Knitting in the Big City

Went to Citifield yesterday

It’s a lovely ballpark. Overall, it’s much better than Shea.

These two areas stood out to me:

Caesars Club on the Promenade Level

Like: Protects you from the weather. The food in there looked yummy.

Dislike: Reminds me of an airport lounge. Better yet, a college frat lounge since folks were sprawled out on the chairs and couches watching the NCAA basketball game.

Food Stands

Like: Had a pulled pork sandwich from Blue Smoke.

Dislike: It was the only item available off the Blue Smoke menu. No ribs, no chicken wings. Plenty of food stands only had one or two items available.

Like: Plenty, plenty of food.

Dislike: Most of the food seemed to be hot dogs. At the corner food court on the top level I’d say 5 out of the 7 counters had hot dogs and nothing else. The other two sold pizza and an Italian sandwich.

Overall Likes:

• Not a bad seat in the house. Most seats are elevated from the field so you are looking at the game from a slightly elevated angle.
• Big bathrooms, everything is sensored so you don’t have to touch anything.
• Who knew? Located near the Bullpen Gate, the old Home Run Apple is its own tourist attraction. Folks informally lined up and took pictures with the apple as the background.

Overall Dislikes:

• Bad lighting. Nothing to do with the clouds yesterday, but the main level is really dark. The ceiling is relatively low and it’s the “open pipe” décor. It won’t matter how sunny it is outside, the concourse area will always be dark.
• Stairs! I hate stairs, especially in a venue that serves lots of alcohol. Ramps are a thing of the past.
• The bullpens. From what I saw it looked like the bullpens are “stacked”, with the Mets bullpen closest to the outfield and the visiting bullpen sitting behind it. When you attend a game you won’t be able to see what is going on in the visiting bullpen.
• Sound system. Ear splitting – hey guys I don’t want to be deaf when I leave the game!

Washout

Well the best thing about going to the 60th annual Yankees Old Timer’s Day was that I finally hooked up with Christina this baseball season. We both have tickets for Saturday games and every so often we'll hook up and chat. She’s been on a weight loss program and she looks great! (I’m so jealous; I’ve been having trouble losing just a couple of pounds). It’s interesting when you meet your fellow bloggers because you just leap into a fast-paced conversation because you know all the latest stuff going on in each other’s lives.

However it rained on and off all afternoon - the Old Timer’s Game was cancelled and the scheduled game between the Yankees and the Florida Marlins was eventually postponed. One of my favorite things to do during the Old Timer's game was to chat with whoever played right-field. In the past I’ve offered Oscar Gamble a hotdog, said hello to Reggie Jackson and distracted Bobby Murcer from his broadcast duties. Murcer gets mic’ed every Old Timer’s Day for the YES broadcast, even while he plays the 3 inning game. And David Cone said he was going to throw a big fat homer run ball to Strawberry “for old time’s sake”!

Speaking of chatting you always sit around folks who actually saw the older players and ensuing the baseball discussions are fun and enlightening. There's usually not a boring minute that day. I don’t know about Christina but this year I definitely wished that I bring some knitting along. I usually don’t bring my knitting to the ballpark because in my seats I really do have to watch out for foul balls. But we had plenty to talk about with the other regulars so the day wasn’t a total washout.

A visit to the summer home - Opening Day 2006

Well, its that time of year again! I'm taking a vacation day and will be sitting in my seats down the right field line for the Yankees home opener. Christina says she's coming - We planning to hook up since I haven't seen her since she started this diet of hers - I hope I recognise the skinny minnie! It's definitely reunion day in our section. I saw a couple of folks when went took the Stadium tour in January but I haven't seen most of the "regulars" since October.

Thank God somebody else noticed this too!

The Gray Lady Wears Red Sox

It’s been like this ever since Red Sox Owner, John Henry, bought minority ownership in the New York Times. Can you imagine opening up the New York Times sports section at the beginning of the 2005 spring training season and the major article is how Schilling hates the Yankees? The Times baseball stories often served to undermine the home teams, something this home town girl does not appreciate. Featuring stories about other “rival” teams in the basketball, football, and hockey simply does not happen. Reading the Murdoch publications isn’t even this bad; at least they make me laugh with the absurdness of their stories.

It’s very interesting how blogs are being used to fight back deliberate misquotes that are used in the news media. Blog-meisters are making available interview transcripts that show how quotes are taken out of context. While plenty of people believe the honestly of the articles I know first hand how some of the articles contain fake information and quotes. Heck how does a person who is out-of-town on major holiday weekend get quoted in a Times article as “a customer at the Times Square station on Saturday afternoon”? I know the person, I know they were out of town!

Me and Paulie

(I apologize in advance for any typos and incoherent rambling…)

Me, Paulie and his glove from the 2000 season (Mets World Series!)

In my long career as a Yankee fan I’ve had two true favorite players: pitcher Dave Righetti (who I wish would leave the San Francisco Giants and become the Yankees’ pitching coach) and right fielder Paul O’Neill. When we finally committed to season tickets it was out affection for O’Neill that determined which seats we chose. For four years it was a joy to watch his outfield batting stance antics from my right field foul line seats.

I was truly upset to see him retire in 2001. The storybook ending didn’t happen and the fans didn’t get to say goodbye to Paulie at a ticker-tape parade and City Hall ceremony.

I remember reading somewhere that ballplayers tend to have one glove for the whole season – it takes a while for the glove to get broken-in and feel “right”. By chance a few weeks later Paulie arranged to auction his game used glove from the 2000 season. The money was donated to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. My husband won the auction and gave it to me for Christmas. The glove has “Paul O’Neill” stitched on it and an autograph.

