Bob Sheppard to Retire...maybe

According to this report, legendary Yankees PA announcer is set to retire.

Sheppard, who refuses to comment on his age, is believed to be 98 years old and missed all of last season and was already set to miss the Cubs exhibition games this year.

In some ways, it's almost fitting. Sheppard was as much a part of the old Yankee Stadium as Monument Park or the short porch in right. There aren't many people around now who can remember Joe DiMaggio playing ball; Sheppard announced him coming to bat.

He will sorely be missed by Yankees fans everywhere.

[EDIT]: The Yankees and Sheppard have efuted the report, though it does seem that a return is still unlikely

Saddest picture I have ever seen as a baseball fan

Courtesy CBS 880 radio.


Yankee Stadium, the old one is now completely grassless.

I had an interesting conversation with my father last night. He, of the non-baseballfan-why-are-you-wasting-your-money-on-tickets variety, asked me why they didn't just keep the old Stadium, turn it into a park...

As excited as I am about the new Stadium, I can't help but be sad about the passing of the old.


****

(Sorry to disappoint you, but I didn't disappear off the face of the earth, and now I'm back to annoy you even more! Yay!)

To a Wyoming Senator that Caught the Last Home Run at Yankee Stadium

[I actually tried sending this email to the email address listed on the state senator's webpage--sharshman@wyoming.com, as the folks at River Ave Blues have encouraged, but I got this message in response:


I'm sorry to have to inform you that the message returned
below could not be delivered to one or more destinations.

: Permanent Failure: Mailbox would exceed maximum allowed storage

Maybe I'll try sending it again in a few weeks. After the election.]




Hello--

How's Wyoming? I've never been. My brothers both have, though, and they agree--it's a beautiful place and a haven for outdoor sports. That's not something you often get in New Jersey or in the Bronx so I guess I'll have to make my way out there some time. I've been killing to go kayaking, real kayaking, for ages.

I hope you liked your trip to New York. It's a great city, isn't it?

You should have been here for the Super Bowl last year, the entire city, even Jets fans, banding together to support the Giants, who were beyond lucky to win that game. It's the City's first professional sports championship since 9/11--the Devils won the Stanley Cup in 2003, yes, but they belong to New Jersey.

I'm sure as a sports fan you can get an idea of what Yankee Stadium means to the City. It's not just a place where they play baseball, it's part of the psyche, the consciousness, the being of the City. It identifies us, unites us, and is a place we can go to to live out some of our happiest memories.

Living in the Bronx has been a major culture shock to a girl from suburban New Jersey, but it is a vibrant community and now that I'm here, I absolutely love it. Like your state, it's a place that works its own magic. I'd love to take you to an Arthur Ave restaurant or let you sit in on my medieval history classes at Fordham University.

I can't put into words how much the Yankees mean to a place that for so long has been synonymous with urban decay.

So, while I congratulate you on catching the Jose Molina home run ball, I have to ask, nicely, if you would consider returning it.

You caught the ball, I'm sure you've taken pictures of yourself with the ball, you've seen it, you've touched it...most Yankee fans, myself included, have never caught so much as a foul ball and you caught something historic.

I can't speak for the Yankees, but I'm sure they'd be more than willing to send you all sorts of autographed memorabilia for that baseball or maybe get you tickets to a game at the new place, or pretty much, whatever you want.

But that ball deserves a place to rest not in a safe deposit box but in the New Yankee Stadium, reminding the fans that may have momentarily forgotten of their team's heritage, tradition, pride and importance both in the local community and in the larger context of the American sports world.

You will already be known as the guy to catch the last home run at Yankee Stadium and for that reason might find your name in the history and record books. You shouldn't need a baseball to prove it.

I hope the autumns in Wyoming are as pleasant as they are here, where we are approaching peak foliage--it's not Vermont, but it's ours. As is Yankee Stadium.

--

Rebecca
A Yankee Fan

The Morning After

From the moment I woke up this morning, my only thought has been, "it's gone".

Last night was a celebration and a tribute. Bittersweet, for sure, but it was about everything good that the Stadium was.

Today, however, there's an emptiness.

Reggie Jackson said it well--it feels like losing a friend.

I shouldn't care so much about a building...and yet...this was the stage of my childhood dreams.

