Shea Stadium 2011 Calendar (Calendars of America) (Historic Images (Arcadia Publishing))

With all that has been written on the "House that Ruth Built" historian Jason Antos offers a timely chronicle on the rise of New York's "other", more humble, ballpark Shea Stadium. A resident from Whitestone, Antos combines love of local history and passion for Mets baseball to offer a nostalgic account of Flushing's cherished sporting venue. He segues into the evolution of the franchise itself, a team once seen as "lovable losers" (a term he coined) to undisputed World Champions. What's in store here is a treat for both history buffs and baseball fans of all stripes.

Queens is still a place where the concept of local pride matters a great deal to its inhabitants. Despite that Shea was built more with suburbanites and their automobiles in mind, local residents still embrace it as their very own. Like New York's other great stadiums, Shea's special brand of baseball magic goes a long way to rally its home borough. This is one of the impressions you are left with after...Read more

Now that Shea is in the process of being demolished, this book serves as a living homage to what will soon just be a memory. And the photos are wonderful, chronicling the entire history of Shea, from the groundbreaking in the early 60s right up to the present. It's not about the Mets per se--there's very little about the players and teams' history--it's a love letter to the ballpark. My only reservation is that all the photos are b/w; I would have appreciated some color photos mixed in so we can get a complete feel for the blue and orange tiles, and the neon sculptures that decorated Shea in its later years. But aside from that, this really is a must-have for anyone who has fond memories of "The Big Shea." It is indeed a "Happy Recap."

I thumbed through this book in a bookstore, riveted by the pictures. As a long-time Met fan, I have nearly every yearbook and many other books about the Mets. Yet, I saw many pictures of Shea I had never seen before, from its construction and earlier. I decided to buy the book, as it would become a great resource years from now when Shea is gone. By page 20 out of 126 though, I realized how poorly written and edited it is. An early picture of Gil Hodges calls him "Miracle Worker" but fails to directly credit him with managing the Mets to an improbable 1969 Series win...it oddly calls Ebbets Field "the most fabled ballpark in history"...its description of William Shea's effort to bring an NL team back to NYC is disjointed and hard to follow...and it sloppily refers to Marv Throneberry as "Thorneberry" four times. It also fails to mention that on its opening day in 1964, workers were still painting and many people left the game with paint on their clothes. Later on, it erroneously...Read more