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.

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

New York has the worst economic outlook of any state in the nation (New York Post)

Clowns and tie-dyed ferrets in TSP (Slum Goddess)

Friday night on Avenue A (Neither More Nor Less)

Dead boys ephemera (Stupefaction)

Remembering Johnny Thunders (This Ain't the Summer of Love)

Spring skyline from atop the Municipal Parking lot on Ludlow/Essex Street (BoweryBoogie)

Old and new in Tribeca (Greenwich Village Daily Photo)

Sicha and Balk launch The Awl (The Awl)

"On the first Saturday that New York's brand new stadia were open for regular season baseball business -- and on a beautiful day, too -- there were more than 7,000 unsold seats in Yankee Stadium, more than 5,000 in Citi Field. When parks such as Camden Yards, Coors Field and Jacobs Field opened, they sold out, over and over, again and again. That's because fans were treated as logical humans, embraced as customers and not targeted for muggings. (Phil Mushnick, New York Post)

Displaced by the Yankees, some Bronx athletic teams go homeless (New York Times)

The party buses were out Saturday night.



Must be loudmouth season. (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

"What they may have ended up with is the House that Mute Built"

Joel Sherman in the Post talks about yesterday's new era at Yankee Stadium:

If regular-season Game 1 of this new building is any indication, the dimensions made it across the street from the old stadium, but not the passion. The Yankees wanted to build a museum, a palace, a mall-park. And what they may have ended up with is the House that Mute Built.

Incredibly, after all the anticipation and hoopla, the sellout crowd at this grand opening had about the same zeal as grandmothers playing mahjong. Why? The ticket prices mean a lot more corporate patronage in the seats close to the field, which means far fewer diehards near the action, screaming, taunting, making it uncomfortable for the opposition.

New Yankee Stadium wasn't built in 26 seconds -- or was it? (Plus, where is the old stadium?)

As you read here exclusively, the Yankees have a new stadium. And today is the home opener in said stadium. And here it is being built.



And here is a video uploaded in March 2008 titled "Yankee Stadium 2009 Opening Day Presentation." Notice anything missing in this soundless video? Like the old Yankee Stadium? And what about some of those businesses that line River Avenue? Where's Ball Park Lanes?

Easter Sunday at the Blarney Cove

Who keeps playing the Joe Cocker on the jukebox? Like Kansas' "Dust in the Wind" is any better. Jimmy figures you can live to 100 by drinking and having sex. Maria says she doesn't drink or have sex anymore. But she has a short beer after her shift. Jimmy figures he has another 10 years. Or at least two years, he admits. The Yankees lose. Who's this closer for Kansas City anyway? He's quite good. Now it's John Denver and "Take Me Home, Country Roads" -- first the live version, then the studio recording. Can you skip the jukebox, or is that rude? Is the person in the green hoodie a man or a woman? (Doesn't anyone notice the sideburns?) Ah, Leonard Cohen. Squiggy is asking who won the NCAA men's basketball tournament. "North Carolina." Angel Cabrera wins the Masters! Who is he again? He's from Argentina, not Nicaragua. By the way, does anyone know that the heat is on in here?

Let's see what those $441 million in free agents look like!

The Yankees kick off their season today in Baltimore at 4. Maybe. Weather looks iffy. By the way, the Yankees spent $441 million in the offseason on free agents. The other 13 American League teams spent $176.28 million on free agents -- combined.

"All of the Mets, Yankees and NYC resources could not duplicate what the Romans did 20 centuries ago"

A few excerpts from EV Grieve favorite Phil Mushnick's column in today's Post. The topic: The new stadiums for the Mets and Yankees:

The Mets' new billion-dollar, state-of-the-art, restaurant- and luxury-box-lined park has loads of obstructed-view seats -- same as the Yanks' new park. The Mets are pretending that theirs don't exist, while the Yanks are pretending that theirs were part of the plan, all along.

Who was the architect, George Costanza?

Not that anyone expected anyone to actually consider the sightlines from these seats. Those unwilling or unable to surrender their good senses to continue to attend Yankees and Mets games were deemed persona-get-outta from the start. The plans, after all, always called for fewer "cheaper" seats.

Who knew, three years ago, that such seats would be in demand among the freshly impoverished? Or that corporations, having supplanted real fans as sports' best customers, would be less solvent than both bleacher bums and bleach?