I still have to go to class and, for the moment, feign an interest in the economic expansion of England in the 12th and 13th centuries, but today, my thoughts are elsewhere.

The Yankees won't stop playing. Next year they'll open a park that looks like (and is priced like) a palace, and I'll be write there, blogging and rooting for them all the way.

It won't be the same, however.

It will never be the same.

The Final Game--A LiveBlog

The day many of us thought would never get here is actually here. Today is, barring direct intervention from the baseball G-ds, the final game at Yankee Stadium.

I've decided to do a LiveBlog, which I will update throughout the day. Please feel free to comment with your Stadium memories or anything else you feel appropriate.


11.15 AM: Overslept again. I guess that's expected when you go to sleep at 3 AM. I'm really glad the Jets aren't playing today--it means I can devote the entire day to the Yankees. I didn't do football picks this week, because I can't think about football right now.

YES plans on airing Game 4 of the 2001 World Series as a "Yankees Classic" at one. I plan on watching that over ESPN, because I don't want the nostalgia shoved down my throat. Even though I end up watching ESPN anyway...

11.39 AM: Something else that has come to mind--


For so many fans, baseball was important simply because it was a way to bond with a parent--a father, especially.

There's some truth in that for me, but not in the sense that it is for most people.

See, Dad (and Mom) are not big sports fans. It's not that they have any intense hatred of spots, it's just something that doesn't interest them, like say Desperate Housewives doesn't interest me.

Still, before my brother, Dan, and I were old enough to take the train to New York by ourselves, Dad would get us tickets and go with us. Not because he wanted to, but because he knew that we wanted to go. Sometimes our older brother or our cousin would come too, but often, Dan and I were allowed to invite a friend. There would be four tickets, so with one spare, Dan and I would alternate who got to ask a friend to go, and we'd cross sports--basketball, hockey and baseball.

And every time I'm a little upset at Dad, I think of that.

I think of how he never complained, only rarely made us leave early (if it was a night game and we had school the next day), was willing to sit through two hours of traffic each way, how he even took us to Monument Park even though Dan, my brother, was still a little too young to understand what it meant.

And while I may never bond with my father over WHIP, park-adjusted ERA and OBP, I realize that what he did for myself and my brothers means so much more than any of the other stuff ever could.

1.13 PM: Just found this on ebay.

If I was still an undergrad, I would totally skip class to do this, and pay that much for the privilege, but the PhD students in my program have been kind enough to warn me not to skip my class tomorrow under any circumstances except imminent certain death.

I hope whoever does go is able to appreciate it.


1.31 PM Someone was kind enough to point out that Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS is currently playing on ESPN classic.

That may be the single greatest game that I've ever watched on TV. Well...top five, at least.

2.21 PM This is the best tribute video I have seen yet:



3.37 PM Just found out you can purchase classic baseball games on iTunes. The one I really really want, however, Game five of the 2001 World Series isn't available. However, I did get Well's perfect game, the Aaron Boone game and game six of the 1996 World Series.

3.58 PM I'm watching the replay of Game Four of the 2001 World Series. John Sterling makes a comment after Tino's home run that "If the Yankees win the World Series, the home run will go down as one of the most dramatic..."

Well, Mr. Sterling, the Yankees didn't win the World Series, but ask nearly any Yankee fan old enough to remember that game, and they will tell you it's one of the most dramatic moments of Yankee history. Especially when taken in consideration with what happened the next game. Not that you would have known that at the time.

5.00 PM Watching ESPN pan through the crowd, you can see people in tears. It's strangely comforting to know that I'm not the only one that is feeling emotion...even if I still have to wonder if it's appropriate. I mean, it's just a building.

And yet, it's so much more than that.

5.42 PM Apparently, according to ESPN, Reggie Jackson is going to watch the game from the right field bleachers. That is just plain awesome.

6.03 PM The Marquee outside the Stadium says "Thanks for the Memories". Indeed.

I don't have too many, but I wouldn't trade the ones I have for anything.

6.28 PM One of my friends, currently in New Hampshire and an acknowledged Red Sox fan, texted me to ask me if I was at the game tonight. I told her that I wasn't and asked why she wanted to know. She said that on the news there, they said that they were letting people walk on the field and she thought I would have thought that was cool (which I do).

In the heart of Red Sox nation today, they are paying tribute to the Yankees.

