Good night, Yankee Stadium

The hearts and souls of millions

of sports fans live within these walls.

I know I'm spoiled because I am a Yankees fan.

I went to games as a young kid, but didn't really come around to baseball until 1994. My family was on our annual Cape Cod vacation and my Dad was cursing at the evening news. All I really knew was that the Yankees were in first place, the baseball season was maybe going to be canceled by a strike, and that Don Mattingly (my favorite Yankee, of course) was probably going to retire. The strike did in fact wipe out the season and I remember caring. When Mattingly decided to play more one year for Buck Showalter I decided it was time to start paying attention to the games. I became a baseball fan for sure on October 8, 1995 when Edgar Martinez crushed the Yankees with a walkoff 2-run double in the 11th inning of Game 5. I was so devastated by that game. "Wait til next season," I told myself.

And so it's grown from there. I've been to what feels like 100 games, including 7 playoff games, 2 World Series games, 1 Home Run Derby, and the list goes on. My blood runs pinstripe blue and I've tried to uphold the true Yankee fandom as much as possible. I hated Tino Martinez for the first 6 and a half months of the 1996 season for replacing Don Mattingly. (I warmed up to him during the playoffs.) I still dislike Jason Giambi for replacing my Tino. It's weird to me to look on the field and not see Scott Brosius, Paul O'Neill, Bernie Williams...I even miss Chuck Knoblauch. I screamed when the Yankees won their first World Series during my lifetime, and their second; I was there for the third; and I chanted the lineup with the bleacher creatures in 2000.

But I am most thankful to have had the Yankees in 2001. Grasping like so many others for anything that was normal, baseball was such a welcome relief. I'd thought the idea of the ghosts in Yankee Stadium was kind of silly until that year. My hair stood on end during every game even from 2000 miles away in Colorado. And in Game 5, when the entire stadium chanted Paul O'Neill's name I chanted along.

It is those memories that make me sad to see Yankee Stadium go. But times they have changed. The Yankees of late haven't really impressed me much and there are many players on the team now that I am simply tolerant of. The teams since 2001 don't make my spine tingle the way the teams in the 1990s did. It's not the the lack of a World Series title that bothers me; I'm a bit more relaxed than that. It's the players we've brought in lately who just don't quite feel right to me. If a new Yankee Stadium means a fresh start then I say bring it on. I am of the humble opinion that the ghosts of Ruth, Mantle, DiMaggio and the others long ago vacated this stadium for other planes. Watching the pre-game ceremony on Sunday night was fitting closure I thought. And Derek Jeter summed it up well -- time to move over to the new stadium and make some new memories.

The new Yankee Stadium,
soon to be the only one.

Maybe I'd feel more nostalgic if they weren't meticulously breaking down each piece and putting it up for auction or selling it. The sports memoribilia dealers have it wrong -- it's not the pieces of the building that I care about. It's the whole thing, the aura, the feeling you get walking towards your seat or when the crowd roars. Try packaging and selling that. You can't. I've made peace with the stadium coming down (the field, at least as of now, will remain). And if the ghosts ever want to make a return visit to the stadium, they won't have to look very far. On to the new Yankee Stadium, where new legends will be made.

Going, going...gone!

We totally got our money's worth
at the Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium
on Monday.

I don't know why I love sports (or videogames) so much, but I do. I always have. I have scared enough dates with my multi-sports knowledge and would make the characters on "My Boys" proud. So it should come as no surprise that when faced with the choice of spending my Monday night at Yankee Stadium watching the Home Run Derby or going to a fondue party with some friends I chose bats over dipping pots.

I have to admit the Home Run Derby idea didn't really interest me at first. I was much more interested in trying to get tickets to the All-Star game before I saw how expensive they were. Friend T and I were able to snag tickets for the Derby for under $200 each in the bleachers. Not cheap by any stretch, but still a pretty good deal. The same seats were $500 each for the All-Star game. When faced with the prices, we chose Monday's Derby.

One we got to the Stadium, I was thrilled with our choice. The weather was great, and we got there early enough to see All-Star batting practice. Our bleacher seats were in left field, which we knew would drastically reduce our chance of catching anything with right field's short porch. But the right field bleacher creature section was much more expensive. It didn't matter -- we got to our section just as A-Rod smacked a 425-foot home run right at us. If we'd been more heads up about it we probably could have at least made a play for the ball.

The picturesque sky over Yankee Stadium
during the 2008 Home Run Derby.

