 If you didn't get a little choked up watching the pre-game ceremonies
for this year's All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, there something's
seriously wrong with you. Every once in a while, Major League Baseball does something so special,
it makes you forget things like the “Turn Ahead The Clock” debacle.
From the player introductions (though the absences of NY-area icons Tom
Seaver and Sandy Koufax were glaring), to the emotional entrance of
George Steinbrenner, it was a memorable spectacle. The interaction of
the once-feared, now-beloved “Boss” and his players – past and present
– were extremely touching.
When Hall-of-Fame Yankees Yogi Berra and Reggie Jackson kissed the man most responsible for the rebirth of sports' most famous franchise, you'd have been hard-pressed to find a dry eye in the house.
It was a fitting tribute to a great Stadium.
Yet, there has been a buzzing in my ear lately, and it's a constant chirping that's getting more annoying as the season goes on. It's the delusional cries from Yankee-hating Mets fans who feel Yankee Stadium's final season is getting much way too much love and attention.
That group of fans isn't alone, as my colleagues in the media have joined in as well. On the Journal News' LoHud.com website this past week, staffer Mike Lopresti's column opined that Shea's last campaign is being overlooked:
Both ballparks are in their final months. Trumpets will herald the closure of one. The other might get kazoos. ...
Beyond the outfield wall, Yankee Stadium has monuments dedicated to Ruth and Gehrig and fellow immortals.
Beyond the outfield wall, Shea Stadium has an apple coming out of a hat. ...
"Yankee Stadium, there's a coldness about the place," John Morley said. "If I had a choice, I'd go to Shea Stadium. It's a wonderful place to bring the family."
"A lot more women at Shea and a lot more children," Bob Mandt said.
OK, Morley and Mandt might be a little biased. They each were mainstays at Shea for four decades. Morley was vice president of the company that provided concessions. Mandt was both ticket manager and stadium manager.
But we mention them because they represent something. If Yankee Stadium is a famous corporate office, Shea grew up with more the air of a mom-and-pop corner store - not that the Mets don't have executives in suits like anyone else. But none of them named Steinbrenner. ... The Shea-ites have long suffered the insults of second-class citizenry - how it was a cookie-cutter ballpark with little heritage and dirty bathrooms.
"The New York media has destroyed us through the years as far as a ballpark. It would drive me crazy because I knew it was unfair," Mandt said. "None of those guys have ever been off the press level, so who knows what the hell they're talking about?"
Well, Bob, I know what I hell I'm talking about. I came to Shea Stadium for almost all of the four decades you worked there. Before I ever got to sit in the press box as a member of the Associated Press, contributing writer for Inside Pitch, or for my current title as Executive Editor for Gotham Baseball Magazine, you could find me and any number of my friends, brothers, sister, mom and dad (who ferried the lot of us there in his reliable 1974 Dodge Dart), and yours truly sitting in the Mezzanine along the first base line.
I love Shea Stadium. But outside of myself and the guys that grew up there watching the Mets and the Jets, nobody else cares. Nor should they.
Like Three Rivers, Veterans and Riverfront Stadiums, Shea is a multipurpose eyesore that should have never been constructed in the first place. The fact of the matter is, Shea Stadium is enshrined only in the memories of its fans. Why should or would anyone feel the need to make our long goodbye to the place about being jealous of the Bronx? Because that is the real tragedy, not the fact that there have been dozens of Yankee Stadium magazine pullouts and none for the house that Bill S. built.
I mean, let's be serious, the Wilpons don't even care that much about Shea. They're rebuilding Ebbets Field, for goodness sake. With a Jackie Robinson rotunda, no less. There will be precious little of Shea there (I'm still waiting for some kind of visible recognition of Joan Payson and Nelson Doubleday), but I'm being told that contrary to my opinion, the Polo Grounds will be represented in the overall design, as the seats will be the same green (sheesh).
Tom Seaver should have been out there to pull down 41, Jerry Koosman for 36, Jon Matlack for 32, and Mike Piazza should there be for 31. I don't want to hear about additions to a vineyard, either. Ditto for guys like Felix Milan, Joel Youngblood, Neil Allen ans yes, even Wally Backman. With the lone expection of “Mets Weekly”, SNY doesn't spend a single broadcast moment celebrating Mets history outside of the 1986 documentary “Simply Amazin”, and even that is courtesy of the good folks at Tupelo-Honey Production, the same folks that give you “Mets Weekly”.
So, as the Mets aren't even really celebrating their last season that much, so why are the fan getting mad at the media and the Yankees for?
I say this a the guy who owns a Jay Payton jersey, for goodness sake. As a kid growing up in Brooklyn and later, Queens, I never looked at Shea as a something I was settling for, or was resigned to attend. Shea was the place I went to go see my team play, and whether the jersey said Seaver or Foli, Gooden or Berenyi, or Piazza or Franco, I always felt the same way. I loved every minute of it.
I loved it when Seaver, the best pitcher in the National League was throwing smoke. I sat in my seat transfixed when Dave Kingman was the sole reason for wearing your glove in the left field seats.. I wore my wristbands on my forearms and put on eye-black when Maz was in center, and when they traded Terrific, I cried pretty much the same way I did when I found out my first girlfriend kissed another guy.
