Opening Day at Yankee Stadium – Everything Perfect but the Score
By Brian | April 17, 2009
As I predicted in my post about Citi Field’s Opening Day, the New York Yankees once again showed Major League Baseball, and the world, what it means to have an historic team in an historic ballpark.
The day began with the West Point Marching Band playing John Phillip Sousa marches out in centerfield (back in 1923, Sousa himself led a band into centerfield of the original Yankee Stadium, playing his famous marches). Then, a familiar voice from a missing friend. Bob Sheppard (recorded) saying, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to the New Yankee Stadium,” which is what he used to say back in 1976, after the renovation, when I used to go see games there as a kid. If you’re a Yankee fan, you’ll understand how special that was. If you’re not, I’ll never be able to explain it to you.
Then there was John Fogerty performing “Centerfield” on a guitar shaped like a baseball bat, while video of some of the Yankees’ most famous centerfielders ran on the big screen – Bobby Murcer (who, having passed away recently, was on everyone’s mind amidst all the hoopla), Joe DiMaggio (who is mentioned in the song), Mickey Mantle, and Bernie Williams.
Then Bernie Williams himself took up his familiar position in centerfield, this time to play his own, classical-guitar arrangement of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
After that, forty-six Yankee greats, spanning from the 1940’s to the 2000’s, took the field. Forty-six. As a reminder, the Mets fielded exactly two: Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza, one of whom went to the press box after the ceremony and the other of whom went home to “spend more time with his family.” In contrast, at least one former Yankee, David Wells, took a seat in the bleachers and had some beers with the fans (yes, Virginia, you can drink beer in the Yankee Stadium bleachers again).
The present followed the past, as both the visiting Cleveland Indians and the hometown Yankees were introduced. Then, Kelly Clarkson sang a stirring rendition of the National Anthem, complete with giant American flag and fighter jet flyover (the Mets, need I remind you, had a bunch of unknown Broadway singers, improperly mic’ed).
Then, the game began. The pitching rubber and home plate were the same ones used in the last game at the previous Yankee Stadium, and were removed after this game for immediate placement in the Yankees Museum, located on the premises of the new Yankee Stadium. One might have thought the pomp and circumstance was over at this point, but no – the Yankees had one more trick up their sleeves. On loan from Dr. Richard Angrist of Point Pleasant, NJ, owner of the largest game-used baseball bat collection in the world, was the bat that Babe Ruth used to hit the first homerun in Yankee Stadium back in 1923. It was laid down across homeplate and announced. Derek Jeter, the Yankee Captain and leadoff hitter, picked it up and jokingly handed his actual bat to the bat boy, as if he was going to hit with the Bambino’s lumber.
Perhaps my favorite moment of the day, though, was when the bat boy brought the Babe’s bat back into the dugout. Every Yankee on the bench picked it up and feigned a couple of practice swings with it – as if just holding it in their hands might help conjure some of the Babe’s magic. Even Hideki Matsui (the “Babe Ruth of Japan”) took a turn examining the artifact.
The game itself was a genuine pitcher’s duel until the seventh inning, when Jose Veras and Demaso Marte joined together to give up 9 runs, including a grand slam homerun to Grady Sizemore and turn the game into a rout.
As for the “firsts:” Johnny Damon got the first hit. Jorge Posada got the first homerun. People lamented that it wasn’t Jeter, but he’s already redeemed himself by hitting a game-winning homerun in today’s game (#2 in the new Stadium) in the bottom of the 8th inning, paving the way for Mariano Rivera’s first appearance and first save.
And as for the rest of the comparisons to the Mets: the first visiting batter did not hit a homerun. The first Yankees pitcher to fall off the mound is an as-of-yet unclaimed honor, as is the first Yankee pitcher to balk in the winning run.
Categories: New York, New York, Sports Talk | Comments Off on Opening Day at Yankee Stadium – Everything Perfect but the Score
Colbert Nation launches into orbit
By Brian | April 15, 2009
As disturbing as my last TV-related post was, this one really makes me smile.
Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s hilarious Colbert Report, has made a habit of asking his viewers to write in his name in a variety of public naming contests. To date, he’s managed to get a Hungarian bridge, a San Francisco Zoo-born eagle, a hockey team mascot, a species of trapdoor spider and a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor named after him.
