baseball

after speaking with many colleagues, neigbors and strangers, no other eight letter word in the english language can spark more debate, more emotion, more excitment in any new yorker when the subject of baseball comes up. yankees. dodgers. mets, giants, everyone has their loyalties. this past week, my buddies shawn and dave were visiting ny and we made our way up to the bronx to visit the hallowed grounds of where legends once stood. mickey mantle, joe dimaggio, the babe. all have donned the pin stripes.

my co-worker was heading to the game as well, with the first pitch set at 7.05 pm, we left our office at 5.30 and made it up to the bronx at about 6.15 where we hit 'stans' jam packed bar and grill after a couple of beverages, we met up with shawn and dave and made our way inside. then, we got our first glimplse of yankees stadium.

our seats were awesome, bottom tier about 15 rows up right behind 1st base, a perfect place to catch your first game here. it was an amazing site, yankees statium. the romance of yester year ozooing out of every seat. the atmosphere was almost electric. however, as the game wore on, the romance faded. these new york yankee fans weren't all that crazy. then i looked arond. seemingly there were more tourist taking pictures of themselves and businessmen on their blackberry's in the stands than real fans. maybe the real fans were at home, or just didn't care too much about a early august game against a so-so division rival. the yankees were battling the orioles of baltimore that night. however, it wasn't such a good night for the yankees, somehow the orioles were able to pull of an embarassing 10-0 win over the home team. in the end after one too many hot dogs, slices of pizza, bags of peanuts and frosty beverages, we just wanted to be there and despite the lopsided loss, the uninterested fan base, we all had fun that night, up in the bronx.