How would you like to be told before your 40th birthday that you’re too noisy and in desperate need of a face lift?
Shea Stadium, born in 1964, has been ripped during the Subway Series more than rush-hour traffic, Roger Clemens and 8:30 p.m. starts.
Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was so dismayed by the sparse visitors clubhouse that he ordered club officials to transport a truckload of furniture from their home clubhouse at Yankee Stadium.
The team brought in two training tables, more than a dozen cushioned high-back chairs and a black leather couch.
Can you imagine his reaction when he was informed Wednesday night that a pipe had burst, flooding the clubhouse and causing untold damage to his beloved couch?
“I don’t want to comment,” Steinbrenner said.
But he was far from the only one who dissed Shea Stadium.
Free-agent-to-be Alex Rodriguez, who attended Wednesday night’s game, mentioned to his agent, Scott Boras, that Shea was a little outdated “in terms of its amenities.”
That was actually a compliment. It assumed Shea had amenities.
Hours before Rodriguez’s remark, Mets co-owner Nelson Doubleday spoke of his desire to renovate the place.
Why stop there? The team’s other owner, Fred Wilpon, wants the Mets to move into a new, 45,000-seat ballpark with a retractable roof.
The facility would be built in an existing parking lot beyond left field.
Doubleday opposes that plan, estimating the cost of a new ballpark at $1 billion, give or take a few nacho stands.
Whereas Yankee Stadium was built by Ruth, Shea was built in swampland next to several highways and an airport.
The ballpark’s distinguishing characteristic is noise–both from planes leaving LaGuardia and the stadium’s sound system.
Yankees right-fielder Paul O’Neill said the noise was unbearable.
“I like rock concerts,” O’Neill said. “So when I say it’s loud, it’s loud.”
