Several reminders of Shea Stadium are incorporated into Citi Field, with a bronze plaque due to be installed at the former home-plate site.
Shea Stadium is now gone, but the former home of the New York Mets will be remembered in various ways by the team at Citi Field.
The most obvious symbol of the Shea Stadium is the Big Apple, the nine-foot-high fiberglass apple installed past right field. The apple opens when the Mets hit a home run. True, it’s a little cheesy — to the point where the Mets originally planned on omitting it from Citi Field — but for many Mets fans it’s the ultimate symbol of Shea Stadium.
Also installed at Citi Field: the old New York City skyline from the Shea Stadium scoreboard.
The final reminders of Shea Stadium will come in the Citi Field parking lot, at the actual Shea Stadium site: the team will place bronze plaques at home plate, the bases and the pitchers mound. The plaques will commemorate team greats — Tom Seaver, Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter — and big events in team history. The parking lot will be laid out to place home pate, second-base and the pitchers mound markers in traffic lanes.