Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
These two have had an Amazin\u2019 run.<\/p>\n
A pair of beer-slinging Citi Field vendors said there\u2019s no secret what\u2019s made them Mets stadium legends with close to a century of service between them \u2013 like a Dwight Gooden Uncle Charlie, it\u2019s all in the delivery.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter 10,000 events, you don\u2019t have to practice,\u201d said Raymond Acceta, who along with his colleague Bobby Lee has been selling suds and food to the Mets faithful since the mid-70s. That\u2019s a good 20 years before current star first basemen Pete Alonso was even born for those keeping track.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet your hot dogs here! Coney Island chickens! Ice-cold beer! Who\u2019s hungry?\u201d is Acceta\u2019s go-to pitch.<\/p>\n
Instead, Lee relies on the classic: \u201cHey, cold beer! Get your ice-cold beer!\u201d as he lugs the hefty cooler through the concourse level seats to the right of home plate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a graduate of VTI: the Vendor Training Institute,\u201d Lee joked, adding that the success of a concessions salesman really boils down to their voice \u2013 and the Flushing native has a New Yorker bellow on his side.<\/p>\n
Ya gotta believe in the duo\u2019s credentials: Acceta and Lee are third-generation stadium vendors who each started their craft at age 15, and whose shouts are now as familiar to Mets diehards as the roar of the 7-train and the never-ending \u201cLet\u2019s Go Mets\u201d chant. <\/p>\n
The Post spoke with the vendors before a recent game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday, getting an inside peek into their 99 years combined at Citi Field and its predecessor Shea Stadium that have been packed with ups and downs and really downs.<\/p>\n
Much like the Amazins themselves, Acceta and his concessions colleagues huddled up for a pre-game pep-talk, where they reviewed how many fans were in the stands that night, where the focus for the selling should be and how they could improve from the previous homestand\u2019s numbers.<\/p>\n
Also like the Mets, the vendors, working for food company Aramark, adhere to a strict ranking system where the most senior hocker gets their choice of beer, candy or hot dogs to sell.<\/p>\n
With a firm foothold as No. 9, Acceta consistently opts for all three. Every game, he takes his hefty rolling cart to Section 405 on the stadium\u2019s sixth-level pavilion, where the crowds are quieter but always come hungry.<\/p>\n
And the Old Mill Basin native \u2013 who has been selling beers at baseball games since before he could drink them \u2013 has earned the peace of the upper deck. Acceta worked through the \u201970s recession, a World Series win, a stadium change, a global pandemic and plenty of rowdy crowds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some good stories,\u201d Acceta said \u2013 an understatement, to say the least.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce at Shea, I was selling beer and I had a beer bucket over the head. Foul ball came and I was actually able to catch the foul ball in the bucket. Few and only times that\u2019s ever happened! I went back down to see, \u2018Oh look at that!\u2019 and next thing I know, I saw a fan\u2019s hand grab it and take the ball out.\u201d<\/p>\n
It runs in the family<\/p>\n
Acceta started his five-decade-long career at just 15 years old \u2013 when legendary pitcher Tom Seaver played his penultimate season as a Met before taking a nine-year hiatus from the team \u2013 but his intrigue with the sport started at a much younger age.<\/p>\n
Working in concessions is something of a family affair for the Accetas: The \u201cfamily history started in 1921\u201d when his grandfather started working as a groundskeeper at the then-New York Giants homefield of the Polo Grounds, influencing his father to take up a job as a vendor until the Manhattan stadium closed in 1963. His grandfather retired, but his dad moved right to Shea Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father was taking me into the stadiums with him to show me the craft a little bit,\u201d Acceta recalled.<\/p>\n
What started as a side gig to pay for his New York University School of Dentistry education turned into something much greater \u2013 and even shaped the course of his life to come. When a young Acceta realized the doctor path wasn\u2019t right for him, a fellow vendor helped him realize his true passion as a special needs educator.<\/p>\n
He worked 12 months out of the year at the Brooklyn developmental disability school \u2013 while still showing up to the dozens of home games to sell his \u201cConey Island chicken\u201d \u2013 which he says is a leftover from the New York Dodgers days when vendors used the strange phrase to draw in curious crowds just to sell them a Nathan\u2019s hot dog.<\/p>\n
That connection may be lost on some \u2013 and Bobby Lee says he doesn\u2019t understand it, despite also clocking in 50 years as a concessions vendor, most of that time alongside his buddy Acceta.<\/p>\n
Lee, like Acceta, is a third-generation vendor whose grandfather worked for the Yankees and whose father at the Polo Grounds. He vividly remembers his first day working a Jets football game at Shea Stadium as a 15-year-old in 1974, selling Sun Dew Orange Drink for $0.35.<\/p>\n
