Ten years?

So I was hanging out Sunday afternoon , not doing much of anything, and I had the TV on.

And it was a concert film,  Live at Shea Stadium: The Concert.

There was also a documentary about the concerts, The Last Play at Shea.

You remember it?  Shea Stadium was about to be torn down, to be replaced by Citi Field.  Two nights of concerts by Billy Joel, with all sorts of special guests, including Garth Brooks, Roger Daltry, Steven Tyler and Tony Bennett.  And a finale with Sir Paul McCartney, which was fitting, since the very first concert at Shea was the Beatles’ American debut.

It was two incredible nights of music, two incredible nights of nostalgia as New York said goodbye to a stadium that had been the site of so many wonderful things, especially the 1969 Mets’ championship season, and the 1986 championship season.

Did you know that in 1975, Shea was home to four teams?  Up until then, Shea was the home of the Mets and the Jets, and the Yankees and the Giants played at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. Yankee Stadium underwent renovations in 1975, so the Yankees and the Giants temporarily relocated to Queens.  The following year, both football teams relocated to Giants Stadium in New Jersey.

I couldn’t get tickets for  the Billy Joel concert, but I did get tickets the following year for the first concert at Citi Field. — Sir Paul, of course, with a guest appearance by Billy Joel.

Hard to believe it’s been ten years since The Last Play at Shea.