By Dr. Lee M. Miringoff
OK… I did it. Saturday, May 16th, I swallowed my pinstripe pride and checked out the Bronx Bombers’ new digs. As we pollsters might say, on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 meaning I loved it and 10 meaning I despised it… I score the experience around a Ruthian 3. Nice things / bad things: It didn’t rain / it wasn’t sunny either… Finding a place to park on the way in was easy / exiting the stadium area later was no picnic… Seats were $40 less than last year and weren’t somewhere in Bergen County as I had feared / the closest field feature was the left field foul pole; I was literally out in left field… Concession stands were very convenient / the only Hebrew National Hot dog stand I could locate was a foot long… stadium attendants were very friendly / fans were short-tempered and unruly… great historical artifacts surrounding stadium / field view inside is a little too austere.
Outside the new Yankee Stadium.
It seems I’m not alone in my reluctance to embrace the new stadium. A recent Marist Poll of NYC Yankee fans found them divided over whether they think the building of new stadiums is a good thing for baseball (50%) or not a good thing for baseball (47%).
Now, there was admittedly a traditional ending to my first game at the new stadium. Who can complain when A-Rod tags a walk-off homer? Could they be starting to play like the Yankees of old? Overall, a good day at the ballpark even if it’ll take me some getting used to before I can rate this a Frank Crosetti 2 or a Billy Martin 1.
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