Mind-Boggling Yankees and Yankee Stadium...

The New York Yankees are mind-boggling. No question about that. They have won the World Series 27 times and won the American League pennant 40 times. No other major league baseball team comes close to that record. Back when I was in high school in the 1960s most every September/October was spent listening to the Yankees on the radio in the World Series. Classes were suspended at times for us to listen. And we lived in a small town in Washington State (no one had thought of the Mariners yet). Again, the Yankees are leading the American League East standings this year.

Now I am living in New York City. This is probably my last summer here before we move on. To be perfectly honest about it, I’m not much of a baseball fan anymore but come on, I’m in New York. For old time’s sake my wife and I decided we at least needed to go to Yankee Stadium once. After all we did go to Madison Square Garden for one Knicks game. So last weekend we attended a game between the Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays. We went by subway, the number 4 train, which took us from our doorstep to just across the street from Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. The trip took about 30 minutes.

Now this Yankee Stadium is the new Yankee Stadium. The original was built in 1923 and then replaced by a much improved replica right across the street from the old stadium. Every effort was apparently made to insure the exterior of the stadium looked like the original. Of course a lot of New Yorkers liked the old stadium better than the new but that’s the way New Yorkers are it seems. The new stadium opened on April 2, 2009. It cost $2.3 billion with $1.2 billion in taxpayer subsidies. The capacity of the new Yankee Stadium is 52,325 along with 56 luxury suites and 4300 club seats. The Yankee clubhouse features 30,000 square feet of space. That’s 2.5 times what the old stadium housed. There are many concessions along with a sports bar, a Hard Rock Café and a steak house.

The Yankee shortstop, Derek Jeter was honored prior to the game for getting his 3000^th hit as a Yankee. The actual game provided a few moments of interest but baseball sure does seem to move slowly. There’s an awful lot of standing around on the field waiting for something to happen and a lot of drinking and eating being accomplished by the fans. We lasted until the 5^th inning when the Yankees got a grand slam home run and took a 7-0 lead. I saw the last out on TV after we arrived home. The Yankees won 9-2. An interesting experience but my interest in baseball was not enhanced.

Stan the Man