With Shea winding down, I thought I would share my favorite memory at the Shea. For a while, I didn't know if I would share this story, because its very personal, but I decided that I should share it, or at least write it down. If you have read this blog for a while now, you have probably caught on that I grew up outside of Baltimore City and now live outside of Washington DC. So how am I am Mets fan? Well my entire family is from the New York and North Jersey area, so it became the bloodlines of the family, especially on my Mom's side to be a Mets fan and a big part of it was my older cousin, David.
I wasn't always into sports but my cousin David is a huge reason why I am today. He was the biggest sports fan in the family and he would always talk to me about the Mets, and eventually got me my first Mets Jersey (Mike Piazza). The first time I went to Shea was with my cousin David (and my Mom, Dad, etc) and it was a really great day (Mets lost 10-2, but still it was a day I will never forget).
David passed alway in early November 2006 from a rare disease that he was battling for a very long time, he was sick with it the first time I went to Shea. It was a huge loss, and it really can't be expressed in words how much he meant to the entire family and myself. I don't have any siblings, and he was my big brother. Whenever I have been to Shea since then, I have a ton of memories of that day, and many days I have shared with him, that rush back to me. So for me, Shea is a place where I have connected some of the most important things in my life, to one physical location.
I still think about David every day, and while I'm happy to see a new ballfield open up across the street, I will be sad to see Shea close. I was only able to go there once with David, but it was one of the best days of my life. If he was alive today, he would be excited about Citi, as he always talked about how horrible of a stadium physically Shea is, but with all of the great memories there, that everyone has, every Mets fan, it really is a special place.
