Yanks Let Fans Roam One Last Time

Story reported by the Associated Press:

Fans will be allowed to walk on Yankee Stadium's field for three hours before the ballpark's final game Sunday.

Gates will open at 1 p.m. -- about 7 hours, 15 minutes before New York plays the Baltimore Orioles in its final game at the 85-year-old stadium.

For the first three hours, fans can walk through Monument Park, behind the fence in left-center, and walk along the warning track in the outfield and to home plate. Field access will end at about 4 p.m., and Monument Park will close at about 6:45 p.m.

Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Goose Gossage, Ron Guidry, Graig Nettles and Bobby Richardson are to be part of the pregame ceremonies, which start at 7:05 p.m.

A closing ceremony for the stadium will be held after the season.

Bleacher Fans to Receive an Eyesore in New Stadium

by Chris Lima
River Avenue News

According to the New Yankee Stadium's seat selector, fans positioned out in the left field bleachers will be starting a food products if anyone hits a ball down the right field line.

The above image is a screen shot from yankees.com. The big ugly gray mass in center field is actually the restaurant, which also serves as the batters eye.

So when Yankee firstbaseman of the future Jason Giambi/Adam Dunn/Xavier Nady smashes a ball down the right field line for a game winning/come from behind/meaningless stat padding shot home run, the fans in left will have to rely on someone else to clue them in on the action.

Interestingly enough, as listed on the website, Yankee officials are saying that “From the Bleachers to Yankees Premium Offerings, every fan will have more comfortable seating that offers improved sight lines.”

Well, almost everyone.

Posada Crosses Fingers, Hopes to Delay Surgery

According to an article posted on ESPN.com (from the AP), Yankee catcher Jorge Posada is hoping that he can postpone or delay surgery on his ailing shoulder:

NEW YORK -- New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada wants to put off surgery on his right shoulder even if it means sacrificing the start of next season. If he does play the rest of this year, it won't be behind the plate.

On the disabled list for the second time this season, Posada had his throwing shoulder examined by New York Mets medical director Dr. David Altchek on Tuesday, and surgery was again recommended. An MRI showed fraying in the tendons around the labrum, but not a rotator cuff tear, Posada said Wednesday before the Yankees played the Minnesota Twins.

He missed more than a month earlier this season with right rotator cuff tendinitis.

"I've got 15 days to make a decision," said Posada, who went on the DL Monday. "I'll rehab it and see how it feels and have a decision by then."

In his 14th season, Posada is extremely proud about being a full-time catcher his entire career. But he said that if he is to continue playing this season, catching is "out of the question" for the remainder of the year.

"It's not about me. It's about the team now, how can I help the team. That's why I'm going to go through the rehab," Posada said. "If I'm able to hit, I'm going to try to do that. If I'm not able to hit, I'm going to have surgery."

Posada said the Yankees agreed with his decision to keep playing even with the possibility of a six-month rehab looming after surgery.

Posada will continue his rehabilitation regime without throwing drills and will make a decision based on how the shoulder is responding.

"The doctor said if I'm not throwing, it won't ge weak because I'm not throwing," Posada said. "I can strengthen it and hit. Then it won't get weak. They put me on the DL to make a decision of what to do and strengthen and rehab it and go from there."

To continue reading this article, click here.

Let's Take the Vote Away From the Fans

So, everyone has probably heard the rumblings through the grapevine; "If the game matters so much, why are we leaving the outcome to chance?"

TRANSLATION: If we're going to be wasting our time in an All-Star game that determines who has home field advantage in the World Series, why are we letting some dweeb influence the outcome?

I agree with that statement, and I'm proposing that the fan's should not be allowed to select players for the All-Star Game.

Why should baseball's BIGGEST GAME, the game that could help determine the outcome of the World Series, be influenced by a computer dork who hates his job and sits at his desk all day, with his 20 different email accounts, voting over and over and over for some washed up short stop that shouldn't be even playing the game on a regular basis, let alone in an All-Star Game.

Yeah Omar Vizquel, I was talking about you.

There are millions of dollars riding on the outcome of this single game. If the series goes to a full seven games, obviously the team with home field advantage will generate millions of more dollars in hot dog, beer, merchandise, parking, ticket, pretzel, (and if the game was ever held in Vegas; prostitution) revenue.

You want to leave that up to the fans to decide? What kind of business model are you running on?

Why should owners and players let the fans have their one last shred of dignity? Fans are overcharged, overcrowded, overweight, and over the CDC's recommended daily limit concerning searching the internet for random useless baseball trivia.

Don't trust the fans. They'll ruin everything.

Boston Fan, Construction Worker, To Be Burried In Cement

A construction worker at the new Yankee Stadium, tried to place a curse on the new field, by burying a David Ortiz jersey deep in a concrete pillar.

An excerpt from the ESPN.com article:

NEW YORK -- A construction worker's bid to curse the Yankees by planting a Red Sox jersey in their new stadium was foiled Sunday when the team removed the offending shirt from its burial spot in the ballpark.

After locating the shirt in a service corridor behind what will be a restaurant in the new Yankee Stadium, construction workers jackhammered through the remaining concrete Sunday and pulled it out.

The team learned that a Sox-rooting construction worker had buried a shirt in the stadium from a report in the New York Post on Friday, team officials said.

Yankees President Randy Levine said the team at first considered leaving the shirt.

"The first thought was, you know, it's never a good thing to be buried in cement when you're in New York," Levine said. "But then we decided, 'Why reward somebody who had really bad motives and was trying to do a really bad thing?'"

The Associated Press first reported the story, which can be found here.