A Baseball Odyssey

The last couple of weeks have taken me on a journey of several Baseball stadiums. I offer these quick impressions of the parks...

NY Mets (Shea Stadium) - Aaah, my home stadium. Parking now officially sucks, as they are building the new stadium in the Centerfield parking lots. Shea is a not the most modern of stadiums (in fact at this point, at 44 years old, I think it's the third oldest in the Ntl League. However, the site lines are pretty good, the atmosphere is fun (Mr. Met shoots t-shirts into the stands, lots of music between batters and innings), there's a great food court and security is lax. No hassles bringing in food or drinks. My daughter and I were easily able to move from the upper deck into the lower mezzanine box seats with no trouble at all.

NY Yankees (Yankee Stadium) - Yeah, tradition is wonderful, The monuments are swell. It's living breathing history. The view from most seats is great (although the bleachers suck... and ya can't get booze out there anymore). However, the entire vibe of Yankee Stadium is awful. It's in a crappy neighborhood; it's a bitch to get there (the subways are packed and take forever); and the ushers are complete assholes. They practically give you a freakin cavity search to enter the stadium and check under your baseball cap and even check your cell phone. Forget about ordering food or beer there... it's hideously overpriced and you'd better count your change...many of the vendors will cheat you.
Plus A-Rod plays for the Yankees and he's a giant Pussy. Which matches perfectly with the "YMCA" sing-along that the Ground crew performs.
Yeccch.

Philadelphia Phillies (Citizen Bank Park) - Beautiful new stadium. Plenty of parking all around. Great sightlines, although many seats are in the outfield.
However, no tail-gating. They have big fat pseudo redneck cops roaming the parking lots all too willing to slap you with a $300 ticket. The Phillie Phanatic does a fun between inning's show. Lots of diversions for kids. Tasty food. Former Phillie Greg Luzinski has a bar-b-cue pit in right field (excellent BBQ Turkey sandwiches). Micro-Brew beer only $6 for a big cup. Phillie fans did not appreciate my rendition of New York New York during the 7th inning stretch however.

Chicago Cubs (Wrigley Field) - Baseball Nirvana. It's Woodstock and Octoberfest all rolled into one. The area around Wrigley is loaded with bars. Everyone is drunk. The almost 100 year old Wrigley Field has been called the world's largest beer garden. It's just one giant party for nine innings, even if the Cubs lose. And then the party continues afterwards. I was there for a Cubs/Cardinals game and even though they are big rivals, all taunting was done with extreme good nature. Extra points for serving shitty Old Style beer right out of the can. Speaking of cans, the bathrooms feature huge piss troughs and you can wave across to the guy pissing opposite you. The Ivy lining the brick outfield walls is beautiful. Plus, we had a bonus. There was an air show in Chicago the day I was there and Bombers and Thunderbirds were flying overhead. Cool stuff.
Wrigley is my favorite stadium in Baseball. In fact, the Cubs have become one of my favorite teams largely because I always have such a good time at Wrigley.

Toonage:
Beatles - Ticket To Ride (live Shea Stadium)
Sex Pistols - New York (demo)
Shadows Of Knight - New York Bullseye
Butterfield Blues Band - Born In Chicago
Replacements - Can't Hardly Wait (last show ever- Chicago)
William Penn V - Swami