victory—a deciding ninth-inning run that led to a 4-3 final score in what would be a 109-loss campaign for the third-year franchise.
Fisher and Ron Hunt, the team’s second baseman and lone All-Star representative for the Midsummer Classic as Shea later that season, were on hand for a press conference Tuesday.
“Man for man, we couldn’t stand up against the other teams,” said Fisher, who will throw out the ceremonial first pitch before Wednesday’s edition of Mets-Pirates at Citi Field. “But I guarantee you there was no team that tried harder than we did.”
The fans certainly appreciated the effort, as 1,732,597 showed up for home games that season in a continuation of the popularity the team saw at the Polo Grounds for the first two years.
The introduction of Shea also meant getting acclimated to the nearby air traffic. Planes flying into nearby LaGuardia Airport were so low it seemed like they wouldn’t clear the light stands and land on the field. But for Hunt, now 83 years old, those weren’t his primary concern.
“The planes never bothered me,” he said. “The people did.”
Photo via Mets
Hall of Famer Stargell sent a second-inning pitch skyward and over the right-field fence for the first round-tripper in stadium history. The Mets answered with a three-spot in the fourth. Hunt’s leadoff double was rewarded when Jesse Gonder followed with a single that tied it up. Another base hit and a hit-by-pitch preceded a two-run two-bagger Amado Samuel.
Pittsburgh chipped away at the lead, tied it in the seventh, and broke through with the eventual game-winner on a Bill Mazeroski single that scored Stargell.
Victories were hard to come by for the Mets in those days, months, and ensuing years. The wins showed up…eventually. But April 17, 1964, was the housewarming for a place that would be the site for two World Series celebrations and many other memories.
