Daughter and I went to Yankee Stadium for the game last night:
- Although Yankee fans are pleasant to visitors, except Red Sox fans in chanting groups, Yankee Stadium is lousy. With 38,000 attending, the place felt choked...too few entrances for that number of fans. Food and beer choices are limited, at least on the 200 level. Fans seem to spend the entire game getting up and changing seats, and the stewards act like the place is general admission. Reminds me of the upper deck seats at DC Stadium or the bleachers at Griffith Stadium. More bothersome, to me, at least: I saw no escalators. Getting to the second level is an endless walk. And levels 3 and 4?
- Squeezing through the meandering crowd at our seats, I saw a tall guy with a Nats hat. We said hello, shook hands (allies in the Land or Mordor?) and he asked if I saw games in Washington. I explained that I live in NYC, and asked where he was from. He said he's from San Diego, so I said, "Wow", and asked why he had come to a game clear across the country. "My son is that little catcher", he replied, as I was confused...I'd seen that Riley Adams would catch, but nobody calls Riley a "little catcher". It hit me: his dad does.
- We sat in the section beside where the Nats families were sitting. From just above 3B, we could see CJ roam all over the left side, controlling most of the plays. Yankee Stadium hardly ever shows replays, and then only on a small inset of their scoreboard, but it looked like Abrams went far into left center to snag a pop-fly that looked like a sure hit. And it was only fitting that he hit the game-winner. After the game, I was a little too bashful to ask which family were attached to which players, but I shook hands, met Riley Adams' big brother, who is a littler shorter, told the Adamses that I thought Riley should start half the games at catcher, saying that his throw, the throw that caught an attempted base-stealer, looked like a rocket.
- In all, Nats park is a much, much better place to watch a game. For one thing, the food is better. Maybe my eyes are going, but Nats Park seems to put a fan closer to the game. Further, the Yankee Stadium scoreboard uses a tiny font, making me wish I'd brought binoculars to see details like the batting order. Seemed to be the only place where we could see how hard a pitch had been thrown, and I wondered if the speed-gun needed re-calibration...it showed Gray throwing at 91 and 92 mph all game.
