Wait 'til next year

As a follow-up to my recent baseball post, and keeping with my tradition of blogging about things I did several months after the fact, I thought I'd put up some pictures of me enjoying the New York baseball scene.

Both the Mets and Yankees move into new stadiums next year, so on literally my first full day back in the city, my good friend, former roommate and fellow baseball buff Will Bishop came up from Boston to experience the old parks for the (first and) last time.


Here I am in the upper deck of Shea Stadium. This picture was taken by my friend Marissa, who came to the game with us. As you can see, I finally got my ice cream in a mini helmet. It really does taste better that way. And it eased the pain of the Metropolitans losing to the lowly Padres.

In the background, you can see the big apple beyond the outfield wall, which pops up every time the Mets hit a home run. I believe the new stadium will have a similar feature. I was excited when I first heard that the new Mets stadium will be called City Field. Not only was I impressed that the team wasn't selling the naming rights to some heartless corporation, but I loved the old school, generic name, like Town Hall, the midtown venue where I'll be seeing Jim Gaffigan next month. A few weeks later, I realized it's actually being christened Citi Field, and I became very disillusioned.

The next day Will and I took the Yankee Stadium tour. As I mentioned before, Don Mattingly is my all-time favorite ball player. Here's his retired number in Monument Park.


The Yankees won four World Series titles in five years...years which fit nicely between Donnie Baseball's playing days and his stint as a Yankee coach. But he's still one of the best Yankees ever and probably should get more Hall of Fame consideration than he has since he became eligible. Here's his plaque.


You know who else has a plaque in Monument Park? The Pope. Our tour guide referred to everyone as "Mr." Mr. Steinbrenner, Mr. Girardi, etc. It was like the New York Times was narrating our tour. I can't remember if, when showing us the plaques, she referred to the pontiff as "Mr. Pope," or if that was just a joke Will and I thought up.


It was Will's idea to take the tour, mainly because he's writing his dissertation on the Yankees. He is definitely not a Yankee fan. The only thing in the stadium he wanted a picture of was the retired number of the great Jackie Robinson (every Major League team has retired his number). Jackie, of course, was a Dodger legend, and Will is a big Dodgers fan.


A view of the soon-to-be demolished field from the press box. The tour was actually better than I thought it would be. We got to "worship" in Monument Park, walk along the warning track, play around in the dugout for a while (biggest disappointment of the tour: the bullpen phone was locked up. I would've loved a picture of me on that phone), visit the locker room (no picture taking allowed in there), and sit in the press box. And they gave us a Yankees luggage tag. Time well spent, if slightly overpriced (that could be the slogan for this entire city, though).

I was in a costume shop yesterday buying a fake mustache when two women came in. One said to her friend, "I wonder if they have a Derek Jeter costume." Her friend said, "Who is that, a wrestler?" That woman is definitely an exception here. New Yorkers love baseball, and even with the economy as shaky as it is, I expect the two new, more-expensive stadiums to be full next year. I hope to go to a lot of games myself. I plan on becoming a Mets fan, because cheering for the Yankees is too easy, plus I already have an AL team. But mostly I love baseball, and I love that I live so close to where so many games are played.