Brewers Fans at New Yankee Stadium
July 22, 2009 · Right Field Bleachers · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
While on vacation, the lady and I went to a Yankees game. This is our story.
We took the D to Yankee Stadium, which took about 20 minutes from Columbus Circle in Manhattan. I wasn’t sure how the day was going to go because I decided to wear my Braun jersey from the 08 All-Star Game. I figured that is how I could get away with being a proud Brewers fan in NY.
When we got off the subway, we were about a block away from both Yankee stadiums. The old one and the new one look very similar, but of course the new stadium is brighter. It basically looked like one of those Whitestrips commercials, before was on the left and after was on the right.
While walking up, people were selling shirts, water, and hot dogs. There were hot dog stands all around the stadium selling dirty water dogs and water for 2 bucks. It’s a much better deal than you get inside, more on that later.
As you’d expect, there really isn’t any parking near the stadium and there isn’t any tailgating. There are 3 trains that come to Yankee Stadium and the closest parking I found was a few blocks away and up a hill.
We walked in Gate 8 with our tickets from StubHub. When you first walk in this gate, you can go straight into the Mohegan Sun sports pub (it’s basically a mix between the Metavante Club and Fridays to give you a frame of reference.) We had to take a sharp right to get up to the bleachers.
Something you notice right away is that everything is big. The columns are big, the stadium is big, the screens are big, the prices are big…it’s all quite extravagant until you get to the backless bleacher seats. What? All kinds of money, but ran out before you could put backs on bleachers? I guess that’s why they were much less expensive than any other ticket.
See the guy in the red jacket? That’s basically where our seats were
New Yankee Stadium has 3 HD scoreboards with small dot matrix boards that are basically closed captioning for scoreboards. The main scoreboard is HUGE (and I cannot stress this enough) and crystal clear. I’ve seen pictures of the board and it didn’t look so huge, but it is.
When fans dance and pose, they basically look like monsters over the people standing above the sports pub. It’s so big, I could basically count all the pieces of patchy stubble on Joba Chamberlain’s face. Even the two twin smaller screens are in sparkling HD and are both seemingly larger than the one color screen at Miller Park.
The seats had a great view and we were able to see inside Monument Park, which is in dead center and is directly below the sports pub. It was Old Timers day and even though we only caught the end, I still was able to see Reggie Jackson, Goose Gossage, Ron Guidry and more.
We didn’t have time to eat before the game, so we needed something to tie us over. I walked past the Budweiser carts ($10 a beer), into the food court. The food court has a sushi, noodles, pizza, and more.
We could have had Nathan’s hot dogs (for 5-6 dollars each) but instead we split an order of chicken tenders (for $7.50). We also had a water (for $5) and wanted fries, but those were $7.25. It took about 30 minutes in line and all the lines were as full…even the sushi line…
While in line, a Yankees fan tapped me on the shoulder. I thought..OK, here comes the line about wearing a Brewers jersey to a game with no Brewers…but no! A fan was trying to figure out the people on the posters. She figured out Ruth and Reggie, was able to guess Steinbrenner, but couldn’t get one more. I told her it was DiMaggio and she goes “Of course! the guy who dated Marilyn Monroe!” It was at this time that I realized that no one really gives a crap about what is on my jersey.
Speaking of jerseys, since the Yankees are full of history, there are many, many jerseys there. Still, I could not find a Maris jersey which interested me only because I recently watched the Maris-centric movie 61. Also, the Yanks have so many retired numbers, you have to think that someday the Yankees will have to be the first club that uses three digit numbers.
One thing that I thought was cool was something the Yankee right field bleacher crowd does: They have a chant for every member of the starting outfield and infield. (For instance, “Derek Jeter, Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap” “Tex, Tex, Tex…” They continue to chant until each player waves or acknowledges the fans in YRFB.
My favorite was Nick Swisher because he full out salutes the fans. There’s even a shirt that has the “Swisher Salute”. Finally, at the end, they don’t cheer the battery but they do chant “Box Seats Suck!” That was fun, but about the only life from the crowd…until the 9th…
It was about the 3rd inning when I realized how hot it can get in the bleachers especially with no partial roof and I started to burn like I did at County Stadium. A-Rod hit a home run in our general area and fans cheered him much louder than I thought they would. After the 6th, we decided to stop the burning and take a walk.
We went onto the Field Level and saw more places to eat, but what I really wanted to see was the Great Hall. It was pretty massive, I’m not going to lie. It basically felt like I was in a Roman Coliseum instead of at a baseball game. There were huge banners all over, another giant HD screen, two full size restaurants (NYY Steak and a Hard Rock), and two stores.
While in the stores, I heard the most annoying voice in baseball. That’s when I realized that the woman who shouted about “Rohjah Clemens” probably does every game! It made me shudder and want to get back to the game itself.
We decided to stand right behind home plate for awhile and it was still a good view…similar to the standing room at Miller. Standing next to me was a stereotypical Yankees fans. Stereotypical how? In the way that he overly critical and quick to react irrationally. It was in the 7th and Joba was pitching a very good game.
However, his pitch count was really high (107). They took him out and this fan went nuts towards his friend! “Oh my God, what the hell is Girardi doing? Joba’s throwing the best game of his life and he’s taking him out? For who? For who? Coke? Man, I hope Girardi gets fired after this year…he makes so many dumb decisions.” No wonder the New York media is so crazy if there are more fans like this!
We walked down a little farther. Phil Hughes came in and I thought about Tyler’s aspirations for the guy and how he’s now a reliever. After that thought, I had a better one! It’s 2-1…in the 8th…We’re going to be able to see Enter Sandman. And we did.
Most of the outfield crowd all got up when the doors opened. Out ran Rivera…and a camera guy? Anyway, Enter Sandman starting blaring…it was louder than any other song played the whole game. Then the fans who were up did sort of a dance…it was kinda cool and very dorky.
That’s probably why the fans in the infield didn’t seem to join in. Rivera saved the game, 46,000 plus cheered and they started singing along to “New York, New York”.
By the way, there is an average of about 3 home runs hit in every game. There were 3 home runs hit when we were there. Another interesting tidbit: I saw and heard people say that this stadium was “The House that Juice Built”
Getting out of the stadium is just as slow as walking across the bridge in Miller Park and the Subways fill up fast! Luckily, the D just came as we were coming down the stairs and we were able to sit for the entire ride back…which took a lot longer because they made all local stops on the way back.
Overall, it was a great experience, we both had a good time, and I can’t wait to visit another stadium. I think most Yankee fans get a bad rap for being harsh on other fans…they were very respectful and the only people who were ragged on were Phillies fans and Boston fans.
(We had problems with airport security so in lieu of the tons of pictures we took, these pictures are similar to what we saw so I used some of them in this post..hope the guy doesn’t mind)
Yankee Tickets
Shop Yankee
