“New” Yankee Stadium: Everything That is Wrong with Baseball

(Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Today the baseball world welcomes the $1.5 billion “new” Yankee Stadium.  It is the most expensive ballpark in American history, and it represents everything that is wrong with baseball today. 

Through the decades, Yankee greats like Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Reggie Jackson have played at Yankee Stadium, and ostensibly have since passed the baton to a new generation of players. 

Johnny Damon, Alex Rodriguez, and Derek Jeter will now carry on the Yankee legacy in the new ballpark. 

The “new” Yankee Stadium is one of the two newest parks to play host to America’s pastime. Treasury Department Field opened earlier in the week across town. 

The ballpark is impressive, no doubt about it.  Both the media and fans alike have marveled at the 59 feet by 101 feet, 16-mm true high-definition video scoreboard, buttered up to the large array of food choices, like tofu, calamari, and sashimi, and lounged in the padded seats. 

With the “new” Yankee Stadium, the old ballpark has been grafted to the living room sofa, HD TV, and takeout food. 

“Buy me some sushi, a latte, and low-carb, fat-free Cracker Jacks. I don't care if I ever come back at $2,625 for a ticket to the old ball game!” 

Baseball is a game that is played by little leaguers across America.  It is a game that transcends generations, and is timeless in nature. 

MLB likes to pretend that it represents a storied, rich, and consequential history.  This may have been true at one time, but now it is the embodiment of greed in America. 

When Yankee Stadium was conducting it's curtain call in 2008, the tributes were glowing.  It was “the house that Ruth built,” and the home of the ghosts of Yankee legends of old. 

One would have thought it had been destroyed by a terrible earthquake or suffered some such calamity.  What was the reason it was being replaced?  How could baseball abandon its Sistine Chapel?  Because George Steinbrenner is tearing it down so he can make more money.  Such avarice tugs at the heartstrings, doesn't it? 

Just something to keep in mind as the wrecking ball is destroying the house that Ruth built, in order to make way for a Steinbrenner Sports Bar & Playhouse.

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