If last week’s send off to Yankee Stadium was a bang, yesterday’s Shea Stadium shut down was more of a whimper. Not only did the Mets falter in the last game of the season to catch a playoff break for the second season in a row, but they weren’t endearing themselves to their fans, either. One in particular was New York Times reporter Corey Kilgannon, who was interviewing fans from the bowels of the stadium while trying to write a proper send off to the stadium that housed so many memories for him growing up. Fans like Frank Messina, the “Mets Poet,” who got a nice book advance for his book with poems such as…

YEAH! DAVID WRIGHT DROVE IN REYES WITH A LONG SACRIFICE FLY TO CENTER! THAT GIVES WRIGHT 124 R.B.I.’S THIS SEASON, TYING HIM WITH MIKE PIAZZA FOR HAVING THE MOST R.B.I.’S IN ONE SEASON AS A MET! LET’S GO METS!
LET’S GO METS!

Unfortunately, the Mets brass didn’t want him talking to fans and kicked him out… and after reading that “poetry,” they might have done him a favor.

My time with [the fans] was cut short by a security guard, who called other security guards who surrounded me and took my Mets press pass away for speaking to people in the stands, which they said was a no-no. They walked me to an exit and told me to wait while they called the Mets’ public relations office. They came back and told me the spokesman said that interviews with fans or employees were off limits.

Employees we get, but fans? We don’t know about you, but we’d rather read about crazy fan rants from the New York Times than on the internet, where they usually end up. The editing is so much better and every third word isn’t a take off on “motherfucker.”

Giving Rhyme and Reason to Shea Stadium’s Last Days [NY Times]
Image [AM New York]