The Pip has gotten really into baseball as a player, and to a lesser extent as a fan— if I put the Yankee game on, he doesn’t exactly lock in on it, but he does watch highlights and keeps up with how they’re doing. The lack of locking-in isn’t exactly a bad thing, as I swear their record is much worse in games that The Pip and I watch on tv, even for a little while. Much safer to just follow the scores online…
Giiven our ability to jinx them through cable television, I was a little worried about what would happen when we were at the game in person— I joked that Aaron Judge might spontaneously combust— but we’re close enough to New York City that it would be crazy not to make a trip to the Bronx at some point. So I hit the secondary market looking for tickets to a day game in July. One option was a series against the Red Sox, but The Pip knows enough bad words already, so we ended up here, watching the Yankees play the Kansas City Royals:
Really, things just about couldn’t have gone better. The weather was pretty much perfect— a little hot, but not oppressively so, and with a pleasant breeze— and the game started off with Nestor Cortes getting a 1-2-3 inning, then DJ LeMahieu leading off the bottom of the first with a home run. Aaron Judge (The Pip’s favorite player) followed that with a single, and the Yankees never looked back.
Judge hit a home run— the 200th of his career and his 42nd on the year, leading the league— in the second, and Matt Carpenter added another in the 7th, en route to an 8-2 victory for the home team. The only thing we didn’t get that we wanted was a baseball, despite being in prime territory for both foul balls and the thing where the first baseman chucks a ball into the stands just before the start of the inning. LeMahieu threw one that looked like it was coming right to us, but it hit the cable holding the protective net (which you can just make out in the photo above), and dropped into the section in front of us. A couple of guys in the row in front of us got one, and there were a bunch of jokes about how I should’ve tackled them to get it, but they seemed nice enough so we let them alone.
Miscellaneous random notes about the experience:
—This was a full family excursion— my parents bought the tickets (thanks again!)— and I was a little worried about how SteelyKid (who is anti-sports these days) would do with it. To my surprise, SteelyKid was very into the whole experience, chattering happily even in the late innings. And Kate, who was raised a Red Sox fan, was very patient with the rest of us.
— This was Old Timer’s Day for the Yankees, which sadly did not involve the traditional spectacle of a bunch of retirees half-assing a “game” for an inning or two. Instead, they just introduced a collection of former players, with video highlights playing on the scoreboard. This wasn’t especially worthwhile, but did provide a big helping of the “smug dickhead” vibe that’s a crucial part of the Yankees experience, so…
—Baseball might be the sport that benefits most from being seen in person as opposed to on TV. You miss the umpteen replays from different angles, sure, but these days they put some of that up on the scoreboard. And having the wider view of the field and all the little stuff that goes on is cool, plus there’s no end of stuff going on in the crowd. Also, you’re generally outdoors in nice weather, which is good even without the game.
— This was my first time in the “new” Yankee Stadium (which has been there for more than a decade, I know)— we went to the old one a bunch of times back in the day, most memorably on June 3, 1981, which I can date that precisely because Graig Nettles won it with a home run in the bottom of the 11th, and of course there’s a site listing every walk-off homer in Yankees history. One of my mom’s cousins used to work in the box office, and could hook us up with really good seats given a bit of notice. The current incarnation is cleaner and more spacious than I remember from back in the 1980’s; my dad thought it seemed smaller than the old park, and Wikipedia suggests (to my surprise) that the capacity is slightly smaller, so maybe.
—We were in a field-level section so in principle could use our phones to order food delivered to our seats, but my connection was grindingly slow, so I gave up. It wasn’t like it was a huge hassle to walk to the concession concourse directly behind us, though there were some baffling elements like stands that sold chicken and fries, but no hot dogs, and others that sold hot dogs but not fries. When my mom took SteelyKid to get ice cream, they were out of vanilla, which was maybe the biggest “How does that even happen?” of the visit.
— We ended up seeing the entire Old-Timer’s Day ceremony because getting into the stadium was less hassle than we thought it might be. There’s some construction on the Major Deegan, but it didn’t lead to as huge a back-up as I had feared, and other than some Stupid Merging Tricks from a dude driving a badly dented taxicab (I let him through, because I’m not a complete moron), we didn’t have any major problems. We had pre-paid for parking in a garage across the street from the stadium, and that worked out great.
—Getting out after the game, on the other hand, was a bit of an ordeal. We spennt close to half an hour stuck in the garage, and it would’ve been longer except an attendant came over and directed us to change course. We got dumped out onto 161 St., and then ended up exploring some scenic neighborhoods in the Bronx on our way to the highway on-ramp. My parents got sent out a different exit, and were forced over the bridge into Manhattan. Thank God for Google Maps…
— The Pip got himself a souvenir:
He was a little startled by the price, but otherwise very pleased with it.
So, all in all, a great experience. If that one throw by LeMahieu had been six inches higher and missed that cable, it would’ve been perfect; I guess we’ll just have to wait ‘til next year.
I was just going to use a stadium photo in the Week in Review post, but then realized I was going to end up talking more about the trip, so it might as well be its own post. If you enjoyed this, here’s a button:
And if you want to comment on the stadium, the Yankees or baseball more generally, the comments will be open:
I recently wrote about baseball: https://erinetheridge.substack.com/p/54-outs-however-long-it-takes
Last weekend we went to a minor league game for the first time in, what? Three years? And it was wonderful.
The best way for a kid to get a ball is to get in when the gates open and to pester the players during batting practice. And wear a baseball glove so you can catch the ball. But there might be too many folks doing this at Yankees games, including middle aged men, which always seems weird and somewhat creepy. We had great success in 2019 on a Wednesday in Baltimore when the Royals were in town. My older, baseball playing son got a ball, plus one for his brother and one for a friend who was with us. A guy named Zach Hemple actually wrote a whole book about snagging balls in MLB parks.