We watched Albert Pujols, Lance Berkman and Matt Holliday (my personal fave) belt carefree homers to all fields as I wistfully pretended that the Derby had already started. Besides Justin Morneau and Berkman I didn't really recognize any of the Derby competitors and it was kind of a bummer. It was almost enough to make me wish Jason Giambi had been voted in as the 32nd man (he promised to take part in the Derby if voted into the All-Star game).

After an hour of downtime, which T and I spent leering at the ESPN crew just to our right and watching the sky turn various shades of pink and purple as the sun set (gorgeous) it was finally time to start the damn thing. We endured Michael Kay trying to excite the crowd, a mini-concert by 3 Doors Down and someone singing the national anthem and then finally Dan Uggla of the Marlins stepped to the plate.

The first round was fun if unremarkable until the Rangers' Josh Hamilton came to the plate. The crowd has been giving polite applause to the competitors, but once Hamilton got going it became clear something amazing was happening. We knew it when one of his early homers run the back of the right field bleachers, and then the next one came within 20 feet of the "Hit it here and win $1,000,000" sign. The jaded crowd woke up, and soon after Hamilton went on a run of 13 straight homers without an out. It was ridiculous. We were all chanting "Ham-il-ton, Ham-il-ton" which is amazing considering 1 - he plays for another AL team and 2 - Yankees fans don't chant for players on other teams under any circumstances.

When Hamilton's 10 outs were spent, he'd broken the single-round record set by current-Yankee-then-Phillie-Bobby Abreu and outhomered the other 7 contestants by at least 11 runs each. The second round become something of a let-down as a result, and the finals were even worse because Hamilton didn't even win the Derby! (This was because the homers total resets itself in the finals, and Hamilton was either exhausted or had cooled.) I didn't know Hamilton's back story or pretty amazing comeback story. I wish I'd known about his dream of hitting a HR Derby out of Yankee Stadium because he came pretty damn close. Suffice it to say I am now a fan...and it certainly doesn't hurt that he's pretty cute!

But man what a friggin' awesome night. Whenever I go to a Yankees game my favorite part is seeing home runs. On Monday night we saw over 50 of them. At the end of the day, the All-Star game is just another baseball game. But the Home Run Derby is a special, unique event that is different and exciting every time. I am so glad I got to see it live. Seeing it in the last year of Yankee Stadium's existence only made it that much better. Just don't ask how much I spent on swag after.

Gridlock Alert

I love the lights of Times Square, but I try to avoid going there during tourist season and the holiday season. It's amazing how many people you can fit in a 10 block radius.

But I can be convinced to go there by the New Year's Eve ball drop, which I will brave the crowds for, or NASCAR. Yes, NASCAR. I love my drivers and every year in the week leading up to their annual awards dinner they do a parade around midtown called the Victory Lap.

The top 12 NASCAR drivers in 2007
drive the Victory Lap towards Times Square.

They go up Madison, across 53rd, down 5th, and end up at the "Good Morning America" studios. I'm not sure when this tradition started but I just found about it last year. Really I'm a new NASCAR fan anyway (driven to it, ha, by an ex-boyfriend but now loyally addicted). With my favorite driver Dale Jr. not in the top 12 this year the events have a bit less luster for me. But one of my favorite parts of NASCAR is how accessible the drivers make themselves to the fans. (Note: It was the top 10 but this year they expanded to the Top 12...)

I have been to three races -- Pocono, New Hampshire, and Kansas City back in college -- and each time I've seen drivers take hours out of their busy schedules to sign autographs, pose for photos and generally be very nice to the adoring masses. I once saw an MLB player carousing around NYC (we'll keep his identity unknown to protect the assholes). A young child and his dad approached the player to ask for an autograph. The player's reply? "I don't do free autographs, kid." And then the player walked away. Ouch. You'd never hear that from a NASCAR driver.

Matt Kenseth (17), Kyle Busch (5) and
Jeff Burton (30) arrive in Times Square.

I knew I'd never be able to stay for the whole event, which started at 8 and continued all day. But I dragged myself out of bed at 6:30 and went to the East side part of the parade route so I could at least see the cars. Antsy to get to work, I watched all 12 slowly drive by at around 8:30, wished I had called in sick so I could join the Times Square festivities, and then went to work.

As the morning dragged I realized I really wanted to go back, so I started my lunch break a little early and made my way back to Times Square. Last year I got Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne to sign items for me, but Dale Jr. never made it over to where I was standing.

