Fifty-five years ago the New York Mets moved into Shea Stadium for the first time. Shea was considered the state of the art, a New Frontier ballpark that was smart, user-friendly, and multi-purpose—everything municipalities were looking for in the Mad Men era. It didn’t matter that the team that took the field against the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 17, 1964 had lost 231 out of 322 games in its first two years for a winning percentage of .283. What mattered was that they had a spanking new place to call home.
The Mets’ existence was as reliant on a stadium deal as teams that came before and after them.