You walk into the main entrance of the New York Mets’ Citi Field and into the Rotunda.
There’s an elaborate tribute to Jackie Robinson, the first to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Many considered these Metropolitans to be a replacement for his Brooklyn Dodgers, who’d left for Los Angeles, when they were born as an expansion team in 1962.
The Mets leaped into a Dodgers void.
And so it’s appropriate that the doors to the Mets Museum are under the tribute to Jackie Robinson.
Inside that big room, Mets fans can relive memories.
Born in 1962.
I don’t recall the very beginning of this franchise, coming into this world in Brooklyn in just five years prior to the Mets’ painful birth.
Polo Grounds, sorry.
So I can relate to the two seasons in the Polo Grounds, where the New York Giants played before they joined the Dodgers as an ex by moving to to San Francisco by oral history only.
But I attended hundreds of games with family and friends at Shea Stadium, including that first season in 1964 and right until I moved to Maryland as a college student in 1977 and become enchanted with Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium but never gave up my primary love to the Mets. And Saturday was my second time, with my dear wife Karen, at the newer Citi Field.
I’m the Mr. Met on the right.
I consider myself a lifelong Mets fan.
Click on any gallery photo for a description. Click and hold on the right photo for an enlarged slide show.
And I walked around and thought of our two World Series titles, in 1969 and 1986.
The years went by one by one, slowly and quickly, as I walked past plaques and uniforms and bats and balls.
Yesterday: Friends
Tomorrow: Rain, really
Thursday: Interesting field
What’s your favorite museum, and why? What would you put in a sports museum? What’s your favorite photo, and why?
Mark Bialczak 
Really? You don’t know my favorite photos? It’s YOU and the other Mr. Met! 😀
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That is a good one, Rachel. In the Mark Hall of Fame, I admit. ❤
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I’ve never been to Citi Field. But I went to Shea. And I’ve never been to the new Yankee Stadium. I’ve heard it’s awful. More like a shopping mall than a ballpark. Hyper-expensive. Cold, impersonal architecture. None of the warmth of Camden Yards or Fenway Park. Exactly what Yankee fans deserve.
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Any major-league park is expensive. That’s just a given these days, Mark. MDW Karen and I chose for lunch: me, steak sandwich smothered in cheese and sauteed onions with fries; she, steak and cheese over waffle fries; both, souvenir cup beer. Total cost: $39. I totally dug my sandwich. Karen said her waffle fries were cold.
We’ve gone to a Mets game at the new Yankees Stadium. I wasn’t feeling the aura, but figured my Mets devotion at a regular season Subway Series game was playing into it.
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Cool museum Mark.
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Not bad for inside a ballpark, I figure, Paul.
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I liked this whole post, Mark. Other than fantastic golf greens, I could see you being here in baseball “heaven!”
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It was one of my element in a past life, yes, Robin. 🙂 You caught that.
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I like that picture of you with the round headed fella. 🙂
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That’s what Mr. Met’s family and friends said to him, too, MBC!
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Well, they are lucky to have you in their midst. 😉
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They still have a little catching up to do with the Yankees, though. 🙂
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Yes, Austin, I am aware of this fact. 😦
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i know it’s really a split between the yankees fans and mets fans, and it seems people are extremely loyal to whichever team it is for them. what a cool museum, a fan’s dream i’m sure. my fav museum so far has been the spy museum, in d.c., because i’ve always been fascinated by spies, crime, espionage, etc. i would love to see the hockey hall of fame one day though. )
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When MDW Karen and I did our April DC Getaway, Beth, there was a line around the block at the Spy Museum every day. It was across the street from the hotel, and I always walked by and said hmmmmmmmmm. And, yes, I would LOVE to take a Zamboni ride to the hockey hall of fame one day as well!
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I love visiting ball parks when I travel.It’s sort of insightful to see what people do with the teams they claim to love.
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MDW Karen and I make it a point to do ballparks in our travels, too, Jay. The local customs are illuminating, as you say.
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Loved the ’69 Metsies …. not so the ’86 bunch!
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Yes, that was a very rough October for Red Sox fans, my friend.
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I lie the picture of you with Mr. Mets!!! My favorite museum is probably the Natural History Museum in Chicago. Spent many happy hours there as a child (except downstairs in the Mummy room – they kind of freaked me out).
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I loved the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan as well, S.D. Mummies, not so much! 😉
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I like the Louvre too, but was not so thrilled with the co-ed bathrooms. Still don’t understand what the fascination is with the Mona Lisa.
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The little smile didn’t do it for you, S.D.? Mona, not in the co-ed bathroom, that is.
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Ha-ha – that’s a funny one – and so early in the morning!!!!!
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Are most of the people you know in Syracuse Mets or Yankees fans? When I was growing up in CNY, there were as many fans of other teams among my friends as there were fans of the NYC teams. (Pirates for me.)
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Most of my friends are Yankees fans, Scott. I am an outlier. I do not lie low, though. Big surprise, huh? There are pockets of other-fandoms, too. Blue Jays from the years that the Chiefs were their affiliate, for instance. Tigers, too, from way back. Pirates are a good one, for you. Interesting.
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Not trying to be a nit picker,but. Even if the Mets were a replacement for the Dodgers how can they “lay claim” to Jackie Robinson? Confused in Indiana.
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They’re definitely not laying claim to Mr. Robinson, Benson. All of the pictures say Brooklyn Dodgers. But the memories should be displayed at some New York stadium, and the National League one is appropriate, don’t you agree?
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Well in that light,yes. I mis-understood your copy. Mea Culpa
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