Dedication Plaques - Volume 1 - Shea Stadium

One thing I always try to find whenever I visit a ballpark is the park's dedication plaque. Most ballparks have them, but they're sometimes difficult to find.

Shea Stadium's plaque was located near the Gate E ticket window. Like all dedication plaques, Shea's shows its full proper name (William A. Shea Municipal Stadium). In addition, the plaque highlights the civic leaders of the time starting with the NYC mayor, comptroller, etc. Also listed was Robert Moses. While he played a large role in the Dodgers and Giants leaving New York in 1957, he was also the main proponent of the placement a ballpark in Queens. The site was actually offered to the Dodgers, but they declined and moved to Los Angeles.

Also listed on the plaque is Shea Stadium's Engineer/Architect Praeger-Kavanagh-Waterbury. PKG was involved in the design of other ballparks such as Dodger Stadium and the 1970's renovation of Yankee Stadium.

Finally, the most important item listed on the plaque is the year of dedication, 1964. These plaques are often overlooked, but they're something I always look for when visiting a park for the first time.

Shea's Last Day

Today marks one year since the last sections of Shea Stadium were demolished. The final part of the demolition was captured in the photos above by Gary Dunaier. You can see more photos from February 18, 2009 on StadiumPage.com. Also, be sure to check out Gary's countless volumes of New York ballpark photos at Flickr.

Stadium Remains - Part Two - Shea Stadium

By popular demand, here is a profile of Shea Stadium's "remains". As Citi Field was built in Shea Stadium's parking lot, Shea Stadium's remains are in Citi's parking lot. In the picture above, taken from the last row of Citi Field's Promenade, you can see the plate, all three bases and the pitcher's mound. Home plate is at the top. The parking lot was set up quite well and no cars park directly over any of the markers. They're quite easy to find and you can see dozens of fans checking them out and posing for pictures before every game. The markers are quite nice, made what seems to be a solid brass material. Each has one of the neon figures that used to adorn the bright blue Shea facade.



Here is home plate. This is the exact spot where Ray Knight triumphantly leapt onto to score the winning run in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.



Here is the marker for the pitcher's mound. Yes, the official term in the baseball rulebook is "pitcher's plate".



Just to the south is the first base marker.



Ninety feet away is the marker for second base.



And finally, here's third base.

This is the second of an ongoing series. You can see these and thousands of other photos of current and former ballparks at StadiumPage.com.