You haven’t really experienced all that is the New York Yankees and their Evil Empire until you’ve been to their Global HQ. As much as I’m on baseball hiatus, I couldn’t pass up a chance to visit the new DeathStar, the second DeathStar in all its glory when I was in New York City a couple days ago. You don’t have to like baseball to appreciate Yankee Stadium.
I had visited old Yankee Stadium in 2008, on the night they unveiled the logo for the next MLB All-Star game, which The House that Ruth Built would host the next year. So when I was in Manhattan for a couple days I grabbed the cheapest ticket I could find to visit The House that PEDs Built.
Actually hearing and seeing people cheering and supporting Alex Rodriguez. In person. It was enough to make leave really early.
Everyone should visit Yankee Stadium at least once. Especially to see the museum they have. No other team in baseball can match what they have inside on display- the rings, the pennants, the jerseys, the regalia, the memorabilia from Mantle, Ruth, DiMaggio, Gehrig, Maris and on and on and on and on.
Actually, the highlight of the collection to me was the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card. It’s like the holy grail of baseball card collecting. And at age 7 till about age 16 I was really into sports card collecting, trading, dealing and selling. The Yankee Museum currently focuses on the Mick. And they do deify him. However, they also convey that he was not a hero all the time; and it does explore his let-downs. They glossed over his rampant alcoholism though. I felt they could have at least touched on that.
Also, I could have done without this sign. It creeped me out:
Notice this Yankee Stadium sign is in ALL CAPS! IT’S SCREAMING AT YOU TO BE PARANOID ABOUT YOUR FELLOW BASEBALL GAME ATTENDEES! TURN THEM IN!
I do wish I had gotten to Yankee Stadium by 45 minutes prior (that’s when it closes) to first pitch, just so I could see the Monument Park in the new stadium. I’m guessing it’s similar to the Monument Park in the old ball field. And Yankee Stadium is an over-priced palace, just like you heard. Yes, everything is really nice there and yes, beer is like $24 a glass and hot dogs cost $14 each (well, not really but you get the idea). And it’s sweet that Yankee Stadium is surrounded by little league ball fields on one side to help inspire the little kiddies. However, all these good things about DeathStar 2 doesn’t change the simple fact:
THESE PEOPLE BLINDLY SUPPORT A-ROD AND CHEER FOR HIM!
ACK!
At least I saw Mark Buerhle strike him out while I was there. That was pretty cool.
Still, in getting the cheapest ticket I could find, at the absolute last minute, I had the privilege of sitting among New York’s……Well, every fan base has their disgusting excuse for humanity subset, and the New York Yankees are no different. Their gene pool skimmings are just bad as every other team’s, and you can get to know them in the 400 level for $26.
Given how much you know I lose baseball, you can see why I could only take this game for about three innings. Again there’s nothing better or worse about the primordial ooze of Yankee Nation versus the primordial ooze of other team’s fans. It’s just that this is the Yankees; and you know how cuddly and lovable they are as a franchise.
Hey, it’s Regis Philbin’s favorite team! And his UNWATCHABLE train wreck known as “Crowd Goes Wild” on Fox Sports 1 talks about some Yankee topics and A-Rod topics aplenty.
Yeah, I give that show a shelf life of about two weeks.
The Yankee empire though will go on for a 1,000 year reich.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An analyst for 95.7 The Fan, he also writes on Chicago sports media for Chicago Now. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)