This weekend I had the privilege to see the Phillies play the Yankees at New Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. The first 8.5 innings of the game were amazing, but we're not going to talk about the MOTHER FUCKING BOTTOM OF THE NINTH, GOT IT?!?! But this post is a review of the stadium, not a write-up about the game.
Before we get to that, I have to comment on the train ride to New York. First off, I didn't enjoy the ride all that much. I attended an open bar from 9-12 the night before, and I don't really remember much from 12:30-2:30 AM. So needless to say, I wasn't feeling all that hot on the train. Couple that with the fact that the A/C wasn't working on the train, and you have a long hour and a half ride. Of course, we ran into a couple of middle-aged women who were also heading up to the game (actually, like half the people on the train were Phillies fans going to the game) and we were chatting them up for a while. Like all Phillies fans, they were extremely classy and were not so discreetly pouring mini bottles of vodka into their water bottles. Good times!!! After showing them the way on the subway, they told us to call them if we go to any Sunday games. Probably won't, but apparently the one lady's daughter is an 18 year old cheerleader who is going to attend Pitt in the fall. So who knows, maybe I'll save that number for a while.
Anyway, we got a nice bonus on the subway to the Bronx, as this group of 4 guys hopped on the train, started pumping a boombox, and doing ridiculous flips and dance moves on the train. After their act, I wondered out loud, "Can I pay these guys?" I received a quick answer when the youngest of the kids walked around with a hat looking for change. Nothing in life is free.
When we got off the train, we walked out and observed the gargantuan structure staring us in the face, New Yankee Stadium. As Old Yankee Stadium is still sitting across the street, the size comparison was stark; it's not even close. New Yankee dwarfs its older brother. It's a giant concrete structure that looks kind of like a coliseum from the outside. There's not much decoration on the outside, besides some giant pictures of current Yankee stars. Once we got inside, it seemed to be much more of the same. Very big, and very concrete. If you've been to Old Yankee Stadium, the concourses in the new one are 4-5x the size. Even if 55,000 people (capacity) showed up to a game, which never happens because the seats are too damn expensive, there would be plenty of room for everyone.
After walking around the concourse for a while, we went to see Monument Park, which is basically the Yankee Hall of Fame for those of you who have been living under a rock for the last 75 years. This is where the flaws of the stadium began to show (and there are many). To get into Monument Park, you have to walk through an extremely narrow staircase that for some ungodly reason is unlit. The hallway is way too narrow for the amount of people trying to cram into Monument Park, and once you finally get into the exhibit it's not much better. I hadn't been to Monument Park at Old Yankee Stadium, but apparently there was about twice as much room at the old stadium to walk around. However, the exhibits in Monument Park were astounding, you're literally on top of the field and the home bullpen, and it's pretty amazing to be a witness true baseball history. Of course, the best part of Monument Park was the member of the staff who welcome the "fans" to the park. His job was to literally stand on a porch, and scream "Welcome to Monument Park, fam! No lines here, fam! Move along now, fam, no lines here!" Of course, he was actually saying, "fans," but it sounded like "fam," and it was hilarious either way. Unless your name is Kanad, you probably find the last few sentences completely useless. I don't really care. I type what I want, I'm the President.
After Monument Park, we walked up to the Yankee Museum. The museum was really sweet because it contained all kinds of rare artifacts in the vein of the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. The best exhibit though, and probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen is the collection of autographed baseballs contained in the exhibit. The first ball is signed by Don Larsen, and a statue of him throwing a pitch sits right next to the exhibit. The last ball is signed by Yogi Berra, and a statue of him catching Larsen's pitch sits next to the end of the exhibit. In between, you'll find approximately 600 balls autographed by former Yankee legends including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio, and not so Yankee legends including Bobby Munoz and Sal Fasano. I spoke to the curator of the museum, and he told me the goal is to collect an autographed baseball from every Yankee ever to play for the team. While I doubt they'll ever accomplish this feat, the fact that they already have as many as they do now, and counting, is pretty amazing.
After the museum, we decided to finally head to our seats to check them out. We lasted about 0.7 seconds there since I purchased horribly obstructed view seats that left us no view of right field. Instead, we decided to watch the game from Standing Room Only, which there is plenty of around the stadium. I looked around, I saw about 20-30% Phillies fans, which was extremely impressive. Phillies Nation showed up, and they showed up in force, definitely one of the benefits of winning a World Series the year prior.
Since this is way too long already, I'll post most of the rest of this post in bullet format:
- Everything in the stadium is sponsored by something, the subway race, the sound made after a strikeout, the sound made when someone stole a base, and I think the toiletpaper was sponsored by Waste Management. I'm joking about the TP, but ask anyone who has been to New Yankee, and they'll all agree it's not that far away.
- The food choices are second to none at New Yankee. The variety there was amazing.
- Contrary to popular opinion, you can afford to drink at New Yankee. A beer costs....$6! Cheaper than Philly, cheaper than Citi Field. Amazing deal for a ballpark. It is $10 for the souvenir cup though, if you wish to purchase.
- I don't know how much parking costs. I don't wanna know how much parking costs.
- Half the seats in the expensive sections were empty. The other half were taken by Phillies fans or the sailors who got free seats for Fleet Week. Terrible pricing strategy.
- 4 Bleacher sections were completely or partially obstructed view seats. Please for the love of god, knock down the damn Mohegan Sun.
- There's a Hard Rock Cafe in the stadium. In poor taste if you ask me.
- The stadium plays like a complete joke. Every fly ball flies into the stands. On Sunday, Teixeira hit a broken bat home run. Whoever designed that should be ashamed, seriously. There were 12 home runs hit in the 3 games vs. the Phillies, and 2 Cy Young candidate pitchers threw on Sunday.
Overall, the stadium is gorgeous if you're looking at it from a strictly aesthetic perspective. It did cost $1.6B, so I would hope it looks great. However, it doesn't seem like a ballpark to me. It's way too focused on the luxury corporate experience, and not on watching the ball game. There's way too much concrete, not enough brick, and nothing distinguishable except for the white facade around the stadium. There's too much corporate sponsorship, and I pray to god this is only a New York trend, and not something we're going to be seeing at all stadiums around the country. Sadly, I know which way it's going to head.
After the game was over, I expected to be bothered by Yankee fans on the subway and walking out of stadium. However, every New Yorker in the god damn city must have watched the game, and I had to hear shit from every person in the city for 3 hours. I refused to take off even one article of my Phillies clothing, as I wear it as a sign of pride, not a badge of shame no matter what happened in the 9th inning of the game. Yankee fans, we took the series 2-1. We are the current World Series Champions. We invaded your stadium and made it sound like Citizens Bank Park for most of the weekend. Take your 26 World Series Championships, your $1.6B stadium, and shove it up your ass. We'll see you in October.
- Kaps
Song of the Day: Rise Against - Swing Life Away
