This song was a long time coming.
It started out as song about the brass plates in the parking lot of Citi Field (where the bases at Shea used to be). That ended up being just a couple of lines in this one. Then I tried doing something about the Polo Grounds and that didn’t go anywhere.
It ended as sort of a companion piece to the “Willie Kneeling” song. The verse about Tommie Agee’s home run is based on a true experience. I loved sitting in Shea’s right field bleachers looking down into the bullpen.
The Lyrics:
Well I’m takin’ the train
To the Woodside Station.
Then hopping on the #7 line.
I’ll be getting off at Shea
‘Cause Koosman is a pitchin’
And I want to see Jerry pitch
Tonight.
Shea is still standing.
She hasn’t been torn down.
All her bases are there.
They ain’t brass plates in the ground.
And I’m seein’ all them faces
That I used to go there with
And the sun is a’shinin’
On a warn sunny day.
Yeah, I got me a seat out at Shea.
Lookin’ down from the bleachers
Into Pignataro’s Pen
Then Agee angles one at me.
And I’m just sitting
Watching that home run a’spinnin’.
And everything’s slow motion
And that ball is a twistin’.
It all looks so very real to me.