The New York Yankees christened their brand new, state-of-the-art super stadium Thursday.
As a native New Yorker, and avid fan, watching the team play in a place other than what I had always considered to be the only Yankee Stadium, was bittersweet.
The new park looks incredible; a carbon copy of the original but with modern day amenities that have taken the place of uncomfortable seats and corridors that looked more like cold, concrete loading docks at a warehouse than the entrance to the shrine of America’s pastime.
For a lot of people, me included, the old Yankee Stadium is not just a building, but rather an intangible place where memories are stored, cherished and exaggerated.
From the first time I walked into the stadium and saw the overwhelming green of the field, to sitting behind the dugout as a little kid with my dad, to staggering around right field as an “adult”/bleacher creature, and everything in between; I will miss the stadium but will never forget the sententious moments it hosted.
Love ’em or hate ’em, we can only hope the Yankees new stadium delivers the same excitement.
