Yankee Stadium

As a transplanted New Yorker (anywhere in NJ north of 7A is New York) the only means of keeping up with my teams is through the Times online, NJ.com, and the Red Sox infatuated coverage of what the Yankees are doing. I watched the All Star game last week and began getting nostalgic about the final season at Yankee Stadium.

My father and I used to a few games a summer growing up. I was there when Dave Winfield hit his 300th home run. Saw an unknown singer forget the Canadian National Anthem, and was in attendence for the first (and last) Irish American night. I remember the bullpen car that used to drive relief pitchers to the third base coaches box. These were my fond childhood memories of "The House that Ruth Built."

My father and I decided we had to go one last time in the "old" ballpark, which we did this past weekend. I have to say, I am not all that nostalgic anymore. The current incarnation looks no better than those 1970's cookie cutter parks like Veterans Stadium, Three Rivers, and Riverfront. All of these stadiums have met the same fate. The wrecking ball. Yankee Stadium is a bland, vast, uninteresting, dirty and sterile ballpark.

The only connection to the likes of Ruth, DiMaggio, Gherig, Berra and Rizzuto is that the current park is in the same place. Yankee Stadium was torn down in 1973 when new "boss" George Steinbrenner gutted it. I am excited to see the new ballpark. The Yankees certainly deserve better.