When I arrived, the crowd was thinner that it looked on TV in the morning but still impressively large for New York City. And the drivers were still there, smiling in their firesuits as their tired hands continued to sign autographs. It was too crowded to squeeze up front, so I stood back a little and just took it in. I had rooted for Jeff Burton this year so it was a big thrill seeing him. Martin Truex Jr. revved his engine a few times, Kyle Busch looked smug as usual, Jimmie Johnson (the repeat Champ this year) made humble statements while Jeff Gordon ate humble pie.

Not too long later, the drivers were called to another event. An audible "awww" went up through the crowd but the announcer rattled off a list of other events we could see the drivers at. That was nice. I overheard some businesspeople walking by complaining about NASCAR drivers being in midtown and closing so many streets on one of NYC's "Gridlock Alert Days," aka don't even think about driving here. Awww, tough break.

The second awesome event of yesterday came long after sundown -- the Rockefeller Tree lighting! A couple of my friends and I have gone the last few years. Last year, we avoided flipping the switch time in favor of Bailey's hot chocolate at the W hotel, but this year we decided to brave the crowds. And crowded is an understatement. It's like being an ant trying to plow through the area over a dropped sugary Popsicle stick. You have to budget an extra hour to work your way in and out of the area and I'm not exaggerating.

Yet it is completely worth it. They had all the normal corny music, followed by Nick Lachey and some lady I didn't recognize smiling and kvetching. Finally, the switch was flipped and voila! The tree was lit. It's always so pretty, with extra white sparklers that randomly light up around the tree. The many allusions to snow have been almost comical the last two years as we're not even close to snow weather. But it was pretty chilly last night.

Christmas at Rockefeller Center.

The crowd immediately thins somewhat after the lighting, but there were still plenty of people around as we made our way around to the parade of angels. We'll go back another time to hit the ice skating rink. We took some photos, warmed up a bit at Starbucks, and called it a night. Most of the buildings around there will put up their decorations and outdoor installations. There is one place -- Saks 5th Ave., I think -- that has a light-up snowflake show on the facade of the building, complete with music! I imagine it's perennially annoying for the businesspeople who work late nights around there as it goes off every 30 minutes, but I love it.

On finding a Rockies bar in NYC

There is a sports bar for every NFL team in NYC. I only know this because friends from college who are Broncos fans (and even Raiders fans) found bars that cater to them. It's unbelievable. Seems like every NBA team has a home base too. But the MLB? Not so much.

Sure, the older teams have their fanbase in the city with a chosen bar. I have a small gaggle that wants to watch the World Series, and about half of us absolutely refuse to go to any pro-Red Sox bars. The Riviera and Hairy Monk were out. Neutral territory would be easy to find but we started wondering if there was such a thing as a Rockies bar in NYC.

We pondered for awhile over lunch. DU has a large alumni chapter, as does CU. Even my alma mater CSU has a respectable clump. And without a doubt all of us took in games from the Rock Pile or better seats at Coors at one point or another. In fact, one of my friends in college ran the JumboTron for Coors. It's a rush to be on, let me tell you. But the Rockies don't have that national appeal of the Cubs or the Red Sox or my poor sweet Yankees.

A search on the goog didn't reveal much. I asked every Colorado transplant I know. Since I don't really know any Rockies fans my email was met with mostly sarcastic responses. My gaggle didn't have any better luck. In Denver the obvious answers are Jackson's or Sports Column. I think it would be hysterical to find a large group of Rockies fans here in New York though. I am determined to find them in the city!

Say it ain't so, Joe!

'I'm thinking...meh...nah.'

When the Yankees didn't fire Joe Torre right after their first round loss, I knew they would try and keep him. When they hadn't made an offer by Monday, I was worried they were gonna make a crappy offer. At 4 PM today, I was pretty much inconsolable.

How could the Yankees do this? How can a team with a $200 million payroll insult their best manager in years by asking him to take a paycut because he had dared not to win a World Series? Does anyone in the Yankee brass realize how ridiculous that sounds to every other baseball fan? This is why people hate the Yankees.

"Well, Joe, ya done real good, but you only get us to the first round of the playoffs every year now...sooo basically we're gonna go ahead and lop $2.5 mil off your salary for that. Oh, but don't worry, if you win us a World Series you'll actually make more than you did this year! Yeah, it's our new incentives program...A-Rod'll be in it too. Every regular season home run is worth $1.75 mil, but come the postseason they're each worth $7 million. We really think this new program will help motivate the team. Oh, one more thing. We're only gonna give you a 1-year deal because we really want to go through this whole ordeal again next year. That's cool, right Joe? Joe? Where are you going...?"

