Dan's Papers - February 15, 2008 - Billy Joel and the End of Shea Stadium

When Billy Joel sings, he often brings down the house. That happened at Radio City Music Hall last year when he broke some longstanding records for soldout concerts, that happened at Yankee Stadium when he broke some other longstanding records for soldout concerts, it's happened at Nassau Coliseum, and apparently it is now going to happen at Shea Stadium, where he is not only FIGURATIVELY going to be bringing down the house, but ACTUALLY bringing down the house.

As you probably know, the New York Mets baseball team is getting a brand new stadium, which is currently under construction right in the parking lot next to the current stadium, Shea Stadium. The new stadium is expected to be completed by the end of this coming summer to be ready for the spring 2009 baseball season.

And as soon as they declare it ready, and currently it is quite on schedule, they will begin tearing down Shea. This will probably be around October 1.

All that will be left of Shea will be a stone marker. All the rest of the property will be the parking lot for the new stadium. Bye bye Shea.

Well, the powers that be at the New York Mets have decided that when the time comes for the first wrecking ball to make an appearance, the weekend before that happens there ought to be a big concert in the place to send it on its way.

According to Newsday, the concert will be performed by Long Island's super rock star Billy Joel. Who else could it be but Billy Joel?

As for the date, well, it's not set in stone. The Mets collapsed last September and didn't make the playoffs after leading the league almost the entire season. But then, last month, at vast expense, they bought one of the very best pitchers in the game today, Johan Santana. The hope is that they will not only make the playoffs this summer, but they will win the playoffs and go on to the World Series at the end of October and win that.

So Billy can only pencil in the date of the concert. It could be anytime between October 5 and November 5. Who knows? Well, he'll be ready. Already he's sitting by the phone.

As we go to press, we have learned that a date has been settled upon - July 16 - which is the day after the All-Star Game and the beginning of a Mets road trip. It's possible that the concert will run two days or three or even four. They'll see how it sells.