I never looked for amenities or the quality of fine cuisine. Give me a pretzel and a dog and a seat that wasn't next to a guy rooting for the Phillies. Complain about the parking? Please. My dad took me to Shea for 30 years and we never, ever parked in the parking lot. We would find a place 4-5 blocks away and walk. Heck, we still joke about the rock he tripped over on Roosevelt Avenue.
I've been to Yankee Stadium a lot, both as a fan and a s a writer. It is a cathedral. From the Yankee Tavern to Stan's Sports Bar, the whole outside of the place is as teeming with buzz as is the outside. I love the roll call, what can I tell you. I get a tear in my eye when Ronin Tynan's powerful tenor pays tribute to the country that I love. I especially am proud of the Yankee fans that admonish their brethren that don't stand up and remove their hats for the National Anthem.
My point is, when I used to go to Yankee Stadium as a fan, I was not looking around the place, saying to myself, “I wish I had this.” I'm very content with my memories, thank you very much. But let's stop making Shea more than it is, folks, okay? It has been a great ride, but a 1974 Dodge Dart (sorry, Pop) will never be a 1957 Thunderbird.
Oh, and one other thing. I'm not one of these guys that prefers dozens of losing seasons with a championship thrown in the mix every 25 years. While, the Mets not making the playoffs from 1973-1986 wasn't a period of miserable existence for me, it is not a badge of suckitude I wear on my sleeve as some sort of perverse accomplishment that some Mets fans do. In fact, if you listen to some Mets fans, they are the torch-bearer if all that is good and pure in the world.
"We're never as arrogant as Yankee fans" someone wrote recently. Well, what do Mets fans have to be arrogant about? Winning the NL East in 2006? Losing to the Yankees in 2000? True, some Yankee fans can be very quick to besmirch the Mets tradition, but most of the Yankee fans I know don't harbor anywhere near the resentment that Mets do for them.
What is it about the new breed of “The New Breed”, as the legendary Dick Young dubbed them?
Why is it always about “I root for the team that plays the Yankees”, or “When the Mets lose, it's okay as long as the Yankees do too.”? Yes, I have written dozens of times, my dad is one of these Yankee-haters (though to his credit, he is not obsessing about the disparity in the Yankee Stadium farewell), but as he grew up a few block of Ebbets, and loves the design and sentiment of Citi Field, I cut him and others of his generation a little slack.
I fully admit that in 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1981, I rooted hard for the Reds and Dodgers in those World Series. My house was an NL house and my dad still can't stomach anything Yankee. But as I grew older, saw my first game at Yankee Stadium in 1990, and watched Mr. Steinbrenner sign Doc and Darryl, hire Joe Torre, who in turn hired Lee Mazzilli, I can honestly say the hatred I had in my 12-year old soul for the Roy Smalleys of the world evaporated quickly. The final moment came when the reviled Braves were the NL representative in the 1996 Fall Classic.
Then in 1998, I got a job covering baseball. You learn quickly that rooting for a team can be counter-productive as you start a journalism career. Oh, I don't mean that there's a magic moment that you stop rooting. Hell, I know some baseball writers in Boston that own box seats in Fenway. I mean, when you're sitting in a press box at 2:00 am and your team is playing from three runs down, you want the game to be over. That's when you learn perspective. Do I want to get some sleep before I have to wake up and feed the baby at 5:30? Hell, yes, I do. Then there's the players, who contrary to popular opinion, can be quite gracious and friendly, even if they are wearing pinstripes.
I will never forget going into the Yankee clubhouse for the first time. It was 2000, I was there to interview Torre and Mazzilli for a national AP column I was doing called “Safe At Home” about MLBers playing on front of their hometown crowds. As I waited for Mazzilli to finish talking to Michael Kay (another gracious gentleman), I noticed a crowd of people around Ricky Ledee's locker.
The subject of trade rumors for three-years, the once-blue chip prospect looked like he hadn't slept in days, He was answering the barrage of questions about the rumors respectively, but looked as if he was on the verge of quiet tears. At that moment, it became evident that covering a game I love was never going to be easy, and that I can never quite quell the passion I have for the sights , sounds and smells of the game, it was a job. Not long after, Ledée was traded him with pitchers Jake Westbrook and Zach Day to the Cleveland Indians in exchange for David Justice.
***
Like it or not, my friends, we're all from New York. People from all over the country don't separate us the way we do ourselves. We are arrogant New Yorkers, who think we're smarter and tougher than everyone else. I say this proudly, not apologetically. I have lived in other places, and nothing will ever compare to grabbing a great cup of coffee at 6:00 AM, reading the Daily News or the Post on the train, and walking down Fifth Avenue to head to work as the sun rises on the greatest city in the world..
When Frank signs “New York, New York”, he's not just signing it for Yankee fans, he's signing it for all of us. Hell, he was a Jersey guy and he understood that. I just don't happen to believe that being a Mets fan also means you have to hate the Yankees, or even wish them ill. See, there;s this I believe about negative energy. You throw enough of it out there in the universe and it's going to come back and bite you.
So, Let's Go Gotham! Give a real sendoff and get both of your respective butts in a Subway Series. That'd be the best good-bye anyone could ask for.
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