6.42 PM Mariano Rivera has said that he believes the biggest ovation will be for Bernie Williams. So glad he is back tonight--and yes, he probably will get the biggest ovation.

7.10 PM I'm flipping between YES and ESPN. Two comments--1) The hand prints on the wall are an amazing touch by the fans. 2) Bernie Williams in uniform. Chills.


7.12 PM Bob Sheppard, forever.


7.16 PM The original pennant and the retro uniforms...for a history student like me, this is gold.

7.21 PM Right now, there are cathedral bells going off down the street from me. It's chilling and apropos.

7.24 PM And the Jeter chants being. Methinks it's not the last time we will here such. He's a cult figure inside this ballpark.

7.29 For some reason, like Paul O'Neill, Scott Brosius always gives me chills. All because of October. Game Five of 2001 still overwhelms me.

7.39 PM Willie Randolph, a true Yankee. Indeed.

7.45 PM Yogi Berra was my childhood idol. Still is. That man IS America.

7.52 PM It's right now, as they're going through all of the Yankee greats, that I realize *just* how spoiled I've been, to be a Yankee fan. And while I didn't get to see anything before 1996, that that I have seen is just as magical and just as meaningful.

8.04 PM Welcome home, Bernie Williams. We have missed you.

8.07 PM Man, I wonder what Damon and Jeter and Abreu, etc feel, knowing that they're the line up on the very last day. I can't fathom it...but...wow.

8.14 PM I had thought Yogi was throwing out the first pitch, but, somehow, Julia Ruth Stevens doing it feels more appropriate.

8.22 PM Congratulations Derek!

8.30 PM I refuse to let Joe Morgan bother me. I refuse to let Joe Morgan bother me. I refuse to let Joe Morgan bother me. I refuse to let Joe Morgan bother me. I refuse to let Joe Morgan bother me. I refuse to let Joe Morgan bother me. I refuse to let Joe Morgan bother me.

8.36 PM ESPN paying tribute to the Bleacher Creature's Roll Call. Well done. Hope the Creatures make it worthwhile.

8.40 PM: Top of the first down, one hit, two flyouts and a grounder.

8.51 PM: That last strikeout was 2,000 for Andy Pettitte's career. It's not been his best year, but congratulations to hi on reaching that mark. Meanwhile Adam Jones missed a home run by centimeters.

9.05 PM: A base hit for the Yankees would be nice. They are, however, facing a pitcher they've never seen before, which tends to be kryptonite for them, and then there's the matter of the home plate umpire, but I'll shut up about that.

9.15 PM: Yogi and Whitey in the booth is a nice touch, and it's great to listen to them. Meanwhile, Andy continues to struggle on the mound.

9.24 PM: Hideki Matsui and Jose Molina with the Yankees' first two hits of the night. This has every feel of an October game.

9.27 PM: Johnny Damon with a three run home run. Jeter nearly made it back-to-back. I can't imagine what it's like to be that guy in the stands, who may have just caught the last home run ever to be hit at Yankee Stadium. The game, however, is still young, so who knows what will happen.

9.37 PM: The Yankees looked much better in the bottom of that inning. As with the Yankees of old, the spark started at the bottom of the line up.

9.47 PM: Oh, Andy. Bobby Abreu did well to make that throw close.

9.55 PM: Jose Molina has three home runs all year. He's not quite what you consider an offensive threat. And yet, as of right now, he's the last person to hit a home run in Yankee Stadium.

10.03 PM: Andy Pettitte has a 1-2-3 inning right when he needs it.

10.13 PM: The double play ens what had looked like a promising inning. No word on who's pulled the lever yet, or if it's been pulled.

10.15 PM Brent Nycz, from The Bronx Block just called me to tell me who pulled the lever:

Michael Kay.

Yeah. That's right.

They could have had Yogi, Larsen, Cone, Wells, O'Neill, Tino, Brosius, Moose, Bernie...

and it's Michael Kay.

No offense to Michael Kay, but that was a moment that should have gone to one of the Yankee greats.

10.18--Nice ovation and crowd chanting for Andy, but between the interviews with Cone and Wells, and the commercials courtesy of ESPN, you'd never know it.

For all of YES's faults, they would not have cut away from that.

10.33 PM Big moment for Phil Coke. Cannot possible imagine the butterflies going through his stomach. At least, if he ever makes it to October, he'll have a vague idea of what it's like.

