I can’t say I’m sad about the move, since the Yanks are only moving across the street and stayin in the Bx. (King) George was always threatening to move em to Jersey and, for a second, it looked like that might be the way it would go and having the Bronx Bombers become the New Brunswick Bombers woulda been whack in every kinda way.
My last few visits back to NYC always had me going around the Stadium(s) and seeing how the legacy will continue. Everything I saw says that this new home of Yankee Pride will be all that, the bag of chips, and a dirty water dog. My only real complaint is the loss of Macombs Dam Park. Urban (over)development is the way, business, and reality of New York but the loss of this park is a real tragedy to the neighborhood and the plans to replace it–acre for acre, tree for tree, field for field–have been convoluted and rife with delays.
Still, I have my memories and they are all good (even when my best friend and I paid $200+ each for field level box seats to see the Yanks get SPANKED by the Braves in Game 1 of the 96 Series) and the next time I am in the Boogie Down, you best believe I will be up in the (New) Stadium making more memories.
[ETA 9-22-08] Yanks win 7-3 over the Orioles.
More on the Last Day of the House Ruth Built:
Mike Lupica’s Daily News Column
The Sporting News
Live coverage at the Official Yankees website
It’s weird that Yankee Stadium is moving. You know it much better than I do, but I remember the one time I saw a game there—Yankees versus the Mets. It’s was beautiful, even from our nosebleed seats.
There’s a good article in the latest Sports Illustrated, where the writer personifies the stadium as the “I”—it recalls the great events that have happened there (games of course, and other memorable events that happened there such as George Brett’s Pine Tar incident, championship boxing matches such as Joe Louis and Max Schmeling in 1938 and Norton-Ali in 1976, Pope John Paul II in 1979 and Pope Benedict XVI recently, etc., much less all the storied World Series games).
It also talks about the new stadium and clubhouse. Even though it’s just moving across the street, it won’t have the same history since some things can’t be taken — i.e., the clubhouse, renovated to its rectangular shape in 1976, had a large corner locker to which the longest standing Yankee held rights (passed from Sparky Lyle to Graig Nettles to Ron Guidry to Dave Righetti to Don Mattingly to Bernie Williams to Mariano Rivera). The new clubhouse across the street will be oval shaped, with no corner locker. Anyway, it’s strange to see it go. I wish architectural landmarks with such history wouldn’t go the way they too often do in the United States. But I’m glad I got see at least one game there before it goes.