For your Sunday morning viewing pleasure, may I present to you Keith Olbermann? The MSNBC pundit took a break from politics to discuss baseball this week. In particular, he got a super-secret tour of the new stadium construction site, and as you’ll see, he’s very excited about the new Yankee Stadium. Enjoy the video, and the hat tip on this one goes out to Bugs and Cranks.

In less than 11 months, fans will be streaming through these gates. (Photo by flickr user BenYankee. For more of my stadium photos, check out this flickr set)

You know me; I love writing about the new stadium. How could I possibly let an off-day go by without mentioning something — anything — about the House that A-Rod Built? Well, I can’t, and MLB.com happened to provide me with one of the more in-depth pieces on the stadium we’ve seen in a long time.

Let’s just jump right into Barry Bloom’s latest on the stadium. First off, we hear that the new stadium has reached its apex, and construction is right on schedule:

They topped off the last bit of white steel, high above what will be the wrap-around scoreboard and gigundo video screen at the new Yankee Stadium this past Thursday.

And around the construction site, many of the upbeat workers are wearing dark blue buttons with the name of the famous ballpark in white capital letters set above this date: Feb. 17, 2009, less than two months before Opening Day.

“That’s when we’re turning the stadium over to the Yankees,” said Harry Olsen, the project manager for the company that’s overseeing the construction and site.

As we already know, the new stadium design is heavily influenced by pre-renovation Yankee Stadium. “This new stadium is different,” Yankees President Randy Levine said, comparing the stadium in progress to the one we know and love. “There may never be another one like it.”

Writes Bloom:

Yankees officials dug up those first Yankee Stadium architectural plans, and from it, they are remaking the famous curved and striped “frieze” that hovers high above the bleachers in the renovated ballpark, putting it where it once was: running around the stadium below the lights on the fringe of the upper-deck overhang, from left field all the way around to right.

Secondly, they replicated the monumental Gate 4 entrance, cast in limestone with each letter of the words “YANKEE STADIUM” set between stone emblems and chiseled in gold leaf. The limestone façade gives it a decidedly old-time texture and runs most of the way around the new ballpark.

“And it’s built to last for the next 50 years or more,” Olsen said.

But the real meat of the article — the devil, if you will — is in the details. We finally have the field configuration information; according to Bloom, the field dimensions will be exactly the same to those in current Yankee Stadium. Bloom says that the field will be “318 feet down the left-field line; 314 feet down the right-field line; 408 feet in dead center; 399 feet in left-center, and 385 in right-center.” All of the Yankee fans worried about a boring symmetrical outfield can breathe easy.

Even more enticing is Bloom’s descriptions of the seating confirguration:

It will seat 53,000, but somehow, as MLB.com learned on a recent tour that traversed almost every nook and cranny of the new facility, every one of those seats has an unencumbered view of home plate, even though the new stadium reaches about the same height as the existing one.

Most are much closer to the field than the current stadium, where the catcher squats about 70 feet from the backstop. In the new park, that distance will be about 50 feet. The grade, which seems nearly flat at 35 percent in the current lower deck, has been changed to a much steeper 45 percent. That’s akin to a pitcher peering down from a mound 10 feet above the ground, as opposed to a mound that’s about six feet high. There are also many fewer rows in each deck.

Every time I go to a game this year — and my trip this Wednesday will be my fifth of the season — I look across 161th St. with a mixture of wonder and trepidation. I don’t want to see Yankee Stadium, one of the few places in New York City that’s been a constant for my entire life, to meet the fate of Polo Grounds or Ebbets Field. I don’t want to see the Yankees leave their hallowed grounds and knock down the ghosts of the Babe, the Mick and Joe D. With the echoes of 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000 still reverberating through the stadium, it will be hard to leave for that final time in September or October.

But at the same time, New Yankee Stadium looks every bit as beautiful as a $1.3 billion baseball temple should be. I’m excited to see the new stadium and explore a new home ballpark. It will be historical, intimate and brand new at the same time. It’s easy to pacify uneasy fans with the promise of a new toy, and that’s just what this new Yankee Stadium is. I just wish we didn’t have to say good bye to the old Yankee Stadium at the same time.

