The Final 9

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

Shea Stadium was never a beautiful place. It lacked signature features like the Yankee Stadium frieze, the Green Monster of Fenway Park, the overhanging upper deck of Tiger Stadium or the ivy of Wrigley Field.

But it was part of the 1964 World’s Fair and it was home: the circular design; blue and orange exterior panels; movable seats that rotated on an underground track and that could turn it into a home for the Jets; and an outfield without bleachers that let home runs land in bullpens, slam off the scoreboard or surge into the flight pattern beyond its boundaries.

“What struck me as a kid was it was so colorful and so enormous,” the Mets announcer Gary Cohen said. “The height and the size of it; nobody had seen anything like it. When you came up through the tunnels and into your seats, you saw into infinity.”

Stadium’s Appeal Lay in Futuristic Functionality....