10.34 PM Someone's gonna have to send me to rehab. I'm hooked on Coke.

10.47 PM Derek Jeter at the plate with the bases loaded. For the love of all that's Holy, get a hit!

10.48 PM Have I mentioned an intense dislike of Angel Hernandez?

10.53 PM ESPN keeps cutting away from the moments that are the most chilling. If they cut away from Mo's entrance, I may have to embark on a lifelong ESPN boycott.

10.58 PM It wouldn't be appropriate for anyone other than Ronan Tynan to be singing right now.

11.03 PM ESPN now has Michael Kay doing some of the play by play. Sometimes there are no words.

11.12 PM: There's one reason the Jason Giambi pop up dropped--well, you can argue all you want about it being miscommunication on the part of the Orioles--but really, is there any question the baseball g-ds are at work?

11.20 PM: A sacrifice that scores a run? From this team? Proof positive that this is not about the 2008 Yankees but about something so much more than that.

11.28 PM: Joba with five quick outs. Right now the Yankees are set up--Derek Jeter could have the final hit at Yankee Stadium.

We'll see what happens.

11.33 PM: Well, no hit, but Jeter could very well be the last Yankee at bat at the Stadium.

Meanwhile, ESPN didn't cut away from Mo's entrance. They at least got that right.

11.43 PM Mo with a Mo inning. The crowd chanting his name gave me chills. You would have thought it was the end of the World Series with the noise of everyone there. Classy move by Girardi to take Jeter out for the ovation.

Buy your Jose Molina memorabilia now...before everyone realizes that he was the last guy to hit a home run at Yankee Stadium.

11.47 PM They gave Jeter the mike. Excellent.

11.48 PM Jeter and the Yankees just paid tribute to the fans. Class if there ever was.

Thing that Need to Happen at the Final Game

Things that need to happen at tomorrow's game:

1) Yogi throws out the first pitch (I believe this is actually happening--correct me if I'm mistaken)

2) Andy Pettitte pitches a scoreless first seven innings

2a) Andy picks off a runner at first
2b) Andy induces a 6-4-3 DP
2c) Jose Molina guns out a runner.


3) Joba Chamberlain strikes out the side in the eighth

4) Mo pitches a perfect ninth, end with the last batter--a strike-out of Kevin Millar--to the chants of Mar-i-a-no! Mar-i-a-no!

5) Derek Jeter hits a home run in the bottom of the eighth--the last Yankee hit at the Stadium, ever.

5a) It's caught by a 12 year-old boy leaning eversoslightly over the right-field wall.

6) George Steinbrenner, and George only, not Hank, not Hal, pulls the final lever.

7) Alex has a grand slam somewhere in there.

8) In the middle of the fifth or sixth inning, the fans start chanting Yank-ee Sta-di-um...




There are so many ways for tomorrow to be memorable.

There is only one thing that cannot happen, and I don't believe I need to tell you what that is.

Penultimate Show--(postgame notes 20 September 2008)

After eighty five years...

After countless chilly April afternoons and frozen October nights...

After Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Berra, Mantle, Jackson, Mattingly and Jeter...

After record-setting home runs...

After football, popes and boxers...

After Don and the Davids...

After the drama of November baseball...

After the memories shared by our grandparents, parents and ourselves...

There is only one more game.




And it still matters.

Thanks to Alfredo Aceves, Mariano Rivera and Robinson Canò, tomorrow's game still counts.

The ghosts are out for one last time.



Here's hoping Jeter's injury isn't too serious to keep him from playing tomorrow. He has to play, it's as simple as that.

If you're going to the game tomorrow, please stay safe. It's bound to get a little crazy at the end.

The Moose is Loose and the Win Sinks In (Postgame Notes 19 September 08)

So I'm watching the Yankees tonight, watching Mike Mussina leave the mound and getting his ovation, possibly the last Yankee Stadium ovation he will ever receive, almost certainly the last at this Stadium, anyway.

And it hits me.

It hits me that this is it.

That after Sunday, watching a Yankee game will never be the same.

This has not been the best season for the Yankees. It's not been the worst, not by a long shot, but it also hasn't been anything close to what many of us were hoping for after the way we finished last year.

The mediocrity, however, has been exaggerated because of what this season means in the history, the lore, the psyche that goes into being a Yankee or being a Yankee fan.