I mean, holy crap! What kind of wacky weed were they smoking in Tampa? I can't imagine how they came up with a $5 million, 1-year deal with $3 million in elevator incentives and thought that would keep Mr. Torre in pinstripes. Please.

I guess the Yankees could come around, realize they're being very stupid and offer Torre $8 million a year for 2 years, apologize, hug and laugh it off as a joke-gone-horribly-wrong at the news conference as Mr. Torre grits his teeth and calls them sonsofbitches under his breath en route to wielding a 120-win revenge/please the fans season in 2008. But I think this may be it. The Torre era is over in the Bronx. I feel like my favorite teddy bear got destroyed in the washing machine. Something I'd leaned on for so long has come to a slightly traumatic end, and while there'll be other teddy bears, there will never be one just like this one. Even if Mr. Torre changes his mind it'd be like if the teddy bear went through surgical repair. The same and yet different, and not quite as comfy. Not that I would refuse it. But it's unlikely anyway.

Now Donnie Baseball becomes candidate No. 1 to step in as Yankees manager. I pity him. Not only does he have huge shoes to fill but he must also deal with the woulda-shoulda-couldas and 'If Joe were still managing' second guessing that the FAN, ESPN and YES network trifecta are probably already happily wringing their hands about. May as well just hire some hack for a year, let the Yankees suck wind through one season and when we're begging for someone else, then bring in Mattingly.

And if the Yankees don't make the postseason next year? Look out Yankees, look out...

How 'bout dem Rockies!!!

I'm still pissed that the Yankees are out, but I cannot deny the wonderful story that is the Colorado Rockies. A few posts ago I said I'd never met a Rockies fan, but maybe I'll become a bandwagon-hopper! I am so mad at MLB for starting this game at 10 PM EST, but I stayed up anyway. I'll be dead to the world tomorrow, but it was totally worth it.

These games have been tons of exciting and it's wonderfully satisfying that they took out the hated Diamondbacks in the LCS. (Yes, I'm still bitter about 2001. That was the Yankees' year above all others.) Even better, it's still an Indian summer as the Tribe spanked the BoSox earlier tonight. Indians-Rockies World Series? The ratings would potentially suck but I would love it!

Actually, I hope the ratings don't suck. Because the Rockies deserve it. They had only made the playoffs one other time (1995) when they ran into the Braves train, and now here they are going to a World Series. Yes, they are an expansion team but they have to start building history some time.

I'm so tempted to by a plane ticket, find a way into the Rockpile, and watch a World Series game with my college buds -- 1 mile high. Suddenly I kind of miss Denver.

Do what you have to Yankees, but don't fire Joe

I feel like this has happened before...

The Yankees' 2007 season came to an unceremonious end last night with a 6-4 loss to the Indians that wasn't as close as it sounds. The Stadium was stunned into silence early and often, and two 9th inning homers turned out to be too little, too late.

I'm sure all the Yankee-haters are writhing in glee right now - I got vindictive emails from two of them last night - but Yankee fans are far more concerned with the future of one Joe Torre. With a win-or-yur-outta-heah ultimatum from the Boss earlier this week the sports media is already predicting his ouster. These are of course the same pundits who thought the Yankees wouldn't make the playoffs this year. Or last year. Or the year before. And the same pundits who predicted Torre would be a goner last year. And the year before. But I believe that if the Boss has any sane bones left in his body and if Brian Cashman has any say in the matter, they ask Mr. Torre to stay.

The Yankees are finally getting back to being a Torre kind of team, and now you want to oust him? You must be insane! Real quick, let's review the formula that worked for the Yankees in the 90s:

• No me-first plays-hard-only-in-contract year jerks
• Stocked farm system with talented position players and pitchers
• A nurturing manager who showed his players respect even while making tough decisions and protected said players from the Boss
  
• A team mentality that started at the top and permeated down to the bat boy
• Players near or in their prime mixed with minimal veterans to provide leadership
  
• TALENT

Now let's look at the Yankees from 2000-2006:

• Rotating door of me-first players with huge contracts (some of whom are unfortunately still on the team)
  
• Depleted farm system traded away for big-name players who proceeded to do stoogatz
  
• A nurturing manager who showed his players respect even while making tough decisions and protected said players from the Boss
  
