After 27 Months Without Baseball...

I went to the new Yankee Stadium yesterday, for its second (regular season) home game and the first win in the new stadium. Regular readers of the last blog know that I didn’t really spend 27 months without baseball – I saw a game each year when I came back to the States for a weekend, and I had an mlb.com subscription that allowed me to hear the radio feed of any game. But there was the excitement of the new stadium and the new season yesterday and therefore I wasn’t the only one being welcomed back to the ballpark, filled with excitement about the season ahead. I’m filled with excitement not only about the season but also about the next chapter of life ahead – for me, Opening Day isn’t just a metaphor but what amounts to (at this point) coincidental timing.


It was a beautiful, sunny day. Mark DeRosa, the second batter of the game, sent a home run into the stands that hit the seat next to me before it caromed out of reach (I saw it coming, realized it would land near me, but didn’t realize it would land next to me – I can’t catch anyway – you can see me at http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200904174171953 - about six rows up, behind the man in the open jersey). Yankees countered with five solo homers. A Jeter home run in the eighth broke the tie and Rivera saved it in the ninth – in other words, a prototype Yankee win and a great way to start the season.

This was the first time I had gone into Manhattan and back in the same day, and it wasn’t draining. The Hampton Jitney is comfortable and the time goes quickly! On to Citi Field next.

(c) 2009 the author