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Major League Baseball – Yankee Stadium
MLB
Tuesday, July 15
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All-Stars fight for attention in New York
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NEW YORK (AP) -Baseball is saying goodbye to Yankee Stadium during the All-Star break, a time when the sport's best gather and fans focus on one ballpark. New York general manager Brian Cashman hopes it isn't a final farewell.
"Certainly we're hopeful that we can get our act together,'' he said, "and extend it into October.''
As the scoreboard in center field points out, just 32 regular-season games remain at Yankee Stadium, the 85-year-old monument to baseball history. There have been 106 World Series games played at the big ballyard in the Bronx - more than one-third of the American League's home total of 300.
"I've had a lot of great memories here and a lot of sad memories,'' said Hall of Famer George Brett, who hit three homers during a 1980 playoff game at Yankee Stadium but is best remembered for the 1983 Pine Tar Game, when his go-ahead, ninth-inning homer was disallowed by umpires, then reinstated by the AL president.
While 13 of the Yankees' last 14 regular-season games are sold out and the team is headed to its fourth straight 4 million-plus season at the box office, the stadium was at best half-filled for Sunday's All-Star Futures game, which had an announced attendance of 48,383. Season ticket-holders had to buy seats for Sunday as part of strips that included Monday's home run derby and Tuesday night's All-Star game, the commissioner's office said.
Tuesday's game is the highest priced in baseball history, with lower-deck seats costing $525-$725 and bleacher tickets going for $150. In New York's Wall Street-driven economy, the home run derby sold for $100-$650 and the Futures Game for $50-$225.
And that's the list price.
On StubHub.com, tickets for Tuesday's game were on sale for up to $6,390 each. That's cheap next to the regular-season finale against Baltimore on Sept. 21 - the asking price on StubHub is as much as $65,000. Per seat.
"It is a museum. It's a baseball museum,'' said NL manager Clint Hurdle, who listed Yankee Stadium alongside Boston's Fenway Park and Chicago's Wrigley Field. "They're dripping with the historic ambiance of the game - the individuals that have played the game, the world (championships) that have been won there, the monuments in the outfield. I mean, the pope. Correct me if I'm wrong, didn't he speak at Yankee Stadium? It is a venue that holds its own amongst all venues.''
Davey Johnson, manager of the U.S. squad that lost 3-0 to a World team in the Futures Game, remembered when he played at Yankee Stadium in the 1960s for the Baltimore Orioles against Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.
"I hate to see it go,'' Johnson said. "I didn't think Yankee Stadium would ever change.''
So what was his fondest memory?
"It wasn't that Jeffrey Maier game,'' he shot back quickly, remembering back to when he managed the Orioles in the 1996 AL championship series and a 12-year-old fan leaned over the right-field wall, above right fielder Tony Tarasco, and deflected a fly ball that wound up as a home run for Derek Jeter.
Futures players had to sign three dozen baseballs, two home plates, two pitching rubbers (pitchers only) and three jerseys. When the major leaguers walk into the clubhouses Monday, each will have 14 dozen baseballs to sign.
Yankees owner George Steinbrenner is expected at the All-Star game. The 78-year-old owner's health has declined in recent years, and he hasn't attended a game at the ballpark since opening day.
Yankee Stadium hosted the All-Stars in 1939, 1960 and 1977 - the latter on a day when it was 102 degrees. The '77 game was played 1 1/2 years after the stadium reopened following a reconstruction that cost $167 million.
The new Yankee Stadium, which will be 63 percent larger, is rising across the street at a cost of at least $1.3 billion. It will feature a Hard Rock Cafe, a Martini Bar and regular-season seats that cost up to $2,500 a game. But it won't be the same.
"Being at the final All-Star game at Yankee Stadium is going to be very special,'' said Cleveland pitcher Cliff Lee, the expected AL starter. "Everyone knows the heritage there, and to be part of it is something I'm really looking to experience. It is going to be a crazy time.''
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Yankee Stadium the biggest All-Star of all
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NEW YORK (AP) - All the All-Stars walked onto baseball's most famous field, soaking up the history.
Manny Ramirez threw a ball to fans as his son scampered around the outfield in shorts during Monday's workout. Mariano Rivera stood in center, surrounded by his three boys, all in new American League uniforms. Joe Girardi and his son were in left-center, wearing matching outfits, even down to the sunglasses.
"I catch myself actually looking up at seats where I sat as a kid and saying, 'Wow, that's pretty cool that, you know, I actually watched the game from there and now I'm down here and somebody else is watching us,'' Minnesota Twins closer Joe Nathan said.