So it's perhaps a bit of a surprise that it's taken this long for it to sink in--it did a little at the All Star game--but not, at least for me, like it did tonight.

I have to believe the ghosts were there tonight.

It wasn't an exceptionally dramatic game, but there were moments that were...well, they gave me goosebumps.

Like when the oldest living ball-player, at 102, Emilio Navarro, threw the first pitch, and if that wasn't chilling enough, if you catch the video, just as he's doing it, there's a squirrel--perhaps Scooter, perhaps not--running across the mound.

Like when Mike Mussina came out of the ballgame to a huge ovation, tipping his cap and entering the dugout with a giant smile, wearing, if just briefly, his heart on his sleeve. Oh, and the quest for 20 is still alive.

Like when Humberto Sanchez and Francesco Cervelli made their major league debuts and I realized, that might be the last time anyone makes their major league, Yankee debuts, at the Stadium. Juan Miranda, too. The three of them might be the very last to get those chills--hey, kid, you're in the game--at Yankee Stadium. There are three games left, but I'm not sure there's anyone left that the Yankees have called up that haven't already debuted.

This game probably won't be one we remember three years from now, unless our name is Humberto Sanchez, Juan Miranda or Francesco Cervelli (and maybe Mike Mussina), but it may have gotten to me much more than the game on Sunday will.

Because it's not when nostalgia is shoved down your throat, but when it comes naturally and almost by accident, amidst the chatter of the crowd and the jokes from the announcing crew about the answer to the night's trivia question, that you realize how much it means.

So What *Is* Jeter Stealing from the Stadium?

Rumors have abounded as to what Derek Jeter wants to steal from the Stadium. The most prevalent one concerns the Joe DiMaggio quote sign, but word has reached me of another, more interesting memento...

I quote, from a friend who works in the press box:

In the original clubhouse underneath the bleachers there's a chair, where in 1939, after Lou Gehrig retired but stayed with the team as captain, he'd go and sit after every game and weep. Before games, Jeter goes and sits in the chair and meditates.
To give himself "strength"

Apparently, the team found out and sent the chair to Cooperstown before Jeter gets his hands on it.

Now, unlike a good journalist, I'm going to admit that as far as I know, it's just a rumor, but given Jeter's recent feat, which, coincidentally (or not so coincidentally) involves Gehrig, I have to wonder if Gehrig doesn't live on in the Captain...

Hey Now, You're an All Star, Get Your Game On, Go Play!

When I woke up this morning, I actually wondered for a few minutes if it had all been a dream.

All Star games aren't supposed to be like that.

Exhibition games aren't supposed to be emotional; they're not supposed to run to the fifteenth inning and they're certainly not supposed to have drama more befitting an October night.

This one, though...

This one was different.

This one, if we pursue the Yankee Stadium :: Cathedral of Baseball metaphor, was supposed to be like the Easter Service at St. Patrick's, and it wasn't just that, but it was the Easter Service at St. Patrick's with the Pope himself leading the festivities.

The pregame ceremonies were emotional on their own; but from the point of view of a Yankees fan, there was nothing more chilling than watching the first pitch, and seeing Reggie Jackson pitch to Alex Rodriguez, Whitey Ford to Derek Jeter, Yogi Berra to Joe Girardi and Goose Gossage to Mariano Rivera.

I don't know how many of you caught it, but it was hitter to hitter, leader to leader, catcher to catcher and reliever to reliever, all of them, the past to the present.

I mean, it even made George Steinbrenner cry, and I'm under the impression that it takes some doing to accomplish that.


The game itself was perhaps one of the best All Star games to have ever been played. Had it ended in the ninth or tenth, and not gone on the extra six innings, we would probably be considering it THE best All Star game, ever.

It felt like a classic October game, with the National League taking a 2-0 lead into the seventh inning, before the ghosts came alive again. I guess it's something about the ghosts--they only come to call in the late innings--and it must have pained them somewhat that the man of the hour, J.D. Drew, wears a Red Sox uniform.

While many Yankees fans were able to cater to their sense of Schadenfreude* in the eighth inning, mocking Jonathan Papelbon with chants of "Mar-i-ano" and "over-rated", the beauty of the entire thing was that the American League was able to tie the game again in the bottom of the inning, rendering the run off of Papelbon irrelevant.