Shortly before beating the Mariners last night, the Yankees announced that the franchise had set yet another baseball first. The Yankees became the first team in Major League history to sell four million tickets four years in a row. Word is that most of the games throughout the summer are sold out, and the Yanks, averaging over 50,000 fans over their first 12 home games, could see close to 4.5 million people pass through the Yankee Stadium turnstiles. Remind me again why the Yanks absolutely need that new stadium.

A composite shot of the new stadium taken on Wednesday evening from the left field entrance to the tier level in Yankee Stadium. Click the image for a bigger version. (Photo by Ben K.)

In all of my years going to games at Yankee Stadium and watching the Yanks play, through thick and thin, from Jack Clark to Alvaro Espinoza and Bob Geren to Derek Jeter and A-Rod, I have rarely seen the Yankees play as flat as they did tonight. The offensive was downright terrible.

After loading the bases with no outs in the first, it looked like the Yankee bats may finally be ready to wake up. The middle of the order — sans A-Rod — was up, and it was time to knock the struggling Jeremy Bonderman out of the game. The Yanks emerged from the inning up 2-0, but it certainly seemed like they should have gotten more.

After two innings, the Yanks had Bonderman at 42 pitches, and it seemed like a matter of time before the offense would put together a few more hits. Little did we know those two runs would be it for the Yankees as their offense eked out just two more hits the whole rest of the way. Bonderman threw just 58 pitches over his last 5.2 innings of work, and the Yanks managed just two more singles. They took weak hacks and did nothing. Sad, sad, sad.

On the other side of the ball, Andy Pettitte was rolling until the fifth. A Marcus Thames home run just out of the reach of Johnny Damon and, an inning later, a Placido Polanco solo shot gave Andy an ugly five earned runs in six innings. He fell to 3-3 with a 3.93 and 0-2 over his last two outings. He’s given up four home runs and nine earned runs over his last 11 innings pitched against the Indians and Tigers. Ouch.

Meanwhile, despite a few raised eyebrows, Phil Hughes’ injury is a real one, according to Kat O’Brien. That explains his poor performance on Tuesday, and this oblique injury could shelve him for six weeks.

Anyway, instead of dwelling on an ugly loss that caps off a losing April and the current spate of injuries, let’s look at photos of the new stadium that I’ve taken over the first month of the season. The full set of 32 shots is here on flickr. Select highlights are bulleted below:

• The front of the new stadium looks really good.
• The right field entrance is getting its own gold lettering. On Wednesday, it said “ANKEE ADIUM.” I guess they were some panels short when the bell rang.
• Two weeks ago, that same entrance looked far from completion, and on April 6, it was simply a metal frame.
• At night, the new stadium really looms over the 4 platform.

Emma Span writes her Opening Day swan song to the New York stadiums in the New York Press today. While the media has been pouring on the nostalgia this month, Span’s piece brings a fan perspective to the teary-eyed good byes to Yankee and Shea Stadium.

Nostalgia reigns supreme in the Daily News these days. This Sunday’s paper saw the second part of their magazine honoring Yankee Stadium history, and they now have a special Yankee Stadium tribute page set up on their website. I like the old photos best.

Most fans felt the story of the Red Sox shirt embedded in the concrete slab of the visitor’s clubhouse at the New Stadium was just a laughable “exclusive” by the Post that was a few days late for April’s Fools. Turns out the Yankees weren’t taking any chances:

It took about five hours, but the Red Sox jersey that was embedded in the concrete of the Yankees’ new stadium to place a curse on the New York franchise has been unearthed with jackhammers, according to a published report.

…

“They absolutely pinpointed that if it was in the ground, that’s where it was,” Yankees spokeswoman Alice McGillion told the newspaper.

