Instead of spending an excruciatingly long day on the train as with my trip down for the Mets I turned the Yankees game into a weekend trip. I still took the train but it was so much more relaxing and less stressful. I even managed to book my Amtrak reservation for the right day! Go me, off to a good start.
Anmay and Jeremy were nice enough to let me stay with them for the weekend, which was awesome because we got to catch up a bit and hotel prices in New York fit nobody’s budget. Anmay even scored some primo tickets in the middle tier of Yankee Stadium and I got treated to my first game of the trip! Thanks a lot guys!!
Game Notes:
On the day of the game I left pretty early and took a sweet tram from Roosevelt Island over to Manhattan to catch the subway up to the Bronx. It was pretty early on a Saturday morning and the thing was packed. Otherwise, I would have been able to take some great pictures; the view from the tram was really incredible.
My biggest regret about Yankee Stadium was not making it to Monument Park. I know, that seems like a slam dunk and it was the first thing I wanted to do but there was a slight mishap with taking the subway to the stadium and by the time I got there (80 minutes prior to game time) I was told the line was full for the day. I guess you have to show up right when the gates open and get in line immediately. I suppose they’ll be taking everything over to the new stadium so if I make it to a game next summer I’ll let you all know how it is.
If it weren’t for the subway mishap though, I wouldn’t have this sweet picture to share with you all.
I met Bob Ryan!!! He's easily my favorite Globe columnist and I like the TV stuff he does too. When I boarded the subway in Manhattan he was sitting right in front of me reading the New York Times so I rudely interrupted and we ended up chatting about baseball stadiums all the way to Yankee Stadium! He had some great opinions and insights, especially with regard to putting parks into an historical context. Apparently the stadium where I saw the Yankees play was not “Yankee Stadium” with all the mystique and history of Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, etc. That one died with the 1973 renovation. Obviously I wasn’t around then but I can see how that would make sense for true students of the game.
After getting shut out of Monument Park I tried to take a lap around the rest of the stadium. I can say unequivocally that Yankee Stadium wins the award for “worst crowd flow in the country” by leaps and bounds. Yes, this game had a higher attendance than any other I attended but this place was TERRIBLE. Everything was cramped, from the outside of the stadium to the concession areas to the seats and aisles. Kansas City and Shea were the only other stadiums that could be in the running for the award but KC was undergoing renovations and the game was only about half full so it was manageable and Shea wasn’t packed either so that helped. It took forever to walk around Yankee Stadium but, bound and determined, I did it! For your enjoyment, I plan on sharing some of what I found.
The Yankees also win the award for “steepest outdoor upper deck.” After just handing out that honor to Shea I feel a little cheated, and frankly, so should you. Yankee Stadium’s upper deck definitely took the cake though. Speaking of which, when I was snapping some shots of the field a VERY large, VERY tattooed man asked me if I was wearing my Pawtucket hat. It was actually a green Phillies hat but it just has a “P” on it so I could see how he may have been confused. I informed him it was a Phillies hat and he explained to me that Pawtucket was the AAA affiliate of the Boston Red Sox and he may not have been able to let that slide. Pawtucket, eh? You don’t say! (I’ll give him points for the knowledge though…)
Hopefully it won’t happen in my lifetime but if the Yankees are ever to win another World Series title they will have a LOT of repainting to do. Everywhere around the stadium (outside and inside the building) they have signs proclaiming their status as “26 Time World Champions.” That’s all well and good but a lot is going to have to change if they wind up with another title. Of course, that assumes the same overabundance will pervade the new stadium but I’m assuming it will.
I’m also assuming the Yankees will have some better food options in the new stadium. There was absolutely NOTHING special about the food at Yankee Stadium. It was all standard ball park food, though surprisingly moderately priced ($3.00 for a hot dog, $4.00 for a pretzel, $8.50 for a 16oz bottle and $9.50 for a 20oz draft). That’s really not bad considering I was in New York. The Nationals and Mets definitely have the highest prices in the country…until we get to Boston anyway. Also, like the Mets, the Yankees provide only ketchup and mustard for condiments. That fact lead to the funniest exchange of the day that I witnessed. An A’s fan in his late 30’s strolled up to the condiment platform with his elderly father and asked nobody in particular “where’s the kraut?” After discovering there was none to be had he grew increasingly frustrated and decided to take it out on his dad. He very snidely remarked “well, that’s Yankee Stadium for you” and started raising his voice at any question his silver-haired dad asked. Finally he finished off his tirade with a classic “LET’S GO TRY THE OTHER ONE!!” I almost lost it when I watched him walk 20 feet down the hallway only to encounter the exact same condiment selection.