The best moment for Yankees fans, however, had to have been watching Mariano Rivera's entrance in the ninth, followed immediately by a strike out, throw-em-out double play. There's not much more Rivera can add to his resumè, but as 2007 was Alex Rodriguez's year, 2008 has got to be Mariano Rivera's.

Throughout the entire evening, Terry Francona was a model of class.

Say what you want about the Red Sox as a team, or anything you want about the Red Sox players, but Terry Francona should have earned everyone's respect last night. He pulled Jeter and Rodriguez in mid-inning situations so the crowd could applaud, and he let did a similar service by having Mariano Rivera come in the ninth for the last two outs. It's not his fault the AL wasn't leading at the time, and Rivera couldn't get the save.


The game last night was something special. It didn't end at the best possible moment (from a Yankee fan's point of view), but it did end just before it would have turned into a nightmare for Francona and Clint Hurdle.

This is one All Star Game we'll remember for a while, and it's only fitting it happened in Yankee Stadium.

Or maybe it's the other way around.



*Shadenfreude, n, ger. The joy one takes in another's misery.


********

A few weeks ago, a Red Sox fan with tickets to last night's game asked me if he could do a write up about his experience at the game. I'm not sure when it will be up, but look for it in the next few days.

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

These Walls Can Talk

If These Walls Could Talk...

It's not the Coliseum. It's not the Tower of London. It's not even the Statue of Liberty.

Yet, even so, when I read the plan is to tear down Yankee Stadium, I still feel my stomach tighten, my eyes get a little moist, my composure shakes a bit...

My first thought is not about how I'll miss being able to go to games there or how I'll likely never get to witness history at the old Yankee Stadium, but instead, my first thought is:

What about the ghosts? Where will they go? They need a home, too.

I am not obsessed with the supernatural, but it's not a lie for me to say that I do believe in ghosts. There's just too much about baseball that can't be explained otherwise...at least, not in a way that sticks with me. I mean, how else do you explain the Chicago Cubs?

I think of the ghosts and I think of how, if you tear down these walls, the ghosts will have no shelter from the winter winds. We hope, of course, they'll come with us just across the street, but something in my mind tells me: ghosts don't move their haunts.

My second thought, and the one that overrides the first, that consumes it, is that tearing down Yankee Stadium is tearing down history. It's saying we don't need the history exist here anymore, the memory of it is good enough for us.

Memories will not leave us--I've said this before--not while we have our cameras, our videos, our own methods of recollection, but over time, they fade.

We can live the memories because we've been there, we've been in the solid steel and concrete of the stands, we've felt the August sun and the October moon. We can tell our children about them, our grandchildren as well, and maybe even our great-grandchildren...

...but sooner or later, we turn to dust, and then all we have are the memories. There's no place for our children (if you're as young as I am), our grandchildren or our great-grandchildren to live them.

You can tell someone about the magic of Ruth, of Gehrig, of DiMaggio, of Berra, of Mantle, of Jackson, of Jeter...but it's not the same when you're not there. There's no question about it.

There is perhaps nothing that binds us together, as Yankees fans, or is such a large part of our being as Yankee Stadium.


If baseball is America's pastime, Yankee Stadium is America's ballpark. There are other historic parks, like Wrigley and Fenway, but there is nothing like Yankee Stadium. I know I sound like the obnoxious Yankee fan when I say it, but there's no other ballpark that's played host to 26 championship teams...and in baseball, home-field advantage actually matters.


Time moves forward, and we can't change it. The facilities at Yankee Stadium are old, and there's no doubt, that at least from a sanitary and safety point of view, a new stadium is needed.


Why should we feel as though we have to tear down the old, though? Why should we feel that it's okay to tear down history? Because other teams have done it?

Yankee Stadium need not be an empty shell; keep it, keep the field, use it as a park...maybe the Little League team or that middle school team from the Bronx can use it as their home park?

What about it?

Imagine it, the eleven year-old boy with mossy hair and the scraggly, lanky body, who can barely lift the bat over his shoulder comes up to bat with two out in the bottom of the ninth, the team's best runner on second, his team down by one, the burly thirteen year-old pitcher from some other team (maybe one in Queens), sets, pitches, there's a crack of the bat that echoes through the empty stands, giving rise to the ghosts, rise to the memories...