His most recent target was the new node (i.e., room) on the International Space Station, which NASA has asked the public to name via on online poll. NASA’s suggestions were “Serenity,” “Legacy,” “Earthrise,” “Venture,” and the dreaded write-in vote. So enthusiastic are Colbert’s fans (which he has dubbed the “Colbert Nation”) that as of a few weeks ago, the write-in suggestion “Colbert” was beating it’s closest competitor (“Serenity”) by nearly 20,000 votes. NASA wisely reserved the right to ignore the poll results and pick an “appropriate” name, should they be unhappy with the public’s selection.
Well, as it turns out, after 1.2 million votes were cast, NASA went with “Tranquility,” one of the Top Ten suggestions in the poll, in honor of the upcoming 40th anniversary of Apollo 11’s historic moon landing at the Sea of Tranquility.
In a nod to Colbert Nation, though, NASA has dubbed a treadmill that will eventually reside in the new node the “‘Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill,” or C.O.L.B.E.R.T. for short. Astronaut Suni Williams made the announcement on “The Colbert Report,” two years after running the Boston Marathon in space on a station treadmill similar to COLBERT.
Incidentally, the logo on the left is the actual image posted on the actual NASA page announcing the name of the new space station node.
Kudos to Steven Colbert for keeping the public enthusiastic about the space program, and kudos to NASA for not taking itself so seriously as to ignore the taxpayers that fund their important research.
Categories: Primetime TV, The Future is Now, The World Wide Weird | 1 Comment »
Real Time Reality TV
By Brian | April 15, 2009
By now, most everyone is aware of the escalating violence off the coast of Somalia. Since Sunday, Somali pirates have taken seventy-five additional hostages and fired upon American ships bearing food aid, all in response to this past weekend’s rescue of American Captain Richard Phillips and several French sailors. A spokesman for the pirates (yes, they apparently have spokesmen) said, “Our latest hijackings are meant to show that no one can deter us from protecting our waters from the enemy because we believe in dying for our land.”
A serious situation, to be sure. So imagine my surprise when I saw this banner ad in my Yahoo! news feed:
Apparently, a company called 44 Blue Productions will station TV crews aboard U.S. Navy vessels patrolling the Somali waters for pirates. Rasha Drachkovitch, 44 Blue’s president and founder says he will have access to dozens of navy cameras along with his own. He feels it’s his job to “find the characters and stories to focus upon.”
Spike’s senior VP for original series, Sharon Levy, said she didn’t know if the incident with Richard Phillips would “kill the deal or seal the deal,” but feels that “following the work of Navy personnel on this mission is the sort of action Spike craves. . . The cable channel targets young male viewers aged 18 to 34, potentially making ‘Pirate Hunters: USN’ a strong recruiting tool for the Navy.”
The Navy, believe it or not, agrees. Navy spokesman Commander Richard K. Anderson (who was terrific in The Matrix, by the way): “That’s the Spike demographic and (recruiting) is a factor. We also have a responsibility to inform the American public about what we are doing.”
To all of which, I can only add this: Seriously? The U.S. Navy needs a Reality TV show to inform the American public about what they’re doing to fight Somali pirates? Isn’t that what the news media is for? Isn’t it enough that the President of the United States has publicly vowed to halt the piracy? Or is that just advance marketing for the TV show now?
And do we really need to “find characters and stories to focus upon?” Here’s a story: a group of Navy Seals took out three pirates with high-powered rifles in open water without so much as splashing water on the hostage. Sorry, but I don’t need touching background footage of their wives & kids back home to consider them heroes.
This is reality. It doesn’t need to be reality television.
Categories: News and/or Media, Primetime TV | 1 Comment »
Some thoughts on Citi Field
By Brian | April 14, 2009
The New York Mets christened their new stadium last night, making them the first of two baseball teams in New York to do so this week. I’m obviously a biased source
Categories: New York, New York, Sports Talk | 1 Comment »
Minor Blog Maintenance
By Brian | April 14, 2009
Lately, I’ve found myself using the “Recent Comments” widgets on other blogs more frequently, in order to keep tabs on comments I’ve made, whether or not people have responded, etc.. That realization led to a second realization, which is that my blog didn’t have a “Recent Comments” widget.