Hubby has been dying to get a photo of Paulie presenting the glove to me, sort of a “full circle” thing. We tried to go to an autograph signing last winter but of course a huge snowstorm hit town and O’Neill was unable to fly in and attend.

This signing was suppose to happen a month ago and was postponed until this weekend. We managed to score VIP tickets which meant that we could go ahead of the line that formed outside the store. We got there early and were discussing things like, “How shall we take the picture?”, “Do you want a personalized autograph?”, and I mentioned “I like to get him to put the glove on since I can barely get my hand into it.”

My husband swears that I looked bored until someone said they saw O'Neill coming – at that point he swears I lit up like a Christmas tree.

I shook Paulie’s hand as I approached him and then I showed him his glove.

Paulie exclaimed, “My glove!”, took it out of my hands and put it on. "I played a whole season with this glove!"

I replied "I thought you would say 'I've been looking for this, I thought you’d ask me where I got it from."

"Well my brother swiped it from me (for the auction)".

He was sure happy to see his glove again, pounding it a few times and grinning the whole time.

For the picture I decided to stoop so he wouldn't have to get up. Right before the picture Paulie scooched closer to me. Hubby loves the picture, he made it the screensaver on the PC and he keeps saying "look at the happy couple".

We’re starting to use up time and the organizers are getting antsy. No matter, Paulie was our favorite player and it was a chance to show him some appreciation. We managed to say "We miss you in right field" and "Will you be on YES next year? " (he thinks so)

We shake his hand again before the moment is over.

What else do I remember? Paulie is about 3-4 inches taller than me and he’s lost that layer of playing muscle. He’s friendly and gracious - we were glad to see that he was easy to talk to.

And I left with a feeling of closure, like I had a chance to say goodbye… well until Paul O’Neill Day happens at the stadium.

Jekyll and Hyde Baseball

( Wavy is moving quickly – I’m ready to start on the second skein of Cascade.)

When the Yankees were good this year they were very good but man when they were bad…forget about it. They were really bad about once a month.

One of my managers said to me “I’d rather have reliable and consistent workers than the so called geniuses, the ones that have trouble getting any work done”. I felt the same way. I wanted the Yankees to show some consistency this year and it never happened.

One high note is that I am glad that there seems to be a new “Core” team developing. Chien Ming Wang, Shawn Chacon, Aaron Small, and Robinson Cano and yes, I’ll even include Bubba Crosby in the mix – these are the players I hope the Yankees build around for the future. Make sure that Sheffield, Jeter, Giambi, and A-Rod rest this off season and return hungry. Mussina too. AND re-sign Matsui.

My friend from Chicago rooted for the Yankees to win the AL East. I’ll return the favor and cheer for the White Sox in the League series.

You know you've talk too much about the Yankees...

When people start text messaging and phoning you to let you know that the Red Sox just got swept and won't be defending their title. Not just family and friends, but work acquaintances too.

But I knew the minute it happened since I was at the Stadium with my Yankee pals. You can just imagine the reverie that broke out when that news spread Friday night.

Fenway

I got to sit in the big luxury box that overlooks homeplate - courtesy of a well known missile defense company. My seat lined up directly behind home plate. However two of our friends (one Yankee, one Sox) were sitting by the Pesky pole (right field foul pole) and one of them got thrown out of the game - twice.

The first time he was thrown out during the top of the 3rd inning, without a warning. It probably didn't help that he was wearing a Yankee home jersey with the number 7 on the back. A sympathetic Sox fan followed YankeeFan to the gate and gave him a valid ticket to come back in. That fan also said it the toss was not justified. Customer service told YankeeFan "With that jersey on you are definitely a target for security". When YankeeFan entered again (with a valid ticket) and looked for his seat he got nabbed by security again. While all this was going on another friend who had a luxbox ticket hooked up with YankeeFan and was with him the second time (ah, the power of cellphones). LuxBox fan got told he was "trespassing" on the lower level!

The SoxFan who stayed in the Pesky seats said that the "getting tossed" incident soured the enthusiasm of lot of folks in that section. Some poor kid wearing a Jeter jersey was petrified during most of the game. After this weekend I am convinced that in Boston schools all you have to master is the phrase "Yankees Suck" and they promote you to the next level. I guess Fenway security practices the "Don't do what I do but I can do and say whatever I want" philosophy.

Another sad sight was after the game, outside the stadium on Lansdowne St, I saw first hand how the Boston Police conduct themselves with the BoSox fans which included handcuffing them and throwing them to the ground - let's just say that I now consider the NYPD officers models of tolerance. I was shocked to be in such a liberal state and basically witness civil liberties being violated.

Yanks 7, Sox 4

Our friends in Rhode Island had Fenway tickets near the Pesky pole as well as the luxury box.

This is where I sat:

In the middle set of seats, fourth row, fourth seat. Ordinarily I wouldn't opt for the luxury box but it was air conditioned!

What I saw:

My seat was right behind home plate. That is Jason Giambi up at the plate. At times it felt like we were watching the game on a huge plasma screen.

Why I left happy:

Coming soon: Civil Liberties 101: There is no such thing as freedom of speech in Fenway Park.

Proust and Boston

Ok - a friend of mine suggestion reading some Proust this summer. My other friend said that "Proust is deep, I'm trying to stay shallow". I bought a copy of Proust's "Swann's Way" last night since I'm going to the Yankee/Red Sox game this Saturday and will need some reading on the Metroliner. I'm not bringing my knitting because I 1- want to make sure it doesn't get doused in beer, and 2- I don't want to lose it.

I've never been to Fenway but I'm told there will be alot of Yankees fans in attendance. I'm not sure where I'll be sitting. One friend has tickets by the Pesky pole, another got tickets for the 600 (?) club behind home plate, behind a glass enclosure?