One final point about the food at Yankee Stadium was the giant popcorn buckets they had. For $12 you could get a souvenir bucket like the one I got in Kansas City (for way cheaper) and I wanted to get a picture of them but the lady working the stand was not happy with this at all. She stared me down until I walked away. Kind of creepy if you ask me. Also of note is the payphone on the right. When was the last time you used one of those? I remember using one around late fall ’99.
The seats Anmay got for the game were in the shade which was the best news of the day. It was so hot and so sunny that day that I probably only would have lasted a few innings in most of the other seats in the park. As it was, we were relatively comfortable in our seats for all 12 innings. We also were pretty close to the action. I got to see first-hand what the highest payroll in baseball can buy you…
TWO HOSES!! The Yankees spared no expense, even for their grounds crew. They couldn’t put out a bucket of sour kraut to appease ornery A’s fans but they certainly were the only team in the majors to have TWO hoses to water the dirt before the game.
- There were no ushers anywhere. That’s an exaggeration but, like Fenway, I’m betting the Yankees assume fans will police themselves due to most every game selling out. If you needed an usher you could find one but they weren’t just hanging out ready to stop me from taking pictures in various sections of the park.
- The National Anthem and then God Bless America during the 7th inning were instrumental, recorded versions! EVERY other stadium has had live performances of those pieces (FYI - GBA wasn’t always performed but when it was, it was done live!). I was kind of surprised at this and I’m not really sure I understand the reasoning behind the decision.
- Tom Coughlin (head coach of the New York [football] Giants) threw out the first pitch. I still can’t believe Eli got out of that collapsed pocket, or the damn catch for that matter…
- Whenever I’ve seen Yankee games on TV in the background I always hear the “roll call.” This is when the fans in the bleachers chant the name of all of the starters for that days’ game. I was pretty interested to see how this worked, for instance, does someone lead the cheer or does it just kind of happen? Well, I couldn’t see it that well but it did appear that someone was coordinating the chanting out in the outfield. Also of note regarding the bleachers is that those fans are kept separate from the rest of the stadium and vice versa. I couldn’t walk out there or take any pictures because there is only one entrance and that’s from outside of the stadium. Finally, the bleachers are now alcohol free! I couldn’t believe that. I’ve heard so many war stories about the infamous bleacher crowds at Yankee Stadium. I wonder how it is now with no alcohol served.
- Only some of the Yankee batters had “intro music” as they came up to bat. I don’t know why they didn’t all have it.
High Points:
-Meeting Bob Ryan before the game was AWESOME!!
-I’ll give the Yankees fans this: they were some of the best in the country. They were totally into the game the entire time and the stadium was still about half-full even into the 12th inning. The scoreboard did some things to prompt cheers but it really was unnecessary, the New York fans created a great buzz with the constant chatter and cheering for things other than a home run.
-I thought this was great:
Almost every luxury box at the top of the screen behind home plate had a fishing net to grab foul balls that would roll up the netting. It was fun to watch the little 10 year olds who missed their chance get serenaded with a healthy chorus of boos.
-I mentioned the day was wicked hot. Boo the Yankees for charging $4.75 for a bottle of Poland Springs but kudos to them for providing multiple water stations on every level for fans to stay hydrated. They had workers constantly pouring free cups of ice water for anyone who wanted one. Good idea.
-The grounds crew performed a completely choreographed dance to the “YMCA” in between one of the innings.
-The DirectTV blimp patrolling the skies above the stadium had a legit TV on the side of it! That was pretty incredible. I made two separate notes about it on my sheet of paper so I guess it really made an impression on me! :-)
-Most of the parks around the country have flags with the other teams/cities on them. The Yankees, Reds and I think the Giants were the only other teams to put them in order of current divisional standing. I thought that was a nice, subtle touch.
-When Mariano Rivera trotted in from the bullpen I got to experience the “real” Enter Sandman.
-Speaking of Rivera, Jeremy brought his binoculars and showed me an ingenious strategy for getting great pictures. You just hold the camera up to one of the binocular eye pieces and it acts just like a telephoto lens! I got some great pictures, including Rivera:
And the days’ starter, Joba Chamberlain (who REALLY needs to stop throwing at Kevin Youkilis)
-The atmosphere and structural setup on River Ave. outside Yankee Stadium reminded me a lot of the old Causeway Street outside the Boston Garden. There are elevated train tracks, raucous fans and tons of bars, merchandise shops and sausage/food carts everywhere.
