Bats:Both

Willy Aybar

Posts Tagged Yankee Stadium

Yankees confirm iPad security policy with AP

May 24

Posted by Tom Biro in New York Yankees | 3 Comments

iPad image courtesy of AppleOn Sunday evening, Mashable’s Christina Warren reported on a story recently making the rounds of IGN’s forums about iPads not being allowed inside Yankee Stadium due to the policy banning laptops from the ballpark. Currently, there is not an iPad or tablet device-specific policy on Yankees.com, only the one mentioning “laptop computers” as a prohibited item.

When reached earlier today, a New York Yankees spokesperson informed Bats Both that the team had no further comment, but that they had spoken with the Associated Press on Monday regarding this issue. Tonight, the AP published this story, which states that the team’s policy is due to “a security-and-safefy [sic] issue.” It also goes on to state that policies on iPads are a “team-by-team” decision, which surely makes it tricky to even consider bringing the device with you to a game without clarity from each and every team.

While ESPN’s iScore application might not have caught on with every iPad user just yet, it’s surely an attractive option for those fans who enjoy scoring the game – but it looks like the printed program or paper scorebook will live another day – at least at Yankee Stadium.

[update 5:48pm] Aside from the Mets, Angels, and Mariners being three teams the AP story states would allow iPads in their stadiums, CenterNetworks reported on May 20 that the Boston Red Sox also let fans bring them in.

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There used to be a Stadium…

May 5

Posted by Jerry Milani in New York Yankees, Stadiums | 2 Comments

I took my first subway ride of the season to Yankee Stadium last night for Yanks-O’s.  I exited the station as always, turned to cross 161st St., as a year in the New Yankee Stadium had programmed me to do, the large blue temporary walls standing in their normal spots along the south end of the roadway.

Only this time, they weren’t serving as they did in 2009, as a barrier between the sidewalk and the old Stadium.  They were instead blocking a huge open construction expanse.

I wasn’t until I crossed the street to wait for my friend at Babe Ruth Plaza that it hit me.  It’s really gone.  All that’s left of the old Stadium as I write this is a small segment, maybe six seating sections worth in what used to be the right field corner, about where my friends and I shared a season package for the past decade.  The rest has been demolished by the wrecking cranes.

It’s been 33 years since I went to my first game there, a year after the Old New (or is it “New Old?”) Yankee Stadium opened in ‘76.  The past few years it had become more and more obvious that the House that Ruth Built (not the “REAL House that Ruth Built,” as proclaimed the Stan’s Bar tshirts on the young ladies giving out fliers in front of the namesake’s Plaza) was at the end of its life cycle.  It’s only a building, I’ve told myself, and pretty much believed it.

True enough, but as I looked at the remnants across the street, in the context of the fans streaming past, on their way to the huge new facility behind me, I reflected more on why the building was so significant.  It’s because people lived through happy moments, sad moments, but mostly uniting moments there.  It’s where history happened, the kind that brought friends together, that brought fathers and sons together, that introduced sweethearts, that made memories.

I’m fine with the new Stadium, like watching the game there just as much, enjoy the experience as much.  Reflecting on the old place isn’t an indictment of progress, or of what had to happen.  It’s the Yankees’ new home.

Somehow, though, it won’t ever quite be mine.

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A look at Old, Old Yankee Stadium

Jan 26

Posted by Jerry Milani in Logos, Movies, New York Yankees | No Comments

Alex Bleith over at BronxBanterBlog has a link to video from a 1928 Buster Keaton Movie, The Cameraman, which has a great look all around the then-five-year old Yankee Stadium.  Keaton’s trip around the bases is great because the wide shot gives a nice panorama of the Stadium in its very early days.

The thing that strikes me the most is how utterly massive the place looks.  The outfield fence looks a mile away, and even the distance from home plate to the backstop is huge.

And check out the subway car running above the batters’ eye in dead center field.  Great stuff.

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Thoughts on Vazquez, Stadium Grass

Dec 22

Posted by Jerry Milani in Collectibles-Memorabilia, History, New York Yankees, Shopping, trades | 4 Comments

Javier Vazquez

Javier Vazquez

I wrote up some thoughts here on the Yankees’ Javier Vazquez trade today, not from an on-field standpoint — I think, baseball-wise, it’s a great deal for the Yankees, sliding the #4 pitcher in the N.L. last year into the #4 slot in their rotation — but from a fan perspective.  The theme is that it’s getting less fun to be a Yankees fan.

I also react here to some news that freeze-dried Old Yankee Stadium grass and pieces of the old foul pole are the two hottest holiday sellers at Steiner Sports.  I’m not a collector like that, but I’m a huge nostalgia buff, and I see the attraction to blades of grass, thimbles of dirt and scrap metal.

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