He stuck with the gig through 50 years, two other careers \u2013 first as a mailman and then as a New York City firefighter \u2013 and somehow even moving to Kansas City, Missouri, a dedicated journey that puts the most dramatic super-commuters to shame.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mets have basically 12 homesteads a year, ranging between five and 10 games. Each January schedules already out I start looking at the best prices on flights and work my magic. If you look at my phone, I got all my flights set for the year,\u201d Lee said, boasting that he\u2019s only missed one game thanks to a flight delay in his 22 years of making the 2-and-a-half hour commute.<\/p>\n
Mets memory makers<\/p>\n
The tedious trip is worth it for Lee, who cherishes the \u201ccamaraderie\u201d of his fellow vendors and the relationships he\u2019s forged over the decades with patrons.<\/p>\n
He recalled one game during his 15-year stint hocking cotton candy when a young lady approached him and asked him for a picture. Although surprised, Lee obliged before asking her what the picture was for.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery Sunday my dad would come to the game and buy cotton candy from you,\u201d the young woman told Lee.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s people that we hear from all the time. If you miss a couple of games, people come up and ask, \u2018What are you doing? Is something wrong? Is everything OK?’\u201d<\/p>\n
Plenty of Lee\u2019s joyous memories have become synonymous with the Mets, and his time working the stands has also served as a reprieve from his time in the FDNY.<\/p>\n
The retired firefighter was one of hundreds who rushed to the destruction zone after the Twin Towers came down, an experience he described as \u201cunimaginable\u201d and \u201cpretty brutal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baseball games across the nation were canceled for five days until the Mets reignited the season with an emotional game that saw Marc Anthony sing the National Anthem, Liza Minelli belt \u201cNew York, New York\u201d and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani honored with a standing ovation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty tough,\u201d Lee said. \u201cEvery anniversary, the stadium always does something here and it\u2019s always a little tough for me because I\u2019m usually coming from the ceremony in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hero retired in 2002 and soon after moved to Missouri, but has continued coming back several times each year, the trips providing a good excuse to also catch up with his FDNY buddies.<\/p>\n
When asked about a family memory from his time as a vendor, Lee offered up two: watching the notoriously shaky upper deck at Shea Stadium bounce fervently during a World Series game, and being the first one to respond when a foul ball sailed into the stands and smacked a young boy square in the face.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best thing they did for us was putting those nets up. We don\u2019t have to worry about ducking anymore,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n
Game changers for a changing game<\/p>\n
There are few who would be better to tell the story of how New York City baseball evolved over the last five decades than Acceto and Lee.<\/p>\n
The duo has watched the roster change dozens of times over, the drinking age change to 21, COVID-19 put an end to the use of cash and, of course, the Mets move into an entirely new stadium in 2009.<\/p>\n
The move was bittersweet for the pair, both of whose fathers also hocked beer in the very same stands: \u201cYou never like to see your memories leave,\u201d Acceto said aptly.<\/p>\n
The massive physical environmental switch also spurred an emotional one, however, that has encouraged a more invigored energy inside Citi Field.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest, but most subtle, changes is the type of people who come to watch the Amazins\u2019 play. With more interactive games for fans to play and goodies to munch on, the venue now attracts much more than typical baseball fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just a ball game anymore. There are so many opportunities to do so many different things in the stadium,\u201d Acceto said. \u201cIt\u2019s more than just coming to the game, getting a beer and watching the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
With more years put in than most others would dream, Acceto and Lee still have a few more years in them of carrying their hefty beer bins and carts around \u2013 but both agree that retirement is on the horizon.<\/p>\n
What it will take for the pair \u2014 who have each retired from their civil service jobs \u2014 to call it quits at Citi Field, however, is a mystery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always said I would stay until they won a World Series. Of course, they did that and I said, \u2018Okay, I\u2019ll stay for the Subway Series,\u2019 \u2018I\u2019ll stay utill they build the new stadium, \u2018I\u2019ll stay for an all-star game,’\u201d Lee said. \u201cI\u2019m still here!\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic These two have had an Amazin\u2019 run. A pair of beer-slinging Citi Field vendors said there\u2019s no secret what\u2019s made them Mets stadium legends with close to a century of service between them \u2013 like a Dwight Gooden Uncle Charlie, it\u2019s all in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":105656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-105655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105655"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105657,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105655\/revisions\/105657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}