This past weekend I was able to (happily) indulge in a favorite passtime of mine - Yankees baseball. Having grown up in a house with 3 older brothers (and a mom who was born on Yankees opening day 1952), there was rarely a summer afternoon when we weren't listening to a game on News Radio 880. There was also a time in my childhood when we were at games so often, my mom called the stadium our second home. Our seats were rarely great but that wasn't the point. Getting to watch the likes of Paul O'Neill and Don Mattingly play our nations passtime are some of my favorite memories. Plus, cracker jacks are the closest I got to my mom giving me candy.
Two years ago, my brother Sam and his wife Krista started a tradition of purchasing season tickets. Again, the seats weren't great, but who cared? That summer I got to see more baseball than I had in years.
Then I migrated south. Unfortunately, the Braves aren't the Yankees and I only saw 1 game last year. (The result of some serious bar trivia night mastery thankyouverymuch)
Fast forward to a week ago when I got an email from Krista asking me if I wanted to see a game when I was in town for a friends wedding. A game? In the new stadium? My answer was a resouding "hell yes".
On Friday night, I met Krista in midtown near her office and we took the subway to the stadium. Unfortunately for Krista, I was unable to play it New York cool. I was too excited. I had not seen the new stadium since it was completed and I hadn't seen my beloved Yanks in years. To my delight, neither one disappointed me that night. The stadium is a grand, soaring space that makes use of scale and light in an amazing way. It is clean and well laid out and the perfect home for 27 time world champions (The fact that my favorite cheesesteak place had an outpost underneath our section was an obvious bonus). Much to my delight I got to see my team win for the first time in a long time (they always seem to lose when I'm in the building - I don't take it personally). There were definitely a few moments when I didn't think they'd pull it out, but they proved me wrong with a final score of 6-4. Drunk on more than my fair share of miller light and riding high off of the win, I couldn't help but smile the whole way home.
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