Mets B-Side

Official Review by Dennis Morrell, Stadium Journey Special Correspondent

For two decades, the Binghamton Mets have served as the AA affiliate to the parent club in New York. The long-standing relationship and strong geographic ties have created a great fan base and good attendance for the Eastern League team.

NYSEG Stadium is the home of the Binghamton Mets, and offers good food and a great return on your investment.

Food & Beverage    5

NYSEG Stadium provides a lot of the standard fare you would expect at any ballpark with a few unique twists to this area of the country.

First off, the classic hot dog is only $1 each and every game. Don't expect something like the foot-long Dodger Dog in Los Angeles, but for a buck a piece, it's worth getting a few of them to satisfy your hunger.

If the classics just don't get you excited and you want something special, order the "spiedie", a type of sandwich consisting of seasoned chunks of delectable beef, pork or chicken served on a hearty, dense bun. The sandwich was created by Italian immigrants in Upstate New York during the early 1920s. Although the earliest version of the spiedie was made only from spring lamb, most commercial restaurants prepare spiedie using chicken or pork.

Lupo's is the local place that serves them (three locations in and around Binghamton) and down the right field line is where you get them at the B-Mets games. It costs $5.50 for the spiedie and worth every penny of it. Grab a seat at the adjacent picnic tables and watch the game while you enjoy the goodness.

For $5.50 it will be the best money you will spend on food at NYSEG Stadium and truly the night's only inside-the-park home run.

To wash down that tasty spiedie, don't even think of ordering a soda. Grab a bottle of Old Slugger Ale or Nine Man Ale, both brewed in nearby Cooperstown, for just $4. To be truthful, it is served in a cup, but poured from a bottle and had I pushed the issue, I could have returned to the stand to get the bottle after the game. It's a shame some lug nut threw one of these bottles onto a field years ago and ruined it for all of us.

If you are there on a Monday night, take advantage of Markdown Monday, an effort to revert back to the pricing from twenty years ago when the team first came to Binghamton.

Atmosphere    4

NYSEG Stadium is proof positive that it doesn't matter how new your ballpark is. You can have an incredibly enjoyable experience at a B-Mets game. Credit the front office for being creative and ensuring fans will always leave the ballpark fulfilled.

The entrance is at ground level and you walk through a concourse underneath the seating area. Entrance to the seating bowl is a short staircase straight up from behind home plate or venture through either concourse down the lines and enter near the bullpens.

The direction from home plate to the pitcher's mound is Northeast. The sun sets behind the third base side of the stadium, an important thing to know as you select your tickets.

Foul lines are 330 from home plate to the wall with a 400-foot distance to straight away center field. The wall is ten feet high surrounded by large planks of advertising. The digital scoreboard is in right-center field, but offered no video replays during my visit.

The home team sets up shop with their dugout and bullpen down the first baseline while the visitors mirror the hosts on the third base line.

The sections are divided into odd numbers down the third base line and even numbers down the first base line. For those concerned about sitting behind the protective netting behind home plate, avoid sections 1 through 7 and 2 through 8 respectively. Once the netting ends on both sides, the dugouts begin.

If you want to have overhead cover, sit in rows Q through Z in sections 101 through 107 or 102 through 108, the reserved grandstand in the upper level. Box seats are not afforded this cover, but do offer a magnificent view of the action.

Handicap accessible seating can be found between the two levels and right behind sections 1, 2, 11 and 12.

If the kids want to play, bring them to the right field line where they can bounce around for awhile, check on how fast their pitches are and participate in a variety of other fun activities.

Neighborhood    3

NYSEG stadium sits just south of downtown in an area that is part residential, part commercial. There are a few selections for pre-game meals, but nothing to write home about. Hold your hunger for the spiedie and the Slugger's Ale.

Fans    4

When a minor league baseball team has been in the same city for twenty years, you can expect there to be a following. The team has done an effective job of recognizing continuity breeds success.

You can see many of the finer Mets prospects reflected in the jerseys worn by fans to the games. They hang on to these memories and there are even references to former players throughout the stadium behind home plate at a special hallway of plaques dedicated to their former heroes.

Access    5

There are plenty of restrooms throughout the stadium located underneath the seats on both sides of the diamond.

Paid parking at $5 can be found behind the right-field fence offering a short walk to the stadium. Nearby businesses who are closed after 5:00 PM offer options in lots of ten to twenty cars per parcel. A little further away you can find street parking which is metered up until 7:00 PM.

Return on Investment    5

Box seats are $11 for adults and $9 for seniors and children. Reserved seats are $9 for adults and $7 for seniors and children. This is a fair price for AA baseball and you can tell that ownership has spent time pricing this right. In fact, they might consider adding another buck onto the price of each ticket. I was there on a Wednesday night and it was packed.

Extras    2

Program - packed full of information, but at an odd size. The program during my visit was an oversized version of what you would expect to get at most ballparks. I like to put my programs in a magazine holder of standard size and was not able to as the size was out of the norm. It is the little things in life, I admit it.

Merchandise - available for sale right when you walk into the main gate behind home plate with programs sold at a separate stand. Additional merchandise available at a stand just to the right of main entrance and down the right field line near Lupo's and the children's play area.