• A team mentality poisoned by ring-chasing ninnies
• Players at the end of or past their prime with as many leadership skills as my pet rock
• Talent, though that only gets you so far

And finally this season things were starting to turn around. Goodbye, Mr. Pavsheffclemunitloftnelswells! Welcome back, Yankees farm system. Welcome back, talented youngins with names like Mr. Cano, Mr. Cabrera, Mr. Hughes, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Chamberlain. This is a Torre team - minimal distractions and plenty of talent. The only thing missing is pitching. Mr. Torre has been accused of burning through arms the last few years...wouldn't you if you had his pitching staff? Even the players I love like Andy Pettitte suffered through injuries, leaving Torre with few dependable options. Do I really have to run through his pitching staffs from the last 7 years? One telltale sign is that over 70% of those pitchers now pitch somewhere else or are no longer in the major leagues.

Look, I understand that the Yankees and their fans expect no less than a World Series title every year. We fans are in the fortunate position to have some degree of reality attached to that expectation. But let's not dismiss 13 consecutive postseason appearances by the Yankees (the first managed by Buck Showalter). I believe only the Braves have had a longer streak. And in his tenure, Torre has lead the Yankees to 6 World Series appearances and 4 titles. That averages to a World Series appearance every other year of Torre's tenure. No one else in the wild card era - nevermind the modern era - even comes close.

And need I even mention that players actually like playing for Torre? With all due respect to some of the names being dropped as possible replacements, no one handles New York fans as well as he does. Sure, it would be funny to watch Sweet Lou throw 3rd base or Bobby V. wear one of his brilliant disguises after being tossed to secretly return. And yes, it would be nice to give Donnie Baseball (my all-time favorite player) or Joe Girardi a chance to run the Bronx Bombers.

But not yet. There is no way I'd let Mr. Torre leave like this, with lame ALDS exits to the Angels, Tigers and Indians. He deserves better and he's earned another chance. Any Yankees player who doesn't want him back is an idiot, and any player who doesn't want the opportunity to come back to the Yankees next season is an even bigger idiot that is probably managed by Scott Boras. If Mr. Torre decides to leave of his own accord, so be it, though it'd be a sad day for the Yankees and their fans.

Don't push Joe out (or Cashman, for that matter). Continue to fix the formula - dump the crappy pitching; trust in and build your farm system; resist the temptation to trade for the Gagne's at the trading deadline or sign them over the winter and for God sakes play like a team having fun! You play for the damn Yankees! And keep Joe Torre. Because a team is only as good as its manager, and he is one of the best.

October in New York - must be playoff time!

I'm coming right out and saying it - I'm a Yankees fan. Boo and hiss all you want. I feel bad for Willie Randolph right now - initially since he used to be 3rd base coach for the Bronx Bombers, but also because back in May everyone was thinking the Mets were a shoo-in for the playoffs while the Yankees languished 8 games below .500.

Oh, how the Yanks are underestimated every year. My opinion for the last few years has been 'I don't care if we miss the playoffs, because maybe then they'll realize that depleting their farm system and signing a bunch of me-first players isn't such a great plan!'. Luckily, Cashman stood up for himself, stocked his farm system back up and we are now reaping the benefits after only a few subpar seasons. I say good riddance to the Sheffields, Giambinos and Damons that invade the team. I'll take the Melkys, Jobas and Robbies any day.

I have to admit that I am kinda turning the corner on A-Rod a bit. Not nearly all the way though. It is a contract year after all. Hopefully this will be the cornerstone of success for the Yankees. But I hope they don't overpay to keep him in the Bronx. He deserves the MVP this year and I'm glad he doesn't get booed at home any more. He is amazing, but he's still no Derek Jeter.

Monday begins true fall in NYC - the leaves in the parks are turning, it gets dark earlier each night, and there's a chill in the air...or not. What the heck is with this Indian summer?
Will this be another year like last, where we still had 60 degree days in December? I didn't even wear a winter coat to last year's Rockefeller Tree lighting ceremony. At least I won't freeze at any playoff games I manage to get tickets for.

I got an email about the Yankees presale but it totally slipped my mind come purchase time. I was doubly disappointed to find out that they sold both ALDS and ALCS tix at the same time, meaning I'm screwed. I love how Stub Hub has suddenly become a partner with MLB. They've acquiesced to the scalpers. Lame. Sometimes the team even holds tickets back to sell at the above market value. And this is legal how?

If the Yanks make the World Series, I'm camping out at Yankee Stadium. Starting right after they clinch the pennant.