Before closing later this year, the 85-year-old ballpark hosts the All-Star game on Tuesday night as part of its grand send-off. Major League Baseball is taking a year off from showcasing the sport's shiny new emporiums and toasting the House that Ruth Built, DiMaggio won over and Reggie conquered.
Albert Pujols set some goals, and for a change they didn't involve home runs.
"Maybe tear up the grass a little bit and put it in the back of my pocket and take it with me,'' the St. Louis Cardinals slugger said.
It's the place where Lou Gehrig said goodbye, where Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali boxed, where popes celebrated mass. But most of all, it's remembered for the 26 World Series titles the New York Yankees have won since the Stadium opened its doors in 1923.
No other team in baseball can match the tradition.
No other place can equal the aura.
"If you stand toe to toe with the beast and you can conquer this stage, then you've reached the apex,'' Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones said. "I think walking through that dark, dingy tunnel into the dugout - I don't think there's any player that's ever done it that hasn't gotten chill bumps. ... It's the biggest stage in baseball. If you can't get fired up to take those three steps up the dugout steps and onto that field, man, you don't have a pulse.''
He called it a huge coliseum. Right next door, an even bigger one is under construction, 63 percent larger, to be filled with restaurants, bars and seats costing up to $2,500 a game next year. The new Yankee Stadium will look much like this one - before the 1974-75 reconstruction, but it won't be the same.
"I'm really going to miss those guys down in the bullpen throwing AA batteries at me,'' Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon said. "I'm really going to miss the people yelling at me. They'll probably just move right across the street.''
Papelbon knows the ballpark from all those Red Sox-Yankees games. Tim Lincecum was ready to be a tourist. The San Francisco Giants pitcher, who is 24 but looks like one of the Beatles at age 14, wasn't sure exactly what he wanted to see.
"Babe Ruth and his head out there in - I don't know exactly where it is, because I've never been there, but I've seen people touch it,'' he said.
For one night only, players on the home team walked onto the field in numbers long retired, with Evan Longoria wearing Ruth's No. 3, Ian Kinsler's in Joe DiMaggio's No. 5, and J.D. Drew and Joe Mauer in Mickey Mantle's No. 7. Red Sox roamed the Yankees clubhouse, allowed a rare peek into the pinstripes' inner sanctum.
"You don't want to take anything away from any All-Star game, but this is something that's pretty special,'' Yankees captain Derek Jeter said. "This is the one All-Star game that I wanted to play in.''
Ernie Banks and Frank Robinson chatted outside the NL clubhouse. Reggie Jackson held court behind the batting cage, as only Reggie can. The commissioner's office prepared to honor more than 40 Hall of Famers during pregame ceremonies.
Boston's Terry Francona, the AL manager, spent the day sidestepping what appeared to be the biggest question: If his team has a slim lead entering the ninth inning, would he hand the ball to Papelbon or Rivera, a revered Yankees hero?
"I have a feeling, knowing Francona,'' Rivera said. "I have a feeling that he will put me there if we have the opportunity to close the game.''
Starters were cleared up Monday, with Cleveland's Cliff Lee opening for the AL and Milwaukee's Ben Sheets for the NL. Sheets, like Lincecum, was visiting the ballpark for the first time.
Young and old alike, they all sounded awed.
"It's weird to know that you're walking through the same, you know, hallways and tunnels as the greats,'' Longoria said.
More than most years, sometimes jaded major leaguers seemed pumped up. After all, there never will be another All-Star game at Yankee Stadium. At least in this one.
"Something will happen in this game that people will probably talk about for a long time,'' Francona said.
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79th All-Star from Historic Yankee Stadium
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D. Upstone
Think of the names that have passed through these gates, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Reggie Jackson, and more recently Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Roger Clemons. This promises to be a special night, with so much baseball lore and history. Originally opened in 1923, Yankee Stadium has played host to three prior All-Star Games in 1939, 1960 and 1977, after completing major renovation.
Yankee Stadium’s configurations have been altered numerous times, to accommodate the whims of prior ownership. Every player that comes to this ballpark, including first time All-Stars, will make the pilgrimage to the outfield to see the monuments of Ruth, Gehrig and Miller Huggins, along the plagues of past Yankee greats and even Pope Paul VI. In the original version of the park, left-center was known as “Death Valley” where long fly balls of over 400 feet would be easily caught by outfielders. At one time in the 1930’s, Yankee Stadium had a capacity of over 80,000 and when the Yankees were stinking up the joint in the mid-to-late 1960’s, 431 people attend a game on September 25, 1966, to see the Pinstripes lose to the Chicago White Sox 4-1.
