Date: Tuesday August 15, 7:10pm
Teams: New York Yankees vs. New York Mets
Ticket(s): Section 432A, Row 5, Seat 3 ($62 – SeatGeek)
Miles Driven: 13,356
Average Ticket Cost Through 24 Games: $12.43
Pre-Game
I got into the Bronx around 2:30p, certainly a little later than I wanted. However, it gave me enough time before the game to be a bit of a tourist. The last time I was in New York City was in 2007. I was there for an interview for an internship on Wall St – clearly prior to making the decision to go to grad school for Education. The cool thing was they put me up in a fancy hotel, literally adjacent to the Ground Zero. In 2007, construction on the Memorial and new World Trade Center tower had begun, but was basically a giant construction hole in the ground. I couldn’t wait to get back and see everything completed.
The Memorial is stunning and horrifying and beautiful all at once.
One World Observatory, the Occulus, the 9/11 Museum… It all deserves an entire day I didn’t have. Instead, after walking up Broadway to Union Square, I jumped back on the 4 to get to Yankee Stadium.
The Game
I arrived around 5:40, making my way to the left field seats to watch some batting practice. Upon its completion, it was time to hit Monument Park. Just as I got to the line, they announced they were closing the line – a good 70 minutes before first pitch. I was devastated. Not a good start, Yankee Stadium.
I went over to the Museum, which was underwhelming (seriously, I liked the Royals museum more). The saving grace is the wall of autographed baseballs; from Ichiro to Babe Ruth.
Finally, I made my way up to the fourth level to watch the beginning of the game. Instead of finding my left field foul pole corner seats, I watched the first inning or so from a standing room section. Not a terrible spot for the upper level. The other standing room areas in centerfield are a bit displaced from the field; again, you don’t get that “on top of the action” feeling you get in Toronto or Houston. The upper level standing room also gave me a chance to scope out my next seats… a little more difficult to find empty seats and sneak into them for a Mets-Yankees game than it was for a Indians-Rays game. Nonetheless, I found a home in the second level, left field foul pole area for the majority of the game.
Shifting gears… atmosphere: awesome. I think I told myself: “So this is what playoff baseball is like.” The traditional starting lineup chants from the right field bleachers, dueling Yankees and Mets chants, and (by the fourth inning) a totally packed house. To see a baseball stadium that big be completely full is an awesome sight.
After the top of the eighth, I decided to make one more move, down to the lower level, outfield seats that I had watched BP from earlier. Two Yankees bombs in the bottom of the eighth put the home team ahead 4-2 and Dellin Betances locked down the save.
The Story
Up Next
Home! Yes, I’m cheating again, flying home for two days. A couple work things I need to hit to prevent coming home from a huge pile-up, but also I want to be home for a couple days. Driving through the south and back north, I was approaching burnout levels. DC and New York helped – much less driving, much more fun baseball. I’m back to NYC on Thursday for Yankees at Mets, then off to Boston for Saturday’s Yankees-Red Sox game.
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