A good tour is only as good as its leader.
It should be someone who knows their way around the places you visit, but still gives a sense that they are just another guest.
Zac does that well. I first met Zac when he was hosting tours with Diamond Baseball Tours in 2022. After finishing that tour, it was a great time and a great way to see the country and chase ballparks, so I knew I’d look to do another one the following season.
Unfortunately, due to high demand, a lot of the tours had filled up very quickly. It’s not unheard of for us chasers to start planning a year in advance. Schedule release day, which is usually in July or August, is like our Christmas, Easter, and National Hug Your Postman Day all rolled into one.
Anyway, after looking at the schedule, the tours I were interested in with Diamond and Jay Buckley Tours had filled. Luckily, I found out Zac had started his own touring company, Coast 2 Coast Sports Tours, and was offering an East Coast trip. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Zac, who lives in the Nashville area, also does tours for hockey arenas as well as some football stadiums. He features a lot of Pittsburgh Steelers and Atlanta Braves tours.
During the baseball tours, you’ll often see him in a Braves’ jersey. He often does at least one tour with his daughter, Taylor, who has now been to 17 stadiums.
The tours feature a lot of camaraderie between fellow baseball fans, which is good since you are confined to a comfortable luxury bus for up to four hours per day with one another while you travel to the next stop. But there are baseball movies to watch and just general conversation to help pass the time.
And it’s not all just baseball. Zac and other tour groups add some historical or cultural sightseeing as well. Some past trips have included spending time at Abraham Lincoln’s Home in Springfield, IL, as well as time on the National Mall in Washington, DC, and historical sites in Philadelphia.
There are also score contests for each game, with a baseball-type prize for the winner.
As we walked up to our next stop, Citi Field, in Queens, NY, it appeared huge in comparison to Boston’s Fenway Park. But even though, it appeared massive, the brick façade makes it feel more appealing. It’s also within shouting distance of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center – site of next month’s U.S. Open tennis championships.
Citi Field was built as a replacement to Shea Stadium, which was literally right next door. It also brings back days of yore with the iconic home plate entrance, very similar to Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field. That itself is somewhat ironic, because New York officials tried to get the Brooklyn Dodgers to build a new stadium where Citi Field sits now, but the Dodgers had none of it and moved west to Los Angeles.
The Mets have had just two homes in their history, Shea Stadium and Citi Field. From 1964 to 2009, they played in Shea, which lacked a sense of intimacy that is found at Citi. Shea was either loved and hated, depending who you asked.
The first thing you notice after driving up or getting off the No. 7 train is the exterior facade, which is made to look like Ebbets Field.
After that, the most striking feature is the Jackie Robinson Rotunda at the main entrance. The inside is just as striking as the outside. Nine ideals associated with Jackie Robinson are engraved on the floor and flat panel TVs play highlights of Robinson’s career. Escalators and grand staircases take fans to their seats.
There is still a homage to Shea inside the stadium. There is the Shea Bridge out in center field. Thousands of fans cross the bridge each game as they traverse the stadium. It can also be a great meeting place.
The Jackie Robinson Rotunda and the Shea Bridge are two of the unique features at Citi Field.
“Hey, Bill, meet me at the Shea Bridge and I’ll buy you a beer!”
As you cross the bridge, there are a lot of restaurants and food stands, along with a kids play area and wiffle ball field. Before the game, Mr. and Mrs. Met can usually be found there for photo opportunities.
You can also see part of the old Shea Stadium scoreboard, which shows the city skyline with the Mets’ logo. It is above a restaurant area in the center field food court area.
Something unique to Citi (and Shea, for that matter) that you may not see (or hear) at other ballparks is jetliners taking off and landing at LaGuardia Airport just beyond the stadium. For many years, the noise from the airport would be so loud that players would call time during a takeoff or landing. TV and radio broadcasts were also barely audible.
Eventually, flight paths were reworked, making it a quieter area to play and watch a game.
A cool celebration is the home run apple, which started at Shea in 1980 and continued at Citi Field. The original apple was first installed at Citi Field’s bullpen gate, but moved to outside the Robinson Rotunda in 2010. It was next to a giant Tom Seaver statue. Seaver, who died in 2020, spent 11 seasons with the Mets and has his number retired and inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame. The current home run apple rises from behind the wall every time a Mets player hits a dinger.
Other amenities at Citi Field include:
- An enhanced outfield picnic area next to the area known as the “Taste of the City.” This is where the skyline from the old Shea Stadium scoreboard is found.
- The Mets Museum and Hall of Fame islocated just off the Robinson Rotunda. It is 3,700 square feet of special moments, including their two World Series titles in 1969 and 1986.
- And the stadium also features the largest scoreboard in Major League Baseball currently at 17,400 square feet. That’s three times the size of the old one. When you add in the secondary scoreboard in right field, you get an additional 4,100 square feet of display.
- With a seating capacity of 42,000, Citi Field has an intimacy that was not found at Shea Stadium. Nearly 42% of the seats are found in the lower deck. The main three tier grandstand runs from the right field foul pole to home plate, down to the left field foul pole and into left centerfield. Additional seating is located in right field.
- Over 50 luxury suites are found at the ballpark including ones behind home plate below the main concourse.
- In right field, the Pepsi Porch, that seats over 1,200 fans, can be found. This seating area, modeled after Detroit’s old Tiger Stadium, overhangs the playing field.
As a happy bonus, we also got to see our first live ballgame of the tour. The St. Louis Cardinals edged the Mets, 8-7. Cardinal third baseman Nolan Arenado hit his second home run of the game in the top of the ninth to secure the win.
Clockwise from upper left, a view of the current home run big apple, the Shea Stadium home run big apple, Citi Field is still close to flight plans for many airliners, a Shea Stadium relic sits atop the food court in Citi Field, and the scoreboard is the biggest in MLB.
Previous Installments of the Great Ballpark Chase by Tim Russell
- The Overview, August 10, 2022
- Rocky Mountain High, August 17, 2022
- Back to School Time, August 24, 2022
- On Target, August 31, 2022
- Milwaukee’s Best, September 7, 2022
- Guaranteed Fun, September 14, 2022
- Busch!, September 21, 2022
- Sidetrip!, September 28, 2022
- Fountains & Waterfalls, October 5, 2022
- That’s a Wrap, October 12, 2022
- Fenway Sizzle, Then Fizzle, July 24, 2023