Salisbury: Fond farewell to a dump

The Flushing mechanism! Siphon jets overhead! Shea, It’s a major dump!

While Yankee Stadium is often referred to as a baseball cathedral, Shea Stadium is often called a dump. Yankee Stadium is baseball’s big stage. Shea Stadium is shaped like a toilet seat. Yankee Stadium is the House That Ruth Built, so dubbed by Philadelphia-born writer Fred Lieb. Shea Stadium is the house that some construction company built.

Despite its warts, the unsightly chop shops that used to be visible before new Citi Field began to rise beyond the center-field wall, and the annoying cacophony of jet engines from nearby LaGuardia Airport that interrupted at-bats, Shea does have some history. It hosted four World Series. In 1965, it contributed to the cause of Beatlemania in the United States. Shea Stadium opened in 1964. The Mets have played more games there than the Brooklyn Dodgers played in beloved Ebbets Field.

...Dallas Green managed both New York teams in both of New York’s soon-to-be-replaced ballparks. He says it’s time for run-down Shea Stadium to go, but before it does, the Phillies need to have a good weekend there.

“It better be the best last trip they ever have there,” Green said.