And!

Most remarkable, though, is that in the 21st century, all of the Mets, Yankees and NYC resources could not duplicate what the Romans did 20 centuries ago. The Roman Coliseum, now 2,000 years old, never had a bad seat.

And!

No worries, though. If Mayor Bloomberg and Yankee Vice Emperor Randy Levine are correct in their claim that new ballparks are good for the economy, we can build new ones every two years. Excelsior!

At age 98, Bob Sheppard announces his retirement

Whether or not you hate the Yankees, you have to appreciate the iconic Bob Sheppard, who has been the team's PA announcer since 1951. Now, at age 98, he's retiring. Yankee games will never be the same. (Via Gothamist)

Looking at the Audi Yankees Club

Received the New York Yankees Ticket Information & Fan Guide 2009 yesterday in the mail. (And why me?) It's a slick, 82-page booklet that probably cost the combined salaries of Brett Gardner and Melky Cabrera to produce.

I'm sure it's full of amusing reading. But I haven't still haven't gotten past the first page I opened to -- Page 35, which discusses the team's new Membership Clubs, Audi Yankees Club and the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar.



I particularly like the half-assed Edward Hopper attempt in depicting the Audi Yankees Club. What a random group of people.



No drinks. No food. No crowd. No game. Fun!

The Bronx is burning money

A few passages from The Wall Street Journal article today on the wretched excess found at the soon-to-open Citi Field and Yankee Stadium. (And the place where the Dallas Cowboys will play.) As the headline goes, "Three of the most expensive sports arenas in history are about to open, and the timing couldn't be worse."

When the New York Yankees throw open the doors to their new home on April 3, fans will walk into a $1.5 billion stadium filled with all the hallmarks of 21st-century sports extravagance: a steak house, a glass-enclosed sports bar and high-definition video screens in every direction.

Luxury suite-holders can access a separate deal-room for conducting business. In the sleek, exclusive "Legends Club," the high-definition screens are so ubiquitous they're even set into the lavatory mirrors. For spectators in the premium section's teak-armed seats, waiters will bring brick-oven pizza to anyone able to shell out $2,500 a ticket to watch a ballgame in the midst of the worst recession in a generation.

Well, at least we can get a cheap hot dog...Uh, right?

Citi Field will have a reservation-only restaurant and a wine bar, plus gourmet snack food -- barbecue, burgers and Belgian-style french fries -- by top New York restaurateur Danny Meyer. The Yankees and Cowboys decided no existing concessions company was good enough for their new stadiums, so they teamed up with Goldman Sachs to create their own company, Legends Hospitality Management, which will focus on high-end, locally themed food. Yankee Stadium promises food cooked up by celebrity chefs from the Food Network, while a sample menu for a Cowboys luxury suite features New Zealand baby lamb chops, Kobe beef with a cognac demi-glace and truffled macaroni and cheese.

Well, at least we can sit in the bleacher seats.

Fans can still get bleacher seats in Yankee Stadium for $5, though their view of the field is partially blocked by a glass-enclosed sports bar. Bleacher seats with unobstructed views will go for $12.

Cindy Adams has the lowdown on the toilets (and other things) at the new Yankee Stadium

It's difficult to say which is more wretchedly excessive...

The column today by Cindy Adams in which she secretly tours the new Yankee Stadium....

Or!

The new stadium's amenities...

It's up to you, brave soul, to decide.

Architectural Digest bedrooms aren't as classy as the players' locker room. Stainless steel rods just to hang their socks. Individual wooden closets. And let it be known my behind sat in Derek Jeter's space even before his.

Their can is blue granite. Four urinals, five commodes, enough shower space for 16 naked Yankees with their bats and balls.

Alongside's a hydrotherapy blue- and white-tiled area with whirlpools and a Swimex thing wherein the current moves but you don't and it's as if you've swum 15 laps. Plus a trainers room for massages, rubdowns, X-rays, specialists, first aid and God knows. Plus a doctor's office. Signs signifying each room are in Yankee pinstripes. Plus, to duck the dreaded press, a hidden super-private dressing room with giant wall mirror and 12 luxury closets. Plus a wall-to-wall mirrored gym (no equipment in it yet) so elegant it looks like a dance studio. Thoughts of Hideki Matsui at a ballet barre ran through my head.

