Sunday, April 04, 2010

VISITING THE METS HALL OF FAME AT CITI FIELD.

Mets fans finally have something to be proud of with the new Mets Hall of Fame in Citi Field.

I know this is probably hard to believe, but the new the Hall of Fame is a professional, impressive tribute to our team and our history.  Yes, it is a day late and a dollar short. Yes, it should have been there from the minute Citi Field opened. Yes, the only reason we have it is because the Mets didn’t make it to the playoffs in 2009 and the Wilpons didn’t realize how much backlash they were going to get against their Temple of Flatbush.

None of that matters at the moment because they did us proud with the Hall of Fame. (And not just the HOF, the other touches throughout the rest of the ballpark, which I cover in a separate piece.) Yes, they brought in experts from Cooperstown to get this place put together for them. I don’t really care, because the new Hall of Fame is absolutely fantastic.

Finally, EVERYBODY can stand next to the World Series trophies and get their pictures taken. You don’t have to have a ticket to the Diamond Club, you don’t have to lie to the usher at the door and tell them you want to buy something in the Diamond Club store (my favorite way to get into that lobby back at Shea). They are standing there in plexiglass columns and you can get right up next to them and stare at your reflection in the brass. You can stand your son or daughter alongside and take some proud photos. I wonder how many people have never ever had the chance to see these trophies before? Well, now they can.

The presentation is spectacular. It is not half-assed. It is genuinely Cooperstown-level. It isn’t huge, but it is spacious and it has dignity and grandeur. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but I walked through the exhibits and felt like they finally, finally got something right. The ball that rolled through Bill Buckner’s legs. The original Mr. Met costume. Mrs. Payson’s hat. Jesse’s glove. The jersey Endy was wearing when he made The Catch. Keith Hernandez’ Golden Glove trophy (well, one of them). Tom Seaver’s Cy Young award (well, one of them). Scouting notes on players. Coaching notes. Jerseys. Gloves. Bats. Balls. The Polo Grounds and Shea. The wall of plaques. People can stand and learn. They can stand and remember.

There is not as much there as I would like, but there was more there than I expected.

There is video running all over the place, so you can stand and watch highlights from every season. I didn’t get to spend a lot of time inside, but when I turned my head, I saw that familiar catch - and then I saw what I didn’t get to see, which was all of the different camera angles on it. I never saw Endy’s reaction, I never saw the ball coming in to the infield from the outfield vantage point - I never watched that game after it happened (for obvious reasons) and I was there when it did. I am not as lucky as most of you to be able to talk about where you were when you saw the other highlight reels in the Hall of Fame, but I am sure you will have your own moment like that.

All of that is the reason places like this exist. All of that is the reason we should have always had a Hall of Fame.

I don’t want to get all ‘people will come’ on you but all I could think was: people will come to visit Citi Field and now they can see the Mets’ history. They will be able to walk into this room and see why we love our team.  We finally have a place to commemorate the good, to stand and remember, to bring the next generation and explain.

We will never make this ownership truly understand why the team’s history is so important to us, but we have made them give us what we should have had all along. That, in the end, is what truly matters.

*I do not know yet about non-game hours (or even game day hours) as the Mets have not yet made this available. There was also some rumbling about tours. I will of course add that information when it is available.

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Flickr set
Note: this is of course by no means an exhaustive photographic retrospective of the Hall of Fame - I will get that later on in the season. There was a lot to see today.