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Last Section of Shea Stadium Is Torn Down

Shea Stadium, the site of the Mets’ two World Series victories, their many seasons of futility and a few historic concerts, met the fate of Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds on Wednesday morning. At 11:21 a.m., a demolition crew pulled down the final section, and what remained of old blue stadium was gone in a cloud of dust: the final collapse at Shea. It was 45.

Besides several months of work by a wrecking crew, what killed the stadium was the need for a sprawling parking lot for the Mets’ gleaming new home, Citi Field. Shea is survived by a team that would prefer to forget its most recent memories of the place, two seasons that ended in mind-boggling failure.

From about 9 a.m. on, about three dozen fans gathered around the fences of the demolition site to pay their respects despite a bitter February chill and funereal gray skies over Queens. All they had to look at was the column of ramps that used to lead to the press gate towering over the piles of rubble.
Read entire article at NYT