The National League holds the all-time lead in this event, 41-35 with two ties. What is fascinating to think about today, a 10-year in 1997, just becoming acquainted to major league baseball, would today be legal drinking age of 21 and still would not have seen the American League All-Star lose a game. Previously, from 1963 until 1983, the senior circuit ruled this contest, losing only once in 1971, when they had better players, who took pride in wanting to win what was and still is an exhibition game.
The American League is a -145 money line favorite, with run line of -1.5(+140) and total of 10 at Bookmaker.com. The AL will start two Yankees, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, three hated Red Sox, LF Manny Ramirez, 1B Kevin Youkilis and 2B Dustin Pedroia. What gives this team a very different flavor is having two Texas Rangers in the starting line-up, Josh Hamilton and DH Milton Bradley.
The underdog National League has a collection of youth and experience. Savvy veterans live Chipper Jones, Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman, are mingled with up and coming stars like Hanley Ramirez and Ryan Braun, along with solid star players still approaching their prime, like Chase Utley and Matt Holliday. The Chicago Cubs have the best record in the league and will have two starters in the opening lineup in Kosuke Fukudome and Geovany Soto.
The starting pitchers for each team are well-deserved, with Milwaukee’s Ben Sheets (10-3, 2.85 ERA, 1.114 WHIP) matching pitches with Cleveland’s Cliff Lee (12-2, 2.31 ERA, 1.035 WHIP). Watching how each handles the limelight on such an occasion will be intriguing to view.
In sizing up the remaining position players, the American League appears to have a few more bats to go to than their counterparts, with names like Grady Sizemore, Carlos Quentin, Ian Kinsler and Michael Young. How each manager uses pitching staff will play a part undoubtedly in outcome, however the NL might have a slight edge.
The All-Star contest in Boston in 1999, evoked unbelievable memories, before the game itself and this one might top that event. This promises to be quite a show. With no rooting interest, wouldn’t the symmetry be fascinating if the Yankees Mariano Rivera could come in the game to close out the ninth inning for an AL win?
MLB
Tuesday, July 15
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All-Stars fight for attention in New York
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW YORK (AP) -Baseball is saying goodbye to Yankee Stadium during the All-Star break, a time when the sport's best gather and fans focus on one ballpark. New York general manager Brian Cashman hopes it isn't a final farewell.
"Certainly we're hopeful that we can get our act together,'' he said, "and extend it into October.''
As the scoreboard in center field points out, just 32 regular-season games remain at Yankee Stadium, the 85-year-old monument to baseball history. There have been 106 World Series games played at the big ballyard in the Bronx - more than one-third of the American League's home total of 300.
"I've had a lot of great memories here and a lot of sad memories,'' said Hall of Famer George Brett, who hit three homers during a 1980 playoff game at Yankee Stadium but is best remembered for the 1983 Pine Tar Game, when his go-ahead, ninth-inning homer was disallowed by umpires, then reinstated by the AL president.
While 13 of the Yankees' last 14 regular-season games are sold out and the team is headed to its fourth straight 4 million-plus season at the box office, the stadium was at best half-filled for Sunday's All-Star Futures game, which had an announced attendance of 48,383. Season ticket-holders had to buy seats for Sunday as part of strips that included Monday's home run derby and Tuesday night's All-Star game, the commissioner's office said.
Tuesday's game is the highest priced in baseball history, with lower-deck seats costing $525-$725 and bleacher tickets going for $150. In New York's Wall Street-driven economy, the home run derby sold for $100-$650 and the Futures Game for $50-$225.
And that's the list price.
On StubHub.com, tickets for Tuesday's game were on sale for up to $6,390 each. That's cheap next to the regular-season finale against Baltimore on Sept. 21 - the asking price on StubHub is as much as $65,000. Per seat.
"It is a museum. It's a baseball museum,'' said NL manager Clint Hurdle, who listed Yankee Stadium alongside Boston's Fenway Park and Chicago's Wrigley Field. "They're dripping with the historic ambiance of the game - the individuals that have played the game, the world (championships) that have been won there, the monuments in the outfield. I mean, the pope. Correct me if I'm wrong, didn't he speak at Yankee Stadium? It is a venue that holds its own amongst all venues.''