As you can see on the right sidebar, this travesty was finally rectified this morning.
Categories: Blogging about Blogs | 5 Comments »
Precisely.
By Brian | April 12, 2009
xkcd:
Categories: Money Talk | Comments Off on Precisely.
After the Beep, Please Send E-mail
By Brian | April 9, 2009
The New York Times ran an interesting article last week about the impending obsolescence of voice mail. Some quotes:
Over 30 percent of voice messages linger unheard for three days or longer and that more than 20 percent of people with messages in their mailboxesCategories: Tech Talk | 1 Comment »
Page Not Found – Ver 1.0
By Brian | April 8, 2009
This made me laugh:
I’m a geek.
(via)
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging, Tech Talk | Comments Off on Page Not Found – Ver 1.0
The Official Blog Post of the New York Yankees
By Brian | April 7, 2009
With the Yankees and the Mets sporting new stadiums this year, the opportunities for new sponsorship deals were numerous. Apparently, both teams took full advantage.
Some examples from the Yankees:
- Benjamin Moore is the Official Paint of the New York Yankees
- Amtrak is the Official Rail Fare of the New York Yankees (not the trains, mind you, just the fare)
- Met Life is the Official Life Insurance of the New York Yankees (despite the word “Met” in their name)
- Hess is the Official Gasoline & Convenience Store Retailer of the New York Yankees
- H&R Block is the Official Tax Preparation Company of the New York Yankees
- StubHub is the Official Secondary Ticketing of the New York Yankees (for those who are wondering, there is no “Official Scalper of the New York Yankees.” Coincidence?)
So, if you want to show your Yankee pride while you buy life insurance or pay your taxes, you have that option now.
The Mets are similarly opportunistic:
- Davis Vision is the Official Eyecare Provider of the New York Mets
- Geico is the Official Auto Insurance of the New York Mets
- Kozy Shack is the Official Pudding of the New York Mets
- Landmark Concessions is the Official Fried Dough of the New York Mets
- Send In The Clowns is the Official Party Provider of the New York Mets
So, if you want to have a party, and serve pudding and fried dough, you can do it all while supporting your hometown boys from Flushing, Queens.
It gets better: both teams have official hospitals (Yankees: New York Presbyterian, Mets: Hospital For Special Surgery). Nathan’s is the Offical Hot Dog of the New York Yankees, and the Non-Kosher Hot Dog & French Fry of the New York Mets (one assumes the Mets no preference on kosher hot dogs and the Yankees don’t care what kind of french fry you eat…) The Yankees have Official Life Insurance (Met Life) and Official Health Insurance (Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield), and the Mets have Official Auto Insurance (Geico) and an Official X-Ray Equipment Provider (NY Imaging). So you can get sick and/or die as a Yankee fan, but if you crash your car or break a bone, you better be rooting for the Mets.
Oh, one more thing: Zales is the Official National Jewelry Retailer of the New York Yankees. The Mets have no Official Jewelry Retailer. I guess they don’t expect to be buying rings anytime soon.
<grin>
Categories: New York, New York, Sports Talk, The World Wide Weird | 1 Comment »
ISBS Review: The New Yankee Stadium
By Brian | April 4, 2009
So remember that secret mission I mentioned on Thursday? The one that required a new digital camera? Well, it took two days to get all of the online documentation in place, but now I can discuss it. My older son, Avery, and I found ourselves in possession of two tickets to the New York Yankees’ Pre-Season workout at the newly opened Yankee Stadium. This was the first time the new stadium was opened to the public, and it afforded us the opportunity to spend several hours exploring the entire structure, sampling the food, taking in the new amenities and watching our beloved Yankees take batting and fielding practice.
Those who want the whole story of the day can read on below the fold. For everyone else, a collection of 57 photographs is here and a six-minute video retrospective is here. There’s also a separate video of Bernie Williams singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” here (which you can read more about if you continue below).
All in all, it was an amazing, historical, unforgettable day that neither my son nor I will ever forget. A reporter for the New York Post stopped us outside and asked me why I was a Yankee fan. Here’s what I told him:
And now, as they say, the rest of the story:
Categories: Family Matters, New York, New York, Sports Talk | 5 Comments »
