Stadium to Open for Fans for Game 4

Via LoHud, Yankee Stadium will open to fans on Sunday so that they may view the road game four.

With luck, this game could be especially significant (although my gut tells me this is unlikely).

Having gone to the viewing party for Game 3 of the ALCS, I must say that if you have the chance to go on Sunday, I highly recommend it.

There's really nothing like watching the game with a few thousand fans of the same team. It is, after all, the same reason you congregate in bars and friends homes to watch the postseason, especially the latter rounds in any sport.

The event is free (save for concessions), so you needn't worry about cost. Just get there early--if you're there early enough, you can even try out some of the Legends Seats!

Anything is Possible

(photo credit: Nick Laham/Getty Images)


I had forgotten what it felt like.

Not the winning, but the euphoria.

This feeling, that nothing can touch us, that nothing can stop us, that for this moment, the baseball gods have smiled.

The Yankees, though, the Yankees were there to make sure I remembered.

***

No one said that beating the Angels would be easy, and it wasn't.

Six games, six games in which every emotion as a fan was tested: there was anxiety, nervousness, pleasure, pain, face-palming and, at long last, euphoria.

To be the champions of your league, you have to beat the best along the way.

The Angels were the only team in the league that played the Yankees well consistently all season, and so it was fitting that the road to the World Series would have to go through Anaheim.

When it came down to it, it wasn't just that the Yankees had ALCS MVP CC Sabathia and the Angels didn't, or that the Yankees had Alex Rodriguez and the Angels didn't, it was that the Yankees never forgot how to play fundamental baseball.

Fundamental errors cost the Angels games two and six; even just costing them one of those games would have been too much.

****

It is only fitting that Andy Pettitte was on the mound tonight.

He was there in 1996, he should be there again this season, when comparisons to the late nineties Yankees have been so apparent.

It was fitting, and Pettitte was vintage.

He only pitched into the seventh inning, but he kept the Angels to just one run, and you get the feeling that once the Yankees scored, the Angels never really had much of a chance.

There was Pettitte, and then there was Joba, where we held our breath, and then there was Rivera.


****

I've gone back and forth on Rivera in the eighth, but ultimately it was the right decision. As a proponent of the leverage argument, tonight's use of Rivera is exactly what should have been done, with him facing Figgins, Abreu, Hunter, Guerrerro and Morales in the the eighth inning, in a two run game.

You knew Rivera would be on the mound for the final out, regardless of the score.

It just wouldn't be right without it.

****

The work isn't done.

Philadelphia's not just a good team, they're the defending World Champions and with good reason.

Yet, you get the feeling, if anyone can beat the Phillies, these Yankees can.

We have watched this team, all season, dazzle us, surprise us, enthrall us and, most of all, make us believe.

And so we do believe.

The quest for 27 remains, and it closer than ever.

This team is showing us that they are of the Substance, that they are Yankees.

The euphoria is back.

Anything is possible.

Watching a Road Game at Yankee Stadium

[Because there is so much about today's game to digest, I will do so in two posts, one talking about watching the game at Yankee Stadium, and the other about the game itself.]

As you likely know, Yankee Stadium opened its gates to the general public to watch today's game, free of charge.

Being otherwise unoccupied, I decided to go. The idea is one of which I am a fan--it gives fans a place to enjoy the game together without feeling obligated to purchase drinks or having to worry about being the only one interested in the game.

There were a large number of people that had the same mind set as me--many with young kids who arrived straight from school.

At the start, only the field level sections along the right field line were opened, but so many showed up that they eventually opened up the field level sections behind home plate, too.

They played the game on the large screen, and instead of commercials, we got DiamondVision shots of the crowd.

Out of all the fans there, the most striking man was a Johnny Damon lookalike, whose resemblance was so strong other fans were asking him for pictures. When Damon made a great catch late in the game, the section started chanting Johnny's name. The poor fan took it all in stride.

In the interest of his privacy, I won't post his picture, but, damn, he had me fooled.


At any rate, for your enjoyment, some pictures from this afternoon-turned-evening


No long lines, just the Stadium against an azure sky.


The Great Hall, in a late autumn light.


They also played the game on the TV in the great hall, but with the cushioned field and even Legends seats open, most opted to watch the game from the Stadium proper.


Our view of the screen. We--that would be Brent, RAB legend TSJC and I--sat in the section furthest right. 109, row 14. The seats filled up fast and we were lucky to get the ones we did.


