I still get chills after watching this tribute to Yankee Stadium starring Yogi Berra that was played on ESPN on Sunday during the last game at Yankee Stadium.
I love Yogi, all of New York does. He’s a great ambassador to the game, and I couldn’t think of a better person to star in this tribute.
If you live in New Jersey, you really should visit The Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center in Little Falls, NJ on the campus of Montclair State University. You won’t be disappointed.
This spot really reminds me of the film 25th Hour, (one of my all time favorites, check it out if you haven’t seen it), the way it captures New York (and baseball) and shows it to you as a living, breathing life form.
I haven’t been this blown away over a video in quite some time.
Even if you hate the Yankees, you have to admit that this video is amazing.
I’m sure most of you know that the tickets we bought on eBay were counterfeit. Luckily there were tickets available at the Stadium and we were able to get into the game with better seats and for $100 cheaper than the counterfeit tickets. Our money was refunded to us by the person we bought them from on eBay, so we’re all good there.
Needless to say I was pretty upset when they put that big “COUNTERFEIT” stamp on the tickets, but Ali was calm, cool and collected this time, bought us new tickets, calmed me down, and we then went to enjoy the game.
Now. Enough of that.
Yankee Stadium. It’s called the The House That Ruth Built, the Cathedral of Baseball. It was built in 1923 in The Bronx, New York for the low cost (by today’s standards) of 2.5 million. By contrast, New Yankee Stadium is estimated at 1.3 billion dollars.
Yankee Stadium has seen 37 World Series (with the Yankees winning 26 of them), hosted 4 All Star games, and many other special events such as major boxing events, 3 papal masses, the “greatest game of the century” Army vs Norte Dame college football in 1946 (“Win one for the Gipper”) amongst others.
Opening Day capacity was 58,000 and a ticket for the grandstands cost $1.10. The average salary in 1923 was $1,293.
66 years after opening day in 1989 I went to my first ever game at Yankee Stadium.
My parents gave me tickets for a game in August around my 8th birthday.
I remember when I was really young we had a black AM radio (it may have had FM, I dunno) and my Dad and I used to listen to games on it while I helped him work around the house. I was 3 or 4.
After that, I remember watching the Yankees on TV with my dad on WPIX. Phil “The Scooter” Rizzuto was the play by play announcer for the Yankees back then, and I can still hear Scooter yell “HOLY COW” after each amazing play or hit to this day. Scooter sadly died earlier this year.
Back to my first game. I don’t remember who they played (if I had to guess it was the Cleveland Indians or the California Angels, and according to The Baseball Almanac, they were both in New York around my birthday), I don’t even remember if they won.
What I do remember is parking in a lot underneath the Major Degan highway that runs right by Yankee Stadium, and crossing the highway in a tunnel and seeing the baseball bat smokestack.
I was wearing my new Don Mattingly t-shirt, and I had my blue baseball glove, I believe my Dad had his glove (the beloved Rosebud which I now have).
After walking around the stadium, and getting a program we made our way to our seats. I remember vividly walking through the dark tunnel out into the box seats. The tunnel was so dark, and as soon as I walked out of it, the sun smacked you in the face it was so bright, the grass so green, the sky so blue.
Our seats for my first game at Yankee Stadium in 1989
It was batting practice for the visiting team, and the crack of the bat was so loud that it echoed in the stadium. I could smell the grass, the beer, the hot dogs and that outdoor summer smell.
I was in awe. Players at batting practice were sending the balls long into the outfield stands, outfielders were snagging the balls that didn’t make it over the fence.
After the batting practice was cleaned up, the voice came.
“The voice of God.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to Yankee Stadium.”
Bob Sheppard is the voice of Yankee Stadium and has been since 1951. The 2008 season is the last season Bob Sheppard will be the announcer of Yankee Stadium. Due to poor health, Bob hasn’t been very active this year. Luckily he was at the game Ali and I went to.
I don’t remember much other from my first game at Yankee Stadium, except that at some point, a vender came by selling hot dogs. My Dad asked if I wanted one. I didn’t. But he got one. He handed it to me to hold so he could pay the vender and as he turned back to get it he saw me finish eating the hot dog that I didn’t want.
That’s all I remember from my first trip to Yankee Stadium.
It would be a little more than 10 years before I went back. And I went back a whole lot. In the course of 2 or 3 years I must have seen 30 or 40 games (or more) and every time I walked through the tunnel into the stands, I was an 8 year old again, and the same feeling washed over me.
I’ve seen games in Shea Stadium (Mets), Comiskey Park (White Sox), Miller Park (Brewers) and Minute Maid Park (Astros) and not one lives up to Yankee Stadium. Not even close.
Ali loved the Yankee Stadium experience. She’s been hearing me talk about it for over three years now. She could sense my excitement, but I don’t think she understood it until she was there to see the sights, and experience it first hand, and see me at probably my most favorite place on Earth.
The drama with the tickets notwithstanding, it was an amazing time, and a great way to end our personal era of Yankee Stadium.
