And now Philly. Citizens Bank Park is built in the Philly Sports Complex housing stadiums for their NFL and NHL teams as well. It's clear that they had nearly unlimited space to build as the stadium seems to sprawl - even leaving the exit ramp of exposed I-beams jutting out away from the stadium. The stadium only seats 2,000 more than CoPa but it feels egregiously large. Looking at it is a bit off-putting, but sitting in the 400 level seats felt closer than it looked - and was nice and breezy on a hot, humid day. It was an over-capacity day, and Philly fans wear a ridiculous amount of home-team gear. I got another scorecard, and while it was ticketed at $2, it was worth every penny. It allowed a full page for each team and gave another full page to common notations and game examples. Great to learn off of. Philly fans are definitely brutal to the point where, when a ball was called, I couldn't tell if they were booing the umpire's decision or the home pitcher, but I tended to think the latter. Strasburg was unfortunately injured, but he was on a roll and pitched a fun game while he was in. We did get to see former Tigers Placido Polanco (Phillies) and Pudge (Nats). After the game we tried out Geno's and Pat's cheesesteaks. Let me say, the Philly cheesesteak is the most overrated food I've ever come across. It's kindof like a slider, only unground and bigger and long. And less tasty. And more expensive. And more hyped. There's no point in going five steps out of your way to try one unless you have an insatiable curiosity.
Ahh, New York. We're in Newark, NJ actually. The bed smells faintly of stale sweat - until you get in, anyway. Then it's no longer faint. It took us three hours to make our trip into the city by shuttle, monorail, train, subway and foot. We were told it'd probably be an hour and fifteen minutes. Needless to say, we were late. We walked in just as Cano hit his grand slam, and got to our seats as they were rolling out the tarps.
So after leaving around 11:30, we got to see our first pitch in Yankee Stadium roughly four hours later. We caught about three innings and got to see former Tigers Marcus Thames and Curtis Granderson which was fun.
After the game we got some tasty NY pizza and later went out to a tapas bar which was good (if obtrousively loud). Hopefully tomorrow is a nicer day. We might try to hit the MoMA. No ball game, though. Citi Field in two days - whatever day that is.
4 comments:
So how was New Yankee Stadium? Bummer you got there late, but at least you got to see some of it. When I went we were late as well, but we came in just as they were playing Enter Sandman and Rivera was running out.
I wanted to sit on NY a day before writing based on my frustration of travel and rain.
Despite seating 9000 more people than Citizens Bank Park, Yankee Stadium didn't feel any larger from the seats. It felt just as huge, but not egregiously so. It felt comfortable and rightly sized. Part of this may have been in part due to the local skylines. The giant video board in center is gorgeous and the outer concourse has all the looks of greatness you'd expect from the Yankees. A good number of escalators and even a few large elevators made access to the upper decks easy. Fans were a little disappointing with maybe a third or half staying through the hour long rain delay (half of which was rain, and half of which was preparing the field). I didn't get as many impressions as the other stadiums since we didn't eat (as everything was really expensive - $15 sandwiches etc) and we didn't have as much time. Good sightlines, good exposure and a comfortable feel considering the stadium size. It was a good park, if it was a bit too grand for my tastes - which I'm sure is exactly what NYers wanted.
Scorecards were only available in the full program which was $10. That's a shame. I would imagine a lot of people who make a lot of games bring their own scorecards.
On the 100 level concourse, you can get fantastic views of the field behind home plate. It's probably worth your money to by a terrible ticket and watch from there if you don't mind standing all game. Plus you're right by all the shops/concessions/bathrooms you'll need or want.
What's a tapas bar? (guess I must be too old and provincial)
Dad, a tapas bar is pretty similar to a small plates restaurant - few entrees, but lots of smaller portions of food to share.
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