I Love New York…

Okay, I have to work on my subject titles…but I do.  Always have.  If I wasn’t in Boston, I’d be living in New York.  So for various reasons I was tickled at the idea of going to Yankee Stadium for my first time yesterday.  And I wasn’t disappointed.

A few random notes.  For every Yankees fan who has ever told me that they don’t sell anti-Red Sox shirts around Yankee Stadium, I offer you this:  A picture I took after the game right outside Yankee Stadium.  They were set up there BEFORE the game as well and there were guys walking on the highway selling the "Boston Still S*cks" shirts to the people stuck in traffic.  Say what you will about the vendors at Fenway…they don’t sell this stuff right outside the park AND they only sell them after night games.  Good show.  Also, while I was taking this picture, a Yankees chick walked up to me and screamed "26 rings" to which I responded "Fat lot of good they did you today"…that was my ONLY negative interaction with a Yankees fan the ENTIRE day.

My cousin (who I found out is NOT a a Yankees fan…more of a sympathizer since she’s from the area) and I didn’t get to our seats until about two minutes before the  Yankees took the field.  So maybe my limited time spent actually going AROUND the stadium is what made the negative encounters not happen.  But I wore my Timlin jersey and sat in a section surrounded by Yankees fans (with a smattering of Red Sox fans) and not only did no one bother me, but I chatted up the guy next to me for pretty much the first four innings until his companion decided she had enough of the drubbing.

Oh and another myth some Yankees fans like to remind me of is you can walk into Fenway and hear little kids yelling "Yankees s*ck" and what kind of way is that to bring up a child.  Well, in our section, not ONE adult Yankees fan was yelling anything like that…but there were two kids, probably eight and ten (one boy and one girl) who KEPT yelling "Red Sox S*ck"  "You guys s*ck", much to the joy of their adult supervision.  Very nice.  Great way to raise your kid.

I got to see Schilling revert to form.  I got to hear the "Let’s Go Red Sox" chant reverberating through Yankee Stadium.  More than once.  I got to eat a hot dog in the stands (which wasn’t too bad, but certainly not as good as a Fenway Frank).  I got to sit in the stands after Yankees fans had long gone (most left, to my surprise, during the seventh inning) with people screaming "Timlin" at me and high fiving me as they too stayed to savor the win.  Heck, I even got to see my "favorite Yankee" (well, until they started picking up former Red Sox) Jason Giambi hit a homerun without it messing up the game. 

And I didn’t have to listen to the Fox broadcast.  That’s always a plus.

One major complaint.  Water.  It was almost 90 degrees yesterday and no one ever came around selling water in the stands.  Oh you could get plenty of beer, but no water.  And every time someone got up to get us water, they were gone for 20 minutes because all of the stands that sold it kept running out and they had to wait to be restocked.  That’s ridiculous.  The Yankees  have enough resources that they should be able to keep their fans hydrated on a hot day.  There was no excuse for not being prepared for that.  (And between Yankee Stadium and Citizens Bank Park, I am officially AGAINST "beer men".  In both parks, the vendors focussed on selling beer so if you wanted anything NON alocholic or food-related, you either had to wait a really long time for a vendor to come by or you had to leave your seat and go search it out.  Not exactly family-friendly.)

The strangest thing, and again maybe this had to do with my limited access to the stadium since we rushed to get to our seats for the start of the game and then I didn’t leave my seat the entire game, was how NICE I think Yankee Stadium is.  I wasn’t overly-impressed with the interior before you get to the park (where the vendors and bathrooms are) – but all the horror stories I heard about how filthy and smelly the place is seem to be bunk.  Place seemed fine to me.  And once I got inside I LOVED the way the park looks.  TV doesn’t do it justice.  Fenway is still my favorite park…but Yankee Stadium has a really nice feel to it as well.

Oh, wait, one or two other complaints.  The noise.  Not the people noise, but the music noise.  They use their scoreboards like they do at basketball games.  Asking people to make noise, egging them on by throwing the player’s names up when they do something well…I hate that stuff.  Love it at a basketball game…hate it at a ball game.  And what is with only showing a smattering of replays, and ALL of them being only good plays the Yankees make?  Hate that too.

The YMCA thing was kind of cute, although it seemed really forced…and I’m sorry but "Cotton Eyed Joe" is hands down much dumber than "Sweet Caroline" in the 8th inning.

Got a kick out of 55,000 people singing "God Bless America", it sounded great.

The best part of this weekend was spending time with my cousin Kat…the second best part was watching Schilling bi^ch slap the Yankees.  I went into this series convinced that it’d be okay if the Yankees swept (which I knew they wouldn’t) because even with a sweep they’d be in second place on Monday morning.  But getting the win yesterday was even sweeter.  I hope (and suspect) Wake can keep up the momentum.

Oh yeah, one last thing…I was bummed out that I didn’t see Embree go into the game.  I can’t help it, I still like him and wanted to see him out there.  But I DID get to see Bellhorn walk in the ninth (and for those curious, I DID cheer him when they announced his name)…not sure that I miss him as much as Embree, but I got closure, apparently, seeing him yesterday and I can now wish him well.  Good luck, Mark Bellhorn…because I sense you’re going to need it.