Sunday Night in the Bronx

Myself and two buddies attended the Sunday game at the new Yankee Stadium. Actually was a great game to watch. When Victor Martinez hit the go ahead homer in the seventh I screamed, " We scored, we actually scored!!". Of course, Damon and Teixeira's back to back homers off of Bard in the eighth cooled my mood. Nonetheless, I was very impressed with the new park.

I got a call from a friend who is a Yankee fan Sunday morning. He had three tickets to a "party suite" for the Sox-Yanks game. As we approached the stadium, I really liked how it looked . It is huge yet an architectural marvel in the midst of the Bronx. We arrived at the stadium about two hours before game time and walked the outside of the stadium. There were roughly twenty Yankee fans for every one Sox fan. Our group of three had one buddy dressed in a Jeter jersey another in a Sox hat and sweatshirt. I decided to wear jeans and a polo shirt. My past experiences wearing Red Sox gear at the old Yankee Stadium have not been great. Whether I sat in the lower bowl or the upper deck made no difference. Some Yankee fans are unintelligent and just plain rude. Needless to say, I have had my share of back and forth banter there.

We took an elevator to the suite level and walked towards our suite that seats about forty people. There are at least 70 of these suites and each are numbered. This carpeted, bending hallway was decorated with countless Yankee photographs. As we passed suite number 42 there were pictures of Mariano Rivera. This was true for many suites that had significant numbers. The Wade Boggs pictures made me vomit in my mouth. There were numerous employees there greeting us as we walked. My Red Sox attired friend was the recipient of a couple of comments but they were harmless. Our Mickey Mantle suite was nice. There was a bar and food area that offered hot dogs, chicken, mac and cheese, peanuts and Cracker Jack. We sat outside for batting practice even though are seats were actually inside the box on stools. We had seats numbered 11,12 and 13. However, there were only 12 seats.

The Yankee fan among us spoke to a worker in the box who called another Yankee employee. I have expected George Constanza to show up. This guy shows up and apologizes to us and tells us "we are going to make this right". First, he takes us to a bar on the suite level where the Yankees buy us a drink. With drink in hand we go the Delta Suites behind home plate. These second tier seats were legit. They were similar distance to the standing room area behind the plate at Fenway. The guy also gave us two tickets each to the Mohegan Sun bar in center field and the Audio bar area in left field. We also were each given a glossy Yankee magazine ($10 value). The customer service was incredible.

As the Sox continued to struggle, the two Red Sox fans went to a patio area on this level directly behind home plate and watched the last three innings from there. I liked this view. We were the only Sox fans in this area and when Martinez hit that bomb we got some long looks. As the momentum switched back to the home team these fans were not bad at all.

The crowd last night was really abuzz. The idea of sweeping the Sox was too good to be true for them. The back to back homers in the eighth sent the crowd into a frenzy. It got real loud. When Rivera came into the game as "Enter Sandman" played I turned to my buddy and said, "That's pretty cool."

My only negative was the lack of parking around the stadium. We waited in the garage about an hour before we got out.

Overall, the new Yankee stadium is very impressive. The building and its amenities are awesome and the fans seem to be a little less combative.