Road Trip to Shea: “Go the Distance”

The Voice promised, “Build it, and they will come,” so when the work on Citi Field started kicking into high gear during the offseason, I knew it was time to hit the road for one final game at Shea Stadium.

Of course for displaced Mets fans such as myself (and my boys), that’s a 1,400-mile trip, so the choice was either fly or turn

it into a guys-only road trip (my wife was happy to be left behind for this one). “Road trip!” we decided, and we added stops at the Field of Dreams movie site in Dyersvillle, Iowa, and Wrigley Field for an afternoon Cubs game to our itinerary.

The three of us headed out from South Dakota Wednesday morning and arrived at the Field of Dreams early afternoon. Rain fell steadily the entire trip, and by the flood warnings dominating the radio airwaves around Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls and Waterloo, we figured we wouldn’t be getting any field time.

But we decided a little rain wasn’t going to make a 380-mile trip worthless, so we grabbed our gloves and headed out onto the famous field, which looks much different with a corn crop beyond the outfield that’s just inches high instead of tall enough to hide the ghost of Shoeless Joe.

We got a bit soggy playing catch, working on some infield drills and shagging flies, but our determination paid off within a half hour as the rain stopped and a nice family from Chicago showed up with several bats and balls not near as soggy as ours. They invited us to join them, and with the combined crew we were able to man nearly every position and all take a few swings and get caught in a rundown or two. It was a lot of fun and a nice break from driving.

The boys and I had fun taking pictures of each other making diving catches, and now James Earl Jones can never yell at them saying it’s not his fault they didn’t play catch with their dad!

Now we’re in Chicago, and we’ll be in the second deck of Wrigley Thursday afternoon for the Cubs’ game against the Atlanta Braves. It’s my first ever trek to Wrigley, the teams will be wearing throwback jerseys and I get the added bonus of getting to root against the Braves. What a combo!

After the game, it’s back on the road so we can make it to Shea for Friday’s contest against the Rangers.