Yankee Stadium - Inaugural Season- Subway Series

Reposting about the new Yankee Stadium after doing some editing, as my first post about it was too long and all the photos would not load properly. Thanks for coming back for a second view!

My family and I were lucky to be able to attend two games of the Mets/Yankees baseball "subway series" at the brand new Yankee Stadium a couple of weekends ago!

Yankee Stadium is located in the The Bronx, a borough of New York City. It serves as the home ballpark for the New York Yankees, replacing the previous Yankee Stadium, which was built in 1923. Much of the stadium incorporates design elements from the previous Yankee Stadium, paying homage to the Yankees' history, but there were plenty of new modern amenities to see.

It was a little sad to see the 86 year old original Yankee Stadium -- "House That Ruth Built" -- being dismantled across the street from the new stadium. I blogged about the final season in this stadium last summer.

A Hard Rock Cafe is located within the new ballpark, but it is open to anyone at the 161 St. and River Ave. entrance year round. Be prepared for a long wait, however, if you decide to eat there on a game day. They do not take reservations and we were told there was an hour and a half wait for a table. After two hours we were still waiting, and it seems that "VIPS" are allowed to skip ahead in the waiting list. We were not very happy about that and left without eating there.

One thing that did make me laugh about the Hard Rock Cafe experience, however, was that the line to the men's room was very, very long and meanwhile the women's room had no line at all! How often do you see that? (I know the photo is blurry but I did that on purpose as I did not ask the men on line permission to take their photo)

There is also a steakhouse called NYY Steak which is located beyond right field, a membership Mohegan Sun sports bar located above monument field in center field, and a premium seating Jim Beam Club .

There are also 25 fixed concessions stands, along with 112 movable ones on the various levels of the stadium.


Between the exterior perimeter wall and interior of the stadium is the "Great Hall," which is a large concourse that runs between Gates 4 and 6. With seven-story ceilings, the Great Hall features more than 1,000,000 square feet of retail space and is lined with 20 banners of past and present Yankees superstars.

The Yankees Museum, located on the lower level at Gate 6, displays a wide range of Yankees' memorabilia. Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit the museum this weekend but the next time I'll try to leave extra time to go in and I will will blog about it then.
It is always a thrill to see a baseball field for the first time, every season, and even more so now as Yankee Stadium was a new $1.5 billion dollar construction. A nice retrospective about all the new features and amenities to be found in the stadium can be found in this New York Daily News special feature.

You can also watch a video about the new stadium on The Daily News website


The seating capacity is 52, 325 -- a little more than 4,000 less than the old stadium. The seats are larger, many are padded, and there is more leg room. There are more restrooms and concession stands. There are also more private luxury boxes. What has remained the same is the field dimensions with right being 314 feet, center 408 feet and left field 318 feet.

The stands were full for the games we attended as the competition between the New York teams of the National League Mets and the American League Yankees is fierce.

The center field scoreboard, which measures 59 x 101 feet is the third largest high definition scoreboard in the world.


We were excited to see "Freddy Sez" in the stands near us. Freddie is an 84 year old fan and mascot of the Yankees, who attends almost every game, and roots them on by roaming the stands and having fans in the stadium hit his "lucky frying pan" with a "lucky spoon," which he says "Brings 'em luck."! It's a thrill to be able to do this if you are a Yankee fan!

The first game we attended was on June 12, 2009, and it was a beautiful Friday evening instead of the usual rainy spring days we have been having in New York this year.

Pitcher Joba Chamberlian started the game.


A view of Monument Park, which features the Yankees' retired numbers, as well as monuments and plaques dedicated to distinguished Yankees, is located beyond the center field fences at the new stadium.


A view of the visiting team, the NY Mets' dugout.

Night is descending on the stadium.


A view of the Yankees' dugout.


A close up of Yankee batter, Derek Jeter.

Jeter hits a home run! The Yankees hit a total of five home runs this game and the lead went back and forth during this very exciting game.

When the field crew comes out to smooth the infield in between the fifth inning, it stops to dance along to the song "YMCA." It's become a tradition, and continues on in the new stadium.

As the famous Yankee, Yogi Berra, once said: "Everyone wants to get into the act"!

A view of the Yankee bullpen, and part of the outfield bleacher seats. Relief pitcher Mariano Rivera is warming up.

When Riviera comes into the game the stadium PA system always plays the Metallica song "Enter Sandman," and the crowd goes wild! This fan was captured on the big screen playing air guitar and dancing along.




David Wright had put the Mets ahead 8-7 with an eighth-inning double off Mariano Rivera, and the Met's pitcher Francisco Rodriguez appeared to escape a ninth-inning jam on a two man out, two men on base, pop up hit by Alex Rodriguez ........



....but the second baseman for the Mets, Luis Castillo, dropped A-Rod's two-out pop up as Derek Jeter scored from second and Mark Teixeira scored from first, giving the Yankees a wild 9-8 victory over the Mets!


The Yankees ran onto the field to celebrate!

As the crowd leaves the stadium there is a tradition to sing along with the Frank Sinatra song "New York New York" that is playing over the PA system -- it always feels good to sing that song after such an exciting win!

The next game we attended was a rainy Saturday afternoon game on June 13,2009 (click the link to read the play by play)

We had bleacher seats this time --they turned out to be rather expensive seats as we had to pre-order them from "Stub Hub" as this game was a sell out.

> The game started on time, and continued for the whole 9 innings, even though there were rain showers during most of the game.

The view from the bleachers is pretty good and the fans really cheer vigorously in that section.



This wall behind the bleacher seats shows the years of the 26 World Series games the NY Yankees have won!


The Mets beat the Yankees 6-2 Saturday, so the cheers from the bleachers on that day were mainly coming from visiting Met fans, and my daughter was among them!


Our little grandson was happy, regardless of the game's outcome, as this was his very first Yankee game!

In the stadium lobby there was a display of Yankee memorabilia from the old stadium for sale.

It's possible to purchase seats from the old stadium also.

A subway tressle ouside the stadium. It was an exciting subway series, especially for the Yankees who won two out of the three games played!





Now for my give away of this Brooklyn Renegade Craft Fair tote bag!

I went to the Random.org. and put in the total number of comments I received on that post after writing it, and it chose the # 15. The 15th commentator was Lisa of Lisa's Retro Style blog!



Congratulations Lisa! Please e-mail your address and I will send the bag out as soon as possible. I'm also going to include a few Italian sepecialty treats that I bought here in it!



Thank you everyone who commented. I hope to do another give away soon!