April 17, 1964: Shea Stadium Opens

April 17, 1964: The 1st game is played at the William A. Shea Municipal Stadium in Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, Queens, New York City.

The 55,601-seat stadium, the replacement for the Polo Grounds as home of baseball's New York Mets and football's New York Jets, was supposed to open for the 1963 season. Construction delays pushed that opening back to mid-1963. Then, to Opening Day 1964.

And even then, they were still painting the outfield fence an hour before first pitch. Also, due to a labor union dispute, the press box was not wired for telephones and telegraphs, meaning the sportswriters couldn't call in their stories, or contact the wire services. After the game, they would have to cross Roosevelt Avenue, and use the press office of the New York World's Fair, which opened 5 days later.

William Alfred Shea was a lawyer who helped negotiate New York's return to the National League after the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, and the New York Giants moved to San Francisco, after the 1957 season. Their 1st owner was Joan Whitney Payson. As a member of the Whitney family, she was one of the richest women in America even before she married the wealthy Charles Payson. She had been on the board of directors of the Giants before their move.

So -- and I'm not implying that there was any relationship between them, other than a shared love of baseball -- Bill Shea was the father of the Mets, and Joan Payson was their mother.

Every year, on Opening Day, Shea would take the field at the stadium that was named for him, and present a floral wreath in the shape of a horseshoe to the Mets' manager. A horseshoe is known as a symbol of good luck, as the luck can fall into the shoe.

But Shea's wreath would always have the shoe pointing down, so that the luck runs out. Shea did this every year from the opening of the stadium in 1964 until his death in 1991, 28 times -- and only 3 times would the Mets win a Pennant. Being Irish, Shea should have known a thing or two about luck.

The opposing team for the 1st game was the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates had also been the opponents for the last Dodger game at Ebbets Field in 1957, and for the last Giant game at the Polo Grounds 5 days later, and for the 1st Met home game, at the Polo Grounds on April 13, 1962.

Jack Fisher started for the Mets, and began the stadium's history by getting Pirate shortstop Dick "Ducky" Schofield to pop up to Met 2nd baseman Larry Burright. Willie Stargell led off the top of the 2nd with the stadium's 1st home run.

The Mets took the lead in the bottom of the 4th, with a double by Ron Hunt, a single by Jesse Gonder, a single by Frank Thomas (not the later Chicago White Sox Hall-of-Famer), Jim Hickman being hit with a pitch (something at which Hunt would specialize), and a double by Amado Samuel. Mets 3, Pirates 1.

With 2 out in the top of the 5th, Roberto Clemente singled, and Stargell doubled him home to make it 3-2. With 2 out in the top of the 7th, Clemente, Stargell and Donn Clendenon singled to tie the game. (In 1969, Clendenon would be part of a much bigger chapter in Met history.)

And with 1 out in the 9th, Stargell and Clendenon singled. Following a lineout by Bob Bailey, Bill Mazeroski singled to center, scoring Stargell with the winning run. Pirates 4, Mets 3. There would be times when Shea Stadium would be a tremendous home-field advantage for the Mets, but the 1st game would not be one of them.

In 1974, due to the renovation of Yankee Stadium, the Yankees played at Shea. In 1975, after playing a season and a half at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut, the New York Giants football team moved into Shea, making it the 1st, and still the only, sports facility to host 4 major league teams in a single calendar year. In 1976, the Yankees moved back into a renovated Yankee Stadium, while the Giants moved into Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands.

The Jets won the American Football League Championship Game at Shea in 1968, and went on to win Super Bowl III. They left Shea in 1983, and joined the Giants at the Meadowlands.

The Mets hosted the All-Star Game at Shea in its 1st season, 1964; won the World Series in 1969 and 1986; and won the Pennant but lost the World Series in 1973.

Notable concerts at Shea included The Beatles in 1965 and 1966, The Who with The Clash opening for them in 1982, Elton John and Eric Clapton in 1992, and Billy Joel playing its last concert in 2008.

After the 2008 season, Shea was demolished, and the Mets moved into the next-door Citi Field.  

Let's be honest: Even when it was brand-new, Shea was never a better place to watch a baseball game than Yankee Stadium. It was a multipurpose facility, not so good for football, worse for baseball, with an upper deck even steeper than that of the big ballyard in The Bronx. And the planes, taking off from nearby LaGuardia Airport! Oy vey, the planes! The noise! (Landing, they were on a different flight path, and weren't nearly as bad.)

Shea had a lot more parking than Yankee Stadium, sure. But while Met fans liked to say that Shea was in a better neighborhood, it wasn't true: It wasn't in any neighborhood. It was an island in a sea of parking. You had to get in your car and drive to get a postgame meal. And across 126th Street, just beyond the outfield, was a junkyard, little better than the ghetto that stood beyond the elevated tracks beyond the bleachers at Yankee Stadium.

No.

Then again, at least it was open-ended, and not a concrete "ashtray" or "donut" as some fully-enclosed stadiums of the 1960s and '70s were called. And it had real grass. And the food was good. And, occasionally, the atmosphere was electric. Yankee fans, noting that it was in Flushing Meadow, liked to call Shea "The Flushing Toilet." But it was never as bad as its critics said, or as good as its promoters said.

It served its purpose, and now, it's gone.

*

April 17, 1964 was a Friday. This was also the day that the Ford Motor Company introduced the Mustang. I have a separate entry for that event.

A full slate of games was played in Major League Baseball that day. In addition to the Shea opener:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Russ Snyder won the game with a single off Pete Mikkelsen in the bottom of the 11th inning. Mickey Mantle went 3-for-5 with an RBI. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-3, but drew 2 walks.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. Tony Conigliaro, just 19 years old and from nearby Lynn, Massachusetts, made his major league debut the day before, and hit a home run in this game. But Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-3.

This was the White Sox' 1st away game of the season. It marked the debut of their new road uniforms, the 1st of many bad uniform choices they've made. It was the 1st time a Major League Baseball team wore powder blue uniforms on the road. The addition of uniform numbers on the sleeves, however, were an assist for television viewers.

* The Washington Senators beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in 1969.)

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Athletics, 6-4 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline went 1-for-4 for the Tigers.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 10-8 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Rookie Richie Allen (not yet "Dick") went 3-for-5 with a 2-run home run. The Cubs got home runs from Billy Williams (2 of them), Ron Santo, Billy Cowan and Lou Brock (soon to be traded), but it wasn't enough. Ernie Banks went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Houston Colt .45s, 5-2 at Colt Stadium in Houston. The Braves won despite Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews going a combined 0-for-8. The next season, the Colts would move into the Astrodome, and change their name to the Houston Astros.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Frank Robinson went 1-for-4.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-4 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Willie Mays went 1-for-4 with a 3-run home run.

Football was out of season. The NBA Finals would start the next day, and the Boston Celtics would beat the San Francisco Warriors in 5 games. And it was an off-day in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Detroit Red Wings led the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2 games to 1. But the Leafs would win in 7 games, for their 3rd straight Cup.