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My visit to Citi Field was a part of what I call my personal 'Baseball Odyssey,' a road trip that I took in June of 2023 that took me across eleven stadiums in the span of a few weeks. I talk about it in my post reflecting my chase thus far. This was my fifth stop on my trip, and one I was fairly excited to see. The Mets are the subject of a lot of jokes -- they have the worst record in modern baseball history (as of writing, the 2024 White Sox are 33-113, which is not there yet!), are the home of a lot of baseball oddities and the gravesite of Jacob DeGrom, have a funny but iconic mascot, and are Kingpin's favorite team. However, they are also one of my personal favorite teams based on vibes alone as their fans tend to be some of the most passionate in baseball. One of my favorite players of all time, Bartolo Colón, also famously hit a home run for the Mets.

The stadium is located right next to a subway station, making it one of a few stadiums that is convenient to get to via public transit. The field itself felt modern, as well, replacing Shea Stadium in 2009. The concourse was not particularly memorable except for the entrance my friend and I went through, which had a nice pavilion with escalators leading to different parts of the stadium and the team store. There were also various pieces of Mets history around, which was appreciated. What was memorable, however, were the plethora of food options all around the park. I wound up getting a hot dog with brisket and sauerkraut on it, but there were many different culinary paths I could have gone down. I wound up sitting near the right field foul pole -- not my usual haunt, but it still gave me a decent view of the park. The only real negative that I took away from Citi Field is that there is nothing of note around the stadium: just parking lots, highways, and train tracks. The field itself has wacky dimensions, which always leads to potentially fun baseball, and main scoreboard is astoundingly clear, looming above both center field and one of the weirdest objects in baseball.

Teams have various ways of celebrating home runs. The usual fare involves a mix of lighting changes and pyrotechnics, fireworks, and smoke. The screens around the stadium often change to add to the feat. Nobody, however, does it like the New York Mets -- the "Home Run Apple" is a large (18 feet tall -- what???) apple in center field that is initially hidden in the same way a mole in a game of Whack-a-Mole is. Once a ball is hit out of the park by a Met, the apple slowly rises from its abode and then is slowly lowered back after the home run trot finishes. The Wikipedia article for the home run apple is a dizzying read, as it reads like it's written by either AI or an imaginative kid. Regardless, the Home Run Apple is an icon and one that gives Citi Field a very enjoyable quirk.

The Home Run Apple made an appearance four times during the game I saw, with Mets legend Tommy Pham blasting two while actual Mets stars Pete Alonso (whose pit vipers were handed out as a promotional item) and Starling Marte notched the others. The Mets had seven hits, meaning there were more home runs batted in by the Mets than all other hits from them combined. Despite these home runs, they were all solo homers and the Mets fell 6-4 to the visiting Blue Jays, who managed to do more with their seven hits than the Mets managed. The Blue Jays also had two home runs of their own -- a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. blast that was owed to me from my visit to Toronto and another from Brandon Belt. The six home runs in 14 hits on the game constitutes a 42.9% home run rate in terms of hits, while six out of 74 plate appearances in the game makes a 8.1% home run rate per plate appearance. These are numbers I'd be surprised if I ever witnessed live again.

Overall, Citi Field would lie in the higher end of my 'Decent' tier when it comes to stadiums I've been to. There's nothing amazing or spectacular about it, with no real outfield backdrop or integration in the area around it (the same problems Guaranteed Rate, my home park, has). However, the inside of stadium more than makes up for it and creates a very welcoming and fun environment to watch a baseball game -- and the Home Run Apple rise and fall -- at. I would love to come back here for a night game at some point!