Yankee Stadium--Just a Dream

Earlier this week they played the last game at Yankee Stadium. After 85 years, they are tearing it down. Luckily, I took the opportunity 6 weeks ago to go pay my last respects to the stadium, go out to see Mickey Mantle’s monument, and just try to absorb the place as best I could.

For a little kid growing up as an Indiana farm boy, Yankee Stadium was heaven. (Well, that’s not exactly true—for most of my friends, the White Sox were the team, but they always finished 2nd or 3rd, and why they would decide to cheer for a loser when you had the Yankees around I never quite understood).

Yankee Stadium was the place that Mickey Mantle played, and that was all I needed to know. He was joined by guys like Bobby Richardson, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Elston Howard, Tommy Tresh, Tony Kubek. Those guys were great. But then the Mick got old, the names became Horace Clarke and then Bobby Murcer, and the dynasty was done. Ya, they bought some great players later like Reggie and Catfish, but they were free agents, and everyone knew they really weren’t Yankees—and anyway, Steinbrenner was crazy, which is true, except it is probably harsh now that he is also old and sick.

It is not rational. But for me, Yankee Stadium is a part of me—a part of my life. Matt and I went up 6 weeks ago—when she had only 30 games left. To visit it was like attending a wake for a family member. It was so sad. I know it is old. It smells bad. It creaks. It’s got bad plumbing and bad sight (lines). But a lot of those things will probably be said about me in a few years.

I was watching the last game in a hotel in Kabul (ya, I know, weird) and the memories of a lifetime—and especially my last visit—came flooding back at the end of the game. Like me, no one wanted to leave. I had just stood there, and then walked around one last time, knowing I would never see it again and trying not to forget anything.

45 years have passed since Mickey Mantle roamed center field, crushed amazing home runs, and always won the World Series, while a little kid on a farm dreamed of faraway legends and timeless heroes playing in a majestic cathedral. The heroes may be gone, the cathedral soon demolished, but those dreams remain as vivid as ever.