Yankee Stadium - August 14

After dinner we got on the 4 train at Grand Central Station and took that up to Yankee Stadium.  Our seats were in the box section in the 3rd deck about a third of the way down the third base line.  It was amazing to get to experience Yankee Stadium.  On the 14th, they had a number of remembrances of Phil Rizzuto, who had passed away the night before.  All of this definitely added to the sense of history in the stadium.

The game was definitely a snooze though.  Aubrey Huff hit a grand slam for the Orioles in the 3rd to give them a 5-0 lead.  The Orioles steamrolled the Yankees 12-0 behind 6 2/3 innings of one hit ball from Daniel Cabrera.  The Yankees fell to 0-2 in games I’ve personally attended this year, making me think that I should go more often.

That being said, after visiting Yankee Stadium, I can understand why the Yankees want a new building.  Despite what you see on the field, the stadium is largely a dump.  The concourses are narrow and completely overcrowded all the time.  The areas underneath the stands are also very dingy and suffer from a number of noticable maintenance issues.  While I still think that it is a shame to tear down a building with such great history, and I think that another renovation would be capable of solving most of the stadium’s problems, I do understand the rationale behind building a new stadium.  As a baseball fan and a history buff, I’m definitely glad I got to attend a game there before they tear it down following the 2008 season.