The players' 30,000 square feet just for themselves includes a dining suite. Two rooms. One with the handmade Yankee logo rug has couches for lounging, sipping, noshing and TVing. The other, with chafing dishes plus wherewithal to prep individual menus, is a catering hall. I mean, talk of catering!

And!

Now, for the fans. Honoring The Bronx's Grand Concourse grandeur, a giant, wide, 31,000-square-foot Great Hall. Said Valerie Peltier, managing director of the project and daughter of developer Tishman-Speyer's Jerry Speyer: "It's where you'll meet and greet, buy your programs and peanuts and goodies." Wheelchair accessible, there are 1,300 doors, 10 ticket kiosks, 16 elevators, 30 stairways, escalators, ramps, concession stands, 1,100 flat high-def TVs everywhere, including in the ladies' gorgeous johns. I tell you the truth - it was a real pleasure to go.

By the way, according to Cindy, the dugouts are heated and air conditioned. Not at the same time, though. (Sorry...too much Cindy.)

[Image via NYY Stadium Insider]

A sign of spring

Baseball...Handsome Dick's Yankees (and other teams) report to camp soon...
Taken in front of Manitoba's on Avenue B.

P.S. Snapped this photo while walking by last night...Check out the TV screen behind Joba...Braindead?

Yankees now handing out money faster than the US Government

By giving Mark Teixeira $180 million, the Yankees now have the four highest-paid players in baseball. Well, guess that means beers will be $40 next season at the new Yankee Stadium.

At old Yankee Stadium before Game 1 of the World Series

The Phillies beat the Rays 3-2 in Game 1 of the World Series last night in St. Petersburg, Fla. Meanwhile, for this occasion, I ventured up to the Bronx to visit old Yankee Stadium before the game. In no particular order, it was rather cold, lonely and depressing outside Yankee Stadium. Pretty much what I expected. (Except for the cold. Check the weather forecast next time.) Few people were around. Except for the Yankee office entrance and the gift shop, the old stadium was shut tight. I couldn't help but imagine the mob scene right about now had the Yankees not been so underwhelming* this past season...and actually were hosting Game 1 of the Series.

[* open to other suggestions to describe the 2008 season.]

On River Avenue, which runs across from the Stadium, the gift shops and bars were closed for the season. Ball Park Lanes was open -- several teens milled about on the inside. Here's a bit of what Yankee Stadium and vicinity looked like...

Portions of the walls outside the stadium are filled with messages from fans.

Across 161st Street, the new Yankee Stadium looms (lurks?).

The only action was at the venerable Yankee Tavern, which was full with a boisterous happy hour crowd.

I have more photos on my Flickr page.

14 year old against Bloomy's third term (no matter where she may actually go to school)

LimeWire has the following post on Rachel Trachtenburg:

At 14 years old, the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players drummer (and daughter of its singer/guitar player Jason and costumer/slideshow operator Tina) is already playing a more active role in local politics than most of us ever will.

New Yorkers are, by now, familiar with the proposal to extend term limits and allow our mayor, Michael Bloomberg, to run for the city's highest office a third time. As part of the process, the city council is now holding public hearings, allowing citizens to argue for or against the plan. On Thursday, Rachel spoke to the council, making the case against allowing Bloomberg to seek a third term.

In her testimony, Rachel told the council that, because Bloomberg raised taxes to give money to the Yankees and move the fountain in Washington Square Park slightly (and continuously sided with landlords on rent stabilization and affordable housing issues, I might add), her family was priced out of their East Village home. Now, they live in Bushwick, where their friends are often mugged at gunpoint. "Any monkey can raise taxes," says Rachel. "No offense to monkeys."

Meanwhile, BushwickBK.com has an important addition to the story:

A minute of research shows that Rachel is enrolled in school in SEATTLE — which means her family’s apartment in New York is at best a business necessity and at worst a luxury or status item, even if it is now in Bushwick. Boo. Hoo.

Lousy economy preventing people from overpaying for Yankees memorabilia

The last ball hit out of Yankee Stadium, courtesy of Jose Molina, was one of several big ticket items that failed to sell in early bidding yesterday at Madison Square Garden on a trove of Yankees artifacts. It was expected to fetch up to $400,000, but was pulled after offers fell short of the suggested opening bid of $100,000. (espn.com)