Bill's Journal Entry #24

Yankee Stadium

Date: September 3, 2002

Location: New York, New York

Opponent: Boston Red Sox

Travel companion: none

Link to my photos

Game Result: Yankees vs. Red Sox. "The Rocket" vs. Pedro. What more can be said? Well, for starters, it can be said that Pedro Martinez opted out of his start hours before game time, citing a bum leg, ruining my chance to see such a classic pitching match-up. But at least Roger Clemens didn't disappoint. He went 7-1/3, gave up four hits and two runs, and struck out ten-including the first four straight batters to start the game. The Bombers scored three times in the first, including a Derek Jeter homerun that just wrapped around the inside of the left field foul pole, and the rest of the game was basically cruise control. Yankees 4, Red Sox 2.

Stadium Summary: Yankee Stadium is a hard one to review. It's difficult to tell which to concentrate on-the history, or the park itself.

On the history side, you need to start any review of "The House that Ruth Built" with Monument Park. This area just past the left field fence, in front of the left field bleachers, is full of monuments and plaques commemorating Yankee and Yankee Stadium greats. (No, it's not just Yankees. There are plaques to two popes, who each held services within the stadium, and, since the time of my visit, a monument was dedicated to the heroes of 9/11/01.) It's staggering to see the number of Yankee greats, and wonder how Cooperstown can have room for any non-Yankees.

On the side of the park itself, Yankee Stadium has a lot of nice, unique characteristics, but in the long run is fairly average. The view from outside the homeplate entrance, as well as the subways running elevated over the street beyond left field, are simply classic. The location of the bullpens and Monument Park are visually nice, unless you have seats beyond them, in which case, bring your binoculars to see the game. The upper deck is eerily steep-watch your step, or you'll tumble forward and end up in a lower-level seat the hard way. Far too much of the lower two decks have overhangs of the sections above them obscuring most of the view of the scoreboard, or of any ball hit more than ten feet in the air. And the adidas sponsorship tie-in is way overboard, as their three stripes are on everything in the park-it almost makes you wonder if the original Yankee pinstripes were the result of an adidas sponsorship. Still, the stadium is generally very attractive. Count me as one of the people that like the foul territory behind home plate. Sure, it puts the fans quite a long way from the action, but for the most part it improves sight lines, and that gorgeous "NY" behind the catcher is simply classic.

Maybe that's the best way to summarize Yankee Stadium. It's not great. It's not bad. But it's the very definition of "classic".

Most important location to visit while in New York: Ground Zero. Anything I would say about the location would be redundant hyperbole, so I won't. But I will mention that the entire area was surprisingly open to the visiting public, which was there in surprisingly large numbers. My photos are with the stadium photos in the link above.

Most despicable scum in all of New York: A tie:  the vendors across the street from Ground Zero selling "I visited Ground Zero" t-shirts; and the people that were trying to haggle a better price when buying those shirts. This isn't the Hard Rock Cafe, folks.

Best reason to get to Yankee Stadium well before the gates open: Monument Park. Only a certain number of people were allowed into Monument Park. All of those people were at the stadium when the gates opened, and went straight to the Monument Park line as soon as they got in. If you did anything else, you didn't get in.

Worst stadium staff of any Major League stadium: This wasn't even close. The staff at Yankee Stadium was not only the worst I saw, they were more rude and obnoxious than any fans I saw at any park. At most stadiums, if you courteously ask if you can go up close to the field before the game to take photos, you're told "yes" or "no" with the same courtesy. Yankee Stadium personnel instead tended to react as if you had just said something inappropriate about their mothers. While standing in line to get into Monument Park, they were continuously barking at everyone to move the line. What did they want those of us in the back of the line to do, trample those in front of us? If you want to work the front of the line to keep things moving, fine, but it's pointless to harass those further back. After the game, despite there being a nearly sold-out crowd, the ushers had more than half of the ramps down from the upper deck closed off for some unknown reason, and instead squeezed the crowd out through the remaining ramps. This obviously resulted in the exit process being much slower than would normally be expected, and they were chewing out the crowd for that slowness! Get a clue, people!

Worst stadium section numbering scheme: I'm amazed anyone makes it to their seats. The boxes nearest the field are sections 1 through 138-easy enough. Right behind that are sections 201 through 350. OK, this still makes sense. Right behind that is ... sections 1 through 36? We already had these numbers! Behind that are the rows of 400 and 500 sections, then beyond that is the 600 sections. And furthest of all from the field? You have sections 1 through 36 again! And the worst part is, if you get confused as to where you should be, and you decide to ask an usher ... well, read the previous paragraph, and I'm sure you can guess what will likely happen.

Interesting fan traditions: At the start of Yankee games, fans in the right field stands will start chanting the names of the Yankee players in the field, and will continue chanting each name until that player acknowledges them. The players have learned to do so quickly, so the chants are now completed practically before you realize that they're occurring. There was also a man who walks around the crowd with a large bell, and a spoon. He hands the spoon to fans on the aisles, so they can ring the bell for a Yankee victory. I was told he's at every game. And, perhaps not that interesting, but definitely a tradition, is the heckling of Red Sox fans. Most notable was the chant of "Nineteen Eighteen," which is the year the Red Sox last won a World Series. However, I was quite impressed at how good-natured this rivalry seemed to be among the fans. I had always heard stories that made it sound much more vicious and personal.

Best clothing item to wear to a ball game: A shirt from BASEBALLPARKS.COM, like the one I wore that day! They're attractive, comfortable, and they let everyone know how much you enjoy a day of baseball! They're available from the Grand Slam Mall in several styles and sizes. 

Stadium grade: B  Without Monument Park, though, it's probably a 'C'.

Overall grade of my experience at the game: B  The performance of "The Rocket", and the chance to see this classic rivalry in person, made up for the actions of the Yankee Stadium staff.

-- Bill Verkuilen  biggbill@hotmail.com 

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