As fans stream into Citi Field this weekend for the first Mets games of the 2012 season, it’s likely each man, woman or child that has entered Citi in the last three years will have to get their bearings about them.
There have been some big changes made to the Mets’ home since the end of the 2011 season and examining the park to see what’s new is always a fun part of your first game of the year.
The biggest changes are in the outfield. As has been widely detailed on this blog and in other media, the Mets took the necessary step of moving in the fences in left, right and right-center field this offseason. I was definitely in favor of this move, which restores the power alley in right-center field (David Wright Way), cuts off the silly cut out for the Mo Zone in right and eliminates the Great Wall of Flushing in left. All were important changes for the good of the franchise and the sanity of its hitters now and in the future.
Of course the changes also opened up more sponsorship opportunities and amenities. In that vein, the team constructed the new Party City Deck behind the fence in left-center field. But there was a casualty to that move that doesn’t sit quite well with me. Because of the location of the Party City Deck, the Mets’ championship banners were moved. Again.
The banners in their first Citi home, stashed behind Shea Bridge.
If you remember, when the Mets opened Citi Field in 2009, the banners were hung on the back side of Shea Bridge near a lesser-known side entrance to the ballpark. Many had no idea where they were and unless you came into the park that way, you really had to go out of your way to find them. At the time, the ballpark had very few nods to Mets history — more to Brooklyn Dodgers heritage, in fact — and many fans went nuts.
The domino effect of fan reaction led to the creation of the Mets museum on the lower level near the main entrance, the addition of the old Home Run Apple outside the park and the re-location of the championship banners to their rightful place on the outfield wall.
On the outfield wall, where they belong.
Of course things changed this offseason. The adjustments to that side of the outfield, created a new wall, putting the still intact — for structural reasons — Great Wall of Flushing back from the field of play. But unlike the retired numbers, which maintained their residence on the wall beyond the new blue fence, the championship banners were displaced.
They now hang from the 300 level on the 3rd base side, a location that screams “I guess we could put them there. Who cares?”
The banners are moved to their new home, on the 300 level. (Photo courtesy @Mets Twitter feed).
Well I care, and I think many others do too. The championship banners, for better or for worse, are a part of Mets history. They represent the varying levels of success that the team has had in the past. It was a big deal when each of them was put up at Shea. So it shouldn’t be so easy for the team to just brush them aside.
The banners are also one of the final remnants of Big Shea that we have. Who doesn’t remember every time a ball was hit down the right field line at Shea, watching and wondering if it was going to hit off one of the banners? That’s when you knew it was gone.
The opportunity was there for the banners to have a similar effect beyond the left-center field wall. “Remember that bomb Duda hit off the 1986 banner? That thing was crushed!” Nope. But the drunken fan on the Party City Deck whose beer it knocked over probably does.
I understand advertising is part of the deal at this point. We all had to deal with it when the naming rights were sold to a bank. There will always be ads on the wall and eventually they’ll probably be cut into the outfield grass and stitched onto the uniforms too. Adding a party area isn’t the worst idea, either. Though the prices seem rather exorbitant.
(I still yearn for the Pepsi Picnic Area, where I waited in line on many a Wednesday, blue cola can in hand to get into the park for free).
One of the many reasons why we cheer.
But some things are sacred. And if there’s anything that should be sacred to the Mets as an organization right now, it’s the shreds of past success that remind fans why they cheer and what hope the future can always hold.
The championship banners represent both and they need to be in the outfield where they belong.
What do you think? Did the team make another unfortunate misstep in regards to tradition, or is simply having the banners up somewhere enough for you?
