I’ve criticized the Yankees a lot in this blog, for example for selling off a handicapped sign from the old Yankee Stadium and for tearing down Yankee Stadium.
I still think those criticisms are deserved.
However, I’ve got to give credit where credit is due: This winter, the Yankees actually gave me a good upgrade for 2010 to seats in a better location. I didn’t expect them to, but they did.
In 2009, I was stuck in field level section 134, I think it was, way out in left field near the bleachers. This was a far cry from the infield (NOT “between the bases”) seats I’d had in the old Yankee Stadium for 12 years.
The left field seats baked in the sun during day games, had no roof to protect me from rain during the 2009 ALDS, ALCS, and World Series, were far from home plate, and had no in-seat food service, even though they were the same price as seats that did have such service. In 2009, I baked and got soaked–all for $85 per seat!
I asked the Yankees to remedy all these faults and they did. My new seats are in right field: Shaded, with a roof overhead and in-seat food service. They’re also closer to the Yankee dugout and home plate. They’re still nowhere near as good as the section 14 MVP Reserved seats I had in the old Yankee Stadium (the equivalent would now cost me $16,000 per season!), but they are a step up from 2009. So thank you Hank and Hal.
(I still wish you had not priced loyal, longtime fans totally out of the infield, though).
Here’s a photo I took on Opening Day 2010 from my new seats of A-rod at bat. You can see the seams on the ball in front of him.
(I did use a pretty powerful lens to shoot this). Not bad, eh?
If, as I do, you still love the old Yankee Stadium, check out my book Yankee Stadium: The Final Game. It captures everything you remember about the old Yankee Stadium, including the food stands and the trash!
Yankees Gadfly
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