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The girl who wore her Mets shirt on the 2001 MTV Movie Awards is all grown up and attending Home Openers.
Re-meet [url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123992851955927591.html]Julia Stiles[/url].
| ]Making New Memories
Actress Julia Stiles, a hard-core Mets fan, reports on Opening Day
By JULIA STILES
Once again, the Yankees are harshing my mellow. When the Mets renovated their bullpen by adding J.J. Putz and Frankie Rodriguez, the Yankees had to trump them by snagging ace starter CC Sabathia for a record high, seven-year contract that is more than the Mets' annual payroll. With all the excitement of a new ballpark, now Mets fans are forced to share bragging rights again, as Yankee Stadium is rebuilt for nearly twice as much money, and without the baggage of a bailed-out bank for its name.
The Yankees said goodbye to a home that was historic, full of aura and mystique, but the Mets deserved a new ballpark -- in fact, they needed one for morale. Shea was the place where I sat in the mezzanine to watch the Mets lose to the Yankees in the 2000 Subway Series, and tried to ignore the sound of cocksure Bronx fans cheering their Game 5 victory in Flushing.
Last year, I sat behind the third-base line for the last home game ever, and the feeling in the stands was electric. The Mets were only half a game behind in the wild-card race. By the time the Mets fell to the Marlins, though, most fans had disappeared, and the postgame tribute to Shea was quietly lukewarm. Mets fans know the feeling of stale air around Shea, where Roosevelt Avenue is a better place to change a muffler than to drink your sorrows away.
It's strange that as the Mets bid farewell to their home in 2008, eager to move on from a disappointing September, few predicted another major collapse -- that of the economy. Eight-hundred-million-dollar stadiums aside, baseball is not recession-proof. A handful of free agents felt the pinch this year, settling for lower salaries, as Los Angeles Angels outfielder Bobby Abreu did, or continuing to hold out unsigned, like injury-plagued Pedro Martínez. His plan to use the World Baseball Classic as an audition for the Mets didn't pan out as effectively as he had hoped. Despite his decent six innings in two games for the Dominican Republic, the Mets refused to re-sign him. Too much money for an arm with so much wear and tear.
At the home opener at Citi Field Monday night, the atmosphere was tentative. For so much anticipation over the new ballpark, fans were surprisingly hushed during the first five innings. The game got off to an inauspicious start when Mike Pelfrey gave up a solo home run off his third pitch, and then turned bizarre when he mysteriously fell to the mound. A stray cat darted onto the warning track behind home plate, inexplicably, but not for the first time in Mets history.
Fans were distracted by their surroundings, and did not seem at ease in their new home, until David Wright's three-run homer finally captured their attention. The rest may have been disappointing -- the Mets lost 6-5 to the Padres -- but at least there was the familiar sound of some cheering and lots of heckling.
Mets fans are understandably cautious this early in the season, and grab onto any indication of what to expect from an unpredictable team. Is Oliver Perez's weight symbolic of his attitude after signing a fat three-year, $36 million contract? Will John Maine be the pitcher we remember from before his shoulder injury last year? Is this the year Mike Pelfrey matures? Liván Hernández is a solid fifth, because he can throw a lot of innings with predictable efficiency. On paper, though, the starting rotation looks much the same as last year, minus Pedro, and may rely too heavily on middle relief.
As for the park, conceptually it is an absolute improvement, reminiscent of Ebbets Field, with stands like the old Polo Grounds. The open-air concourse allows for good views of the field, and is much less claustrophobic than Shea. The beer lines are slower because they insist on pouring it for you, but the only place you'll find a quicker ladies room is at a Rush concert -- I know from experience.
A lot of the controversy surrounding Citi Field's design came from the reduction of cheap upper-deck seats, and the addition of more luxury boxes. Even though there were often thousands of unsold tickets per game at Shea, the new design could end up backfiring. With the Mets behind one run Monday night, the pricey seats behind home plate cleared out early, leaving the dedicated fans on the periphery.
I was skeptical when I heard that the Mets organization had jumped on the rarefied-food bandwagon, offering pricey shrimp po' boys, sushi and lobster rolls by a celebrity chef. It was kind of cute to have a sushi roll named after Ichiro Suzuki at Safeco Field, when the Mariners set up camp there in 1999, and you might expect Maryland crab cakes at Camden Yards, but honestly -- fish at a baseball game? The Mets don't even have a single Japanese player on their roster, and New York is known for its hot dogs. Period.
The beauty of old parks like Wrigley Field is that you only get a few choices: beer (regular or light), hot dogs (the normal-sized ones) and pretzels wrapped in waxed paper. If you want more options, Wrigleyville is right outside, but it's understood that there is no room inside the ballpark for culinary pretense. The good news is that the fancy food court in Queens is situated behind center field, with benches overlooking the game at no extra cost.
It will be a while before fans take ownership of Citi Field, because you can't manufacture nostalgia. A few photos from 1986 or more recent memorabilia might have expedited making fans feel at home. We don't need to forget everything that happened in the old park; Mets fans are proud to be long-suffering.
"I have good memories, especially of the clubhouse, but there are a lot of bad memories in the last couple years," said Mets third baseman David Wright about Shea. "Hopefully Citi Field will be an upgrade -- a new beginning."
There are reasons for fans to be optimistic; along with a new stadium came an improved bullpen, the return of Ryan Church and excitement about younger players like Daniel Murphy. The biggest problem last year was late-inning relief, and the organization is still paying for its own toxic asset in that department. Hopefully this year's righty-dominant bullpen, with Pedro Feliciano as the only lefty, will prove it is better to have good righties than OK lefties. (Injured lefty closer Billy Wagner started throwing Tuesday, and he could be an interesting seventh-inning option).
This is not the first time a large structure stands as a reminder of a more prosperous time. The Empire State Building opened at the beginning of the Great Depression and the World Trade Center was completed just before the country slipped into a recession. Logically, large-scale, expensive developments come at the apex of an economic boom.
Some would argue that part of the problem with the market now is that we are facing a crisis of confidence, and how to overcome that remains elusive. For Mets fans, whether the new park symbolizes a fresh start won't be clear until October, and its deeper significance won't be apparent for the next 40 years. Let's hope Citi Field is just the right shot in the arm to put the word "collapse" behind us.
Julia Stiles is an actress and a Mets fan living in New York. She blogs at www.juliastilesblog.com. |
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