Posted on by Shannon Shark @metspolice

Cool old photo of the Shea Stadium scoreboard in 1965

Some of us were chatting in the comments section about pre-renovated Shea.  The great site Forgotten New York has the picture below:

Check out a few things…the National League is listed on the left side.  In later years it was on the right.  I wonder why they flipped that?   Even Mets Police 1970 wouldn’t have complained about that.

I love the big text message board that was replaced by a Budweiser ad at some point.  It would take forever to put a message  up there, they had to do it one letter at a time, scrolling through each letter like you would on a video game back in the day.

Check out the “video screen” up top.  That was gone before my day.  I recall that being a clock in the late 70’s, and later a Mets logo.

Note the way the pitchers are logged.  The pitcher uniform number is not being displayed, but rather a code which you would then look up in a scorebook.  I recall being at some other stadium semi-recently and finding it interesting.  Philly maybe.

I don’t recall there being a message area on the bottom left of the scoreboard.   I know the light panels were replaced at some point after the 1980’s, but the design in the picture is the one I grew up with (well without the video screen).

I’m so tempted to go sarcastic about the message in the lower left but I will refrain.

Here’s another pic (in color) of the scoreboard. Thanks to Corey for the links.

I really should go dig and see if there are pictures of me as a kid at a Mets game, and I really need to tell the Seaver story – maybe when the site gets a little bigger.

I was thinking about the now-removed fanbrick.  When I do the 10th anniversary MetsPolice column in 2018, that photo’s gonna be a nice rarity isn’t it?

10 Replies to “Cool old photo of the Shea Stadium scoreboard in 1965”

  1. Shannon – Did you ever see online the old postcard in 1964 they had about the opening of Shea. There is a Mets player figure on the postcard and to me is so weird that the number he has is 45. Shea played 45 seasons.

    1. Jesse I hadnt seen the postcard until you sent it to me. Will post tomorrow or so. A tad busy today – some developments behind the scenes all good.

  3. I never knew there was a video screen on top. Really? Any other pictures of that?
    I remember the logo being up there (I loooooooved that logo there as a kid, for some reason) and that Longines clock but don’t remember ever seeing any pictures before with a video screen. Learn something new everyday.

  4. The scoreboard in its day was a technological marvel (the largest in baseball). The screen was to show pictures of the batter at bat. I remember it well (I spent a lot of time at Shea in 64, and then off to the World’s Fair). I don’t recall any videos shown. It was more of a slide projection screen. There must of been some problems because at one point it was rarely used.
    The original color scheme was yellow for field box ($3.50), burnt orange for loge ($2.50), blue for mezzanine ($2.50) and the upper deck (green)was not reserved, sit where you want ($1.30). I still have ticket stubs from those early years at Shea.

    1. I wonder why they flipped the color scheme around when they added the plastic seats. I’m positive I was in Shea before the 1980 renovation but I don’t remember the seats being different. Then again, I would have been around the age my son is now and he’s all about ice cream and probably wouldn’t notice either.

      I remember when Shea’s scoreboard was super-cool (though not that video screen) and let me tell ya, color Diamondvision was amazing at first.

  5. I think it was always the Mets logo up there. Maybe there was a way they could change the logo to some kind of video image back then. I loved the logo up there. Mets mgmt never learns……….never get rid of your logo presence….and sure enough they did it in there new park.

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