Shea Stadium Photos

[nymdan]

Does anyone have any old pictures of Shea Stadium? As someone who was born in 1984 and never saw the stadium before it was painted blue and and had orange, blue, green, and red seats with a video board and outfield bleachers, it's facinating for me to see older pictures.

I'm sure lots of people have older pictures, but there seem to be very few of them that people scanned and put on the internet. These are pretty much the only ones I could find:

[Danielh41]

Those are great pics. The only games I attended at Shea Stadium were in 1992 and 1993, and it had already been painted blue by then. One of the games I went to there was Opening Day 1993. Since it was the very first game ever played by the expansion Colorado Rockies, I bought a couple of programs. Inside was a story about the 30th anniversary of Shea Stadium with several photos. Here's a shot of the cover of that program. You can see a shot of the cover of the program from Shea's first opening day...

[SNAP]

I was at the 1st ever game at Shea, April 17, 1964 and I remember distinctly that they were still painting the OF walls 2 hours before game time.........they lost(what's new back then) to the Pirates....4-3

[SNAP]

The 2nd picture of Shea looks to have been taken during the 1964 World's Fair.........you could walk on that path from Shea to the Fair. My cousin was a security cop at the time there while he was at St. John's University, which is a stone's throw from that pic. Somewhere at home I have a pic of me & him on that very path.........If I find it I'll try to post it.

[nymdan]

Wow, check out these two gems

Flushing Meadows Municipal Stadium Groundbreaking: http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/nywf...g-11-28-61.pdf

Shea Stadium Dedication:
http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/nywf...on-4-16-64.pdf

And here's two photos from worldsfairphotos.com

[Solair Wright]

Woah, great photos of Shea Stadium.

Trivia: Here is something interesting about Shea Stadium that most people probably never knew. Before 1992, this was one of the only ballparks (including Arlington Stadium) to not have either Coke or Pepsi as the pouring rights. As a matter of fact, Royal Crown Cola was the pourer of the Mets.

Then after 1991, Coca-Cola acquired pouring rights, then bought out of the contract after 1997, the Mets' only winning season under Coca-Cola as the pouring rights of their home stadium.

Does anyone have pictures of Willie Mays playing at Shea Stadium?

[Astros]

Here's that photo for those who couldn't see it earlier.

[Astros]

http://www.queenspix.com/coronaindex_7.html

Check these pages out! Small photos, but cool to look at and it appears you can order prints.

[nymdan]

Originally Posted by Astros

http://www.queenspix.com/coronaindex_7.html

Check these pages out! Small photos, but cool to look at and it appears you can order prints.

Nice... though it's a shame you can't see the full sized pictures. I can understand them charging a few dollars per picture, but $15 each???

[nymdan]

http://nywf64.com/sheasta02.shtml

[nymdan]

From Popular Science Magazine, April 1964






Mets vs. Giants, 1964

[sflnyc]

Some very good photos indeed. I know I have some photos myself buried somewhere that I could post. In the meantime, here are some pictures from http://www.nycsubway.org that show pictures from the 1960's and 1970's. Other than the 1964 photo with the brand new sky blue World's Fair Trains, all the others were of Subway "Fan Trips" using old cars long since retired from service. The first two are taken from the same vantage point some 29 years apart (1974 to 2003). Sorry about the small size, computer would only shrink pix from 250KB to 50KB, nothing in between. Also having trouble labeling the pictures so they are as follows: April 28, 1974 (sky blue with graffiti); August 23, 2003 (Shea in blue); May 10, 1964 (train doors open); and August 1, 1979 (parking lot).

[The Duke of Flatbush]

Someone who worked for the New York Titans told me the reason Shea had the field level on wheels was because Robert Moses though soccer was the sport of the future and never had football in mind when the stadium was designed.

[grandslamsingle]

Hi everybody,

My first post! I think it's fitting it should be about the ballpark I've been to the most.

I was probably about 5 or 6 when I first saw a game at Shea, so I remember the stadium with the tiles, before it was painted blue. I never remembered it looking as pristine as it did in those early photos from the World's Fair, by 1976 it had already become pretty gray.

If I recall correctly, the first attempt at painting the stadium blue was a disaster -- it quickly faded to purple and looked even more ridiculous than the tiles did.

Although the differences are subtle, check out the artist renderings from the groundbreaking ceremony. I like the way the roof is set in. Also, notice all the pretty houses and trees in the Iron Triangle!

