Posted By:
David AtkatzWhy?
Let me tell ya a little story. About 10 years ago I was in Chicago on business. I'd never seen Wrigley Field, and thought I'd go take a look. The Cubs were on the road, but Wrigley was open--you could walk in, walk around, take it in... There was a T-ball team--4-6 year olds, playing in the outfield, and I even managed to step out onto the field. Friendly confines, indeed.
Fast forward to four years ago. My youngest son, Daniel (who, BTW was born on the site of Hilltop Park) is two, and I decide to take him to see Yankee Stadium. He's much too young to sit through a game, so we go when the Yankees are on the road. (Sound familiar?) The loading dock between Gate 2 and the bleachers is open, and (if you're taller that, say 5') you can just see a bit of the field from the street. I ask the Yankees' low-paid Security "guard" if my son in his stroller and I can just step into the dock area, so that he can see the green of the outfield in the distance. Guess what we were told.
I took my teenage son to the last game at Yankee Stadium, and the opening game at the money-sucking machine they call Yankee Stadium now. (I wanted him to be able to tell his grandchildren that he was there when Yankee Stadium closed, and I know that the new Stadium will mean something to him, so it was good that he was there when it opened.) I'll continue to go to the occasional game with the boys, but I'll be standing at the top of the seventh.
(I don't collect cardboard, BTW--I collect autographs and artifacts. Still have the ball Mantle signed for me outside the Stadium in 1967. (I've seen my share of losing Yankee teams, too. Remember Horace Clarke and Dick Schofield?) Part of the beauty of my collection, for me, is that that ball, and my Ruth single, and my '27 Yankees ball, etc. were signed by the players simply to make fans happy, and not to profit the players, the team, or Steiner Sports.)