I shot this video at Shea in May of 2007. It's nice to soak in a bit more Shea as we move closer to the opening of CitiField. Soon we'll all be wrapped up in the new season and may not think about the old stadium so much.

I said my goodbye to Shea Stadium today. Oh and what a day it was. Have a look at some photos. You can view the full set at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rsafuto/sets/72157607544754195/. More good stuff coming soon.

Update: Click through to see a video I shot during the preview tour of Citi Field. The video will give you a good idea about the layout and some of the features of the new stadium.

Update 2: Added a video of Johan Santana recording the final out with the resulting Shea Stadium reaction.

Well, with all this focus and angst on the pennant race I must confess that it hasn't really sunk in yet that Shea Stadium will soon be gone. I just saw this clip and I must confess to getting a bit teary-eyed over the realization that this home field of mine, where I have felt so much joy and pain over the years, where I was able to join other sufferers in my common obsession, where I have grown from a kid celebrating his birthday to a teenager playing hooky to a twenty-something wondering who all these bandwagon jumpers are, to a grown-up bringing my kids to experience a piece of the same joy that I felt, well, it's all going away.

As many of you know I was able to snag some tickets way back in March to see the recent Billy Joel Last Play concerts at Shea Stadium. Unfortunately work and family commitments got the best of me and I could not attend the shows. The good news is that a couple of listeners to the podcast, Dom and Tony got a chance to be at the Wednesday night show in person.

The temperature is going to be cool like the Mets bats. I really hope that we can get a win today and avoid going sub-500. The team has been a general disappointment so far this season. The pitching has been off. The hitting has been off. The defense has been off. Can it get any worse? Maybe today's the day that the Mets begin the turnaround.

I hope to post a couple of audio reports along with pictures. I'll take some video of Citi Field and a few moments during the game.

Let's Go Mets!

IMG_2153-1, originally uploaded by Anna977.

I can't wait to get there this month to take a look with my own eyes.

Today is the day for a fresh start. Let's go get the Phillies and set the tone for the rest of the season.

It's also the last home opener ever at Shea. I've had a lot of good memories from Shea but at the same time I know that the stadium has outlived it's usefulness. It's time for a change!

I've got my reservations about the smaller size of Citi Field. Less room for the fans. Ticket prices will surely be higher. But I can save that rant for the fall.

Let's Go Mets!

I checked the www.507tixx.com website yesterday and saw that a second (and supposedly final) Last Play At Shea concert with Billy Joel has been added for Friday, July 18th.

Tickets for this second concert go on sale Saturday, February 23 at 9:00AM EST on www.507TIXX.com or by Phone at (718)507-TIXX.

Attempts to call to get tickets for the first show were futile. So I recommend going online just before 9AM and refresh the page until a link to buy tickets appears. At that point you may get to a page that refreshes every sixty seconds while you are waiting in a virtual line.

I didn't have much faith in this the first time out but after fifteen minutes I was indeed bumped to a page that allowed me to buy tickets. Good luck to those who try to score some tix.

Hey Mets Fans,
Time to beat the mid winter duldrums (somebody let me know if that's spelled wrong), and start thinking about Baseball!

Jose Jose Jose from podcastnyc and Vimeo.

Every so often its nice to take a look back and remember the good times.