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Citizens Bank Park, aka CBP, was one of the first parks to appear post-9/11. It marked, I think, the end of artificial turf in the National League until 2019, when Chase Field put on a rug. (Marlins was supposed to go synthetic this year also.) That was fun while it lasted, and certainly welcome, but CBP also represented a sort of shark jumping in the nu-stadium movement. The team lost patience with getting their hands on the right parcel downtown, so contrary to the Camden Yards generation of barks bringing baseball back to the cities, they remained on a multi-purpose sports/entertainment complex on the city's outskirts, so the faux-ness of the of bricks-and-nostalgia movement and the engineered quirkiness was becoming a little more garish and obvious. Not as garish as MLB's shaking down of cities to build these parks for them, but still.
Which isn't to say it didn't develop some real culture. The team recruited Jim Thome as their designated big shot superstar to open the park, and he hit his 400th homer there, but the team quickly developed it's own character — Lieberthal/Howard/Utley/Rollins/Burrell/Abreu became the core of a heck of a team. Jayson Werth and Shane Victorino and some outstanding-if-mercenary pitching followed, and the Phils brought home their second-ever championship right under our noses.
It made for some exciting times, with the Phils and their next-door neighbors in Flushing being good at the same time for a rare period in their shared history, but the Phils had the upper-hand more often than not, and even though Pedro Feliciano shut down Utley and Howard in the seven with men on seemingly night after night after night, that was one hell of a deep lineup the team had, and Charlie Manuel was imperturably fixed at the helm.
But man, what an obnoxious class of fan was produced by the toxic brew of a new park, a dominant team, a suburban address, and several visiting parks within driving distance for frontrunners to drunkenly infest.
It was the park where folks celebrated the killing of Osama. And they did some weird shit with the legacy of reliever Tug McGraw when he dies shortly before the park opened, first trying to appropriate "Ya' Gotta Believe" as a slogan, and then sending Tug's offspring, country singer Tim McGraw to the mound to sprinkle his father's ashes before a World Series Game. Weird, right?
And seriously, the 21st century Phils have provided a lot of drama, but too much of it almost exactly as authentic as a contemporary country singer with a fan base in the exurbs of northern post-industrial cities trying to climb out of their decline.
So, yeah, Met memories may involve some conflict. Despite the Mets going an encouraging 81-68 in their time at the buliding (thank you, Feliciano) as the bullpen catchers scarfed down unimaginable amounts of cheesesteaks, the team benefiting from the Mets' breakdowns in 2007 and 2008, the 2008 championship, and their bitter failure to do it again WHEN IT COUNTED against the Yankees in 2009 makes the CBP era kind of feel like the Mets have been playing in a sandbox with a big dump in it.
My most enduring memory may be the team's first visit when a hard-to-love 2004 Mets team swept their first series in the park, with all games won in dramatic late-inning fashion, two in extra-innings. Relievers appearing in that series for the Mets included Looper/Botallico/Weathers/ Stanton/Wheeler/Orber Moreno. That's a pack of guys who more or less had some effective times, and are remembered fondly by more-or-less zero Mets fans.
My favorite besides that was a loss. On September 24, 2016, the Mets started Sean Gilmartin, husband of the current White House press secretary, and quickly fell behind by five. But after lifting Gilly in the first and letting Rafael Montero double the deficit to 10-0, they emptied the bench, brought in the greeenest of the green — the sort of bench clearing that you can only pull off in late September. Into the lineup came T.J. Rivera and Ty Kelly and Gavin Cecchini and some kid named Brandon Nimmo, and holy shit, this B-team hit and hit and hit and hit their way back into it.
I felt like a little smarter managing by Terry and they might of pulled it out, but nonethless, the JV squad brought the game within 10-8, got the tying run on in the the ninth, and left me with the impression that they didn't lose so much as have the game stopped before they could win. Kudos to those guys, far more loved than the 2004 Mets bullpen.
Concerts at the place have included Jimmy Buffet, Bon Jovi, The Eagles, The Dixie Chixx, Keith Urban, Billy Joel/Elton John, and ... man, if this doesn't sound like the most tired pack of exurban baby boomer drunken-whitey-with-a-credit-card acts, I don't know what. Paul McCartney, The Who, and The Police only go a very short bit toward redeeming the venue's musical legacy, but whatevs.
What's your CBP memory from Metly history?
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