This week, while watching both the Home Run Derby and the All Star Game from Tier Reserved Section 31, I got to thinking about the seats in Yankee Stadium and the seats in the new stadium. While we know that the Tier Boxes at the new stadium won’t be quite the same as they are in the current stadium, there is one consolation: The sightlines have to be better.

In my seats this week, if I sat straight, I was facing the spot behind second base in the outfield and not the pitcher’s mound. I also couldn’t see the outfield from right-center to the foul line. It made for quite the Derby-watching experience. So maybe, with nearly every seat at the new park offering unobscured views of the field, this new stadium will make for a more enjoyable game-watching experience once we get over the fact that it’s not the Yankee Stadium we know and love.

In our effort to provide the best coverage about the new stadium and what it all means to Yankee fans, I’d be remiss if I don’t point the way to two recent stories. Sandy Grossman, a one-time vendor at Shea and Yankee Stadium, a wrote an extensive profile of current Yankee Stadium vendors and what the move across the street may mean to those vets of the beer trade. A lot of the long-time vendors may be losing their jobs as the Yankees shift food service companies with the move across the street.

While you’re at it, check out this Alex Belth piece too. He got to chatting with a cop at the 103rd St. subway stop this week, and she told him tales of working the Yankee Stadium beat on game night. Good stuff.

…and those people are mainly visiting team players. Alan Schwarz checks in with a few Major Leaguers who won’t miss the amenities and smells offered up by an 85-year-old stadium. The money quote is, of course, All Star Catcher Jason Varitek’s: “Especially when it rains, the smell that comes up through the drainage system is not pretty. It affects your sinuses, I’ll tell you that much.” I guess he can’t fight sewage smells and sinus infections with his mask on.

While it doesn’t quite carry the same cache as the Waveland Ave. apartments in Chicago, Gerard Ave. and the apartments lining this Bronx street share a history with Yankee Stadium. When the apartment buildings went up in the late 1920s, the top floors had uninterrupted views into Yankee Stadium. When the team and City of New York renovated the Stadium in the 1970s, some residents suspected the Yankees of building the walls higher to block this free view. (The Yankees deny this claim.)

Nowadays, savvy fans can catch glimpses of the outfield and pitchers mound from the roof but only for a few more months. When the Cathedral closes and the new stadium opens, the Gerard Ave. lookouts will be gone forever. In The Times today, Manny Fernandez explores the Gerard Ave. quirks and those who know the Yankees as the rich baseball team in a relatively poor neighborhood.

Earlier this week, news broke that Citi Field is going to be something of a foodie’s paradise. According to Eater, Danny Meyer of Blue Smoke fame and the Mets are teaming up to bring Mets fans good food. Their new stadium will house a Blue Smoke, a Shake Shack, a Taquería and a Belgian frites stand. Yankee Stadium will get a steakhouse and a Hard Rock Cafe. As a self-professed foodie, I begrudgingly award the Mets the victory on this one. So far.