I had a short break in New York during the week between Easter Sunday and the May Bank Holiday. It was my third trip to New York. I did a tour of the Old Yankee Stadium in the off-season of 2007 and I was determined to see a game at the New Stadium on this trip. This account was written for the Evening Echo audience who by and large have never seen a game of baseball.
I arrived in New York on Monday of last week. It was Easter Monday here in Ireland. In New York it was just Monday. The Easter Parade down Fifth Avenue was 24 hours earlier; when that was over, so was Easter. New York never stops; never sleeps.
Monday was warm and sunny. Our cab driver told us it had been a long and cold winter and he was glad to see the cherry blossoms that adorned all the parks in Manhattan – our own singer/songwriter Johnny Spillane would have approved. It seems that the Cherry Blossom is a harbinger of spring just as it is in Cork
With the arrival of spring also comes the baseball season. Easter Week was the beginning of week four of the 162-game schedule that each team plays. Everything finishes on September 30th and the play-offs, including the World Series take all of October.
Two baseball teams also arrived in New York on Monday morning. The hometown NY Yankees arrived back from Baltimore where they defeated the Orioles on Saturday and Sunday, and the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox flew in from Detroit where they had just lost three games to the Tigers.
This is a significant season for the New York Yankees. Not only because the team is evolving – like Manchester United they evolve without dropping out of contention – but because it will be the club’s first full season since the death of their long term, autocratic and highly successful principal owner, George Steinbrenner. For the first time since 1973 uncertainty of what the long term future may hold has replaced the uncertainty of what George Steinbrenner expects next.
Once it starts however, the baseball season is unrelenting. Thoughts of the future are forgotten as the teams settle into their six-games-a-week schedule. By last Monday morning, the Yankees had played 18 games, winning 12 and losing six, a winning percentage of 67%. This put them on top of the American League, East Division. The White Sox were in fifth and bottom place in the AL Central, having won eight of their 22 games.
On Monday evening at 7.05pm the Yankees and the White Sox got down to work. It was the first of a four-game series and I had tickets for the fourth and final game on Thursday night. Monday’s final score came as a surprise to me, as it did to most Yankees. The White Sox won 2-0. Tuesday night’s game brought an even bigger surprise as the White Sox won again. This time the score was 3-2. It was the first time the Yankees lost two games in a row this season. The baseball writers began asking questions about the Yankee’s depth of talent in Wednesday morning’s papers. In New York, the Yankees are not expected to lose two games back-to-back, even in April.
The mood began to improve after Wednesday night’s game because the Yankees won 3-0. The papers talked of levelling the four-game series on Thursday evening. I was looking forward to seeing the game too, but the heavy thunderstorm which lasted two hours from noon had me worried that there would be no game.
Thankfully, the rain cleared by 3pm and within an hour it was hot and sunny, spring had come back to Manhattan and soon it would be time for baseball at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.
I arrived at 161st Street (Yankee Stadium) Subway Station at 5.45pm. An hour and twenty minutes before the game was due to start. The stadium is right across the road from the subway station. There was plenty of time to look around.
The new Yankee Stadium was opened just over two years ago. It replaced the stadium built in 1923 which was known as “The house the Ruth built” because the legendary ‘Babe’ Ruth was in his prime at that time. I took an off-season tour of the old stadium four years ago and I felt then that it was a shame it was going to be knocked. Now, I have to admit that the new stadium (built at a cost of $1.5bn) is a fitting home for the biggest sporting franchise in the world.
The actual building, while impressive, is not very different from Croke Park, the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff or even Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium. Access is easy, the field can be seen from every seat, and there are plenty of shops, bars, and food stalls to keep every punter happy. It was the quality and friendliness of the staff and volunteers that set Yankee Stadium apart from other stadiums I have attended. The service matched the stadium.
There always seemed to be someone at your shoulder to answer your questions. Thursday night’s game was just one of 80 regular season games to be played there before September 30th next. Yet every one of the staff gave you the impression that this was the most important game of the year.
We took our seats and watched the pre-game warm up. The players were introduced to the crowd on the biggest screen I have ever seen. The White Sox batted first and star pitcher C.C. Sabathia was on the mound for the Yankees. By co-incidence Sabathia was also pitching for the Yankees when I saw them play the Boston Red Sox two years ago.
He did not have a good first innings. The White Sox got three men on base before Sabathia settled down and got out of trouble without any White Sox player completing a run. The Yankees “at bat” was not very impressive either. All three batters failed to make first base and the innings was over in less than three minutes.
The game settled into a pattern. Sabathia got on top of the White Sox batting, and their pitcher, Edwin Jackson was finding it harder and harder to remove Yankee batters. In the third innings, the Yankees moved Gardner and Nunez around the bases to score two runs.
The White Sox pitching imploded in the fifth innings. Gardner was first to bat for New York and he hit the ball into the right-field seats for a home run. The next three batters also got hits and brought in two more runs. The White Sox coach walked to the mound to tell pitcher Jackson his game was over. Things were no better for the new pitcher Tony Pena. The Yankees scored three more runs off him before he was taken out of the game. It took the White Sox half an hour to pitch out three Yankee batters. By then the score was 8-0.
The White Sox did score three runs in the seventh innings but the Yankees immediately added three runs in reply to kill off the game. The final score was 12-3 to the Yankees.
If, like me, you only get to see live baseball every few years, this was a good game to see. There were 15 runs scored, three of these were home runs, and there was some good pitching, stolen bases, and double plays.
Friday morning’s papers were full of praise for the Yankees. “Homers Are Just a Part of the Yanks’ Big Night” said the NY Times. Further proof, if it were needed, that in New York everyone is only as good at their last game.
There is always something new in New York. Even the old Frank Sinatra anthem “New York, New York” has been replaced by the Alicia Keys and Jay Z “Empire State of Mind”. This new song arrived just in time for the new Yankee Stadium, its new team and the new Stienbrenner leaders of the organisation. It captures the mood.
“In New York,
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There’s nothing you can’t do,
Now you’re in New York,
These streets will make you feel brand new,
The lights will inspire you,
Let’s hear it for New York, New York, New York”
Alicia Keys