DAILY DOMER, 9/21: YANKEE, STAY HOME
If I never agreed with Charlie Weis about anything else-- but I do-- I would always elevate him slightly higher for his response to a question posed earlier this afternoon about Yankee Stadium and tonight being its closing night:
"It breaks my heart," Charlie said.
Mine, too.
I'm not just sad. I'm angry. I'm mad at everyone who has written a eulogy for Yankee Stadium in print or on-line, angry at everyone who feels compelled to compile our favorite Yankee Stadium moments.
Bugger off, I say.
Listen. If you happen to catch the flu and all your friends and family gather 'round to plan your funeral, wouldn't you be a little annoyed? Especially if they all had a younger version of you waiting in the wings who, sure, may not be as charming or charismatic, but comes with cupholders at every seat and wider concourses (G.A., you are my new Yankee Stadium).
This doesn't have to happen. Never had to happen. And the Yankees are a poorer franchise for letting it be so. While at the same time, yes, a much wealthier franchise. Which is what matters to them here.
This isn't the rantings of some old coot howling at the wind screaming, "In my day...".
I'm a young coot, after all. Okay, an early middle-aged coot.
But I went to opening day at Yankee Stadium back in April and attended one of the two Yankee walk-off home run wins this season (Jason Giambi's versus Toronto back in June). There is absolutely nothing wrong or rotting about the Home that Ruth Built. Sure, the concession stands aren't what they are at the ultra-modern parks nor are the concourses.
But for millions of us New Yorkers, Yankee Stadium is home. It is beautiful and sacrosanct. And you don't euthanize it for the devil's paycheck.
Wrigley Field. Fenway Park. More than just stadiums, they are destination points for Americans each summer. Landmarks of their respective cities. Yankee Stadium may lack either one's idiosyncracies, but it has so much, much more history.
(Wait...did I write "the devil's paycheck"? What does that even mean? I'm like, Yosemite Sam-mad, sufferin' succotash mad)
I'd say that I was going to miss Yankee Stadium if it had to go. But it doesn't. Which is why this is a shame. And it's wrong. It breaks my heart, too.
On November 4, 2001, in the top of the 8th inning of Game 7 of the World Series at then Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Alfonso Soriano hit a solo home run to put the Yankees up 2-1. That, I will note, is the last time the Yankees owned baseball. In the bottom of the 8th Joe Torre put in Mariano Rivera, the first of many bad moves the Pinstripes have made this decade. Mo is/was unhittable for one inning, but in a second inning he is mortal.
Tonight's error is just the latest the Yanks have made in the interregnum between 26 and 27. It's also the most egregious.
Some day I'll share my favorite Yankee Stadium story (it involves one of my best friends, a bizarre lunch suggestion, and Paul O'Neill). Tonight I'm just too angry to do so.
And, meanwhile, as G.A. so insightfully notes below, the catwalks of The Trop survive another year... And the Yankees are moving north. Sure, it's only one block north, but when is the last time a pro sports franchise migrated north?
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Interregnum. The best words are direct Latin. Went to the final regular-season home game at Tropicana Field today. A different vibe than Yankee Stadium, I'd say, but I can report that Sierra Mist won the Pepsi race.
Oh, and step back off the ledge: It's just the final home game this season at the Trop. Catwalks are back in '09! Woohoo!!