Ben Gibbard, Dick Manitoba & Real Fans Hate the New York Yankees Ersatz Ballpark
May 17, 2012 · Harold Friend · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
Craig Calcaterra of HardballTalk reported that Rolling Stone asked some rock stars to reveal their favorite ballpark. Dodger Stadium and Wrigley Field were the winners.
Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie, who sang the National Anthem before the third game of the 2010 NLCS in San Francisco, said that PNC Park in Pittsburgh is his favorite. Then he excoriated the New York Yankees new ballpark.
“It might look like the old one from the outside, but inside it’s more like a gaudy, Long Island shopping mall than a ballpark.”
Handsome Dick Manitoba’s comments explained Gibbard’s feelings as well as those of many Yankees’ fans.
“Now, the original Yankee Stadium, pre-1976, even with the poles blocking your view, was still the most beautiful, majestic, iconic and fable-like stadium in American sports history.
“The ushers wiped your seat for a quarter before you sat down, and the dirty-water dogs tasted better to me than any of the food these modern day ‘rock star chefs’ have come up with.
“It was my shrine. Not being a religious man, this place was my House of Worship.”
Alice Cooper said that when he was at a game at Briggs Stadium, he felt as if he were watching a game at the Hall of Fame.
Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Charlie Gehringer, Hank Greenberg and Mickey Mantle were some of great players that had memorable moments at the old park.
Derek Jeter and his friends no longer play on the site where Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle and DiMaggio played.
Fine, you say, what do rock stars know about baseball parks? How about Tyler Kepner of the New York Times?
He wrote that the new ballpark “…lacks any semblance of the atmosphere that made the original so special. When you saw a game at the old place, you felt like part of a community of fans.”
The new park was not set up for everyone to be part of the game. Kepner criticizes the fact that there is a concrete moat that encircles the first nine rows, almost from foul pole to foul pole that security guards constantly patrol.
Hal Steinbrenner and his family should be ashamed of what they have wrought. It is quite obvious that they would like to win the World Series, but there are much more important things.
The Yankees have an excellent business model that they call a ballpark.
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