The baseball season is about a month old, and on Tuesday night, I made my first ever trip to the new Yankee Stadium. I had spoken to people who had already been there, and I had watched games on TV, but I was very excited, to say the least, about seeing it for myself. Unfortunately, after seeing it, the initial thoughts I had from watching it on TV, and seeing pictures in newspapers and magazines were validated.

I couldn't seem to pinpoint what was bothering me about the New Stadium until last night. While the frieze around the ballpark is awesome, the division of seats is terrible. There's no flow to each section. There are odd angles in the outfield seats dividing the "chair-backs" with the bleachers, and the bleachers themselves look cheap. At least at the old ballpark, there was some color. Here at the new one, it looks like a big block of cement.

As you continue looking to the outfield, you see weird, steel, angular, futuristic structures behind the scoreboards and seats that are home to walkways. It reminds me of the new Soldier Field in Chicago, and if anyone has seen that, well you know what an eyesore that is.

Then, as you continue to look around the Stadium, the wall in front of each section (field, mezzanine, etc.) appears to be a steel fence. In other words, you can see right through it, unlike at the old ballpark where there was a solid blue wall in front of each section where people would hang signs.

And then last but not least, is of course the legends seats, or the section better known as the "ridiculously expensive empty seats. " I actually had the opportunity to sit in those seats last night, and while they were amazing, I felt weird sitting there. The fact that you're separated from the rest of the fans is a bit uncomfortable. You actually feel like you're part of the wealthy class sitting in the Roman Coliseum waiting for everyone else to revolt. In other words, it's not what a baseball game-experience should be.

As much as this pains me to say, seeing what the Yankees have done with this new stadium, trying to squeeze every penny out of each fan, rich or poor, and treating their own (Paul O'Neill) with such a lack of respect, makes me embarrassed to call myself a fan of the team. Oh yeah, it also makes me long for the days of the old Stadium just across the street, the one that actually gave the team a home-field advantage.