RIP Ball Park Lanes

Every so often we venture away from the neighborhood... yesterday, we were reminded that we never ran this post after seeing the news of a planned high-end hotel near Yankee Stadium...

On a recent trip to Yankee Stadium, I was sorry to find that the Ball Park Lanes was sealed up and for sale... In June 2010, Gothamist reported that the 51-year-old bowling alley was closing for renovations. Despite an ongoing landlord dispute, they expected to be back open by the end of last year's baseball season.

So I thought that I'd find them up and running this season... but when I went to my first game late in the summer, I stopped by for a pre-game beer at the bowling alley's snack bar.

[JVNY]

Apparently the landlord had won.

The bowling alley was directly across the street from the old Yankee Stadium ... Jeremiah put Ball Park Lanes on his endangered list before the arrival of the new stadium. (Read his post here.)

Massey Knakal is listing the space. It's going for $4.3 million.

Hard to say what will come here... there is a lot of potential, as plans show. Great for community space and affordable housing — if that's what ultimately comes here.

Not so good for baseball history buffs...

[The southern wall outside Ball Park Lanes]

[Location of the former Yankee Stadium]

Previously on EV Grieve:
With high rises and new shops in the works, it's time to take a look at the area around Yankee Stadium

At the new Yankee Stadium

Meanwhile, across 161st Street...

Retro beers at Yankee Stadium

Oh. Chalk this up as one of those "posts that I never got around to posting." Anyway... you can buy retro beers at Yankee Stadium... a mere $9 for an old-timey 16-ounce can of Schlitz or Pabst... As everyone in the line was saying, "these aren't retro prices..."




No griping... someone has to help pay for AJ Burnett's contract...

Yankee Plywood

If you watched any of the Yankees-Mets game on Fox Saturday afternoon, then you probably several shots inside the old Yankee Stadium.


[Via the Demolition of Yankee Stadium Web site.]

I have no idea what was said: With McCarver and Buck in the booth, I had the TV on mute.

It was my understanding that all the seats were being removed (and sold). In any event, if you walk around the old stadium, as I did early Friday evening when I took the following shots, then you'll see what seems like miles of plywood...it now surrounds the old stadium. Wasn't this way during my last visit.







And it seems as if more than seat removal is taking place...



For further reading:
The Destruction of Yankee Stadium Web site

Save Gate 2

The Yankee Stadium Redevelopment Project

Previously on EV Grieve:
With high rises and new shops in the works, it's time to take a look at the area around Yankee Stadium

At the new Yankee Stadium

Meanwhile, across 161st Street...

With high rises and new shops in the works, it's time to take a look at the area around Yankee Stadium

A few weeks back, the Post had the following item:

First, a new stadium. Next, a new neighborhood.

Just as The Bronx gears up for Opening Day at the new Yankee Stadium, city planners yesterday unveiled a proposal to transform the blocks around the ballpark into a neighborhood of high-rise towers, wider sidewalks and new shops.

The plan, which would rezone a stretch of River Avenue and 161st Street, would clear the way for developers to replace streets filled with the one-story bars, souvenir stands, empty lots and repair shops that now dominate the neighborhood.

Meanwhile, like Jeremiah, I was curious about what kind of impact the Stadium would have on businesses now a little farther away from the new digs. Before the game Tuesday night, I figured I'd better take a look around...

The first casualty appears to be the Press Cafe on 157th Street. With panini sandwiches and Stella on draft, the owners were trying to be a little more upscale... With high rises and other luxuries coming, the Press Cafe was maybe a little before its time...



The bodega is gone on 157th and Gerard. Lost to a fire. (Was always a good spot to drink a few beers before games. No one seemed to mind. Just be cool.)



I imagine the city's plans call for the destruction of these shops and old structures along Gerard Avenue.





The Yankee Tavern on 161st Street and Gerard Avenue has some new awnings...(By the way, the Tavern's owner, Joe Bastone, was charged yesterday with evading more than $1million in state and city taxes.)



A few other signs and scenes from the neighborhood...






I also looked to see if any new businesses popped up along River Road directly across from the new Stadium. No... but the McDonald's on the corner got a big outdoor facelift...And you have to wonder how long places like a family eyecare center and a 99-cent store will last directly across the street from a $1.5 billion stadium.



The DUGout (pictured below on the left), has been around for five years. As the Times noted March 27, it became "the most coveted location on the block." It's directly across the street from the new Stadium. The bar's owner, Tyrone Robinson, 31, expanded the 2,400-square-foot space by 4,000 square feet and opened a roof deck, the Times reported. “There’s a term I’m looking for,” Robinson said in trying to describe his bar to the paper. “Midtown comes to the Bronx — that’s it.”



