I'm back ... with a report from New Jersey / New York

So I've decided to revive this blog for the time being. I'll use it to write mostly about my soccer broadcasting and travel, probably, so we start off with my trip last weekend to work (calling the Dynamo at Red Bulls game on Saturday) and not work (visit with family, celebrate my father's birthday, see my first game at the new Yankee Stadium).



First, Yankee Stadium. The new one. I went to my first game there on Sunday, accompanied by Eric, Della, my mother, and my mother's sister, who met us at the game. What a stadium! I totally loved it. I think watching a game there still feels like Yankee Stadium - the white facade on the roof, the dimensions of the field, the blue outfield wall - but without the cramped, uncomfortable seats, ridiculously steep stairs, and narrow concourses. The stadium appears bigger than the old stadium despite its smaller capacity; that fact easily explained by the increased number of suites and cushy seats behind the plate ($2,500/game! Ridiculous!) and a serious increase in handicap-accessible seating.

There are a ton of food options at the new stadium, including Johnny Rockets, a barbecue place, sushi, Asian noodle bowls, pizza, and more typical ballpark fare. I got two hot dogs from a vendor, and they actually cost me less ($10 for two) than they would have at the concession stands ($12). My mother and aunt said the concourses actually have sightlines to the field from the lines for food. The scoreboards were a bit hard to find at times, but I think everybody will get used to them pretty quickly. I appreciated the detail on the out-of-town scoreboard and the closed captioning for feature videos.


When I go home, I usually find Delbarton people I know popping up in random places. On this day, it was a Rice person. Looking down from our seats three rows from the top of the upper deck, I saw Jon Schumann - former A&E editor of the Rice Thresher - walking up into the section. Of all people! Schumann doesn't really like baseball, so I never would have expected to see him. Although he lives in New York, so it wasn't totally illogical. We caught up briefly, although neither one of us had much to report since we just saw each other at Beer-Bike.

Sports Disclaimer: Skip the next three paragraphs if you don't care.

The game itself was really interesting. A.J. Burnett (on my fantasy team!) and Kevin Slowey kept both teams hitless through three innings, and the game was scoreless into the seventh. The Twins went up 2-0 in the eighth, with my mother ragging on Joe Girardi for not pulling Burnett, and me defending him based on the Yankees' shaky bullpen. A-Rod went deep in the 8th, and the Yankees found a way to tie the game with a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly.

The Yankees had a great chance to win in the ninth, with the speedy Brett Gardner on second and one out. Cervelli, the usual catcher, came up for his first at-bat and rapped one up the middle. The ball caromed off the pitcher's glove and rebounded to the first-base side of home plate. The Twins' catcher, Joe Mauer, ran out to pick up the ball but had no chance at first. He looked to first, and when he did so, Gardner raced for home, gambling that he, running 75 feet at full speed, could beat Mauer, running 35 feet from a stand-still in catcher's gear. Mauer won, diving to block the base and make the tag, and the game remained tied. We were debating whether or not Mauer intentionally faked to first, and after watching the replay that night at the airport, he definitely did. Great play.


With my flight at Newark at 8 p.m. and a long drive to get there, we were set to leave after the 10th inning (roughly 4:45) if nobody won. But Johnny Damon (I had just seen Fever Pitch on TV, so I kept thinking of that scene where the woman stands up and talks about how cute his butt is - YouTube knock-off here) hit a walk-off homer in the 10th, the Yankees' third straight walk-off win. It had a certain aura of inevitability to it after the Yankees tied the game, since we had been talking all game about walk-offs (A.J. Burnett slapping shaving cream in the face of the hero on three straight days, trying to explain to Della why walk-offs are exciting, etc.) I think she may have gotten the point about walk-offs.

End sports section


So we sang along with Frank Sinatra to "New York, New York," and Eric and Della did some dancing (maybe they'll post the video), and we headed out. Only to sit in line for the parking ramp for about half an hour before we finally started moving. After a slightly impromptu drive through Harlem and across upper Manhattan, my mother found the George Washington Bridge rigth where she expected it to be, and I made my flight in plenty of time.


More on the New Jersey / New York trip to come later.