Baseballs and Bows: Yankee Stadium

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Yankee Stadium - Day 1

This weekend Brian and I took a major step on the path of parenthood...and left our baby for two whole days. He was left in the completely capable hands of my parents for the weekend so we could get out of dodge, and he actually seemed to have a great time.

We have always wanted to go to a Yankees game at Yankee Stadium, but we've never been able to go. Not even Brian, who has gone to more Spring Training games than I can count, has ever been to a game at Yankee Stadium. He's seen them play at Legends Field in Tampa for Spring Training and he's seen them play the Orioles at Camden Yards, but not on their real home turf. Since it's their last season at the Stadium before the new one opens next year, we knew we had to go now.

On Friday morning I dropped my little fella off, and then we hit the road with Brian's parents to go the game. We got to New York around 3:30, but wanted to be at the stadium by 5 when they opened the gates for fans to come in. So we dropped of the bags and got subway directions to the game. So we took the A to the D to the B (I know, I'm so cool with my subway lingo) and ended up at 161st Street - the Yankee Stadium stop!

We went to the first gate we could find and went in the stadium, and immediately got ushered into Monument Park. It was actually a lucky break because we would have had to look for it, but we stumbled right on top of it. So we made our way through Monument Park and saw all the retired numbers and the monuments of the Yankee Greats. The part of Monument Park with the retired numbers is below the Visitors' bull pen and while we were down there Mel Stottlemyre, the former Yankees pitching coach walked in with his pitching staff for the Mariners, which was pretty neat.

Then we went to the gift shop and got Brian a sweatshirt (someone forgot to pack it for him), and went to our sits behind the Yankees dugout. Brian was able to get us GREAT seats for the game, it was a blast! We were a little concerned going in because A-Rod and Jorge Posada are both on the Disabled List, and then we saw that Robinson Cano and Johnny Damon were not in the line up once we got there. Nevertheless, it was an awesome game and the Yankees won! Chien Ming Wang pitched a great game, and after a shockingly good inning of pitching by Karl Farnsworth (let's just he's typically not...good), we got to see Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera close the game.

The coolest part of Yankee Stadium is being in the stadium where Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe Dimaggio, Mickey Mantle, etc. all played. There's so much history there and it's a shame that they won't be playing there after this season. I've personally only been to Turner Field before, and while it's nice and relatively new and beautiful, it just doesn't even compare! Anyway, here's a few pictures from the game on Friday.