Finally, in that March 27 feature, the Times wondered whether the new Stadium would have an impact on the 30-year-old Stan's, the bar that once had the closest proximity to the Stadium... On Tuesday night, Stan's was packed...More crowded than the DUGout.



For further reading:
A Late Rush to Tidy Up the Yankees’ New Home (The New York Times)
Bonus excerpt:

Wally Jimenez, 27, an audio engineer who grew up in the neighborhood, said the work was not primarily for the community’s benefit.

“They want to turn this into a commercial area, but they don’t think about the consequences for the people around here who don’t have the resources to get a new place when rents go up,” he said. “They are trying to push the community out.”

Mr. Jimenez said of the cleaning efforts, “I’ve never seen something like this, and I was born and raised in this area.” He added, “It’s good that they are cleaning up, but they are definitely not doing this for the community.”

At the new Yankee Stadium

As I mentioned, I had a free ticket to the Yankees game Tuesday night, which gave me the opportunity to walk around the new stadium, shop, eat and mingle with friends (if I had any with me). Oh. And perhaps watch some baseball. (For the record, I didn't shop or eat. But I did have a few beers. And checked out the Yankees-A's.)

First thing, of course: The place is a palace. You've read about all the amenities. In fact, you've probably already read too much about the new Yankee Stadium. That's the thing: Between the hype and the backlash (cost overruns, city's shady role in the construction, etc.), it's nearly impossible to actually just come here and watch the game.

Anyway, it doesn't seem as if any expense was spared, except for maybe chintzy seat cup holders. So, despite ample amounts of Yankee history everywhere ....



... (not to mention the location), the new stadium feels like suburbia. Where the parents can let the kids run around sitter-free while they bask in the glow of the food court. For me, it seemed like a vacation: Some resort that was kind of fun, but I miss home. And it doesn't help that the stadium feels a little cold and manufactured, though I'm sure things will improve with age.



So here's a quick tour, which begins with Derek Jeter channeling Paul Bunyon next to the Hard Rock Cafe...



Now to the other first thing: The food choices. Sushi and ramen, which made me feel as if I was right back on St. Mark's!



There's popcorn....



...and, oddly, pears. Danjou and Bartlett. Two for $3.



...white tablecloth restaurants...



...lots of meat...



...and well-displayed sandwiches.



There are also many lounges to have food and watch the game on a flat-screen TV. Though not any ol' schlub can walk in: You need the tickets that also give you the right for access to, say, the Jim Beam Lounge. I did not have the right tickets, but the guy working the door was friendly and said that I was welcome inside. Really, they guy working the door was friendly.





Also, the Jumbotron big screen thing in center field is as high-def as they come.



As the season progresses, I'm sure there will be more interesting things to say about the player who's up to bat.



Meanwhile, only at the $1.5 billion stadium does a penny cost $1.01.



Eventually the novelty of the stadium will wear off, and people will turn their attention to the game again.



I've talked with several Yankees fans who said they'd never set foot in the new stadium. I'm sure people said that about the renovations that neutered Yankee Stadium in the mid-1970s. I understand that point of view. I think I'd go again. See how it feels in a few months. Maybe even without a free ticket.



If you want to know more about how people felt when the stadium reopened in 1976, check out the April 26, 1976, issue of Sports Illustrated and the article by Robert Lipsyte titled "A Diamond in the Ashes."

Meanwhile, across 161st Street....

The old stadium sits empty... looking a little derelict...







... waiting to be torn down...







... while the new trophy wife gets all the attention.



Of course lifelong Yankees fans/NY residents talk about how Yankee Stadium hasn't been the same since the renovations of 1973-1975. As Maury Allen wrote in Baseball Digest when Yankee Stadum reopenend 1976:

"It was a building of stone and steel, that old Yankee Stadium, a massive monument to excellence in the middle of The Bronx, a structure of love and life and legend.

It is gone now, the old replaced by the new, the low fence in right where Babe Ruth set records and Roger Maris broke them, the vastness of DiMaggio's center field country, the hanging facade from the roof that Mantle would crush one day, the bullpen fence jumped by Joe Page, the dugout where Casey sat, the soft dirt around home plate where Lou Gehrig stood and thousands cheered.

Now it is of the past. Only the memories remain, the awe and the shock, the pride and the wonder, when a young man walked up through that tunnel and saw those seats, that size, that history surround him."

To be fair, I'm sure a kid will have that same sense of awe walking into the new stadium today.