Subway Series: LIRR strike forces Mets, Yankees fans to find different ways to Citi Field

The second game of the Subway Series at Citi Field on Saturday night marked the first major local sporting event since the Long Island Rail Road strike commenced at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

For Mets fans who usually take the LIRR to the Mets-Willets Point stop at the ballpark, or for Yankees fans who were planning to do so, the strike certainly threw a wrench into their plans.

During the strike, the Mets are offering a new shuttle line from the Manhasset LIRR station. That is in addition to the five shuttle lines, which are coach buses, they have been offering all season with Citi Field parking significantly impacted by the construction of the sports and entertainment district surrounding the ballpark.

Two of the shuttle stops are on Long Island: Walt Whitman Shops in Huntington Station and Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City.

Plenty of fans utilized the shuttle options — round-trip shuttle tickets cost $8.99 per ticket and $25 for a family of four — for the first time ahead of Saturday’s 7:15 p.m. game. Buses left their designated spots at 4:45 p.m. and arrived at the Citi Field bus lot, which is a short walk from the leftfield gate. They were scheduled to depart from the lot 30 minutes after the final out.

Mets fan Bethany Guerrieri of Babylon would have preferred to take the train from Manhasset, but she took the shuttle from there instead.

“The shuttle is nice, but it would be nicer if everybody could just work together to have an agreement so we don’t have to take shuttles,” she said shortly after her bus pulled in at about 5:40 p.m. “We could take a train and just be more efficient and environmentally friendly.”

She said the experience was “great” and had “nothing bad to say about the shuttle,” adding that the tickets were “very affordable.”

Mets fan Geraldine Craven, 64, of Rockville Centre has a 20-game ticket package and usually takes the LIRR from Rockville Centre to the games. Her ride requires one transfer, sometimes two (Jamaica and then potentially Woodside), but she said it always has been convenient and never has more than a 10-minute wait during transfers.

On Saturday, Craven took the 20-minute drive to Roosevelt Field Mall for her first shuttle to Citi Field.

“Oh my God, well, I did prepare in advance,” she said after her shuttle pulled in at about 5:55 p.m. “I did buy my shuttle ticket just in case, but I stayed up until about midnight last night waiting . . . It’s disappointing.

“I mean, we’re all adults, we can’t get this done? It’s a union issue. I know that. I support unions, but there’s got to be a little more give-and-take on both sides.

“I don’t know what [Gov. Kathy] Hochul’s plan is, but it totally — it messed up me and my friends in so many different ways.”

She agreed with Guerrieri in noting that the shuttle experience was “wonderful” but added that she “would have liked to have gotten here a little earlier.”

Lynbrook’s Josh Warner, 32, is a Mets season-ticket holder who usually takes the LIRR to and from the ballpark. Yankees fan Anthony Tesoriero, 32, of Seaford goes to a lot of games at Citi Field — including Saturday night’s — with Warner. They ended up taking a $65 Uber to the game.

“[Warner] texted me earlier in the week, saying, ‘Our plans may get a little messed up,’ ” Tesoriero said. “That was maybe Sunday. I was like, ‘Oh, they’ll resolve it by then.’ And then I actually woke up today, I’m like, ‘We’re going to have to figure it out.’

“With Uber being an option, that was our easy go-to. But it was a little nerve-wracking.”

Said Warner: “It’s frustrating. It gets in the middle of your plans. I was supposed to go to a birthday party at Central Park. I was going to go in and then take the train here. Couldn’t do that anymore. So you have to change your route and make a new plan.”

Yankees fan Zack Becker, 30, and Mets fan Julia Baxley, 26 — both of Bayside — usually take the LIRR to Citi Field.

They filled their day with activities before Saturday night’s game, taking a New York City bus to Flushing to eat dumplings and walk around the Queens Night Market before walking to Citi Field.

“It stinks,” Becker said. “But today we made a good day out of it.”

The bigger concern for Becker and Baxley is that they rely on the LIRR to get to work each weekday. As LIRR monthly ticket-holders, they typically use those passes to get to and from Citi Field.

“I would have used that to come here today, but no, had to pay for the bus,” Baxley said. “So hopefully we can see something back [from the MTA], not that I really believe that they’re going to do it.”

By Ben Dickson

benjamin.dickson@newsday.com@bendickson__

Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.