The muted color scheme of the seating evokes Dodger Stadium and looks really classy -- a lot better than the orange/blue/green/red seats that are there now.

I won't miss Shea too much when it goes, but I think it at least started out as a pretty nice looking park.

[Candlestick60]

Great pics of classic shea I loved the Blue and orange steele plates that hung on the exterier of the park

[brooklyndodger14]

I remember about 1981-1982 as when they started to take down the panels. Since the cabling (which is all that remains) was practically invisible until you were very close to the ballpark, it was always fascinating to me how they "floated" in midair as you rode past on the 7-train.

When they did remove them, they were piled in random stacks in the RF ground-level concourse leading toward the Mets bullpen.

Here is a shot of the exterior from the 60's. (Scanned from the book, "Historical Ballparks" by John Pastier, c. 2006 Chartwell Books). For classic car enthusiasts, note the blur at the center of the photo.

Dennis
BrooklynDodger14

[metsfanbook]

When Shea was built, I remember that it corresponded very well to the aesthetics of the 1964-5 World's Fair. Those blue and orange panels, which look bizarre to us now, fit in with the focus on bright colors and unexpected shapes that was such an important part of early to mid '60s design. One of the best and most "futuristic" features of Shea stadium were the beautiful, white, soaring bus shelters that were like those of the rest of the fair. They're still there, though unused and crumbling, over by the bay, towards LaGuardia, near where people now have to park, if you walk west under the Expressway. They are pretty much all that is left of the original feeling of Shea as part of what the Fair called the "City of Tomorrow." Does anybody have pictures of those?

[Candlestick60]

Originally Posted by brooklyndodger14

Awsome pic those blue and orange steele plates gave early day shea its own uniuqe look C60

[Chef Bill]

Originally Posted by metsfanbook.com

When Shea was built, I remember that it corresponded very well to the aesthetics of the 1964-5 World's Fair. Those blue and orange panels, which look bizarre to us now, fit in with the focus on bright colors and unexpected shapes that was such an important part of early to mid '60s design. One of the best and most "futuristic" features of Shea stadium were the beautiful, white, soaring bus shelters that were like those of the rest of the fair. They're still there, though unused and crumbling, over by the bay, towards LaGuardia, near where people now have to park, if you walk west under the Expressway. They are pretty much all that is left of the original feeling of Shea as part of what the Fair called the "City of Tomorrow." Does anybody have pictures of those?

Check out http://www.nywf64.com/, an online guide to the 1964 - 1965 World's Fair. It includes this panoramic photo of the fair. Big Shea can be seen in the upper right portion.

[HoldenV8]

You know, even though I'm an Aussie who's never even been to any of the so-called 'Cookie Cutter" stadiums, let alone a MLB game (a situation I'm going to rectify one day), I often wonder what Shea would have been like had the circular stands been completed all around like Three Rivers or Busch? A 90,000 seat stadium which would have been perfect for both baseball and the NFL. Well, perfect I guess 30-odd years ago.

90,000 screaming Mets or Jets fans in a World Series match or an NFL Playoff game would have been awesome to see I think.

[PeteU]

The thing about ultra large stadiums is they are great for post-season play in creating an intimidating atmosphere. On the flip side, during the regular season they feel cavernous. Cleveland Municipal Stadium and Dolphins Stadium immediately come to mind.

Having been to Dolphins Stadium for both regular season and post season games, the difference between the two experiences is like night and day. Dolphins Stadium was insane during 2003, let me tell you.

[dkane739]

These are all some pretty cool pictures of Shea. I can never seem to find any good images of the stadium for football. Does anyone have any good pictures from a Jets game. Preferably with Broadway Joe or something. Even though I am a Patriots fan, I think the Jet's true home is in Queens.

[Chef Bill]

It is hard to find good pics of the Jets at Shea. Here are two that have been floating around the 'net for quite some time...

[Chef Bill]

Three more good ones found.

I think anyone who was there would agree that Shea Stadium was usually a very windy, cold, miserable place to watch football. You can see from the wide shot of the stadium that the majority of the seats were in the end zone, and it always seemed that most of the action was way down at the other end of the field!

Joe Namath on Knee and 1968 Yearbook are from current eBay listings.

[Chef Bill]

The Bronx Bombers also called Shea Stadium home in 1974 and 1975 during the renovation of Yankee Stadium. Shea is featured on the cover of the 1975 Yankee scorebook magazine.