STANDING VACANT NOT A FITTING END FOR OLD YANKEE STADIUM

New York Post ^ | August 9 2009 | Mike Vaccaro

[Mr_Moonlight]

"WHAT'S up, old friend?" I asked the other day.

But there was no response. The old friend was muffled, muzzled, unable to say anything, trapped in his new black straitjacket. I looked at him sadly. He looked back silently. I wanted to offer comfort, but what could you say? What could you do?

"Thanks for the memories," I said, walking away.

And Yankee Stadium -- the old one, the real one, the one presently wrapped by black scaffolding as it undergoes a painful transformation from national treasure and civic landmark to picked-apart, torn-asunder rubble -- didn't say a word. Noble to the end. Restrained in its dignity. Accepting its fate. To the end.

[Mr_Moonlight]

Last year the Yankees and the Mets drew 4 million customers apiece, the factions of New York flocking to the doomed and dying playpens in order to say goodbye. All summer long, people seemed to tiptoe through Yankee Stadium as if not wishing to disturb the ghosts, as if they were taking their last steps along some holy thoroughfare -- and in some ways, they were.

~~~ The last day at Yankee Stadium, grown men cried and didn't care who saw them. ~~~

[Mr_Moonlight]

~~~ PING ~~~

[Yo-Yo]

How many bodies will be pulled out of the concrete in the stands?

[the invisib1e hand]

Mike Vaccaro isn't just a sports writer, he's a sports writer.

Goes for Joel Sherman, as well.

[the invisib1e hand]

How many bodies will be pulled out of the concrete in the stands?

who wants to know?

[knarf]

[Artemis Webb]

BASEBALL PING LIST

If you would like to be on the ping list let me know.

This will be a medium volume ping list during the baseball season and a low volume ping list when all life stops in late October.

[Terpfen]

Yankee Stadium standing empty sounds pretty appropriate to me.

[Mr_Moonlight]

Mike Vaccaro isn't just a sports writer, he's a sports *writer.*
Goes for Joel Sherman, as well.

Ya ... he *gets* the sentimentality of the topic he's writing about, and relates it to the reader. Many of us real 'Yankee Stadium' fans have been put off with all the hyperbole and superlatives over the *new* Stadium, not wanting to accept it whatsoever. Vaccaro gives a nice eulogy here for the *old* Stadium, the one we remember .... and a eulogy which us 'sentimentalists' can accept

I've been waiting for a piece like this for two years, and Vaccaro finally delivers one

[June K.]

MM,

This sounds almost as if written by you...in fact, I thought it WAS, at first!

...Lots of sadness in seeing these places go!!

Junie K

[the invisib1e hand]

the day before John Smoltz was designated (the day after game 2 of the series), Sherman wrote something like this:

...an arm that is no longer nearly the equal of his heart...

Incredible line.

[To Hell With Poverty]

All summer long, people seemed to tiptoe through Yankee Stadium as if not wishing to disturb the ghosts, as if they were taking their last steps along some holy thoroughfare -- and in some ways, they were.

Except for the Red Sox fans....

[Mr_Moonlight]

Except for the Red Sox fans....

Hahaahahahaa ... OK, good one, but I'll bite ... even Fenway was threatened with destruction a few years back, until more rational minds prevailed. Wish similar rational minds prevailed for *old* Yankee Stadium ...

Otherwise, a rivalry is a rivalry ... thats what makes it interesting and fun ... and for the record, I was just as dismayed at the BoSox possibly gutting Fenway a few years back as I am about the *old* Yankee Stadium

[To Hell With Poverty]

Tee hee, couldn’t help myself. I hate seeing any historic building neglected or torn down. And I’m mostly a Sox fan because my father grew up a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, anyway! :P

[Artemis Webb]

I’ve been thinking about this since I read the article.

I’ve been asked in the past if I believe in ghost. I’ve said that what I believed was that places CAN retain a memory of things past. If that is true then that spot in The Bronx could and should be the most ghost filled place on earth.

[Mr_Moonlight]

[Mr_Moonlight]

And I’m mostly a Sox fan because my father grew up a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, anyway! :P

Hahahaa .. not sure I see a connection with BoSox and B-Dodgers ... if anything, it was the B-Dodgers and NY Giants at each others throats in the NL every year ... beating each other up just for the privilege of meeting the Yankees in the World Series :)

[Mr_Moonlight]

I’ve been asked in the past if I believe in ghost. I’ve said that what I believed was that places CAN retain a memory of things past. If that is true then that spot in The Bronx could and should be the most ghost filled place on earth.

I've been there, within the innards of Yankee Stadium, ... and lemme tell ya, the 'ghosts' are there, really, no kidding ... ya just *feel* their presence. OK, it might be just the mind imagining so-called 'supernaturalism' or such, and it could just be a bunch of bunk ... but whatever it is there is something very special about places like the old Yankee Stadium, or Wrigley Field, or Fenway Park, or whatever is still left ....

(WHOH!! This is the exact same spot where Babe Ruth smashed his bat into the concrete after striking out! ... /laughs)

That sort of thing :)

MM

[sushiman]

When baseball was a sport and not a zillion dollar business played by multi-millionaire prima donnas on steroids and ego trips .

[LimaLimaMikeFoxtrot]

That's at least as bad as Ted Turner showing his massive ego and utter smallness at the same time by naming Turner Feld for himself instead of calling it Henry Aaron Stadium. There's a frikkin plaque in a parking lot commemorating that home run instead of a shrine.

Sad.