See ya, Yankee Stadium

We promise to finish our journey through Peru, if you'll just indulge a brief baseball break. All month long, Matt had heard endless promotion of the last game at Yankee Stadium. The last game at Yankee Stadium. The last game...blah, blah, blah.

Matt, like many other people, has Yankee fatigue. If a Yankee sneezes, it's news. And, as previously mentioned, Yankee Stadium is not among Matt's favorite ballparks. Besides, Matt's a Mets fan. And this also happens to be the last year for Shea Stadium, the Mets' home park, and there's barely mention of that.

But...then, well, Matt happened to be going through some boxes Sunday night and flipped past the Yankee game. And there was Yogi, and Whitey, and Reggie. And of course, Mariano and Jeter and A-Rod. And you start to remember all the other legends that have roamed the field. Joe D. The Babe. The Iron Horse. Scooter. The Mick. Casey. Maris. Pepitone. Munson. Dickey. And bunch of other guys they rented for a year or two.

And, well, the game was pretty cool to watch. ESPN did a pretty nice job of basically ignoring the game vs. the Orioles and showing the highlights of 85 years of Yankee Stadium. As Matt watched it, he was sort of glad he got to visit The House That Ruth Built. Matt drove out to New York and met his Dad, Uncle Larry and cousin LJ for a game against the Blue Jays in August 2006.

The stadium was ...well, it was old. The tunnels were crowded and too low. And there were 600 reminders of the 26 World Championships the team has won - the years on the flagpoles, team pictures on the exits, etc., etc.

But Matt got there early and walked around the park. That day, he was one of the last people let into Monument Park, where they honor all the Yankees who have had their numbers retired. Not only do they have plaques for all those players, they had plaques commemorating three papal visits. Pretty cool. (Afterwards, when LJ's mom asked how he liked the game, he said he liked it just fine...except that Uncle Mark and Cousin Matt took him to see some graves before the game. He thought they buried the players in the outfield.)

As for the game, Cory Lidle pitched (moment of silence...thank you) and Jason Giambi hit a home run. It was 97 degrees and the Yankees actually gave away free water. And some guy named Ryan Roberts got his first major league hit - and what remains his only big league homer. It was one of the first games Bobby Abreu played with the Yanks. The Yankees won 8-1.

The only scorecard you could buy was $7 and parking was a nightmare, but hey, Matt was there. He got to see Yankee Stadium, smell it and sit in the seats. Pretty cool. So, yeah, even Matt enjoyed watching the highlights Sunday night of Reggie's three home runs in the Series, and Larsen's perfect game and Jackie Robinson stealing home. For a real baseball fan, it's hard not to appreciate the history there.

Of course, Matt will have to wait to celebrate Shea's finale. You know, because the Mets are actually going to make the playoffs. Oh yeah, he said it.