The Red Sox Have The Green Monster; The Yankees Have The Blue Midget
August 13, 2009 · General Peppers · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
Forget PEDs.
Forget steroids, and hormoned accelerated, testosterone boosted, pregnancy pausing athletes.
There is a bigger advantage throughout sports, and that is because only a select few teams are allowed to have it.
Ask any NBA team, past or present, about playing in the old Boston Garden.
Some would say the place had an aura about it, others would call it the best fans in basketball affecting the game. No matter the cause, the old Boston Garden provided a sacred homestand for Celtics teams; including the 1986 Celtics who set the record for best winning percentage at home with a 40-1 record at the Garden.
Question any NFL team about playing in Lambeau. In the snow. In the playoffs. Until a miraculous performance by Michael Vick in 2003 shocked the world, the Packers had never lost on Lambeau Field in the playoffs.
Swing by England at some point and ask a Premier League side about playing football in The Theater of Dreams, also known as Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United. Over the past five years, the Red Devils have only lost six times at home.
A home stadium for some teams really is an extra man on the field/court/diamond.
Mid-May, 2009
With the creation of the new Yankee Stadium, long time fans have been searching for a piece of the magic the old stadium held.
They searched for the ghosts of Ruth, Mantle, Yogi, and the rest of the All-Time legends whose footsteps traced the outline of the old Yankees Stadium.
Alas, these ghosts were buried in the gravel of the old stadium, and now lived on through baseball lore and the hearts of all Yankees fan.
All the new stadium had was a short porch out right that saw 82 home runs sail out of the stadium, and in the first 21 home games!
To say outlooks were bleak would be the understatement of a lifetime.
Mid-August, 2009
Tied 1-1 to the sedulously mediocre Blue Jays, Jorge Posada hits a routine pop fly off Blue Jays reliever Jesse Carlson.
Perhaps it was the recent sweep of the Red Sox that did it. Perhaps it was the rush of once again being the best team in baseball, like many Yankees fans feel is their civil right. Or perhaps the spirits of Yankees lore struck a deal with some ethereal presence and exchanged signed photos for one of his gifts.
Whatever the case, instead of stopping short of the warning tracks, the ball flew into the loyal hands of Yankees fan and was declared a home run.
The biggest surprise was that everyone in the stadium knew it would happen.
While discussing the benefits and detriments of the short porch with Bleacher Report’s Heartbeat of the Bronx, I dubbed the short wall “The Blue Midget,” a stark contrast of the Green Monster, beloved by New York’s eternal arch-nemesis.
Whether the laterally hindered wall will provide as many wins as it’s gargantuan rival is still up in the air.
But what is known is that the new Yankee Stadium finally has a piece of magic to call its own.
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