Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, New York

Yankee Stadium was opened on April 18, 1923, making it the third oldest baseball stadium standing today. The House that Ruth Built won’t be around much longer, so you NEED to make your way to the Bronx to check out a game as soon as possible. I did last night for Game 3 of the Yankees/Red Sox series and it was a TRIP. My roommate and I had seats in the bleachers, which are known throughout the baseball universe for being the rowdiest spot in the sport. Those stories are all true. True to the point that alcohol has been completely banned in the bleachers for the last several years. Didn’t really know that when I got the tickets, although I had heard there were “Alcohol Free” zones in the stadium. Quite a buzz kill, I must say. I’ve been to a few baseball games and Yankee Stadium is THE ONLY one I’ve ever heard of having beer-less seating. Not that it was stopping a lot of people – I saw many a person pouring “water” from their water bottles in to their cokes. Maybe another good opportunity for the Sit-N-Sip.

Pre-game, there are dozens of sports bars and walk-up food stands in the area around the stadium. Once you get off the train at 161st, walk down the stairs and pick a bar. I don’t think it even matters which one. I am definitely no Yankees fan, but the energy of the place was really amazing. The bars were going pretty full-swing at 6:00ish. The beer was $7.00 for domestic bottle or draft. Probably not much of a savings over the beer available in the game (but I wouldn’t know). You can get some good snack deals with $3.00 pizza slices (my dinner) and $2.00 bags of roasted peanuts. I bet the bars are EL FUEGO after the game, but we had to make the LONG trip back to Newark and I had to work the following morning.

The bleachers. Maybe you should have a few beers and then sneak in your booze. I was just ill-prepared. It was really very interesting to see the Yankees fans talking smack to anyone who dared to wear Red Sox gear. Once again, I’ve been to a lot of baseball games in various places and I’ve NEVER seen fans argue like that. It’s pretty funny, really. Any time a person walks up the stairs who is a fan of the opposing team, they get booed by the whole section. Most of the Red Sox fans had massive cahones and gave back as much as they received. Don’t have the audacity to get up from your seat while the ball is in play. You WILL hear about it. Can’t we all just get along? I’m sure it isn’t AS BAD with other teams (besides the Mets). But this is not the place to take you children to teach them how to play well with others.

I’m not going to go in to a whole lot of history of this stadium, you can find that any place. I’ll just tell you to go while you have the chance. There is more baseball history in that tiny area than there is in most of the country. I saw another piece of history last night when Derek Jeter (yuck) passed Joe DiMaggio to become the fifth most prolific hitter of the Yankees – ever. And that means I’ve been to three of the five oldest stadiums in the last year (Yankee, Shea and Wrigley). With the Allstar game coming up next year, I’m sure a little more history will be made in the time the stadium has left.