Citi Field – Home of the New York Mets

Citi Field. Photo by Danielle Solzman

While in New York City to cover the 2023 Tribeca Festival, I headed to Queens on the morning of June 12 to take a tour of Citi Field.

I decided on June 12 because it was a non-gameday tour. Unlike the $40 gameday tours, the 60-minute non-gameday tour is $20. Children 3 and under are free (a limit of 2).

The tour started at the Hodges VIP entrance, which is enshrined with a bust of the Hall of Famer. Hodges was finally inducted by the Baseball Hall of Fame in the Class of 2022 but his induction should have happened while he was alive.

From there, it was off to the New York Mets media room, where I had an announcement to make. I won’t tell you exactly what that announcement was but you really had to be there. I kid, I kid.

Next up was the Piazza 31 Club presented by True Vodka. The club features a view of the old Shea Stadium Apple but when the air is nicer, it also features a nice view of the Manhattan skyline. Unfortunately, this was a few days after the Canadian wildfire smoke made their way to New York City so the skyline views were not as clear as they could be.

During the tour, our guide pointed out that the parking lot features memorials to the Shea Stadium home plate and bases. If I had brought my better camera for the tour, I’d have been able to take a nicer photo than my cell phone camera. But anyway, it’s nice that they hold onto the history of what came before.

Next up was the Jay Horwitz Press Box, where many of your favorite sportswriters work while covering a Mets game. The press box, situated behind home plate, offers one of the best views of the field, including one of the largest video boards in Major League Baseball. The press box also features some historic front pages from important moments in Mets history.

The Mets ballpark tour also takes fans to one of the suites.

While walking around the stadium, one could see the retired numbers and the pennants.

One of the restaurants that we got to visit was the DeltaSky 360° Club. Fans can get into the club through a private direct entry from the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. It features a nice view of one of the Mets bullpens.

One of the signature points in all of Citi Field is the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. When the Mets announced their intentions to build a new stadium, there was a lot of lobbying to name it after Jackie Robinson. They didn’t go that route but they did name the rotunda, which also honors Ebbetts Field, after him.

Our next stop was the New York Mets Hall of Fame & Museum, where I took so many photos. I’m not going to post all of them over here but the museum alone makes the tour worth the price of admission. Because of the tour being an hour, the amount of time that one visits the museum is largely dependent on how long we were at other stops on the tour.

Before getting out on the field, our next stop was the Clover Home Plate Club. This 2,100 square-foot club is one of the brand new spaces at Citi Field and can only fit up to 100 people. One of the fun parts about it is the replica outfield wall and exposed brick. It’s also one of the new social media spots in that one can take some great photos inside.

Finally, we got out onto the field and into the dugout. Put me in, Coach, I’m ready to play!

In addition to the Shea Stadium apple, there is a statue of legendary Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver outside.

The only area of the field that we didn’t get to on the tour was the Warning Track. In fairness, this is because one of the pitchers—Max Scherzer—was throwing on an off-day. There was a thought that we might not be able to visit the Mets dugout but sure enough, we did.

That’s a wrap on Citi Field.