The Stadium

This entry may be interesting to only one person on Earth (me), but at the very least it will give you a little insight into me, and maybe that's worth a little more than a hill of beans.

This year is the final year for the original Yankee Stadium. Of course I have lots of memories of the Stadium myself, the first being on July 24, 1976, the year it reopened after a two-year renovation. Dad took me to my first game and the Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-1. Since then I've probably been to somewhere around 40-50 games at the Stadium, sometimes when the team was good (late 70s, late 90s), and sometimes when they weren't (late 80s). (I've also been to see them at other venues, such as Camden Yards in Baltimore, Angel Stadium in Anaheim, and the old Comiskey Park in Chicago.)

Some other memories that stick out:

1. In 1981 (I was 13) a church friend gave us two of his company's season tickets to the playoff game vs. the A's. Oh - did I mention that the seats just happened to be in the second row behind the Yankees' dugout? It was an afternoon game, so my father came and got me out of school and we arrived at the Stadium when the doors opened so we could take everything in. When we got there the Yankees were taking batting practice, and basically all of my idols were just 15-20 feet away when they would come in and out of the dugout. Finally they were packing it in so the A's could have their turn at batting practice, and lo and behold Reggie Jackson himself started trotting in. We just gaped at him. Finally just before he disappeared underneath the dugout roof, he flipped us a ball. I was frozen. Dad just hopped up to retrieve it and kept repeating, "Thank you! Thank you!" I'll never forget it. (Of course I have very little recollection of the actual game other than the Yankees killed them 13-3 and Ken Griffey made an incredible catch against the wall in left field and his cleats ripped the padding on the wall.)

2. In late July 1996 Elisa & I drove up to NJ so I could attend my high school 10-year reunion on a Saturday night. The next afternoon I was excited to take Elisa to Yankee Stadium for the first time. The Yanks' Dwight Gooden pitched a great game, giving up only 2 runs in 8 innings, but Kevin Appier of the Royals did him one better, giving up only a single run through 8. With the score 2-1 in the bottom of the 9th, Tino Martinez singled and then Darryl Strawberry hit a 2-run walk-off homerun to deep right-center field to win it. (It happened to be the 300th HR of his career.) It was a great game with an exciting finish.

3. When Cal Ripken let everyone know that 2001 would be his final season, everyone in Maryland wanted to get tickets to his final games. We ended up getting tickets for a game on Saturday 9/15, but the final three games of his career were scheduled to be at Yankee Stadium. I jumped on the chance to get tickets to a game in the Bronx that weekend, and I did get some for the Friday night game that weekend. Of course, the events of 9/11 changed a lot of things, including the baseball schedule. We did head up to NYC to see the game at the Stadium on 9/28, and every time Cal came to the plate, he got a huge ovation (although he ended up going hitless that night). The afternoon before the game we went downtown to see what we could of what remained. Needless to say it will be a day I never forget. (We did end up seeing Cal's penultimate game on 10/6 since the 9/15 game was rescheduled for that day.)

4. Last year after we decided to move west, I knew that it would likely be my last chance to take Sara Sue to a game at the old Stadium. I'm not sure it will ever matter to her when she gets older, but I wanted her to be able to say for the rest of her life, "I went to a game where Babe Ruth & Lou Gehrig played." So I got 3 tickets on eBay for an afternoon game on July 5th against the Twins. We drove up to New York on the morning of the 4th and spent a rainy 4th of July night with our friends the Henegars in Scarsdale, just a short jaunt from the Stadium. The game was a see-saw battle throughout, and the Yanks were down 6-5 in the bottom of the 8th inning before Hideki Matsui hit a 3-run HR for the winning runs. I'll always cherish the picture of me and Sara Sue at that game.

In case you are interested in a little more Stadium history, here is a Fox Sports article, and here is an article on Major League Baseball's site.

Other folks can talk all they want about Wrigley or Fenway, and I understand and can appreciate it. But they just can't stand up to The Stadium. I'll miss it.