And so, it is over. It has officially been terminated. Yankee Stadium, aka The House That Ruth Built, aka The Big Ballpark (in the Bronx), aka The Stadium, lives to house the National Past Time no more. A Mickey Mantle monster shot away, the "New" Yankee Stadium, The Boss's billion dollar "gift" to The City and to future generations of Yankee fans and realistically, to the very core of the Major League Baseball industry, sits next to The Stadium waiting for its finishing touches and Opening day 2009.
They will arrive in hoards in the coming year or two - the curious, the front runners, and the faithful. And they will need to be wealthy, or at least have some room left on their credit cards, that is if they haven't been confiscated by then.
For a family of four to attend this new and improved "Yankee Stadium", it will cost you a car payment and that would be on a Lexus. Formerly, it 'only' cost you a Ford.
You read it here first: Steinbrenner Yankees, Inc., like the the U.S. Federal Government, will eventually have priced themselves out of the market. Oh, they will fill up the new Fake Yankee Stadium the next year or two on the hype alone. It certainly won't be because the Yankees are competitve. Sad for this old Pinstriper to say, but as long as the New York American League Baseball Club employs Alex Rodriquez for 27 plus million per annum, they have no chance of winning. (This has been my prediction since 2005.) And eventually, even in the best of economic times (which are hardly around the corner), it is only the winning that keeps the turnstiles cranking to the happy tune of 4 million warm overpaying bodies a year.
But what of the Pinstripe Tradition and the Bronx Bomber History? Will it not all just fly across the street like some baseball army of ghosts? Murderers' Row...Five O'clock Lightning...Ruth, Gehrig, Dimaggio, Mantle, Maris, even Reggie...all the winning from Miller Huggins to Joe McCarthy to Casey Stengel to Ralph Houk to Billy Martin to the unmentionable two words, Joe Torre...the southpaw pitching from Pennock to Gomez to Ford to Guidry to Pettite and their righthanded counterparts, Ruffing, Reynolds, Raschi, Stottlemyre and Catfish...Munson and Chamblis and Murcer...and Mel Allen and Red Barber and the Scooter and Bill White and Frank Messer, and on and on and on...what will happen to it all?
Will it majically transfer across the street as wished for and hoped for and urged by Captain Jeter in his post - 'last game ever' plea and gracious thank you to the financially extended but faithful fans?
If you want the answer to this, someday or evening or night take a ride down to the Bowery, which the New York City P.C. call the 'West Village', and step inside McSorleys Ale House, a quaint little drinking emporium that has stood the test of time. On the walls you will see what some may term as "memorabilia," photographs and pictures and artifacts that have accumulated in there over many years, going back to, believe it or not, 1854. The signage outside the pub claims "We were here before you were born." Tip a mug or two of the cheap foamy brew, look around, take a deep breath in and feel the essence of the place, look at the picture of The Bambino on the wall since the Twenties or maybe the early Thirties as he looks back at you and ask yourself, "Is McSorley's like TGIF or a dozen other memorabilia contrived cookie-cutter pub-eateries that serve the same-lame-commercialized-homogenized over-priced entrees?"
It is not.
The New Improved Fake Yankee Stadium might as well be called Fuddrucker's Park. It is not Yankee Stadium. The upper deck will not quake in a late inning rally celebration. The haunting voluminous calls of Pedro...Pedro...Pedro will not echo from the New Stadium's bowels. The 1980's Bleacher Creatures and their "roll call" will not have evolved into the infamous entity they are today. And when you looked out upon the Steinbrenner Era fornicaton of what used to be a great expanse of seemingly endless outfield green, the older of us can still imagine Joe D or The Mick, even a young Bobby Murcer making a running backhanded catch out by the monuments 461 feet from home plate.
But no more.
As Yogi said in ESPN's melacholy memorium finale, Yankee Stadium, The House that Ruth Built, will always be inside us...our minds, our hearts, our youth, our souls.
Goodbye Big Ballpark in the Bronx. You were one of a kind.
gamescribe
Let's just hope that those who'll now be attending that brand new edifice will appreciate what they'll be getting. As God knows the citizens of the city have once again been #### over by the Steinbrenners and Michael Bloomberg in one fail swoop.
A stadium that allegedly was going to be built with private funding once again has the public paying for it with bonds issued by the city. All of that to the tune of $1.65bn . But yet over the weekend we had Bloomberg railing on the federal government for bailing out the financial sector to the tune of $700bn and counting. Which is it for him anyway ?
Well said Gamescribe! It is the end of an era in many ways...since I graduated college in 1993, the pinstripes were an annual ticket to the big dance, which is astounding given time to contemplate such a feat...13 straight years!Wow! In the toughest division in MLB no less!!!
Now upper managment is imploding...Cashman is on the brink...Junior is running his mouth and staking heavy winded claims (none of which have reached fruition at present, though there have certainly been many!). In all fairness, little Hankie couldn't even be called a mini me without some serious disrespect to the big guy...everyone on the team is old, hurt, and/or not producing OR all of the above.####-rawd is obviously not the answer or at least not to the question involving winning in the postseason. I vaguely recall the names of the rookie pitchers that were so highly touted in spring training (Kennedy and Hughes?) and then there is Carl Pavano, who people insist, DOES still pitch for the NY Yankees...Without the Moose, I'm not sure where the Yanks would have been but people would have known a lot sooner about them missing the playoffs without his 19 wins at present. Would MLB have had enough time to plan a decent, well deserved ceremony then? Cano is continuously mentioned in trade talks...Jeter is a liability defensively...Melky is the best outfielder? What? That one certainly smarts! Melky Cabrerra is your best outfielder? Oui...Please make a distinction between the stadium closing (which is sad given it's status as a national monument) and the Yankees falling apart(which is not).
Last edited by bloodredsox on September 24th at 11:45 AM.
bloodredsox
The one thing that we do now know is that the Yankees will have to rethink and refocus their strategy with regard to how they'll progress. There'll more likely than not be a big upheaval as to the roster all so. But if anything what I for one would like to see is to hear a little less from Hank Steinbrenner. As he's now making himself look like a complete id*iot with his inane rants.
I agree. Hank needs to shut the cakehole cuz as we all know, big or little, rich or po, respect is earned and not given, which is why little kids, after hearing the adult scream and scream, just tune them out after a while...they become desensitized to that type of hullaballo ya know...
If little Hankie wants respect he needs to do the same as the guy out collecting trash in the early morning: earn it!
Their will be a giant upheaval in New York as you say but I do think they will land on their feet and be right back in the thick of it with little in the way of delay...
bloodredsox
Hank is a whinin' buffoon who won't stop going on with his inane rants. Until someone decides to get up and punch him in the mouth. That may well be the only thing that'll shut him up once and for all.
I believe many things, among them:
that the monuments should still be on the playing field, 460 feet from home plate...
that the most exciting play in baseball is the race between ball and man, the inside the park home run...
that for fielding alone, Clete Boyer is right there with Brooks and Nettles...
that Yankee Stadium should stand forever...
that Number 7 walking to the plate was supernatural. ..
and that there was nothing better than to shag fly balls with your best friends after supper on a summer evening
