Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

Most Yankee fans agree that the farewell to Yankee stadium on Sunday night was a memorable tribute.  Even if you didn’t watch the farewell ceremony Sunday and aren’t a Yankee fan, you can read this nostalgic essay by Billy Crystal (and there are other links on the left to more essays) to get a sense of what Yankee stadium embodies to its fans. 

But since Sunday night, others have pointed out that something was missing from the ceremony.  Or rather, two people were missing.  Both Joe Torre and Roger Clemens, two Yankee greats, were completely excluded, for different reasons, from any mention in the pre-game ceremonies. (more…)

I can tell you one thing, there aren’t too many people crying in the south Bronx over the Yankees losing season. Since the day I set foot in my district, I have spoken to several people who inevitably direct their conversation over to a shared hatred of this team. The Yankees are like the neighborhood bully. Big, dominating, loaded with cash, and able to do whatever the hell they want. Take over a local park and plant a big new fancy stadium….check. Bully local food merchants, tell them to step away from their turf…check. Hike up ticket prices so none of the little guys can come in and play…check.

Fauzia Rahman, a local food vendor, makes some of the best jerk chicken I have ever tasted. She cooks it on the spot at her food cart on the corner of Sheridan Avenue and 161st in the Bronx where she’s been stationed since 1996. Fauzia told me today that a few years ago she was bullied by police to move her cart further away from the old Yankee Stadium. She kept asking them why. To which the cops supplied no answer. Well I have come to the conclusion this happened because her cooking skills outmatch the over priced hotdogs and pretzels sold a few blocks away. Like so many other people I have spoken to over the past couple weeks she resented the fact that the new Yankee Stadium has taken away much needed park land. Built right on top of Macomb’s Dam Park, the new stadium has taken the place of tennis courts and a running track.

As I was walking back towards the subway I happened to over hear a converstation between three high school students. My ears perked when I heard, “Man I hate the Yankees.” Then the other girl replied, “Yeah now we can’t play tennis.” Hmmmm……. this sounds spicy. I didn’t want to appear like a nosy pervert leering over them, so I said,”Hi I’m a writer, tell me why do you hate the Yankees so much?” The girls had just gotten out of school and their social studies teacher, Mr. Murphy, had them thinking. “Well our tax payer money is going into building the stadium, but it takes it out of education.” I apologize for my poor reporting kids, I will verify this, but I heard this info today, I’m on a roll, and the blog is due tomorrow. What I do know is that YES the Yankees association has dipped into public funds to roll ahead with construction. Antoinette (a.k.a Candace), Jennifer and Shadyea, said that today they had to leave their textbooks at South Bronx Prep school because there aren’t enough to go around. It’s pretty amazing that there isn’t enough money to fund the purchase of more textbooks for local schools and yet there was more than enough to construct a whole new ball park. I also found this following article written by Juan Gonzalez of the NY Daily News particularly interesting. He goes on to explain that in 2007 the city assesed that the land under the new Yankee Stadium was valued at 10 times the market value of the adjacent land in this South Bronx neighborhood. The article reveals the disparities between land values of the old stadium and the new, even though they’re only a few blocks apart.

Now that the stadium is due to open in April of next year, the Yankees association better take the time to give back to the community that has hosted their team for the past century.

Here’s Babe Ruth’s 60th home run and Queen.

Now that the gates have officially closed at Yankee Stadium, fans may be craving a little nostalgia from the good old days of baseball.  Julia Ruth Stevens, who threw the last “first” pitch at Yankee Stadium Sunday night in the house her father built, might just have the remedy.

Although she admits to being a Red Sox fan, Ruth Stevens published a book in 2008 filled with photographs and memories of the Babe, especially his time spent in pinstripes. The book titled Babe Ruth:  Remembering the Bambino in Stories, Photos & Memorabilia is a pricey $35.00, but captures why this one man from Baltimore became a worldwide legend.  Sure she mentions all of the records he set, broke and how he is still considered the greatest player ever to swing a bat, but she also writes about his humble beginnings and how he was simply a great dad.  

One chapter in the book, Ruth Stevens describes her father’s special breakfast we would fix, just for her.  She describes how the Babe would wake her up early in the morning before he would go hunting or fishing. He would butter bread and fry an egg in a whole, cut in the middle of the bread, and top it off with a slice bologna.           

Ruth Stevens really balances the legend of her father and showing how he was just an ordinary man who had a great passion.  Considering the state of baseball today, with the million dollar salaries, steroid use or human growth hormone, expensive ticket prices, and “misremembering” clubhouse conversations, it is refreshing to look back on why baseball is an American pastime. 

Although I am not a Yankee’s fan, I can remember the first time I went to a game at the Stadium.  My older brother and I had tickets in the bleachers.  We sat in the furthest row from home plate, and in the furthest section of right field.  We had the worst possible seats in Ruth’s house.  There was not one person behind us and we both just laughed about it and looked around and saw the perfect view of all the devoted fans in the entire stadium.  My brother gave me nudge and told me to shut up, so he could have a “moment” at Yankee Stadium.    

Ten more and an era ends.

Tonight was supposed to be the beginning of the end. The final ten games in at Yankee Stadium had been scheduled to begin at 7:05. But rain pushed back the start of the very last home stand. The Yankee’s season is done. According to everyone and everything except the math. All that’s left is to finish out the season and reserve tee times for October.

The close of the season ends the legacy of the greatest sports cathedral ever built by man (and that’s not an opinion). The building that would have you believe was put together solely by the hands of a man named Babe and held together for 85 years by those followed – Gehrig and DiMaggio, Mantle and Maris, Munson and Mattingly, Jeter, Rodriguez and Rivera – will be gone next spring.  

If there are any ghosts left, who have not yet cleaned out their lockers and moved in across the street, they will all have to put in extra BP over the next 10 days. Not because the Yanks are fighting for a division crown or even the wildcard. After all, they’re not. But because the nine men who will dress in pinstripes and stand on the the greenest diamond in the Bronx over the next week-plus owe their very best to the hundreds to those who stood on that field before them and to the millions who have sat in the bleachers and nose-bleeds and cheered their hardest for them.

Rain has delayed the end. Hopefully the extra night will give those about to play the chance to think about it. Over 6600 games have been played at Yankee Stadium. There are only ten more chances for anyone to ever play a baseball game there. Ten more chances to make a memory. Ten more chances to become a legend.

Ten more.