Yankess lose in first home game at new ballpark

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/articles/2009/04/17/new_ballpark_is_the_pride_of_the_yankees/

While the Red Sox may not envy the Yankees anymore now that Boston has won two world championships in five years and the Yankees haven't won one this century, they should be envious of New York's new $1.5 billion ballpark. You may love Fenway Park, but trust me, you'd love a New Fenway Park even more, especially if it had been replicated as closely to the original as this one was.

The New Yankee Stadium, which drew a sellout crowd of 48,271 in its maiden voyage yesterday, possesses many of the features of the original Yankee Stadium, the one before the 1974-75 renovations.

Upon entering the bowl, you'd swear you were in the old place. Except for a bleacher area in center field that houses a concessions stand, there's nothing much different. One scribe suggested that if you took a power washer to the old place, you'd have something that resembles what you see here. True. Yet there is more to it than that.

The concourses are wider and offer more food and services. The amenities for players, fans, and media are state-of-the-art, off-the-charts tremendous. The Yankee clubhouse stretches from the start of the home dugout down the right-field line. The clubhouse is enormous, equipped with wide lockers and a personal laptop for each player. The clubhouse design is very similar to that of Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. There's an enormous player lounge beyond the clubhouse. The training room is massive, stocked with the latest medical equipment.

The Mets' new Citi Field and this park are really different. Citi Field has a real ballpark feel to it, a mixture of many of the modern ballparks such as Jacobs Field and The Ballpark at Arlington and Safeco Field. After all, you wouldn't want to replicate Shea Stadium, would you? Citi Field has quirky little configurations in the outfield where the ball could take some interesting bounces and create havoc for fielders. Yankee Stadium is simply unique. The dimensions are the same as the old ballpark's.

Commissioner Bud Selig marveled at how well the architects captured the characteristics of the pre-renovation Yankee Stadium that he first walked into as a 15-year-old with his mother. Selig said they sat in the third deck that day, and while he kidded that the view from his current seat was better, "I had the same feeling walking into this place today that I had 60 years ago," he said.

One such feature retained from the old ballpark is the main gate (Gate 4), where the stadium's name is etched in thin block letters surrounded by ornate eagle medallions 7 feet 4 inches in diameter.