It was really hard for me to leave the stands, I would have stayed there all night if I could, just to soak in every last possible sight.
I don’t know how New Yankee Stadium will compare, but from what I saw on the outside, it is simply gorgeous. They worked off the original 1923 plans of Yankee Stadium and modernized it. I hope we can go to a game there next year, it would be a great bookend for our last game (and Ali’s first game) at Yankee Stadium.
Tomorrow (Sunday, September 21, 2008) is the last game at Yankee Stadium. ESPN is doing seven hours of Yankee Stadium coverage, plus the game, so I will be planted firmly in front of the television for at least 10 hours tomorrow.
Here come the YANKEES
Let’s get behind and cheer the YANKEES
They’re gonna learn to fear the YANKEES
Everyone knows they play to win, cause
They’re the New York YANKEES
Show them today why you’re the YANKEES
No other way when you’re the YANKEES
Wadda ya say we win a brand, new, ballgame
We’re gonna shout when ya powder the ball
We’re gonna scream, “put it over the wall”
The other teams gonna know what it means to play the Y.A.N.K.E.E.S
We love the Yankees
Shout it out loud , We Love The YANKEES
We’re really proud of our YANKEES
And we’re gonna win today
2, 3, 4, Hit, Run, Fight, Score, Go! Go! Go!
We’re gonna shout when ya powder the ball
We’re gonna scream “put it over the wall yo”
The other teams gonna know what it means to play the Y.A.N.K.E.E.S
We love the Yankees
Shout it out loud, We Love The YANKEES
We’re really proud of our YANKEES
And we’re gonna win today
Y.A.N.K.E.E.S. Yes
Y.A.N.K.E.E.S. Yes
I entered a radio contest to try and win Yankees/Astros tickets this weekend in Houston, and I was one of the five selected! This morning I was #1 with almost 60% of the vote! I just fell to second place to some blonde with a crush on Jeter. Help me beat her so a real fan can go see the Yankees!
Here is my entry:
(Click for full size)
Name – Mike Rastiello
Birth Date – August 9, 1981
Where you’re from – New Jersey originally, but I have been living in Houston for 2+ years
Why You’re The Biggest Fan – Since birth I’ve been a Yankees fan, passed down to me from my father. I can remember watching games on television and listening to them on the radio. On my eighth birthday, my parents gave me tickets to my first game at Yankee Stadium ever.
Every game I went to since that game, I got the same feeling as the first time I walked out of the tunnel into the box seats. The bright sun, the green grass, the sounds of the ball cracking off the bat during batting practice. That experience has stayed with me for 20 years. I’ve lived and died with every playoff and World Series game in the mid to late ’90’s, I even put up banners outside my parents house during the playoffs. Well, not so much a banner as it was a spray painted bed sheet. It also tears me up that the Red Sox have won 2 World Series in the past 4 years.
When I found out that the Yankees were coming to Houston, I immediately logged on to the Astro’s site to get tickets but learned I needed to enter a raffle to buy tickets, which I missed by a long time. I was crushed to say the least. I haven’t seen the Yankees play in 5 years, and now that they are playing in my own backyard and I am going to miss it? That kills me. (Unless I win, that is)
In case you can’t tell from the picture, there are:
-17 Yankee hats (most get worn on a regular basis)
-3 jerseys (1 authentic home Mickey Mantle jersey, 1 retro jersey, and one hockey style jersey).
-2 floor mats for my car
-2 Yankee flags
-2 Yankee street signs
-2 framed photographs, (1 of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, the other kids standing outside of old Yankee Stadium)
-2 books, Chasing The Dream: My Lifelong Journey by Joe Torre and and 101 Reasons to Love the Yankees (Like I need 101 reasons)
-1 autographed ball signed by Roger Clemens (pre Mitchell Report)
-1 Derek Jeter bobblehead doll
-1 set of Russian nesting dolls (actually from Russia) The players are from smallest to largest: Bernie Williams, Jason Giambi, Mike, Mussina, Roger Clemens and Derek Jeter
-1 promotional banner listing all of the Yankees 26 championship years
-1 ceramic replica Yankee Stadium
-1 ceramic Yankee “Fan Shop”
-1 promotional baseball “signed” by the championship 2000 Yankees
-1 mug with an interlocking NY
-1 oversized Charlie Brown Pez dispenser that plays “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” when you lift the head to get a pack of Pez
-1 mini baseball bat with the Yankees logo on it
-The desktop picture on my laptop is an interlocking NY
And probably my favorite piece I own, a ticket to the Yankees game the night of September 11, 2001. I could never bring myself to trade it in for another game.
Sadly, not everything I own is pictured here. There is still some stuff, books, DVDs, and more hats that are in boxes in my parent’s basement in Jersey. Also, my girlfriend sleeps in all my old Yankee t-shirts, which also aren’t pictured.
Please pass this on to your friends!
I need your votes!! Vote for Mike Rastiello! http://tinyurl.com/5mr3m5
Field of Dreams. One of my favorite movies ever. I don’t know when I first saw it, I was probably in middle school. But ever since I first saw it, I was hooked.
