Being a lifelong baseball fan, I had always dreamed of visiting Yankee stadium. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to see a game in the original park but here I am now, 19 new and improved rows behind the Yankee dugout, stuffing myself with the best French fries I have ever had.

The Braves are my team and always will be but there’s no escaping the excitement you will feel when you step out of that 161 St. subway station and enter Yankee heaven. My wife was with me, who is a huge Yankee fan, and that led to the only not-so-enjoyable moment of the afternoon. She just had to buy a t-shirt that proclaimed to the world, in big navy blue letters, “I love my husband, but I also love me some Jeter”. Yeah, good stuff. My only stipulation was that she not wear it while I was around. I could just imagine every time I got up to get food or get relief her treating our neighbors to a spontaneous Jeter fashion show with the stairs in between sections 116 and 115 as her catwalk. (It was a bit chilly that Tuesday…no need to worry)

We started out at Stan’s for a couple of pre-game libations. It took a while to get to the enormous bar, as we weaved our way through screaming, gyrating Yankee fans. Fans who would not let us take a single picture without photo bombing our frame with facial expressions I haven’t seen since old episodes of the the Three Stooges… the Shemp Years. In all that chaos and baseball fever, we still found the fans of NY to be respectful, friendly and knowledgeable. Everyone was there to have a good time and we felt like part of the crowd. If we return, Stan’s will definitely be our Pre-game destination.

As we approached our seats, surrounded by famous Yankee jerseys of today and yesteryear, the theme of the day was clear. It was all around us in every size, shape and souvenir… the number 2. This was Derek Jeter’s day. Even before the first pitch, fans were chanting his name and screaming his accolades. As he went through his pre-game warm up, all eyes were on him and the simplest catches and throws were greeted with cheers and adulations. All eyes except for mine… I couldn’t help glancing over to the plate and at the new Yankee catcher. The catcher who for the previous nine years had been one of the reasons I was proud to be a Braves fan. Seeing Brian McCann in pinstripes for the first time, made me realize I had still not healed from the wounding that occurred on December 3rd of last year when the free agent signed his new five-year deal… with a different club.

As the game began, we could hear the wind whipping the flags around the stadium into a fury, which made you notice the chill in the air even more. A chill that seemed to affect the Yankees a bit more than the visiting Orioles, as the O’s jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning with an Adam Jones bomb to dead center… my first Yankee Stadium home run. It didn’t improve much for Yankee starter Ivan Nova as he went on to give up four more runs before getting pulled with two outs in the fourth. The O’s would score 11 more times that day handing the Yanks their fourth loss of the young season, but it wasn’t all bad.

I witnessed a Derek Jeter single in the third, to which my wife gave me a nudge and a wink while tugging on her new t-shirt. It was a good moment and I was glad to see one of the best players of my generation get a hit on his home turf, live in person. And though that was his only hit on the day, just watching him on the field brought back all the great games and moments I had seen him in since I was a twenty something college student living in South Florida. I felt blessed to be able to see him play during his final season as blessed as I felt two seasons ago when I got to see Chipper Jones last a bat during a playoff game that gave new meaning to the term “infield fly”.

A lifelong baseball fan finally got to see the most famous baseball club in the world perform in the Bronx and it’s certainly an experience I will always cherish. And as we were about to take our last look around the new Yankee Stadium, and grab the subway back to the Upper West Side a fan yelled from his seat, “I’m not having any fun!” Too bad, I just made a memory that will last a lifetime.

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Main Photo Credit: John Dalton via Wiki Commons, CC