-Getting treated to a game with great seats was definitely a high point of the day.
Low Points:
-The biggest low point of Yankee Stadium was the cramped quarters. It was REALLY difficult to move around in the underbelly of the stadium because of all the people crammed into such a small area. In the seating areas I couldn’t move because there are railings separating every 4th seat so you can’t just cut across empty rows, you’re forced to use the very small aisles to try and navigate your way around the place.
-This was as close as I got to Monument Park:
Even Jeremy’s magic telephoto lens couldn’t get me special access…
-I think the above problem contributed to the absence, in my mind, of the “Yankee mystique.” I didn’t feel that special, indescribable feeling people talk about when they wax nostalgic about Yankee Stadium. Or maybe Mr. Ryan was right when he said that died with the 1973 renovation. Whatever it was, the stadium didn’t quite live up to the hype.
-On that note, did you hear this is Yankee Stadium’s last year?? Fercryinoutloud, enough already! We get it. It was special to have the All Star game played there in the stadium’s final year, great, now can we let it go and move on?
-Jorge Posada takes WAY too long to dig in and go through all his annoying pre-at-bat routines. Good thing he’s on the DL now and won’t be wasting any more of my time.
-On a related note, the fans that chanted “hip, hip…JOR-GE” during the entirety of each of his at-bats can go jump in a lake. Holy crap was that annoying.
-The final note about Posada doesn’t so much have to do with him but with the seven year old girls sitting behind us. I was pretty impressed with their knowledge of the players and the game but was horrified when they started talking about how funny it would be to see Posada hit a ball that ripped through a Red Sox outfielder’s head. And this was at a Yankees-Athletics game. Can you say rivalry?!
-The video and scoreboards at Yankee Stadium are truly outdated and I’m sure this will be remedied in the new park.-I wonder what I’ll think of this picture in 10 or 20 years…Bobby Abreu, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez:
-When he was warming up and stretching in the outfield prior to the game Alex Rodriguez couldn’t get enough of watching himself when the video board was showing highlights of the previous night’s game. What a prima donna. What? Madonna? No, no…prima donna.
-For all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the grounds crew performing the “YMCA” they did a TERRIBLE job of grooming the field. They would walk around the field dragging the same nets that most other crews do but all of them had a bounce in their step and the field ended up with little “waves” of dirt that quite easily could have affected many a ground ball.
-The game went WAY too long.
-To top it off, I had to listen to “New York, New York” because of a hit-by-pitch that forced in the winning run. It wasn’t even like the Yankees deserved to win; the A’s definitely blew it. This was the most lackluster "walk off" celebration I've ever seen.
-We thought we’d let the subway crowd die down and stayed a bit late after the game to snap some pictures.
It didn’t help at all. For some reason the usual trains leaving the stadium were not running and we were trapped like sardines in the extremely hot, extremely cramped subway underground. That was terrible.
Overall Grade: B
Game Stats:
Teams: Yankees vs. Athletics
Final Score: 4-3 Yankees
Extra Innings: 3
WP: David Robertson
LP: Lenny DiNardo
Time: 4:45
Announced Attendance: 54,183
Ticket Price: $75.00 (but free thanks to Anmay and Jeremy! THANKS GUYS!!!)
Parking Price: N/A
Trip Stats:
Home team record: 21-8
Best Anthem: Tropicana Field
Miles Driven: 10,702
Speeding Tickets: ZERO!
States Visited: 27
Countries Visited: 2
Districts of Columbia Visited: 1
Beds slept in: 33
Highest Gas PPG: $4.19 [$4.81 if you count Canada]
Next Stop: Boston Red Sox
Favorite Park: Petco Park (Padres)
Stadium Grades:
Marlins: D
Rays: B
Braves: B-
Rockies: B+
Mariners: B
Giants: A-
Athletics: C
Angels: B-
Dodgers: B+
Padres: A
Diamondbacks: B
Rangers: B-
Astros: B-
Blue Jays: C
Tigers: A-
Indians: B-
Reds: B+
Cardinals: B
Royals: B
Twins: B-
Brewers: A-
White Sox: B
Cubs: B+
Pirates: C+
Orioles: B
Phillies: A-
Nationals: B
Mets: C+
Yankees: B
2 comments:
Come on Julia O'Halloran!!!
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