Day at Yankee Stadium
My son and I went to see a game today in Yankee Stadium. both because he is a big Yankees fan and to see Yankee Stadium one last time before they tear it down. While the Yanks lost, with Mariano Rivera giving up a solo home run in the 9th, my son, who is a huge A-Rod fan, got to see A-Rod go yard to tie the game in the 8th. A couple of observations:
- There is a whole different seat-ethic going on in Yankee Stadium. Every single time we got up to get food or go to the bathroom, we found someone in our seats. Seat numbers on tickets seem to be a recommendation rather than an absolute assignment
- If you leave aside the history, there are a lot of very good design reasons for blowing up Yankee Stadium.
- The Yanks showed a nice Rocky-themed film in the 8th, but puh-leeze -- there is not any team in the world that can less wrap itself in the mantle of scrappy underdog. If any team is Apollo Creed, its the Yankees.
- Enter the Sandman is great entry music for a closer like Rivera.
Craig:
Plus, the Yankees lost. Can't beat that!
June 9, 2008, 7:23 pmmahtso:
Although it would be bothersome to have my seats taken regularly during a game, to me it is remarkable how fan-unfriendly it is at the Diamondbacks’ stadium. I have seen ushers make people who are sitting in a virtually empty row return to their assigned seats just across the aisle where the people were packed in like sardines and, many times late in the game (even during the 9th inning), I’ve seen the ushers send away people who tried to get a little closer to the field. I think that this behavior is one of the reasons that the team draws so poorly.
June 9, 2008, 8:35 pmSteve M:
Moving to "better" seats at the stadium is nothing new.
When I was in junior high and high school, the gate guys used to let us wander in after the third inning or so, tariff was a quarter if I remember correctly, and then we would sort of find seats in the lower deck or the field boxes without too much trouble.
Of course this is circa 1963 to 1967, when I graduated high school.
We used to do the same thing at Madison Square Garden. The ushers there were more than willing to find seats for you in the lower levels for a small gratuity. This was for college basketball or maybe the fights, but never for the Knicks or Rangers, at least not in the late 60's or early 70's. I would suspect nowadays that no one is sneaking into Knicks games.
June 9, 2008, 8:58 pmZach Kissane:
"there is not any team in the world that can less wrap itself in the mantle of scrappy underdog."
Yes there is: the Red Sux. Much as they want you to believe it, you can't be a scrappy underdog with anywhere from the second to the fourth biggest team salary in MLB.
June 10, 2008, 8:00 amdiz:
This yankee stadium was built in what, 1974?
I seem to rememeber them playing in Shea for a year or two around then.
June 10, 2008, 1:59 pmSteve M:
Yankee Stadium opened in 1923 and remain unchanged until 1974. The building had deteriorated and was in need of repairs to the infrastructure and that was used as a pretext to rebuild the stands and reconfigure the playing field.
This was just after the sale of the team by CBS to the Steinbrenner group.
The upper deck of the stadium was actually "jacked up" by a few feet to remove view-obstructing column in the lower deck.
The 296 foot right field line was lengthened to a more respectable 310 feet. They brought in the center field and left field fences to decrease the size of
" death valley"
The Yankees shared Shea Stadium with the Mets in 1974 and 1975 and the "new' stadium re-opened in 1976. I had the privilege of attending opening day in 1976 against the Minnesota Twins.
Steve (born in the Bronx)
June 11, 2008, 9:52 pm