Day eight finds us still in the Big Apple. Saturday was pretty exhausting so we were happy to not have anything to do Sunday morning. It was also the day that I was going to get to see Yankee Stadium. I was really excited to get to see what it was going to be like. We left Anthony's apartment a little over an hour before game time. NYC was already sweltering. A short walk to Union Station found us on the subway bound for the Yankees game. The subway was PACKED full of people headed for the game.
The train made it through two stops before a passenger was injured on the train and pulled the emergency brake. About ten minutes after the conductor announced that the emergency brake had been pulled she then directed everyone to disembark the train because it was now out of service. That makes two days in a row that I somehow managed to take a vehicle of mass transportation out of service. I guess I'm just good luck. So there we are an entire train full of people displaced back onto the platform waiting for the next train (along with all of the other people who had previously been waiting on the platform). The next train eventually makes its way to the platform and of course it's already full of people headed to the game. The doors opened and it was a mad dash to hop onto it and grab a spot. The conductor came on the loudspeaker almost yelling at the passengers that not everyone would fit on the train and some people would have to wait. Fortunately for us, we made it on and although we were packed like sardines we were going to make it to the game.
Anyone who knows me and has ever talked baseball with me knows that I have no love for American League "baseball" and even less love for the Yankees. That being said I couldn't very well walk into Yankee stadium and not root for the Yankees. That'd be akin to rooting for the Russian hockey team in the 1980 Winter Olympics. So I figured, I'm in NYC, I'm seeing the home team, so there's no reason that I shouldn't root for them. I can be a Yankee fan for one measly day, right? There's no harm in that. As soon as we descended the subway platform to street level to get to Yankee stadium we walked into the souvenir shop. Like any dutiful Yankee fan, I bought a Yankee cap and Laela got a Yankee visor. The street under the subway had many shops, much like Yawkey Way did next to Fenway park, but the shops only lined one side of the street so it wasn't quite the immersion that I experienced when at Fenway. While on Yawkey Way before the game, you can "feel" baseball coursing though each nook and cranny of the street. It seems to ooze off of the walls. The street next to Yankee stadium, while cool in it's own right with a distinctly New York flavor had much more of a carnival like atmosphere.
We crossed the street and I got my first unobstructed view of Yankee Stadium. It is certainly a 50,000+ seat monster. Having gone from the second smallest park to the fourth largest park in three days I was gob smacked by the size. As we were walking around the front of the stadium, I could hear the national anthem playing. Although I couldn't see what was going on on the field, I removed my cap and placed it over my heart. You can't help but get choked up in NYC while the anthem is playing (although I get choked up EVERY time I hear the national anthem).
We wound our way through the bowels of the park and made our way to our seats which were amazing. We were in the first and second rows about two sections into fair territory in right field. Had I wanted to spit on Ben Zobrist or Nick Swisher, I could have. The seats were also padded! It was really comfortable. So comfortable in fact, that I didn't move from my seat from the time I sat down 2/3rds of the way through the top of the first until I heard Frank Sinatra sing. It was awesome getting to see Jorge Posada, Andy Petite, Joba Chamberlain, Derek Jeter, and Mariano Rivera get to play ball. They hype up Rivera like mad. It's almost a five minute ordeal. He finally took the mound with two outs in the top of ninth with the Yankees up by four, throws one pitch and the game was over. Yankees over Rays 9-5. We went to the gift shop on the way out and I got a sticker for the bukkit and a banner for my stadium wall.
The subway ride back to Anthony's was uneventful. We went inside, rested for a bit and then set out about town to go get dinner. We ate at Totonno's on 2nd Ave. The pizza was delicious, but I did blow it ordering beer. I got a pitcher of Sam Adams (but I didn't hear the waitress say it was the Summer Ale). I hate beer that tastes like fruit. Sam Adams Boston Lager is one of my top three favorite beers but the Summer Ale tastes like someone poured Lemon Pledge into it.
For our last site seeing trip in NYC, we went to the Empire State Building to go to the observation deck. One would think that at 9:30 on a Sunday night it wouldn't be that crowded, right? WRONG. It took us 45 minutes to get to the elevator that took us to the 80th floor. The observation deck is on the 86th floor. It took another half hour to get there. It was ridiculous. The view from the observation deck was fantastic and makes one feel really tiny and insignificant. All I could think of was the amount of man hours and how many years it took to build all of those buildings. After we got finished on the observation deck we got back in line to go down and were finally finished at 11:30. Had I known it was going to take that long and that I was going to feel like herded cattle, I may have chosen another activity for our last night. But what's done is done. A short cab ride later we were back at Anthony's and turned in for the evening.
A very special thank you goes out to Dr. Anthony Fischetti for putting us up while we were in New York and for being an excellent tour guide. Not to mention one of my very dearest friends. Thanks for the hospitality Anthony, it meant the world to Laela, Miranda, and myself.
