727LOVER wrote:How fun must this have been? If aircraft were taking off on runway 13, don't they make a right turn very near Shea..
They take off directly over Citi Field even today. You get a good view at the new stadium most days.
The difference is that both takeoff performance and noise are better in modern airplanes than they were through most of Shea's life. Also, a lot more big jets used to take off from LGA during Shea's time. So often planes would be bigger, louder and flying lower as they passed by Shea. I usually seemed to get "lucky" at the Mets games I went to and planes would be taking off the other way, but I watched a lot of Mets games on TV too through the 80's and the planes would often shake the cameras. The commentators would mention the noise periodically too, if it was a big plane flying low with just the right flight path. Occasionally you would see both the pitcher and batter obviously stop to wait until a plane had passed. I'd be surprised if there aren't YouTube video compilations of this.
I do specifically remember seeing a *Jets* game at Shea Stadium with my dad and his friends, and we were in the very top row of the stadium. I remember watching the planes out the back of our seats (so I was totally turned around from the game). And I remember one of my dad's friends saying "you're supposed to watch *those* Jets (pointing at the field), not *those* jets (pointing towards LGA)."
Stupid joke, but it's weird what you remember from when you're like 4 years old.
But I've been to Citi Field plenty of times and it's not hugely different, just a bit less noisy and with less interesting planes.