As always, Hank Hal Steinbrenner provided the money quote: “I hope his co-workers kick the [expletive] out of him.” Hank’s great when he isn’t talking about making trades and stuff, isn’t he? Hal just earned all sorts of street cred in my book. Sox fans did what they do best, the turned the story into another patently lame T-shirt. Where’s the “David Ortiz is hitting 0.70-.231-.140 and Francona still has him batting third” swag?

When I walked past a newsstand on the way to the subway this morning, my eye fell upon the cover of today’s Post. “Buried shirt puts Sox pox on new stadium,” it read.

When I got in to work and had a chance to read this article, I had to stop for a second and ask myself if the Post was joking. Labeled an EXCLUSIVE, Alexander Hamilton’s one-time great newspaper was trying to sell this story as real news:

A devilish Boston fan working on a concrete crew at the $1.3 billion stadium covertly buried a Red Sox T-shirt under what will become the visiting team’s locker room to jinx the Yanks, two construction workers told The Post yesterday.
“In August, a Red Sox T-shirt was poured in a slab in the visitor’s clubhouse. It’s the curse of the Yankees,” one worker said. “Nobody knows about it. It’s in the floors, it’s buried.”

The workers say they now fear that they unwittingly helped hex their beloved Bronx Bombers. “I don’t want to be responsible for sinking the franchise,” said a second worker, who witnessed the sabotage. “I respect the stadium.”

Really, The Post? Is this the best you could come up with? Is this even true?

Meanwhile, the rest of the article is filled with equally idiotic statements. “Look at the curse of A-Rod. The Yankees haven’t won since [Alex Rodriguez] came to their game. There’s probably more to that than a T-shirt,” Peter Nash, author of a history of Red Sox fans, said. Well, the Yankees haven’t won since Denny Neagle was on the team either but no one’s talking about the Curse of Denny Neagle. Give me a break.

Howard Rubenstein said it best though: “It sounds like a tall tale, and it would take more than a Red Sox T-shirt to put a curse on the Yankees.”

And somewhere Alexander Hamilton rolled over in his grave.

In my Inbox yesterday morning were more scenes from inside the new Yankee Stadium construction zone. These shorts, courtesy of again to reader Paul V., show some scenes from inside the construction site, and they show the final piece of the façade on the way up.

The photos, all taken by Robert Barkovitz, show the Stadium going up. You can view a slideshow below or check them out here at my flickr site. Some highlights:

• Above, the final piece of the façade, decorated with the Union flag, the U.S. flag and the Yankee flag, rests on the ground before making the trip up to the top of the stadium.
• That final piece if laid into place.
• The view inside shows that the Stadium has a long way to go yet.
• No seats yet on the lower level.
• The view around the seating bowl looks pretty nifty.

Thanks again to Robert Barkovitz for this final set of photos from inside the new stadium, and we’ll have construction shots all summer long. The slide show is below.

A friend of mine — one of those midwest transplants who move to New York — finally made the trip to Yankee Stadium after a few years spent living in the city. As I was reading his account of the trip, I came across the typical beer rant. Beer is too much at Yankee Stadium, he opines.

But the accompanying picture got me thinking: Is beer really that expensive in the Bronx?

That’s the sign from the Stadium. A 24-ounce Heineken costs $12.50. That’s expensive, right? Who wants to pay $12.50 for a beer? Well, in reality, you’re paying $12.50 for two beers. A bottle of Heineken contains 12 ounces of beer. So one giant Yankee Stadium beer contains two bottles of beer.

I know I’ve been to bars in New York City where bottles of Heikenen can run $5 or $6. Sure, that’s expensive, but that means Yankee Stadium’s $6.25 bottles of beer aren’t that outrageously priced.

Walking around the streets of New York, you’d be hard-pressed to find $4.50 hot dogs. You can’t buy Cracker Jacks at Yankee Stadium prices anywhere else, and the peanuts you can find in the city are better and cheaper than the ones they sell at the Stadium. But the beer, well, that’s not that much more expensive than other places that sell Heikenen at marked-up prices.