Today, We All Become Transplanted Mets Fans

It was a tearful day last September when we left Shea for the last time.  It was torturous, all winter long, to see our home dismantled bit by bit.  It was a twist of the knife to see Citi in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.  And it was just plain surreal to see the videos of the old scoreboard being torn down and the last of Shea imploded.

 

Today, the surreal becomes real as we all become Transplanted Mets Fans.  We've moved.  And while it will take a long time for our house to feel like a home, we officially have a new permanent address starting tonight at 7-ish.  Sure, they already had those exhibition games, but since they didn't count in the standings we could watch the games on SNY and let our hearts fool us into thinking we were watching some weird road game.  The most startling difference were the colors.  The colors!  Gone is the backdrop of blue walls and orange seats, replaced by greens and reds - where are they playing anyway?  PetCo?  Fenway?  There will be no denying it after tonight, when the Mets will have a home record for 2009 without any games having been played at Shea.

 

I'll ride in on the 7 train, meet my buddy Tubby for a pregame tailgate and pour a little for our homie Mr Shea, go look for my brick, and settle in for the first home game of the post-Shea era.  I'll take plenty of photos for posterity and I'll even post a couple mobile ones too, but tonight is all about settling in and feeling what it's like to root for the Mets with a sell out crowd 13,000 people or so smaller than the last time I did so.  I'm very curious to see what it sounds like and feels like since I sorta already have an idea of what it looks like inside what must be the most photographed building ever.  We'll be seated behind the left field outfield wall, sorta where the old picnic area was at Shea.  That was the one place at Shea I never managed to sit, so it's a little ironic that we'll be in that spot in the ballpark tonight.  Hopefully we'll spot that GIANT apple popping out of the hat, er, I mean, concrete cylinder. 

 

Go Big Pelf!  Lets Go Mets!