By Jospeh Staszewski
Citi Field was the center of the baseball world last weekend and unfortunately the site of a World Series championship celebration that did not belong to the Mets.
For three nights crowds of nearly 45,000 descended on Flushing for the first World Series games in the stadium’s history only to see the Kansas City Royals win two of the three games and clinch their first title since 1985, ending the Mets season and what was a festive and star-studded weekend.
The Mets appeared primed to put the series back to Kansas City, but after eight stellar innings Matt Harvey and Jeurys Familia could not hold a two-run lead in the ninth inning of Game 5. The Royals eventually scored five times in the 12th to win 7-2 and close out the Series four games to one. It left Mets fans dealing with seeing the team’s flaws exposed and wondering what could have been.
“Everything we knew about this team came true in this series,” said Howard Beach native Craig Levine, who sat in left field for Game 4.
“Poor fielding, slump prone hitting and a shoddy bullpen. Also, Terry is very prone to mishandling this bullpen,” he said about Mets Manager Terry Collins. “It was just a matter of time before it caught up to us.”
It was a roller-coaster weekend of emotions for fans beginning with the high of Billie Joel singing the National Anthem Friday night and former Mets star Mike Piazza throwing out the first pitch. “It was electric,” said Woodside resident Laurie Hartwig, who attended Game 3 and 5. “I grew up watching Mike Piazza play for the Mets. In fact, my dad took me to his first game at Shea on a rainy day many years ago. To see him at Citi Field throwing out the first pitch in the World Series brought back many good memories of my childhood.”
The Mets’ only win of the series came in Game 3 as Captain David Wright blasted a two-run shot in the first inning for the first World Series home run ever at Citi Field. A two-run dinger from Curtis Granderson and strong pitching from Noah Syndergaard got the Mets on the board with a 9-3 victory with stars like Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Kevin James and Jim Breuer looking on.
“I’ve never experienced atmosphere like that,” Hartwig said. “Typically you wouldn’t see random strangers in New York grabbing and hugging each other, but at the World Series anything goes. I saw a grown man cry when Grandy hit the homerun.”
Fans tried to keep the party atmosphere going in the ballpark on Halloween for Game 4, which saw Ray Liota, Matt Dillon and Dennis Miller in attendance. The Mets faithful came dressed as Santa Claus and as Thor and the Dark Knight sporting Syndergaard and Matt Harvey jerseys.
Others took it a little further. One fan came dressed as former wrestler Macho Man Randy Savage in full orange and blue with “Mets Madness” on his sparkling rhinestone cape, while another was Rowdy Roddy Piper reciting his pep talk for the 1986 Mets.
“The atmosphere was awesome,” said Middle Village native Kevin Kulikowski, who sat in the 7 Line section for Game 4. “You couldn’t go 10 feet in the concourse without somebody starting a Let’s Go Mets chant.” Everyone was buying into it.”
Outside of two homer runs from rookie Michael Conforto, the most frightening sights were on the field for the Mets. Yoenis Cespedes missed played a ball for the second time in centerfield and later ended the game by being doubled up at first base. An eight-inning error by NLCS star Daniel Murphy opened the door for three runs that gave the Royals the lead for good in a 5-3 victory. A sense of anger and disbelief could be felt in the stadium.
“When that eighth inning played out, it was from excitement and it was within reach to all of a sudden you could hear a pin drop in my section,” Kulikowski said. “The tone of the entire stadium was completely different. The fans seemed defeated in that moment.”
While the Royals took home the crown, their fans didn’t take over Citi Field. Just a small second of blue could be seen in the stands amid the sea of loyal Amazin’s followers turned out to support the home team.
Ticket prices did, however, drop considerably for Game 5 after the Mets fell behind 3-1. Standing room only went from close to $600 a pop to as little as $250 before the first pitch.
Dario Hernandez drove down from Rhode Island to experience the World Series fever and watch Game 4 from a packed McFadden’s and attend Game 5. As a fan it was tough to see others lose faith with the price drop, but his wallet certainly wasn’t complaining.
“I mean I would’ve paid between $800 to $1,000 if I had to be there tonight, but the fact that I don’t have to is great,” he said.
He and others in attendance saw an amazing season come to a close short of the ultimate goal. It wasn’t the end they envisioned, but don’t see this as the end for the Mets.
“We are going to be here again,” Kulikowski said. “We are a good young team. This is the first of many, hopefully.”
