With the announced attendance of 54,610 last night, the Yanks drew 4,298,543 fans last night. This lofty total is a new record for the Yanks, and as Tyler Kepner notes, it is one the team cannot break in the new stadium. Capacity for the new Yankee Stadium will be 52,325 according to the Yankees, and a sold-out slate of 81 games would find 4,238,325 fans at the stadium. While the Yanks will probably reach that goal next year, they won’t reach the 2008 record unless they expand the seating at the new stadium. It certainly makes me wonder why the team has built a smaller stadium.
Still alive
We’ve been criticized for our irrational optimism in the past, so we might get some flak for this. If the Yankees can win their final six games, including three against the Red Sox, and the Sox drop their next seven, well, then we’d be in line for a one-game playoff. Impossible? No. Improbable? Yes. But hey, the season ain’t over until we lose or Boston wins one more game.
Matsui set for Monday surgery
Hideki Matsui hadn’t played in a game for eight days. But with the Yankee Stadium finale on tap, Godzilla didn’t want to miss it. He started, went 1 for 3 and was removed for Ivan Rodriguez in the 7th. After the game, the Yankees announced that Matsui would undergo surgery on his left knee today. He’ll be ready for Spring Training, but how he fits in the 2009 Yankee lineup is, right now, open for debate.
The end of an era
The Irish wake started at 11:43 p.m., and fifty minutes later, my family and I left the Stadium. I’ll have pictures and tales from the game tomorrow. This win — a solid outing by Andy Pettitte, some timely hitting and the final Yankee Stadium home run by an unlikely slugger and one final Yankee Stadium appearance by Mariano Rivera, the greatest current Yankee — was all we could have wanted. There’s no need to recap it right now; just revel in the end of an era of baseball history.
Game 156 Spillover Thread II
Let’s keep it going here folks. Been one helluva night, no?
Game 156 Spillover Thread
The comments in the earlier thread are adding up, so use this one for discussion about tonight’s game.
Game 156: The House That Became A Home
Today is a day that I thought would never come. Like the last day of summer vacation as a kid, I knew it would happen eventually but didn’t want to believe it. But now it’s here, the last game at Yankee Stadium, and I can best describe the feeling as sad, joyful and nostalgic.
I’ve spent many days in The House That Ruth Built, more than I care to count. Whether I was a kid annoying my father for more cotton candy, or cutting class in high school to catch a day game from the far reaches of Tier Reserved, or a yuppie deciding which dugout I wanted to sit behind, the one thing that never changed was the proud Stadium. Walking out of the tunnel to see the greenest grass I’ve ever seen and hear Ed Alstrom on the organ for the first time has always been one of my favorite memories of the Stadium.
We’ve bitched and moaned about the team on the field all season long, but I don’t even care about that anymore. Today is about celebrating a long-standing New York tradition, soaking in the best Yankee Stadium has to offer. As Doug Mientkiewicz perfectly put it: God did create heaven on Earth … it’s called Yankee Stadium.
Yankee Stadium will live on forever in our hearts and memories, but as Jane Heller reminds us: The memories — the magic — were never really about the building. Truer words have never been spoken.
The baseball gods took care of the Yanks today like they have so many times before, granting just a perfect day for baseball. Enjoy the game, enjoy the pre- and post-game festivities, enjoy being a Yankees’ fan.