Day two begins while Yankee Stadium's history ends

Me and Hiro the night before.

We all woke up later than planned, by with just enough time for a date with history: the last day game at Yankee Stadium. Hiro, Joe, and I bought the tickets months ago at five times the face value. The three of us left the girls for Yankee Stadium, while they mapped out a day of shopping and eating.

We did not have much time for food. We looked around our neighborhood for anything we could find, and ended up at a Vietnamese sandwich shop. The prices were shocking: five dollars for a single banh mi! We were stunned by this seemingly ridiculous amount of NY price inflation. However, our disgust soon turned to amazement because when the banh mi arrived, it was the stretched limo of Vietnamese sandwiches. "Da shit" of all that is Viet. That was lame, but basically this was the biggest banh mi I've ever seen. If you are a guy, the potential for male anatomy comparisons is mind boggling (and some comments were made between the three of us). The sandwich was not only large, but was also jam-packed with meat (again, the potential was endless). While the meat to veggie ratio was highly disproportionate, there were no complaints.

Old stadium from subway platform.

We then rushed to Yankee Stadium. Arriving at the subway station itself was a quasi-religious experience. The new and old stadiums are right next to each other, and the contrast was as amazing as it was saddening.

New stadium, from our seats.

A sidenote: I had gone to Yankee Stadium three years ago,when I was an intern in Boston. My friend Mike and I went to a day game in mid-August and sat in the bleachers. Temperatures were well past 100 degrees that day, and after bar and partyhopping the night before, staying conscious during the game was diffucult, to say the least. However, we were able to see a then-typical Yankee scoring drive before we decided to leave, which was good enough for us.

Horrible panoramic picture of our seats from the game. Click to enlarge.

Back to the story at hand. Again I was going to a day game, and I silently prayed that we would be in the shade, despite being on the top deck. We hiked to our seats located at the top level above the first base line. The seats were surprisingly decent given the list price. We had only missed two outs in the top of the first inning by the time we sat down. I had expected a high scoring game since both pitchers were no-namers. However, the game was a pitchers duel, with zero runs scored for both teams after the bottom of the eighth. Because of that, we were able to see Mariano Rivera close out the top of the 9th, and the Yankees win it in the bottom of the 9th. It was exactly what I had hoped for in a last game. Hearing Sinatra sing "New York New York" with flashbulbs going off like fireworks as the crowd desperately attempted to capture the essence of over seventy years of history was heartbreaking. I am not a Yankees fan by any means, but its hard not to feel a sense of awe at that moment.

The video ends with a very detailed explanation of what it was like to be there from Hiro.


The song in its entirely, in case you were curious.

The is the second picture the guy took. After the first take (in which we were trying to look like thugs) he said, "you guys need to smile! We're at the game!" with a NY accent.