Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Yankee Stadium, Forever.

I didn't think I'd feel like this.

I didn't think that on a hot and heavy July afternoon I'd be two seconds from having to turn off the song I'm listening to because it's moving me that close to tears.

I didn't think that today I would find myself awash in the memories of this place again.

I thought that maybe, just maybe, I'd have some time left before I'd be thinking about this one more time.

I should have known better.

There's history here, and it's more than history.

Sure there are monuments out by center field, giving testament to some of the best to have ever put on pinstripes; guys that transcend the sport and instead are heroes not just of baseball, but of the best that Americana has to offer, but even so, the monuments can not touch our memories.

Our memory of this place is strengthened because we hold it together. Where one of us falters, another one can fill in the gap and together we share the collective conscience of a team and a city.

Who else can share the memories that we can share?

Pick your decade, pick your team, pick your memory. Whether it's Murderer's Row, Gehrig's Speech, Joe's streak, Yogi's quotes, Mickey and Roger's race for glory, Reggie's October or the way Tino and Scott helped a city heal in 2001, this place thrives on memory.

The ghosts are real. They are the memories that are so powerful they can will a team to its highest point.

There's still time left.

There's still time left to create more memories, to add more to the legend of this place--but it's fading fast. The nights are already starting to get longer, and the countdown to October has already begun.

After tonight, there is no more time to pause and reflect on what this place means to so many until October rears its haunting head, and though we want it, there is no guarantee we will be here then.

If there is any comfort, then, it's that while we might say farewell to the building, we will never have to say farewell to the memories.

We can destroy stone and mortar and metal friezes, we can rip apart the old seats and dismantle welded steel, but we cannot touch the memories.

We can take a bulldozer to the heart of Monument Park, but we cannot take a bulldozer to the memories.

The memories that give this place its life and its soul cannot be taken from us.

They are ours. Forever.


















Yankee Stadium
1923-2008

3 comments:

  1. I feel the same. I just don't believe the Steinbrenners understand what they have. I know why they chose to build a new stadium instead of remodeling the current Stadium, but it doesn't make sense to me.

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  3. Great post. I had the same melancholy feeling all day and I got choked up seeing the ailing Steinbrenner bring in the first pitch balls. I was at Guidrey's 18 strikeouts, 96 world series winning game with my parents and my mom passed a year later, then I was at the Mr November game as a city and my family healed, I was also at the Boone pennant win...Memories are what its all about Rebecca ...., Live , Laugh , Love ...and The New York Yankees...Great post kid, good luck at Fordham , I don't think you need it though.

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