MY FIRST VISIT to Yankee Stadium came on July 21, 1964. I was taken there by two of my favorite people, The Old Man and Uncle Frank, and we thoroughly enjoyed the Yankees' 7-1 win over the Washington Senators.
MY FIRST VISIT to Yankee Stadium came on July 21, 1964. I was taken there by two of my favorite people, The Old Man and Uncle Frank, and we thoroughly enjoyed the Yankees' 7-1 win over the Washington Senators.
Nearly 44 years to the day later, July 20, 2008, I made my last pilgrimage to the Big Ballyard in the Bronx. I took three of my favorite people, my daughters and my girlfriend, and we thoroughly enjoyed the Yankees' 2-1 win over the Oakland Athletics.
In between, I'd guess I've seen about 50 other games at the soon-to-be-replaced Yankee Stadium, an average of about one for every year of my life. A lot has changed over the years, and a lot has stayed the same.
In 1964, we drove to the game in The Old Man's 1957 Ford with a Goldwater sticker on the rear bumper. In 2008, we drove to the game in my 2003 Toyota with an Obama sticker on the rear window.
It cost $2.5 million to build the Yankee Stadium we visited in 1964 - the original - and its construction took less than a year before opening in 1923. The Yankee Stadium we visited in 2008 had been renovated in 1974-75, a two-year facelift that cost $160 million. The Yankee Stadium we'll visit in 2009, right across the street from the current site, is taking three years to build, and the price tag is $1.3 billion. With a B.
There wasn't much traffic that night in 1964, so we made the 35-mile trip from my home on Long Island to the Bronx in about an hour. Traffic was ridiculous in 2008, so it took over two hours to go the 12 miles from our hotel in New Jersey to Yankee Stadium.
In 1964, we walked up to the ticket-booth kiosks and plunked down $7.50 for three seats in the right-field grandstand, making us part of a sparse crowd of 12,874. (Thanks, retrosheet.org.) In 2008, I logged on to StubHub in June and paid $451.95 for four seats - including a $10-a-ticket "convenience charge" - in Section 499, down the right-field line in the loge (middle tier) level. We were part of a sold-out crowd of 54,365.
We got to the 1964 game about an hour before the start and, armed with my glove, I watched batting practice while The Old Man and Uncle Frank ordered the first of several Ballantine beers, served in a paper cup at - guessing here - a buck each. Because of the ridiculous traffic, the 2008 game had already started by the time we stepped out into the bright sunshine inside the Stadium, and I was sorely in need of a Budweiser, served in a plastic bottle for $8.MY FIRST VISIT to Yankee Stadium came on July 21, 1964. I was taken there by two of my favorite people, The Old Man and Uncle Frank, and we thoroughly enjoyed the Yankees' 7-1 win over the Washington Senators.
Nearly 44 years to the day later, July 20, 2008, I made my last pilgrimage to the Big Ballyard in the Bronx. I took three of my favorite people, my daughters and my girlfriend, and we thoroughly enjoyed the Yankees' 2-1 win over the Oakland Athletics.
In between, I'd guess I've seen about 50 other games at the soon-to-be-replaced Yankee Stadium, an average of about one for every year of my life. A lot has changed over the years, and a lot has stayed the same.
In 1964, we drove to the game in The Old Man's 1957 Ford with a Goldwater sticker on the rear bumper. In 2008, we drove to the game in my 2003 Toyota with an Obama sticker on the rear window.
It cost $2.5 million to build the Yankee Stadium we visited in 1964 - the original - and its construction took less than a year before opening in 1923. The Yankee Stadium we visited in 2008 had been renovated in 1974-75, a two-year facelift that cost $160 million. The Yankee Stadium we'll visit in 2009, right across the street from the current site, is taking three years to build, and the price tag is $1.3 billion. With a B.
There wasn't much traffic that night in 1964, so we made the 35-mile trip from my home on Long Island to the Bronx in about an hour. Traffic was ridiculous in 2008, so it took over two hours to go the 12 miles from our hotel in New Jersey to Yankee Stadium.
In 1964, we walked up to the ticket-booth kiosks and plunked down $7.50 for three seats in the right-field grandstand, making us part of a sparse crowd of 12,874. (Thanks, retrosheet.org.) In 2008, I logged on to StubHub in June and paid $451.95 for four seats - including a $10-a-ticket "convenience charge" - in Section 499, down the right-field line in the loge (middle tier) level. We were part of a sold-out crowd of 54,365.
We got to the 1964 game about an hour before the start and, armed with my glove, I watched batting practice while The Old Man and Uncle Frank ordered the first of several Ballantine beers, served in a paper cup at - guessing here - a buck each. Because of the ridiculous traffic, the 2008 game had already started by the time we stepped out into the bright sunshine inside the Stadium, and I was sorely in need of a Budweiser, served in a plastic bottle for $8.
The star player for the 1964 Yankees was Mickey Mantle, who at age 32 was still arguably the best player in the game. He was paid like it, too, earning $100,000 that year. The best player on the 2008 Yankees - and arguably the best player in the game - is Alex Rodriguez, who at age 32 is being paid $28 million for his services.
Much to a 7-year-old's chagrin, Mantle wasn't in the lineup that night in 1964. Instead, the star was pitcher Jim Bouton, who threw a complete-game four-hitter against the Senators. Rodriguez played in the 2008 game but didn't do much of note, and the hero's laurels instead fell on winning pitcher Andy Pettitte, who allowed one run in eight innings, and Jason Giambi, whose solo homer in the bottom of the sixth broke a 1-all tie and proved to be the deciding run.
Six years after that 1964 game, Bouton wrote "Ball Four," a scandalous (for the time) tell-all book about the late-night carousing of his former Yankee teammates, with Mantle as the central figure. Fans back then didn't talk about such behavior because it simply wasn't reported - until Bouton started to write. In the years preceding the 2008 game, both Pettitte and Giambi were central figures in baseball's scandalous Steroid Era, but Yankee fans don't like to talk about it much.
The Yankees' batting lineup in 1964 included just one black player, catcher Elston Howard. The Yankees' batting lineup in 2008 included just two white players, Giambi and rookie outfielder Brett Gardner.
The 1964 Yankees were managed by Yogi Berra, a former Yankee catcher who played in 14 World Series during his 18 years - 78 percent of his seasons - in pinstripes. The 2008 Yankees are managed by Joe Girardi, a former Yankee catcher won played in three World Series during his four seasons (75 percent) with the Bronx Bombers.
Yankee fans were spoiled in 1964. Their team had played in the previous four World Series and only missed the October Classic twice in the previous 15 years. That fall, the Yanks made it five in a row and 14 out of 16. And Yankee fans are spoiled in 2008 after reaching the playoffs for the past 13 years in a row. This fall ...
Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see if there will be any more October memories to be had at Yankee Stadium.
Reach Nick Scala at 348-7947 or nsc...@wvgazette.com.
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