A Signature Moment for Citi Field, a Ballpark Still Without One Just before Citi Field opened in 2009, the Bernard L. Madoff scandal put the finances of the team and its owners into chaos. As he took batting practice before the first game ever played at Citi Field, in 2009, Jody Gerut felt small. Soon he would inaugurate the Mets" new ballpark as the first batter for the San Diego Padres, and he never expected to hit a home run. Even his slugging teammate, Adrian Gonzalez, struggled to clear the faraway outfield walls. "It was like, suddenly, somebody took a pin and popped out all the strength and conditioning I'd done for the last 10 years," Gerut said over the phone this week. "I remember thinking, "David Wright's in trouble." " In its fifth season, Citi Field gets its first major national exposure on Tuesday when it hosts the All-Star Game. The Mets have a losing record at home (175-193) since Citi Field opened and have finished each season there in fourth place in the National League East, where they sit again now. It has been an uneasy existence there ever since Gerut stepped to the plate. On the third pitch he saw from Mike Pelfrey, Gerut hooked a ball inside the right-field foul pole for a leadoff home run. The Padres went on to win, 6-5, with two former Mets, Duaner Sanchez and Heath Bell, retiring the side in order in the final innings. "When I hit the home run, the only thing I was thinking about is how I probably ruined a new beginning for some fans," said Gerut, who now works as an agent. At the same time, I was thinking that was the only place in the yard I'm hitting the ball out in April. Citi Field, to be sure, has its charms. It is more affordable than Yankee Stadium, with better play areas for children, distinctive orange foul poles, a fan bridge beyond the outfield and, of course, Shake Shack. It borrows tastefully from classic parks of the past. The right-field overhang evokes Tiger Stadium. The home plate rotunda, modeled after Ebbets Field, honors Jackie Robinson. Those were personal touches - Fred Wilpon, the chairman, grew up in Brooklyn and revered the Dodgers, and his son, Jeff, the chief operating officer, grew fond of Tiger Stadium on childhood trips there with his grandfather. "I think the ballpark already has character," Wright said. A lot of the new ballparks seem somewhat cookie cutter, and ours is the opposite of that, whether you look from the outside and you see the rotunda or from the different angles to see the cool things along the outfield. I think the playing surface is one of the best in the league. The aesthetics are all great. Also, it is not its rundown predecessor. "Having Citi Field after Shea Stadium, where you would walk in and have water drip on you from the pipes, it was pretty unbelievable," said Pelfrey, who now pitches for the Minnesota Twins. It was the first time we actually had a home clubhouse where there was a lot of room to move around. Yet for all of its comforts, Citi Field did not herald a bold new era for the Mets, who had lost in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series in 2006 and then blown playoff spots the next two Septembers. Just before Citi Field opened, the Bernard L. Madoff scandal threw the finances of the Wilpon family - and the team - into chaos. The ballpark, instead of acting as an oasis from those troubles, became the nerve center for discontent. More than 3.1 million fans bought tickets to games in 2009, but the team was a dud and the Yankees, who also opened a new stadium that year, rolled to a championship. It didn't help, either, that some of the decorative elements at Citi Field were baffling. Fans were bothered by the disregard for Mets history in the ballpark displays, and the team capitulated, stylistically, to its sponsor. At first, the word "Mets" at the top of the scoreboard was not written in the team's cursive script but in Citigroup's staid, interstate typeface. The Mets also wore shoulder patches - again in the official Citigroup font - reading simply, "Inaugural Season 2009." The plain backdrop made it look like the Domino's Pizza logo. (The affiliation with Citigroup, which is paying the Mets $400 million over 20 years for naming rights, was also tinged with bad news. In 2011, the company agreed to pay $285 million to settle a civil complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had defrauded investors.) Pat Borzi and Andrew Keh contributed reporting.