You can sort of see how all of the seats were filled. I don't think they anticipated this many, although for an evening game they would have likely had to open all field and main seats, at least.


Some watch in the Great Hall. I went to the team store to get one of the gray sweatshirts the team's been sporting, but they only had them in sizes extra large. Maybe it's G-d telling me not to by a sweatshirt just yet.


The one criticism of the experience I could find, besides, you know, the game itself, was that there were not enough open concessions, and thus lines for beer and food tended to be extremely long.

It's a very minor caveat; the experience itself outweighs that one negative.

Anyway, getting a few thousand people to chant "Lets go Yank-ees" and "Mar-i-a-no" is a pretty cool thing.

Stay tuned for a post about the game itself, and what, exactly, went wrong.

Cool Thing about being a Yankee Fan #1892738

Via @YankeesWFAN [Sweeny Murti] on Twitter, the Angels' fans will be employing thunder sticks in full force this afternoon.

Reason number 1892738 it's better to be a Yankee fan:

We don't need thunder sticks, or terrible towels, or any gimmicks to support our team. We're there. We're loud (and sometimes obnoxious). We know our team, we know the game.

We can get the entire Stadium to chant the name of just one player--like CC or Derek or A-Rod--and we can do it without any prompting from a screen.

We're in a long term relationship with Aura and Mystique.

There is no place in October that's better than the Bronx.

Stadium to Open for Fans for Game 3

From MLB.com:

The Yankees announced on Sunday that they will open the Stadium Field Level and Great Hall to the public to watch the Yankees face the Angels in Anaheim as New York tries to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the ALCS.

"We wanted to provide a place for our fans to come together to cheer for our team, even if the game itself is taking place across the country," Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said in a news release. "This is a way of saying 'Thank you' for their continued support."

Turnstiles between Gates 4 and 6 will open at 3:30 p.m. ET for the 4:13 p.m. game -- broadcast on FOX -- and fans can watch it in the Great Hall or in the open sections of the Field Level. Food and concession stands, as well as NYY Steak and Hard Rock Café, will be open and available to fans.

Don't know about you, but I plan on going. I don't know if I'll stay for the whole thing, but for a 4.30 game, I will certainly stay for most of it. The weather, at least, should be slightly nicer.

At the very least, this is (and we presume it's free entrance since no prices have been announced) an awesome opportunity to watch the game with other fans without being in a crowded bar.

There's something special brewing this year, and the Yankees are letting us take part.

New Yankee Stadium Inspires, Looks to the Future and Remembers the Past

So, how was your cool, damp Friday night?

Good?

Mine was better.



After six stifling hours of class, subsisting on cheap sushi and stuff you get out of the vending machine, my friend Brent and I headed to the New Yankee Stadium to catch the exhibition Cubs-Yankees game.

Okay, I lied. We headed to the new Stadium, but not so much to watch the game as we did to see the Stadium, which would explain why we were in our seats through innings 2-4, and then did not return to them for the rest of the game.

What was on the field to a back seat (once, and only once) to the building in which it was situated.

Brent and I arrived at the Stadium around 7.30, as my last class did not let out until 10-to-seven (I purchased the tickets conveniently forgetting the scheduling mishap, knowing only that I would not be able to attend Saturday's game).

The new Stadium, even from the outside, looked amazing in the dying evening light:



The ticket scanners are automated, which is kind of futuristic, but I think it's still a little, well, kinky



Upon entering the Stadium, the first thing that strikes you is the Great Hall, which at once pays homage to the past with banners honoring past Yankee greats and invites the future with a giant indoor LCD screen. However big you think that screen is on TV or in pictures, it's bigger.

After standing in awe and various incantations of OHMIG-DHOLYSHIT, Brent and I made our way to our Grandstand seats.






We went up, and then up again, and up some more, and still we were not as high as we needed to go: when we finally ended up in section 434, row 10, we were higher than both the flag pole and the foul pole, and the rumor that the upper deck is recessed is very, very true. While there was no problem seeing any of the players, the players themselves were so small that one had to remember there was a game going on at all. Still, you really can see EVERYTHING, even the screens by the obstructed view seats, so complaining would seem inappropriate.



However, there was so much else to see, that this minor detail is really, well, a minor detail. We sat and watched the game for a couple innings. Some people hit, Matsui hit a home run, and that screen in center field will eat your children alive.






The field itself, however, is very reminiscent of the old Stadium. Since the dimensions are the same, all you have to do is forget everything that surrounds the field, and you may very well find yourself whisked back to 1923 or 1977, your choice.



