1965 Shea Stadium Meets the Beatles

The Mets in 1965 in the 2nd season of Shea didnt do much on the field.

Shea though held a concert there during the summer . Just 4 guys from England that seem to make girls in American go crazy. My friends older brother was up in the upper deck and all he remember was the screaming the crowd made.

Well on this rainy sunday I have linked a couple of beatles videos off of youtube..

The first one is cool in the fact it shows Shea before the crowds settle in. Check it out here

The second is the song I feel fine which you can watch here

Shea opening day 1964 and All-Star game video

It is always nice when you find nuggets on the Web.

This is 1 min film of the opening game of Shea in 1964.

Also here is a film on 1964 All Star Game.

Click here for the opening game at Shea.

Click here for the 1964 All Star game at Shea. This is awesome it show all the scoring highlights including the 9th inning blast for the National League.

Mets final numbers first year at Shea 1964 record

The Mets finished 1964 losing 14 out of the last 17 games. They finished the year with a record of 53-109-1 , 40 games out of first place. In there 1 tie, which was against the Dodgers, earlier in the year in the 2 second game of a DH where they played 5 innnings and the score was 1-1. The game was never continued. It was not counted in there official team record.

The Mets in 1964 were 33-48-1 at home and 20-61 on the road. The only team they played .500 ball against were the Colt 45's . They won only 3 games against the Dodgers and won only 2 contests in the month of April.

The Mets attendance in 1964 the first year at Shea was 1,732,597. The Mets average 21,230 fans that first year

Charlie Smith led the team with 20 home runs and Al Jackson led the team with 11 wins.

Thanks to the baseball alamanac for some of the stats mentioned in this post.

Shea Stadium Hosts All-Star game July 7 1964

The Mets and Shea Stadium hosted the 1964 All Star which the National League won in the Bottom of the 9th inning in dramatic fashion.

The Mets lone representative was 2nd baseman Ron Hunt. Shea had over50,000 see the National League win the game with a walk off home run by the Phillies Johnny Callison with 2 on and 2 out and the final score was 7-4.

Ron Hunt did get 3 at bats and 1 hit. It was the only time Shea Stadium hosted the All Star Game in its 45 year history.

To read the play by play of the game click here

Mets 62 scorecard Still showing Shea Stadium being ready for 1963

Well I have to post this since I was just able to obtain a 1962 scorecard that shows Shea Stadium as the new home for the 1963 Mets. I love the fact that in the scorecard itself it boasts how Shea was going to house 85,000 once it became domed. The front cover has a great rendering of Shea showing the name Flushing Memorial Stadium. This obviously was changed prior to 1964.

The scorecard describes how the Mets will be hosting an Old Timers day with the Brooklyn Dodgers playing the Old New York Giants later in the summer.

There are mini bio’s of Gil Hodges, Jay Hook and the new Mets rookie sensation Jim Hickman.

The scorecard shows the Mets being blown out by the Milwaukee Braves 7-1 that night. What a shocker!

Mets play 23 innings against the Giants May 31st 1964

The Mets played there first extra inning game at Shea Stadium on May 31st 1964 against the San Fransico Giants. This was the 2nd game of a double header at Shea that Sunday. The first game lasted 2 hours and 30 minutes. The Mets had lost the first game by a score of 5-3.

The Mets tied the score in the second game when they scored 3 runs in the bottm of the 6th. Amazingly no one would score until the top of 23rd when the Giants scored 2 runs and won the game 8-6. The game took 7 hours and 23 minutes to complete.

Couple of Notes of Interest in this game. The Mets had a triple play by then Shortstop Roy McMillian. A young Gaylord Perry pitch many of the extra innings for the Giants.

Picture here is from Giant game in 1964 . Thanks to the people over at nyc parks.org . Notice the giant Mets logo has not been placed yet on the scoreboard.

Opening Day April 17th 1964

There were still painting parts of the stadium the morning of the first game at Shea. The stadium was ready to hold a capacity crowd. It was suppose to open in 1963. Construction issues pushed that back to 1964.

Well the that first day had some glitched. Just check out the misspell on the scoreboard in the pic to the right.

The Mets lost to the Pirates that day 4-3. The 50,000 fans that came to opening day were marveled by the new stadium. Of course they could not do anything about the lousy team that was on the field.

Also check out the scorecard for the first game.

Another Shea Construction Shot

Here is another pic taken in early April 1964 courtesy of the daily news. This picture is only days before the Mets play there first game on April 17th . Notice the blue and orange tiles are not on the sides of the stadium yet.

I read some where that people have been asking about them with the Mets auctioning away parts of the Stadium . From what I read they were destroyed after they were taken off the guide wires. Bummer. I think many fans wouldn't mind owning 1 of them .

Don't forget to check out the construction pic link . I have added a couple more. Including Eddie Kranepool taking a stroll in the partially completed park back in 1963.

Mets Box seats 1964 $215.00

Well I'm sure these days $215.00 gets you 1 ticket behind home plate for 1 game at Citi field.

Back in 1964 you could have a season full of 81 games for the same $215.00. Maybe money is tight and you cant swing that much money , you could spend 22.50 and get 9 weekend games . Funny I dont think we will see that offer in 2009. Check out the times of the games on the pic to the right. They include double header times. Back when they actually scheduled double headers.

Shea Dedication

A few of us were not around when Shea had its first ball game back in 1964. The first game played there was against the Pirates on April 17th. However on April 16th they had a dedication ceremony.

Shea Scoreboard In all its Glory

There is something about the original Mets scoreboard which I was always find amazing. It was so massive to see when you walk in to Shea for the first time. Back in the 60's I have seen pics and read that the scores for each league were actually reversed with the American league scores on the right side. The Astrodome when the Astros played there had there exploding scoreboard. It didn't matter the Shea scoreboard was great in its simplistic way.

Included with this post is a pic of the Scoreboard from the 60's . Notice the lights illuminating off the white background. I always like that massive board above the line score of the game. I hated when it was covered by the Bud sign in the early 80's when the Mets brought Diamond Vision to the park. Check out the construction link to see shots of the scoreboard as it was being constructed.

Shea Construction Pics

If you notice to the right of the post there is a link to a flickr page I created where I have some old pictures of Shea Stadium in varies phases of construction. Please check back every couple of days as I will add pics when I can. You will also find an artist rendition of Shea Stadium with a dome on it. Before the Mets opened in 1964 there was talk about Shea being a domed stadium but that was scraped before construction started most likely due to costs.

You will also find an article from 1960 from the sporting news with a model of Shea. The picture in this post was taken in 1963 where the main frame of Shea was 80% completed. If you can notice the scoreboard has not been mounted yet.

Shea Stadium Remembered.

Well with Shea hosting its final game, Shea is the process of being dismantled. Shea has been home to the Mets since 1964. The first baseball game I ever went to was at Shea was back in 1974 when the Mets played the Dodgers.

Even though Shea will ceist to exist, It will hold alot of memories for a lot of Met fans and I'm sure a few Jet fans. This site is dedicated to a stadium that will never be forgetton by thousands of New Yorkers and Met fans across the States .