Yankee Stadium

First visit:  Thanksgiving 1957. Dad took Hugh and me. The New York Football Giants were practicing. They played home games at Yankee Stadium back then. A groundskeeper walked us to home plate and said “stand here…it’s where Babe Ruth stood. Then we went to first base. “This is where Lou Gherig stood. Then to center field. “This is where Joe DiMaggio stood.” We saw the monuments, which were still in play in center field then.

Second visit: February 1991. Drove by while my mother-in-law Louise J. Tierney had a porcelain dollmaking exhibit at Toy Fair at the Javits Center. No games in February, obviously.

First game: September 11, 2000.  I had a layover on the way home from Nashville, where we were shooting a new TV spot for Magic 106.7 in Boston. Cabbed it from JFK to Penn Station, then took the #4 train to 161st street. Red Sox-Yankees! The game was sold out. A scalper right in front of the ticket windows tried to sell me a $60 box seat – for the next night! I wound up buying a $15 third deck ticket from a fan who had an extra. The upper deck is very steep. 42-degree pitch. It was the standard by which stadium and arena steps are measured. Designing a new ballpark pr stadium or arena? Don’t make the pitch any steeper than Yankee Stadium’s upper deck.

I walked all around the park. You couldn’t help but get a feel for the history of the place. The field was not viewable from the concession areas at all, but you could walk around to the bleachers from the grandstand. I had a “haaht dowg.” Okay, I had 2. Not surprisingly, the place was loaded with obnoxious Yankee fans. I saw many Boston Sucks shirts, Buck Foston shirts, 1918 hats, and fans yelling “Bucky Dent” when a Yankee got a hit. They definitely make a big deal of the rivalry. But hey, the Sox won 4-1!

Second game: September 11, 2005. This was a bus trip to the Big Apple with my sister-in-law Marie Wells and her daughter, Andria. Both work at Cape Cod Hospital and several CCH people had arranged a road trip tour to a Red Sox-Yankees game in enemy territory.

We were sitting near the last row of the top Tier (as they call it in NYC), and Marie was getting acrophobia from the height and steep pitch (43 degrees, as noted above) so she slid down all the steps on her butt. Her white jeans picked up a lot of grime one the way down, where she remained for the rest of the game.

I stayed up there in Tier 5 with Andria and, as I usually do, scored the game. Tim Wakefield facing Randy Johnson. Because Johnson was tough on lefties, Terry Francona didn’t start David Ortiz, Trot Nixon or Johnny Damon. There was a guy next to me with his son. Strong New York accent. In the 6th inning he said to his kid, “That Wakefield…he’s wauking the whole boulpok.” I couldn’t resist. I showed him my scorebook and said, “You know how many walks Wakefield has issued in the game? Zero.”

Wakefield went the distance. He did eventually issue one walk, but gave up only 3 hits and one run. The run was a solo shot to the short porch in right by Jason Giambi in the 1st inning. Oh, and he had 12 K’s. Wake went 16-12 that year. The winning pitcher was Randy Johnson, who won his 14th.

Third game, Sunday, September 16, 2006. It was an unusual weekend as the Friday night game was rained out and it was the Sox final trip of the year to the Bronx, so there were back-to-back doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday. Kara and I took an Acela to Penn Station, then rode the MTA to 116th Street and got bleacher seats to the Sunday afternoon game.

In the top of the 1st the bleacher crowd started a chant for all the staters. Mark Ta-Share-a, Joh–nny Da-mon, De-rek Je-ter and so on. Once the game got going there were a couple of foulmouthed guys who’d had a few too many brewskis yelling out obscenities…even though we were in an allegedly alcohol-free section. Completely inappropriate for mixed company…and I’m there with my daughter. This included Trump-style invectives aimed at Sox center fielder David Murphy, who was just up from Pawtucket. Among other things. they were razzing him about his number – 60 – obviously too high for a real player. I was going to point out that the Yankee batter at that moment was Hideki Matsui, who wore #55. But that was not a battle I’d win. We were about to take off because those guys were so loud and offensive and really, who needs that? Then…Security to the rescue…they were escorted out. Not because they were yelling obscenities non-stop. They got the boot for drinking in the “family-friendly no alcohol section.”

Murphy, despite the jeering jerks, homered in the 1st inning. Youk went 2 for 4. Future Sox manager Alex Cora started at 2b but was lifted for newcomer Dustin Pedroia. The winning pitcher was Bryan Corey (2-1). Mike Timlin got the save. The Red Sox wound up taking three of the four games.

Last game: Thursday, August 28, 2008. This game was a very big deal. They #1 rivalry in all of sports It was the final appearance of the Red Sox at the original Yankee Stadium. 16-game winner Jon Lester was the Sox starter and Mike Mussina, a 20-game winner in his final season, was the Yankees starter.

Most of the big names didn’t do much. For the Yankees Johnny Damon went 0-for-3, A Rod went 0-for-4, Robinson Cano went 0-for-4. Derek Jeter went 3-for-4 but with no runs or RBI. On the Red Sox column Jacoby Ellsbury went 0-for-4, Papi went 0-for-2 with a couple of walks, Youk went 0-for-3, Jason Bay, the guy they got for Manny earlier that month, went 0-for-4.

It was 0-0 into the 5th inning when Boston got two runs on RBIs from Jason Varitek and Jacoby Ellsbury. After the 7th inning stretch Lester departed after giving up no runs, no walks and striking out 8. But Yankee 1B Cody Ransom (remember him? No? Nobody else does either) got a two-out single and Lester was relieved by Hidecki Okajima. Pinch-hitter Jason Giambi immediately took “Okey-dokey” slightly deep with a 2-run knock to the very short porch in right. Lester was charged with one run, Okajima with the other. Now it’s 2-2…a new game. On we went to the bottom of the 9th. Setup man Justin Masterson gave up a one-out hit to pinch runner Brett Gardner and was immediately relieved by closer Jonathan Papelbon. Pap, who had 41 saves that year, never got an out. He walked A Rod and gave up a run-scoring hit to LF Xavier Nady as Gardner scooted home with the winning run. Final: New York 3, Boston 2.