First Visit to CitiField

It was a long time overdue but on June 20th, I finally made my first trip to CitiField which in itself was long overdue.

Long overdue is a phrase that could easily be used to describe CitiField itself.

After years of suffering in Shea Stadium Mets fans are finally able to go watch our team in a beautiful ballpark with character.

The first key monument is the Jackie Robinson Rotunda just inside the stadium's entrance. But before that, you have to traverse the CitiField fanwalk a huge collectrion of bricks inscribed with personal messages. Because the bricks were't outrageously expensive, we decided to buy one for Papa Poop one Hanukah, so we located that before we went inside.

One disadvantage of the Fanwalk, there are so many bricks you'll never find the one you're looking for if you don't know exactly where it is. But since the Mets weren't greedy and donated most of the proceeds to charity, that's a good thing.



Inside the Jackie Robinson Rotunda (reminiscent of Ebbets Field), is a huge number 42 which is cool to be photographed in front of.



One of the great things about CitiField is the access, you can walk around the lower bowl of the stadium and see the field the whole time. The centerfield bridge is a great attraction during or even before the game.




On the other side of the bridge is the much ballyhooed food court area. To be honest, I was a little disappointed, the Shake Shack, Blue Smoke and even the Taqueria provide a nice variety to the traditional ballpark food, but at each place the variety was actually limited. Not wanting to eat ribs at a ballgame or wait half an hour for a $10 hamburger, we instead opted for the hdiden jewel of CitiField, Box Frites. A decent-sized box of delicious fries for a reasonably priced $6. But the best part was the dipping sauce, we had smoky bacon. And it actually tasted like bacon.



While I'm discussing food I should mention that a few rows in front of us someone was eating french fries and topped them with so much ketchup we felt we had to take a picture.



I also had the boneless buffalo bites from Nathan's which were good, but a little dry. Mrs. Poop enjoyed the sausage, the stands for which are located everywhere, but also said it was good, but not great.

When it came time to sit in our seats and watch the game, the one flaw of CitiField was revealed. In an effort to bring the fans closer to the game, there are some awful sight lines. Because the stands are so close, the farther back you go in each the more of the field you cannot see. From our seats halfway up the upper level, any deep fly ball to left field completely left our line of sight. I can see why people have been complaining about this, but there really is no way to fix it. It will likely just drive up demand and cost for lower, closer seats.



Despite that flaw, I am in love with CitiField and can't wait to go back and explore the other areas I missed (the old apple) and taste the foods I didn't try (Mama's though I don't like their exotic sandwiches). I can't wait to take Chase to his first game there, and to spend the next 30 - 40 years at least attending games there.

But right now I sort of feel like a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, beautiful stadium, horrible team.