Davey Johnson, manager of the U.S. squad that lost 3-0 to a World team in the Futures Game, remembered when he played at Yankee Stadium in the 1960s for the Baltimore Orioles against Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.
"I hate to see it go,'' Johnson said. "I didn't think Yankee Stadium would ever change.''
So what was his fondest memory?
"It wasn't that Jeffrey Maier game,'' he shot back quickly, remembering back to when he managed the Orioles in the 1996 AL championship series and a 12-year-old fan leaned over the right-field wall, above right fielder Tony Tarasco, and deflected a fly ball that wound up as a home run for Derek Jeter.
Futures players had to sign three dozen baseballs, two home plates, two pitching rubbers (pitchers only) and three jerseys. When the major leaguers walk into the clubhouses Monday, each will have 14 dozen baseballs to sign.
Yankees owner George Steinbrenner is expected at the All-Star game. The 78-year-old owner's health has declined in recent years, and he hasn't attended a game at the ballpark since opening day.
Yankee Stadium hosted the All-Stars in 1939, 1960 and 1977 - the latter on a day when it was 102 degrees. The '77 game was played 1 1/2 years after the stadium reopened following a reconstruction that cost $167 million.
The new Yankee Stadium, which will be 63 percent larger, is rising across the street at a cost of at least $1.3 billion. It will feature a Hard Rock Cafe, a Martini Bar and regular-season seats that cost up to $2,500 a game. But it won't be the same.
"Being at the final All-Star game at Yankee Stadium is going to be very special,'' said Cleveland pitcher Cliff Lee, the expected AL starter. "Everyone knows the heritage there, and to be part of it is something I'm really looking to experience. It is going to be a crazy time.''
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yankee Stadium the biggest All-Star of all
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW YORK (AP) - All the All-Stars walked onto baseball's most famous field, soaking up the history.
Manny Ramirez threw a ball to fans as his son scampered around the outfield in shorts during Monday's workout. Mariano Rivera stood in center, surrounded by his three boys, all in new American League uniforms. Joe Girardi and his son were in left-center, wearing matching outfits, even down to the sunglasses.
"I catch myself actually looking up at seats where I sat as a kid and saying, 'Wow, that's pretty cool that, you know, I actually watched the game from there and now I'm down here and somebody else is watching us,'' Minnesota Twins closer Joe Nathan said.
Before closing later this year, the 85-year-old ballpark hosts the All-Star game on Tuesday night as part of its grand send-off. Major League Baseball is taking a year off from showcasing the sport's shiny new emporiums and toasting the House that Ruth Built, DiMaggio won over and Reggie conquered.
Albert Pujols set some goals, and for a change they didn't involve home runs.
"Maybe tear up the grass a little bit and put it in the back of my pocket and take it with me,'' the St. Louis Cardinals slugger said.
It's the place where Lou Gehrig said goodbye, where Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali boxed, where popes celebrated mass. But most of all, it's remembered for the 26 World Series titles the New York Yankees have won since the Stadium opened its doors in 1923.
No other team in baseball can match the tradition.
No other place can equal the aura.
"If you stand toe to toe with the beast and you can conquer this stage, then you've reached the apex,'' Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones said. "I think walking through that dark, dingy tunnel into the dugout - I don't think there's any player that's ever done it that hasn't gotten chill bumps. ... It's the biggest stage in baseball. If you can't get fired up to take those three steps up the dugout steps and onto that field, man, you don't have a pulse.''
He called it a huge coliseum. Right next door, an even bigger one is under construction, 63 percent larger, to be filled with restaurants, bars and seats costing up to $2,500 a game next year. The new Yankee Stadium will look much like this one - before the 1974-75 reconstruction, but it won't be the same.
"I'm really going to miss those guys down in the bullpen throwing AA batteries at me,'' Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon said. "I'm really going to miss the people yelling at me. They'll probably just move right across the street.''
Papelbon knows the ballpark from all those Red Sox-Yankees games. Tim Lincecum was ready to be a tourist. The San Francisco Giants pitcher, who is 24 but looks like one of the Beatles at age 14, wasn't sure exactly what he wanted to see.
"Babe Ruth and his head out there in - I don't know exactly where it is, because I've never been there, but I've seen people touch it,'' he said.
For one night only, players on the home team walked onto the field in numbers long retired, with Evan Longoria wearing Ruth's No. 3, Ian Kinsler's in Joe DiMaggio's No. 5, and J.D. Drew and Joe Mauer in Mickey Mantle's No. 7. Red Sox roamed the Yankees clubhouse, allowed a rare peek into the pinstripes' inner sanctum.
