Yankee Stadium 8/7/2004..
Turnabout is fair play.. Breanne got to see Nomar and the Red Sox, so now it was Justin's turn.. Unlike Fenway, tickets were still available for a few Yankee games and I picked a nice Saturday day game to make our trip down to the Bronx into the Death Star itself.. the Evil Empire.. <dum dum dummmmmm> .. Yankee Stadium.. It makes me sick to my stomach..
OK I'm a Red Sox fan and my wife loves the Mets so for both of us this was not a place we really wanted to be.. we both despise the Yankees, but Justin came home from school one day and decided he liked them, so we put our personal feelings about the Yankees and headed down for the day.
Being that we were going into enemy territory, I dressed incognito.. don't want to stick out especially as a member of the Nation..
We got to the Bronx easily enough and parked in the garage adjacent to the park and walked over.. we checked out the giant bat outside the park. Then we visited a souvenir stand and picked up a ball for Dylan and a hat for Justin. At this point we decide that we should do this at every park.. we have kept that up to this day.. At every park Dylan gets a ball with the team's logo, Justin gets a team logo hat and Breanne gets a bear. She didn't get hers this day as she refused to get something with Yankees on it.. she is my girl, she did get one later and named it 'Stinky'.
We headed around to our entrance.. OK here's where I made a crucial mistake.. when i bought tickets I had a choice between the Left Field Bleachers and the Upper Deck. Being a little uncomfortable with heights, I chose the bleachers.. the seats were only $8 each, so it was the inexpensive option and seemed like a good choice... wrong.. the bleachers at Yankee Stadium especially the Left Field bleachers qualify as the worst seats in baseball.
Firstly.. no alcohol is served in the bleachers at all.. when i bought the tickets certain sections were listed as no alcohol, but our section of the bleachers was not one of them.. Now i don't pound beers at a ballgame, but I do enjoy a frosty beverage or two at a game. Had i known this ahead of time I would have chosen different seats.
Second.. the bleacher creatures are treated to a seperate entrance and are restricted in their movements.. you can't get in to the rest of the park from the bleachers.. Fenway used to be like this too years ago, but thankfully they removed this restriction. One of the things you can't do from the bleachers is to visit monument park. You can kind of stand up above it, but you can't go down and pay your respects to the Yankee greats.. wow..
Lastly.. the Left Field bleachers are about a mile from the field. the Right field bleachers aren't THAT bad, but in left field it seems like there is a good 80 feet between the front row of the bleachers and the wall that seperates the field from the stands. We were in one of the last few rows of our section and crikey.. I couldn't have thrown a ball to Hideki Matsui in Left Field that day, and I could barely read Alex Rodriguez' and Derek Jeter's numbers on their backs..
Anyways when the game starts we get to witness 'roll call' which is a great Yankee bleacher tradition.. the fans in the Right Field bleachers call out each players name in order in the top of the first until the player acknowledges them with a quick turn and a tip of the cap or a wave or something.. pretty cool and unique to the Yankees.. the day is overcast and cool for August.. the lights are on for the whole game.. the giveaway is some sort of Japanese looking bathrobe. The kids put them on to keep them warm. The Yankees are playing the Blue Jays.
One fan walks up into the bleachers with a Red Sox hat on and the crowd unleashes it's venom on the poor girl.. yup incognito is the way to go especially if the Yankees aren't playing the Red Sox.. you don't want to stand out in this crowd..
We head down in the middle of the game to get some sodas and whatever from the snack bar. OK.. here's another reason why Yankee Stadium sucks.. the service at the snack bar in the bleachers was absolutely awful. It took us 3 innings to get a couple of sodas and some popcorn.. there weren't more than 3 people ahead of us in line when we went down there.. the staff was terrible.. if you ordered three sodas the would walk to the soda machine slowly, pour a soda, walk back to the counter slowly and set it down. Then back to the soda machine again slowly.. and repeat the process.. At least the had TVs setup where you could see the game while you waited in line. Living in New York, though, I can watch the Yankees for free. At the game i don't want to spend the day waiting in line for a soda.
We finish watching the game which the Yankees won.. El Duque pitched well for the Yankees and got out to our car.. It takes us awhile to get out of the garage and back on the highway.. we stop in Tarrytown and have dinner at a nice little restaurant and follow it up with some killer homemade ice cream at a shop up the street. To this day every time we go to New York City, we have to stop in Tarrytown on the way home for ice cream.
On this trip we decide as a family that we will never again sit in cheap seats if we can help it. It just isn't worth it. We also make up the rule that we will try and avoid chain restaurants in favor of something local whenever possible. That along with beginning the collections of kids souvenirs has opened the door for what would become the journey of a lifetime..
Pictures from 8/7/2004
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