After the fourth inning, Brent and I decided to scope out the culinary options. Most of the really attractive food options are on the lower level, and, compared to the old stadium, at least, there really are options!



We had an adventure getting downstairs--we tried first to take the elevator, but after a ten minute wait decided to follow some other people down the stairs. However, it seems we took the wrong stairwell, as we ended up not on the main concourse as we'd hoped, but instead inside the press gate (marble floors? Guys in suits staring at you like you've just gone to meet the Queen in your pajamas? Yeah. Press gate). The concierge there was nice enough to point us in the right direction--first day at a new place, you are bound to get lost--but I wouldn't count on the same politeness in the middle of July, when fans have had the chance to 'break in' the new building.




One caveat, however: the food options are all still Stadium food: lots of fried, greasy, midnight snack, ramen noodle types...which is fine, unless you are me and suffer from a very sensitive stomach. The options now are better than they were, in that I can eat salmon roll and some of the candy options, but then again, if I really cared about my food options that much, I wouldn't go to the games.

I also, on the advice of a friend, checked out the bathrooms: there really are twice as many women's rooms as men's rooms, and the one room I entered had something like 20 stalls. The stalls are Spartan in appearance, but it doesn't look like us she-fans will have to deal with long waits.



After working our way across the lower level, incuding stops in the team store (I bought a t-shirt that may or may not actually fit, a shot glass and a program; I'll buy the media guide when I return on the 18th) and going past the entrance to the sports bar by the bleachers, Brent and I worked our way up the ramp and to the Yankee Museum which is, believe it or not, a museum.




It's a very *small* museum, perhaps the size of the dorm room where I am spending the evening, and the main exhibit is a collection of baseballs ostensibly signed by as many players and important personnel as possible--there are balls ranging from Babe to Brett (Gardner) to Carl Pavano to Yogi Berra to Mariano Rivera to pick your era, pick your player. There's no real sense of organization to the baseballs, they aren't by number, alphabetical, by position or chronological; a computer at the exhibit entrance lets you choose the player you wish to see and tells you where to find his baseball, or you can do as Brent and I did and just look and see who you find.

Wil Nieves even has a baseball, and his name is spelled Will Nieves...Brent has a picture but it's too late for me to go searching through his files.





By the time we left the museum, it was the middle of the eigth inning, and since I wanted to get this post up before having to call it in for the night, we said good bye, albeit temporarily to the new Stadium.



Still, no place is perfect, especially on night one, and it would do to point out some of the flaws-mostly minor, though one major.

The major flaw/annoyance/what have you, that I found is that there seemed to be an ever-present reminder as to whether you were seated in the lower bowl, the loge-ish level, the terrace or the upper deck--in the baseball stadium world, as close to pure class distinctions as you will find.

The staff seems to be incredibly strict about letting people into a seating area--which means that even if you spot empty seats even just a section lower than the one your ticket is for, you will have a hard time gaining entry. I understand the need for security, but does New York really need any more reminders of the difference between those that can afford to park their cars in midtown and those for whom attending a game in a halfway-decent seat is a major expense?

The other thing--the bleacher seats next to the bar really are obstructed in the periphery--if you're seated there, you'll have no problem seeing in front of you or towards one side, but the other side will be blocked. It seems odd that a $1 billion park would not have this fault corrected, but we must remember that Yankee Stadium, in any form, is built by men and not, in fact, by the baseball g-ds.

Over all, the conclusion I drew was this:

The new Stadium is not the same as the old Stadium. If you can get past that, if you can observe the new Stadium for itself and only itself, you will be impressed--it is the most up-to-date ballpark/arena in New York City, and while the Prudential Center is a marvel, the new Yankee Stadium is a baseball palace--but if you look at it in comparison to the old Stadium, there probably will be some disappointment.

The thing to remember, however, is that the old Stadium itself was not all that spectacular--it was everything that occured on the field that made it what it was. The new Stadium may or may not create similar memories (hopefully it will), but unlike the old Stadium, it, itself, is an attraction.

So, should you go to the new Stadium? Yes. And make sure you don't go just once--go twice.

Go the first time so you can marvel at the Stadium in all its granduer and spend the entire game just wandering around, seeing what's there and what's hidden away, and go a second time (with better seats) so you can see and enjoy the baseball game.

The new Stadium is everything you'd expect from something Yankees--behemoth, grand, classic and just a little bit flawed.

And since we must always end with the Sandman:



Up next: