for father’s day, i bought my dad (and me) tickets to Old Timers Day. i refused to go to the Stadium with anyone but my dad the first time—it’s just something i wanted to share with him. i bought the tickets back in like February or March and July 19 seemed so friggin' far away but you know how life goes—just like that, the day finally arrived. and it was a beauty. clear sky, lots of sun but no humidity. i have suffered through some rainy, some freezing and some rainy and freezing games—as well as some during which i thought i might melt into a puddle and get mixed up with the spilt beer and peanut shells under the seats—so i was especially thrilled with our good weather luck.
my dad took the NJ Transit train in from Trenton early Sunday morning and i found him at Penn Station (we have a routine: he arrives, calls me on my cell, describes his surroundings and i track him down like a scent hound) and we got on a Bronx-bound subway. ("how do you know we're on the right train?" he asked me. "um, because i've lived here for 10 years, dad.")
it was a quick ride and when we first got off at 161st Street, things looked the same. there were no new signs in the station, the walls and ground weren’t any less grimy and trudging up the steps amidst the throngs of fans felt like it always did. but then, above ground, it was a whole new world.
namely: a big, gleaming, ivory structure—a stark contrast to the gray-net-encased old stadium across the street—and, i have to admit, it gave me goosebumps. it was not unlike walking into the Magic Kingdom and spotting Cinderella Castle in the distance, or standing below Spaceship Earth at Epcot (you expected anything other than Disney analogies?).
it was weird to see a big HardRock Café façade right there near the main entrance. it seemed, to me, incongruous. (and, actually, a lot like Disney World.) but i overlooked that. whatever.
the ticket turnstiles are interesting in that you scan your own tickets (hmm, another Disney similarity), whereby rendering pretty much useless the old guys who man the ‘stiles. they’re still there, though, and crotchety as ever.
the Great Hall—what you’re standing in once you push through the turnstile—is really, really impressive. it’s like two or three stories high, there are huge banners hanging with images of Yankee icons and it’s befittingly grand for such a hallowed place (yeah, yeah, i know the place across the street is actually hallowed, blah blah blah—ghosts move).
the funny thing is that once you get “inside” the park—meaning, where you can glimpse the field—it feels a lot like the old stadium. or, rather, the field doesn’t look much different. so it’s not that breathtaking experience of seeing the Yankee diamond for the first time ever.
what does take one’s breath away is the ginormous high-def screen in center field. like you have no idea how clear this picture is. they put Don Zimmer’s face up on the screen during Old Timers’ introductions and i counted exactly how many wrinkles he acquired since i last saw him, that’s how clear it is.
which reminds me—our seats were in what is called the Grandstand now (in plain-speak: upper deck) on the first base side. i sat in similar seats in the old stadium and, while i would sit pretty much anywhere for a Yankee game, i always felt like i
was really far away up there. not at the new place. we were maybe 12 rows down from the last-last row and i felt like i was only one level up. my dad said it had something to do with how they structured the sections or how they arranged the seating or something—whatever they did, it works.
other things of note:
- it’s awesome to be able to see the field no matter where you are on the concourse. where the old stadium was dark and cavernous between seating entryways, this place is wide open, which makes standing on line for a beer or peanuts a much less anxious experience.
- the ladies rooms are lovely. yes, i said it, lovely. clean, free of unpleasant smells, no lines, paper toilet seat covers in each stall. major, major upgrade.
- there are uniformed workers stationed throughout the stadium holding signs that say “may i help you?” they look like total tools, but they are pretty helpful and non-rude. my dad pointed out that there seemed to be a real effort in the new place to be fan-friendly. (which is the least they can do considering you can buy a house right now for less than it costs to take a family of four to a Yankee game. )
- garlic fries. they sell garlic fries at Yankee Stadium! you have no idea how obsessed i’ve been with garlic fries since Michael and i had them at a SF Giants game at Pac Bell in 2004. it was my first experience with one of the most brilliant creations ever, and i nearly lost my mind when i noticed a woman on the concourse carrying a paper tray of them on Sunday. they were even better this time, presumably because i was in my own ballpark rooting for my own team. (head’s up: they’re totally worth indulging in, but you will definitely be, ahem, reminded of the indulgence for a day or two afterward—as will the people who come within a foot of you.)
my complaints are few, but i do have them.
- whether it was just our section, or because it was a Sunday in July, or because that’s just how things are now, i don’t know, but there seemed a distinct and noticeable lack of passion among the fans. at one point, when Joba had two outs and two strikes on the current batter, i had an urge to stand up and clap but actually thought, “no, you’ll block the people behind you.” then i wanted to slap myself—hello, it’s a ballgame! not the opera! [a guy and a girl arrived in the third or fourth inning and sat in the seats next to me. they did not acknowledge the actual game at all. not even once. seriously, amazing things were happening on the field and they just kept chattering away, so inanely i wanted to throw my beer on them. why not just go to a bar? why pay $75 a pop to spend $10 a beer to NOT watch a baseball game? uggggh.] anyway, i was the only one in my section—and the surrounding sections—who got up to dance when “Cotton-Eyed Joe” came on in the eighth inning. after about 45 seconds of flailing about i felt like a total idiot so i sat down. that bummed me out.
- the stadium definitely reads corporate, from the fancy steakhouse and Tommy Bahama’s to the sleek, glass-enclosed suites and Delta Sky Bar. it’s very slick and buttoned up. that sort of sucks.
but, look. the bottom line is: i’m a Yankee fan, i’ll always be a Yankee fan, and going to games is always a thrilling experience for me, whether it’s in a magical dump like the old place or a gleaming Disney-fied building like the new place. the game last Sunday was a total blast, they actually won for us, we got to see Moose and Mo pitch (one in the game that didn't count, one in the game that did), and i’ll be able to tell my kids someday, “your grandpa and i made our first visit to this stadium together...”
and i love that, almost as much as i love garlic fries.
mb
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