My First Yankees Game

The Yankees Stadium is in its last season this year and although the Yankees themselves aren't on my favorites list, seeing a piece of history before it's turned into rubble outranked my lack of affection towards the Yankees team.

A friend and I decided we would see a game at both Yankees & Shea Stadium this year since they are both being replaced. We took advantage of the various "cheap ticket" options they have and as luck would have it, the date we ended up picking was the date that Joba Chamberlain had his first start of the season! Woot!

Got held up on our way there by the subway as the conductor announced that she wasn't getting the go ahead to pull into the station we needed to get to the stadium so she bi-passed it! Then she kept saying that whoever was in the tower needed to apologize to us over the intercom. By that time we didn't care, we just wanted to get off and transfer to the next train headed back the right direction. Gotta love the MTA! grumble.

I've never even been near the stadium prior to this so it was great to see what surrounded it (Stan seems to own a whole block) and just observe the pre-game atmosphere. And our delay did not keep us from getting the free giveaway for the night - a Yanks logo mini notepad (which my current roommate is now the owner).

Even if you save money on tix, there's no way you are going to save money on what's being sold inside the stadium.

Programs - $7
Beer in Plastic Cup - $9.50
Beer in a Ginormous Dixie Cup - $8.50
Hotdogs - $5
Plastic Bag of Peanuts - $5

As we journeyed up and up to get to our seats we noticed less and less staff available to assist w/ finding seats. We sat down still not totally convinced we were in the right spot. I took some pics of Joba warming up and discovered just how much of a zoom I have on my new camera! Unbelievable!

Since the game hadn't started yet we thought we'd get our food and maybe wander to see if we were in fact in the right spot. We found out we were on the complete opposite side of where we needed to be! Oops.

Once we got settled in, a few guys sat by us. One had a camera seemingly fancier than mine and he kept showing the pics he took to us. Well, the game pics that is...it soon became apparent that he and his friends were spending more of their time zooming in and taking pics of the various "hot" females in the audience. Classy.

Speaking of...I was really surprised that the vendors walking thru the aisles were using the cardboard flats the beverages came in to carry them around rather than the containers you generally see stadium vendors w/. Something tells me that in the "most expensive baseball stadium ever" i.e. the NEW Yankees Stadium that won't be happening...

Joba didn't have such a great night. He was on a strict pitch count and was pulled in the 3rd.

Camera guy tried to engage us in convo again and asked where we were from. The guy sitting in front of us whipped his head around when we said Queens. (He had hollered at a guy w/ a Mets shirt on earlier and told him to go back to Queens...) So of course he had to comment and asked who our favorite NY team was. We didn't commit. He said - Oh, well...what if they were in the World Series together? I said that I hadn't thought about that and we just wanted to see the stadiums before they are demolished. To which he turned to his friend and said - That's right...we should catch a game @ Shea, too. Durr....

The jumbotron flashed Adam Sandler eating Dippin' Dots on the screen so I was bound and determined to find him w/ my zoom and I did! Camera guy just settled for taking a pic of the jumbotron. Sandler's not a hot girl though so why would they put forth the extra effort?! ;)

They kept having audience members participating in games and I wondered...how do you get picked for that?! Still don't know...

We left the game early as it just wasn't pretty. The Yanks were on their 4th pitcher! Sad.

The ride home was long but I found it interesting how many guys we had asking about the game since they saw my "Joba Rules" shirt & my friend's cap. Amazing how sports can bond strangers. As long as the mob mentality doesn't kick in - it's kinda cool. ;)

You can check out pics here!