NEW YORK -- Looking out across the green grass on the at field Shea Stadium in Queens, I can glance down and see the spot along the third base line where I got Joe Sambito’s autograph in 1976, as a 10-year-old celebrating his birthday rooting for the home team.
I can see the box seats where my brother and I sat, wearing our mitts, with our parents, hoping for that elusive foul ball. Shea Stadium was baseball for the first 17 years of my life, although I think I visited Yankee Stadium once and County Stadium a couple times during those years, too. For the next 23 years, it was County Stadium and Miller Park, with occasional trips to Shea, Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field and other parks.
So, as Citi Field rises slowly out beyond the left field wall, I sit in my first ballpark, watching my two teams do battle. It can either be a thoroughly frustrating affair, or one that’s really a win/win, depending on how you look at it. I'll opt for the latter, I think.
Writing about the Brewers and the Mets, I have to take an objective view and present the facts, which isn’t really hard to do in a sport like baseball. The facts are there for everyone to see.
But as a fan, I want the Brewers to win and I want the Mets to win, so you see my predicament as a fan at Shea Stadium today. I’m happy that the teams have split the series so far, but I know that one of the teams will come out on top today, at the expense of the other squad.
I’ll be both happy and sad either way.
The news that Shea will come down and a new stadium will replace it evokes the same mixed feelings. But Milwaukee baseball fans know what that’s like.
Shea, like County Stadium, is full of memories, but it’s crumbling and its time has come and gone. The fans deserve a comfortable, spacious new home, but we’ll be sad to the old ball yard go.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
