These little town blues

In case you don’t know, Yankee Stadium will be closing their doors tonight.  And it saddens me a lot to not be able to say my goodbyes in person.  Not that I like saying goodbye, but I would’ve liked to have been there anyway. 

True, it’s not like the team’s moving somewhere far away or closing up shop completely.  But when the Stadium goes, a lot of memories go with her.

I remember my first trip to the Stadium.  It was Thursday, August 19, 1999.  I remember that it was also the day my godson was born.  We had to leave the game early so that I could visit my godson at the hospital before visiting hours ended. 

I remember I wore a yellow baseball shirt with the number 5 printed on the back.  I wore dark blue capri pants and remember wishing I had worn shorts instead.  It was a hot, humid, sunny day and I was dying underneath the sun’s intensive glare. 

I remember relishing every bite of the Stadium Hotdog and wondering if 2:00pm was too early to have a beer buzz. 

Don’t ask me who they played against that day or who won cause I don’t remember. 

I remember after we went through the gates that we didn’t immediately proceed to our tier reserve seats.  Andrew wanted me to see the Stadium first, so while the teams were warming up, we walked around a bit.  My first glimpse of the field was through the tunnel leading to the seats behind home plate and I remember feeling breathless at the sight of it.  As we went through the tunnel, the field got bigger and bigger until I couldn’t take it all in anymore.  And suddenly, there it was in front of me, the big white NY sign painted on the grass, the home plate, the pitcher’s mound, the thousands of blue seats, the scoreboard, everything.  It was unreal!  I was so excited all I could do was squeeze his hand. 

I can’t count the number of times I’ve been to the Stadium since then.  This is the first year I was not able to go at all.  I was planning to take the one-hour stadium tour but, being it’s the last year to do so, all the tickets were sold out.  I saw that they were going for over $300 on StubHub, which is ri-goddamn-diculous!  For over $300, Derek Jeter better be doing the tour and buying me lunch AND telling me I’m the most beautiful woman in the world!   

Anyway, the new stadium (yes, in small caps) promises to have a lot of the new-fangled features that most ballparks have these days.  Some people think the Stadium is cramped and outdated.  It’s 85 years old, of course it’s outdated!

The new stadium also promises to be more expensive.  Like it wasn’t already.  Yankee Stadium tickets, even before this final year, were the most expensive tickets I’ve ever had to pay for a baseball game.

But, they were all worth it.

The New York Times devoted a couple of pages to tonight’s last game at the Stadium.  And ESPN has been showing some of the Stadium’s greatest moments.  All of this while I’m going through my own memories, is making me very emotional today. 

I think I’ve sat in pretty much every area in the stadium.  I remember sneaking into the lower, more expensive seats.  They’re much more enjoyable when you don’t have to pay for them.   The cheapest seats, the

bleachers, were a lot of fun to be in cause there are so many “interesting” people who “root” for the Yankees there.  But I wouldn’t recommend bringing your impressionable children with you.   

The last time I was at the Stadium, I brought Tinyhands (who took the picture on the left) and my friend, Nina, with me.  That was Labor Day weekend 2007!  We drove in an hour early to avoid traffic and so that we can also enjoy the sights and sounds of the Stadium before it got packed.  They played against the Devil Rays.  Tinyhands and I were just debating on the phone about who won.  He seems to remember that they pulled a win at the last minute, whereas I seem to remember feeling bummed because they had a good streak going and they fell short of sweeping the Devil Rays that weekend.  Oh well…

I took the day off on Friday to make a special trip to the Stadium.  Even though I didn’t have tickets, I wanted to take some pictures of the Stadium before they tear it down.  Unfortunately, I got sick and feverish.  A beautiful day was wasted lying in bed feeling miserable.  I had hoped to take a souvenir of the Stadium, like Karen did, but alas, it was not meant to be.   

I’ve been to Camden Yards, Shea Stadium, Minute Maid Park and Coors Field, all very impressive in their own way.  But none of them can even come close to Yankee Stadium. 

~ by Beth on September 21, 2008.