The world comes to Queens this week, and for a couple of days it will feel like old times again, when the Bunkers serenaded about Glenn Miller and Hoibeht Hoovah at 704 Hauser Street, when the Heffernans were visiting the Lemon Ice King of Corona, when you, me and Julio were hanging out down by the schoolyard.
When you could go see a day of U.S. Open tennis without taking out a second mortgage.
When the Mets played October baseball.
Yes, for the first time the world will set its GPS coordinates for Flushing and descend upon its new baseball playpen, Citi Field, which until now has been known as a house of horrors for its prime tenant (which has gone 87-119 there these past three seasons), whose most productive years as property thus far have been spent as the parking lot for old Shea Stadium from 1964-08.
THEN AND NOW: ALL-STARS FROM TODAY AND FROM 1964
Which is a shame, of course, because for all the things the Mets have done wrong the past five years, they got Citi Field right: it conjures much of the city’s National League past (even if it tilts more Dodgers than Giants), it’s a far more welcoming than, say, Yankee Stadium, and only about 99.9 percent more aesthetically pleasing than MetLife Stadium.
“It’s a great place to come to work every day,” says David Wright, who more than anyone could have a serious beef with the place since it’s probably already stolen a couple dozen home runs from him so far. “And most of the fans I talk to, they seem to feel just as strongly as I do about how beautiful it is.”
Which means it’s time, let’s be honest. It’s time for Citi Field to have this moment, to earn this moment, to own this moment. It’s time for Queens to have this moment, for Forest Hills and Hollis and Astoria, for Douglaston and Jackson Heights and Ozone Park. And for Flushing. It’s known moments like this before, next door, where the old rockpile of a ballyard used to stand on what is now — of course — a parking lot.
Citi Field has been open for business for 4 ½ years and as of this moment, as of this second, it isn’t hard to pinpoint the biggest, brightest moment of its history: that would be June 1, 2012, the night when Johan Santana threw the first no-hitter in Mets history and picked up what may well turn out to be the third-to-last victory of his career.
There were exactly 27,069 people in the seats that night to witness it.
Which means there were also 14,731 who didn’t witness it.
By the time Shea Stadium was 4 ½ years old, it had already hosted the Beatles — twice — meaning it had become a generational symbol even before that generation realized it had any symbols. It had hosted the Ice Capades for seven nights, which was especially notable since those shows took place outdoors in June. It had hosted a Pitt-Syracuse football game at a time when the Orangemen were featuring a full-house backfield of running backs named Larry Csonka, Floyd Little and Tom Coughlin.
It had hosted the debuts of both Joe Namath (in front of 53,658 on Sept. 18, 1965, a 14-10 Jets loss to the Chiefs) and Tom Seaver (in front of a bit more modest gathering of 5,005 on April 13, 1967, a 3-2 Mets win over the Pirates). The Phillies’ Jim Bunning pitched a perfect game there on Father’s Day 1964.
Sixteen days later, Bunning threw two scoreless innings in the All-Star Game, and later on his teammate Johnny Callison would win it with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth. That game, as this one is, was the first time old Shea would welcome the world to its lawns (even though the neighboring World’s Fair had been doing the same thing for months).
There will be no “Progressland” greeting visitors this time around, no General Motors Pavilion, no “It’s a Small World.” The Unisphere is still around, the lone reminder of what it looked like the last time baseball’s brightest stars all gathered around Northern Boulevard and the Grand Central Parkway.
Then, the names were Mays and Clemente and Cepeda, Mantle and Killebrew and Aparicio. Joe Torre, who would manage the Mets and Yankees for a total of 16 ½ years much later on, was the National League’s starting catcher and went 0-for-2. There were 50,850 at Shea that day, and we do mean day: first pitch was at 1:06 p.m. Callison’s blast came at 3:43. The fans actually beat rush hour home.
Now, it will be Harper and Tulowitzki and Wright, Cano and Trout and Verlander. First pitch will be some time after 8 o’clock at night, and if things happen to go as they did the last time the All-Star Game visited New York, up in the Bronx in 2008, then it’d be smart to pack a dinner. Citi Field will get its moment, at last, a pretty girl ready for the debutante ball. It’s time.
michael.vaccaro@nypost.com