The Ballpark - While this was my first time going to the "new" Yankee Stadium for a baseball game, it wasn't my first time inside this venue. I was there in 2016 with my son, Wes to see Pitt play Northwestern in the Pinstripe Bowl. Pitt lost (boooo!), but I vowed to get back for a Yankees game.
 |
| Wes at Yankee Stadium - 2016 Pinstripe Bowl |
The "new" Yankee Stadium first opened in 2009, replacing "the House that Ruth Built." The original stadium, a famous cathedral of baseball, fell victim to the economics of the game. Not enough luxury seating and amenities, apparently. The site of the original Yankee Stadium (which I visited in 2004) is now a public park across the street from the newer ballpark.
 |
| The Great Hall |
The current Yankee Stadium does two things particularly well. First, it does a great job celebrating the history of a franchise that's won 27 World Series championships. (I'm not the least bit jealous... cough, cough.) Dorry and I arrived early enough to visit Monument Park just beyond the center field wall. (Warning: It closes 45 minutes before game time.) There, plaques and monuments celebrate all the Yankee greats -- Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, Maris, DiMaggio, and more. The largest plaque by far, though, is for deceased former owner George Steinbrenner. Draw your own conclusions from that tidbit.
 |
| Monument Park |
There's also a great little Yankees Museum off the second level concourse, where you can see World Series trophies, World Series rings, displays for Hall of Fame players, Thurmond Munson's locker, and a wall displaying balls signed by numerous past and present Yankees of note. There's even a guy in a suit (some would call him a docent -- Dorry called him "the Baseball Nerd") whose job was to walk around and talk Yankees history with anyone who wanted to listen.
 |
Yankees Museum
|
The second thing this ballpark does well is preserving the feel of the original Yankee Stadium. The exterior mimics the design of the original ballpark from 1923, and the field's dimensions did not change noticeably from the original ballpark. There's still lots of foul ground behind home plate. The new stadium also keeps the iconic frieze that rings the top of the grandstands -- resembling a white picket fence.
 |
| Yankee Stadium |
Despite the tributes to a great franchise's history, Yankee Stadium wasn't one of my favorite ballparks. Like many things in NYC, it's YUGE, with the second largest seating capacity of all MLB parks (over 47,000). All that seating and foul territory left me feeling a bit distant from the action. Together, the seating and massive scoreboard circle the field in a way that gives the place a cave-like feeling. And the concourses seem closed off from the action, almost like hallways. The food was okay but not memorable. Prices of everything, from parking to tickets to concessions, were what you would expect in NYC (i.e., expensive).
Strangely, in one of the world's greatest centers for performing arts, the Yankees played recordings of the Star Spangled Banner, God Bless America, and Take Me Out to the Ballgame. I wasn't expecting Lin-Manuel Miranda to rap the national anthem... but canned music in the land of Broadway?
The crowd was vocal and really into the game. More than 38,000 fans turned out on a Tuesday night. They gave a nice ovation to former Yankee Didi Gregorius when he came to the plate for the Phillies. They had a lot of hate, though, for Bryce Harper. (What did he ever do to them?) The fans around us were good about the fact that we were cheering for the opposition, and we struck up a nice conversation with a family of Yankees fans seated behind us.
The Game - We saw the Phillies fall to the Yankees 6-4. Aaron Nola started for the Phils and struggled through 5 innings, allowing four of the Yanks' six runs. The Phillies loaded the bases in the 7th inning but couldn't get anything out of it. All told, the Phils stranded 11 baserunners. Ouch. Andrew McCutchen did hit an impressive home run against Yankees flame-thrower Aroldis Chapman in the 9th inning, but it was too little, too late.
 |
| Dorry keeping score |
There was some notable history made in the game: Rhys Hoskins homered in the 2nd and scored in the 4th to become the first Phillies player to reach 300 runs, walks and RBIs in his first 500 games. Only 7 other players have done this in major league history: Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Charlie Keller, Ralph Kiner, Eddie Matthews, Frank Thomas and Aaron Judge. That's some impressive company.
Overall Score -- ⚾⚾
