Farewell To The Great Stadium September 21, 2008

Today is quite possible the last baseball game the Yankees will play at the stadium. All those great memories will be just that, memories and although I’ve been to the stadium a number of times throughout the past 20 years ( I was able to afford to go), I don’t have that stand out game that I have been to that sticks out in my memory. I do however remember getting to the games early and watching the players warm up on the field. I always wondered what it was like to lay on that beautiful green grass, stretching and just looking up from the field into the stands and taking it all in. How could you not want to play and make Yankee stadium your home field (Griffey Jr.)?

I envy all the players, not because they play the greatest game in the world and not for all the money they make (although it is a nice incentive) but I envy them because they had the opportunity to touch, feel and smell the lush greens, I envy them because they had the opportunity to slide into home plate and getting their uniform dirty and walking back to the dugout wearing it like a badge of honor, I envy them because they had the opportunity to run onto that field from the dugout, with the sound of scrunching dirt beneath their cleats, I envy them for putting on that uniform and wearing the pinstripes.

I understand that these are not really memories, these are feelings and fantasies I can take with me as I go to my first game at the NEW Yankee stadium. But there will be something different. There won’t be that aura of all the great baseball players from the present and past that have played on that field. Reggie, Munson, Maris and Mantle. Oh and before you say anything, I know that the field that Jeter and Rivera play on is different from the field that DiMaggio and Berra played on but let’s face it, they all played in the same stadium.  The new stadium won’t have that aura, not yet at least. Which is why I am happy that I get a chance in the future to tell my grand kids how spectacular it was to watch Derek Jeter make that impossible throw or how unbelievable it was to see Alex Rodriguez become the all-time home run king or even just to hear the Bleacher Creature salute the players with their roll call. I can’t wait to start new memories next season, I can’t wait to see the first Championship Banner hung in the New Yankee Stadium but most of all, I can’t wait to sit in the stands fantasizing about laying and stretching on that beautiful grass.