Shea and Yankee Stadiums

Current state on the old Yankee Stadium and the remnants of Shea.

Fleet Week

It's Fleet Week in NYC, I think I saw Frank and Gene in Times Square.

Roosevelt Island

Cool NYT article on the old Roosevelt Island Smallpox Hospital

CitiField

Went to the Mets/Boston game today. The game was cool, they got killed but it was nice to see the new stadium. I did like the new stadium but I sort of missed Shea. There are tons of food places, beer stands etc but it sort of lacked that feel that Shea had. To me it seemed like I was watching a game at Pac-Bell Park or Coors Field not a Met game. I guess it will take time for the new park to grow on me.

Here a few things that bothered me:
- The rotunda is a shrine to Jackie Robinson. The man was a great player but he was never a Met! Never a player, coach or GM. Why not call it the Gil Hodges Rotunda or even the Mookie Wilson Rotunda?? That would make more sense.

- No more ushers...at least today. The ticket takers are mostly gone too, you need to scan your own ticket at the gate.

- No more box seats. The old style box seats separated by the metal poles are gone. I didn't go down to the field level seats so maybe they are still there but nothing in the higher sections.

- There are no center aisles though each section. Now Cow-Bell man has to walk in the concourse. At Shea there was a center aisle in the field level and an aisle in each section separating box and reserved seats. Thats' gone.

- It is tough to get to the upper sections. We came in the rotunda but had to walk through the field level concourse to get to the escalators going up.

- The food court was unpassable. I went to get food in the 3rd and I couldn't get into the food court, it was wall-to-wall people. But I suspect this was growing pains and will get better over time.

Goodbye Shea 1964-2009

After four months of demolition the final piece of Shea Stadium came down on February 18th, 2009....

Ghost Fleets

Around the United States, the US Navy maintains several reserve fleets on inactive naval vessels. Officially know as the Navy Inactive Fleet, with headquarters in Portsmouth, Virginia, these ships are maintained and preserved and can theoretically quickly return to active service in the event of a national emergency.

During the age of sail, it was called "laid up in ordinary." After World War II many ships, no longer needed by the peacetime Navy, were put into reserve fleets. My father remembers cargo and transport ships anchored in Hudson upriver from New York City.
Many of these reserve fleet ships were brought back into service during the Korean and Vietnam wars and also during the Cold War naval buildup. Most notable was the reactivation of the Iowa class battleships. These magnificent vessels were brought back into service to serve as gun and missile platforms. Since some of the parts were originally from the 1940's, old museums ships had to be scavenged for spare parts. I remember reading how some of the powder and shells for the 16 inch guns were originally from the 1940's and early 1950's.

The last of the world's mighty battleships saw combat off Beirut and during the Gulf War. Unfortunately these ships were retired in the 1990's. It would have been nice to keep the battleships in active service, just for the intimidation factor alone.

(The USS Iowa and the USS Wisconsin in the reserve fleet, 1982)

Today the Navy maintain reserve fleets at: the James River in VA; Suisun Bay, CA; Neches River in TX; the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in PA and the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in WA.

Here is a satellite image from Google maps of the USS Iowa (BB-61) in Suisun Bay, CA:

http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&z=17&ll=38.068627,-122.099326&spn=0.004063,0.007296&t=h&om=1

Here is a satellite image of the USS Ranger (CV-61), USS Independence (CV-62), and USS Constellation (CV-64) in Puget Sound:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=47.55768,-122.64379&t=h&ie=UTF8&z=16&ll=47.552853,-122.65583&spn=0.00462,0.009484&om=0&iwloc=addr

Plane crash in the Hudson

I work in Times Square and witnessed crash of US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson this past Thursday. I did not see the actually crash but I saw the plane in the river from my 19th floor window.

Here is a post of our photographers covering the crash. Pretty amazing:

http://blogs.reuters.com/photo/2009/01/16/stars-align-for-passengers-and-photographers-alike/