Greetings from Yankee Stadium in the city where that big ole ball is dropped for every New Year. The Yankees of New York take on the Blue Jays of Toronto in a game between two AL East foes who are holding on to their slim chances of a postseason appearance. The Yankees find themselves in a better position than the Blue Jays, as they are six back of the Wild Card position but three games ahead of the Blue Jays, who have played well of late to get back above .500 and into the playoff picture. Both of these teams need to win and win a lot to make up their rather large deficit. The winner of this series will likely be the team that is more up to the challenge, and both teams would like nothing more than to get a win to get a good start in the first of three contests.
The surprisingly effective pitching performance by Yankee starter Carl Pavano kept the Blue Jays in check just enough for a 2-1 Yankee victory. Pavano, who has been injury plagued over the past four seasons after signing a huge contract, gave up just one run through 6 innings and was only pulled to keep his pitch count low since he really hasn’t pitched much of late. His opponent of what turned into a pitchers duel was one of the three Blue Jays aces A.J. Burnett, who had the bad luck of losing even though he lasted 8 innings and gave up just two runs. All of the damage came in the 4th, when Bobby Abreu hit a double to bring in a run and Jason Giambi got a sac-fly to bring in another run after a catch in foul territory. Marco Scutaro added an RBI single for the Jays in the 6th, but it did not amount to anything more. The Yankee bullpen kept the Jays scoreless for the remaining innings, which included an impressive 5-out save by Mariano Rivera to give the Yankees another victory.
Yankee Stadium. There may not be a more storied stadium in all of sports, and certainly not American sports. Like it or not, the Yankees and baseball go hand in hand. It is the sport’s most popular team in it’s largest city, and then there’s that little fact that they have won 26 World Series titles, with all of them being won while they called Yankee Stadium home. Simply put, this place is soaked in history. A ton of the all time greats have played here while wearing the famous pinstripes and winning titles. Like seriously, there’s Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Whitey Ford, Reggie Jackson, Derek Jeter, Yogi Berra, Mariano Rivera, and on and on. I know I’m forgetting tons of guys of an already impressive list, but you get the idea.. lots of guys have played in Yankee Stadium delivering an infinite list of some of the most celebrated moments in baseball history. It really makes you nostalgic when watching a game here.. thinking about all the big moments that happened here on one fine Summer/Fall day. Why am I bringing this up? Well, if you know anything about baseball, you would know that the Yankees are building a new stadium and tearing this one down, and this is the last season the Yankees will play in this incredibly historic stadium. To me, this is an outrage, but I won’t get into that. But the fact that they are tearing this place down makes every game here a big event, since it’s end is so near. Accordingly, the two games I saw were two games I was looking forward to the most. I went last year for a pair of games to make sure I went here in my lifetime, but it still felt just as special coming here for this year's games. But, this led to a somewhat bad dynamic for the actual game experience. Since there are like 12 games left here after my two, a ton of tourists are doing what I originally did last year in the form of catching a game here in their lifetime before it comes down. This becomes really obvious when tons of pictures are being taken with the field in the background and the cheers not as loud as what you would expect. I know it gets better, since I saw more what it was like last year for my visit, and that is more rabid and loud and not kind of lifeless. So I was kind of disappointed with my games, but I totally get why they are like that, I just wish they weren’t. However, something that takes away points for me no matter what is the fact that this place has gone a bit commercial. The biggest sign of this? The hated video screen with stupid video clips that appeals to casual fans. That’s not baseball, and it detracts from the game. So with everything considered, I’m going to give the Yankees an A (based mostly on last year’s vibe) and 2nd overall, ahead of the Phillies but behind the Cubs. It kills me to do this but the Cubs didn’t sell out with the video screen while the Yankees have, and there were less pretenders for the Cubs (although I know the same thing would happen if they announced Wrigley was coming down). But this is still THE place to see if you’re a baseball fan. Because to me, this stadium is baseball. It represents all that is good with the game because of how deeply engrained baseball is with this place. A team like the Yankees made the sport popular all across the nation. There’s not much time if you haven’t been there, and I don’t know what you’re waiting for. Go now if you fancy yourself a baseball fan to see history in action.
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