This time of year, with spring training just behind us and currently being in the first few weeks of the season is a great time for baseball movies on television, Field of Dreams is the only movie I will stop on every time. Ali also knows this. I’ll let her click past just about any other movie that I love, except this one.
Flipping through the channels tonight, I find Field of Dreams. I have to watch it. I love everything about this movie. The story, the execution, the score, everything.
When I watch it, I catch myself smiling as new pieces of the puzzle are reveled to Ray. How he convinces Terrance Mann to come with him (“I’m not showing you my gun!”), when he finds Moonlight Graham walking out late at night and he tells Ray his dream, when he realizes he did this all for his father, his penance.
The last part gets me every time. “Hey Dad… Want to have a catch?” It makes me cry each time I watch it. I don’t even need to hear the line anymore. Once Ray starts talking to his father I get chocked up and the tears start. I’m a sucker for a story about a father and son, and this movie takes the cake. A son, his father, and baseball. What more could there possibly be to create a more magical story?
I don’t know if this movie would have the same impact on me if my father and I didn’t have the type of relationship that we do. We’re very close. We both love baseball and the Yankees, and we bust each other’s chops at any chance we can get. If that bond wasn’t there, and we didn’t share a love of the sport, I don’t know how I would feel about this film. I don’t even want to think about that.
One of the top things on my must do in life list, is get to that field in Iowa. I really wanted to go two years ago during the Netflix Road Show. They showed the movie on a giant screen on the actual field. That would have been amazing, but it was not possible. One day though, I will go to that field.
This morning I got up at the usual ungodly hour (anything before at least 9:30 on a weekend is ungodly) and I listened to a few podcasts, namely You Look Nice Today. A podcast by @hotdogsladies, @lonelysandwich, and @scottsimpson, some of my favorite Twitters.
After the podcasts, I popped on the TV to see if there were any good movies on, or at the very least something halfway decent that I could ignore and play poker. I came across “When It Was A Game” and it’s sequels on HBO. “When It Was A Game” is a documentary series about the heyday of baseball, and it tells the story of baseball and it’s impact on America from the depression and onwards. Watching it, I was really amazed at how much the game of baseball has changed.
It really did used to be a game. It still is, but not nearly on the same level. It’s more business now, and that’s a little sad.
Watching the documentary, I saw kids who were awestricken watching their heroes play ball, dying to get an autograph, or just to get a nod or a wave from the gods on the diamond. Does that happen today? Possibly. No where near the way it was 40 or 50 years ago. I used to go to a bunch of Yankee games a year, at least 15 to 20 and there were kids there, but it was mostly people my age and up. I see the same thing on TV. I remember watching the Yankees on TV with my Dad, him explaining to me what was going on, what the rules were, who the players were. I remember my first trip to Yankee Stadium, or the first trip that I remember that is. I was 8 years old, and I was in heaven. I had my Yankee t-shirt on, my baseball glove in hopes I would catch a foul ball. I will blog about this experience at a later time, hopefully this summer when I make my last trip to Yankee Stadium before it closes its doors at the end of this season.
Growing up, Don Mattingly was the end all be all for me. Donnie Baseball. I had the shirt, the poster, the bat. I wore number 23 in little league a time or two. My friends and I used to play whiffle ball all the time. They were from Boston and were huge Boston Red Sox fans. When we played ball at their house, it was Fenway Park. My house was the grand cathedral Yankee Stadium. Do kids even do that anymore? I have no idea.
My glove is my father’s old glove. It’s broken in perfectly. I don’t really have anyone to play catch with, but I like to throw a ball to myself as a break in between working. It relaxes me and gives me a moment to think. Same thing with my baseball bat. It’s never seen contact with a ball, and it may never, but I just like to hold it in my hands.
But back to the documentary. The games were smaller back then, but so much bigger than today. Everything hung on whether your team won or lost. And not just championships, but every single game. The players were gods, but they were also human and tremendously approachable. The doc said that the reason that is, is because players are paid so much that they lost familiarity with the working man.
Most ball players had winter jobs back in the glory days. They rode the subways and buses into the stadium with the fans. There are stories that Jackie Robinson used to stop and play stickball with kids in Brooklyn after playing a game with the Dodgers.
Today, the league minimum salary is $390,000 a year. If you are a major leaguer, you are making at least that. That’s a huge difference to what some of the all time greats of yesterday made. It’s fifty times more (and up) than some of the salaries that the documentary mentioned.
I love baseball movies. “Field of Dreams” is one of my all time favorite movies. “The Sandlot” is one of my favorite baseball movies. “The Sandlot” captures that feeling that kids used to have towards baseball.
From “Field of Dreams:”
The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. Its been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But, baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and could be again.
I hope that baseball does return to glory, past this era of steroids and gets back to being what it is. A game. A game where if you team wins, you are walking on clouds, and if by some chance they lose, you kick the dirt but keep your hopes up for tomorrow’s game.
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