"You don't want to take anything away from any All-Star game, but this is something that's pretty special,'' Yankees captain Derek Jeter said. "This is the one All-Star game that I wanted to play in.''
Ernie Banks and Frank Robinson chatted outside the NL clubhouse. Reggie Jackson held court behind the batting cage, as only Reggie can. The commissioner's office prepared to honor more than 40 Hall of Famers during pregame ceremonies.
Boston's Terry Francona, the AL manager, spent the day sidestepping what appeared to be the biggest question: If his team has a slim lead entering the ninth inning, would he hand the ball to Papelbon or Rivera, a revered Yankees hero?
"I have a feeling, knowing Francona,'' Rivera said. "I have a feeling that he will put me there if we have the opportunity to close the game.''
Starters were cleared up Monday, with Cleveland's Cliff Lee opening for the AL and Milwaukee's Ben Sheets for the NL. Sheets, like Lincecum, was visiting the ballpark for the first time.
Young and old alike, they all sounded awed.
"It's weird to know that you're walking through the same, you know, hallways and tunnels as the greats,'' Longoria said.
More than most years, sometimes jaded major leaguers seemed pumped up. After all, there never will be another All-Star game at Yankee Stadium. At least in this one.
"Something will happen in this game that people will probably talk about for a long time,'' Francona said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
79th All-Star from Historic Yankee Stadium
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D. Upstone
Think of the names that have passed through these gates, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Reggie Jackson, and more recently Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Roger Clemons. This promises to be a special night, with so much baseball lore and history. Originally opened in 1923, Yankee Stadium has played host to three prior All-Star Games in 1939, 1960 and 1977, after completing major renovation.
Yankee Stadium’s configurations have been altered numerous times, to accommodate the whims of prior ownership. Every player that comes to this ballpark, including first time All-Stars, will make the pilgrimage to the outfield to see the monuments of Ruth, Gehrig and Miller Huggins, along the plagues of past Yankee greats and even Pope Paul VI. In the original version of the park, left-center was known as “Death Valley” where long fly balls of over 400 feet would be easily caught by outfielders. At one time in the 1930’s, Yankee Stadium had a capacity of over 80,000 and when the Yankees were stinking up the joint in the mid-to-late 1960’s, 431 people attend a game on September 25, 1966, to see the Pinstripes lose to the Chicago White Sox 4-1.
The National League holds the all-time lead in this event, 41-35 with two ties. What is fascinating to think about today, a 10-year in 1997, just becoming acquainted to major league baseball, would today be legal drinking age of 21 and still would not have seen the American League All-Star lose a game. Previously, from 1963 until 1983, the senior circuit ruled this contest, losing only once in 1971, when they had better players, who took pride in wanting to win what was and still is an exhibition game.
The American League is a -145 money line favorite, with run line of -1.5(+140) and total of 10 at Bookmaker.com. The AL will start two Yankees, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, three hated Red Sox, LF Manny Ramirez, 1B Kevin Youkilis and 2B Dustin Pedroia. What gives this team a very different flavor is having two Texas Rangers in the starting line-up, Josh Hamilton and DH Milton Bradley.
The underdog National League has a collection of youth and experience. Savvy veterans live Chipper Jones, Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman, are mingled with up and coming stars like Hanley Ramirez and Ryan Braun, along with solid star players still approaching their prime, like Chase Utley and Matt Holliday. The Chicago Cubs have the best record in the league and will have two starters in the opening lineup in Kosuke Fukudome and Geovany Soto.
The starting pitchers for each team are well-deserved, with Milwaukee’s Ben Sheets (10-3, 2.85 ERA, 1.114 WHIP) matching pitches with Cleveland’s Cliff Lee (12-2, 2.31 ERA, 1.035 WHIP). Watching how each handles the limelight on such an occasion will be intriguing to view.
In sizing up the remaining position players, the American League appears to have a few more bats to go to than their counterparts, with names like Grady Sizemore, Carlos Quentin, Ian Kinsler and Michael Young. How each manager uses pitching staff will play a part undoubtedly in outcome, however the NL might have a slight edge.
The All-Star contest in Boston in 1999, evoked unbelievable memories, before the game itself and this one might top that event. This promises to be quite a show. With no rooting interest, wouldn’t the symmetry be fascinating if the Yankees Mariano Rivera could come in the game to close out the ninth inning for an AL win?
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