Amazin’ crowd for Mets home opener

More than 56,000 fans filled Shea Stadium for the Mets home opener, making it the largest opening day crowd in the stadium’s history, and the team responded with a come-from-behind 11-5 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Fans came from all over the metropolitan area to attend the home opener, which was the second-to-last at Shea Stadium, with the Mets moving into their new stadium, Citi Field, for the beginning of the 2009 season.
With construction taking place on the new stadium, which is visible behind Shea’s center field fence, nearly 2,100 fewer parking spaces than normal were available to accommodate the record crowd.
Although there was some clamoring from fans that had to wait a long time to find a parking spot or had to park far away from the stadium, other fans took a different approach.
“We really didn’t have any problem getting here,” said Augie Maggiore, who drove to the game with his friends from Lodi, NJ and got to the ballpark at 10:30 a.m. for a 1:10 p.m. first pitch.
Maggiore said he and his friends, who work as part of the event staff at Giants Stadium, knew that leaving extra early was the right decision. “The people were here early enjoying the day.”
Other fans came from even further than Lodi to take in the home opener.
Kevin Gartley drove his son and friend from Wilkes Barre, PA the morning of the home opener, and thanks to a pre-paid parking pass, found a spot inside the stadium lot a little more than an hour before the first pitch.
However, Gartley knows that when he makes his next trip to Shea without the parking pass, it’s going to be a bigger challenge finding a spot.
“It looks like parking is going to be a nightmare for the next two years,” he said.
Meanwhile Mets officials are telling fans to utilize public transportation whenever possible making their way to Shea during the season.
Flushing resident Pat McKiernan, 43, who attended his first Mets home opener at Shea with his grandfather in 1963 and has been coming every year since then, heeded the advice and drove to the Main Street Flushing subway station and rode the No. 7 train to the game.
“It’s a lot easier and a lot better than parking,” McKiernan said.