Yankee Stadium (Our 7th Ballpark)

We rode on the 6 up to Yankee Stadium; getting there early enough (we figured) to get into Monument Park, which closes to the public 45 minutes before the start of the game. When we got to the stadium I found out they they didn't allow any bags into the Stadium. I, of course, had planned ahead for this game knowing that we would be buying at least a t-shirt in the stadium, so I brought my bag. So...I had to go to a bowling alley across the street and check my bag for $5. Evidentally they do pretty good business just checking bags (they also have a tip jar out, which was unsuprisingly empty). There was a definite lack of signage around the stadium noting the bag prohibition.

Sam, Jamie, and Jamie went on into the stadium to get into line for Monument Park while I checked my bag. Once I finally got back into the stadium, I called to find out where they were. Turns out they weren't allowed to get even close to the line for Monument Park (ushers turned them away), even though it still should be open. I started looking for our seats, which were quite difficult to find. Turns out their signage could use some work. We were in section 35 on the Loge Level.

Here is the sign for section 35.

Here is what it looks like as you walk up to the sign. Note the "35" totally facing the wall. Nice. Really easy.

After a few frustrating phone calls between Sam and myself trying to find each other and our seats, we finally found both. The game itself was much more enjoyable (see the game wrap-up).

The crowd was very into the game (other than the large corporate group of 20-somethings next to us who were getting free beer), and the atmosphere within the stadium was fun and, well...very baseball-ish. The hot dogs were about the same as Shea's (which makes sense since they're both Nathan's dogs), and the nachos were good, but nothing special.

In the end, the Yankees won 6-4; we saw 6 homeruns (Alex Rodriguez's 496th, Hideki Matsui's 92nd, Robinson Cano's 36th, Troy Glaus' 270th and 271st, and Alex Rios' 47th [career homerun stats]); and it was a beautiful night for baseball. The pic is A-Rod at bat- if you click on it, you can see the ball too.

A view of the famous Yankee Stadium facade, which is supposed to be incorporated into the New Yankee Stadium as well. The cranes visible in the picture are building the new stadium.

Sam and Jamie enjoying the game.

The view from our seats.

Looking left from our seats at the stadium. I'm not sure what the guy in the bottom left corner is doing. Perhaps that look is common among Yankees fans...

A view of Monument Park from our seats (not that you can see much...).

The field from the lower box seats before the game. I was suprised how accomodating they were in letting people without tickets to this area walk around here- especially since they were extremely strict about it at Shea. I was taking this picture when an usher approached me and asked if he could help me (I was thinking he was about to boot me), but when he saw that I was taking a picture he said, "Oh, just taking pictures? Feel free to walk around wherever! Have a seat for awhile if you'd like!"

And for our Japanese viewers: Matsui!!