Hosive

i got a mini-plan to the new stadium after they gave me a pretty good renewal deal including row 5 seats in the bleachers. no obstructed nonsense with flat screens for me! also no $2,600 per seat per game….that’s the top price in the house. luxury seats down in that area start at $500!

nope…no nonsense on either end of the spectrum for me. i got the common person tickets in the outfield. along with the dozen games, i got a presale code that allowed me to get the cubs preseason game and also…opening day! we got there early and walked around to enjoy the pageantry and decorations….

and we were in our seats at noon for the opening ceremony. its been cold almost all winter including some pretty seattle dreary, misty days. but on this day, the sun was warm and bountiful. maybe even too hot for those of us who thought we were still in winter and dressed in layers. our bodies were certainly confused. we started shedding and continued throughout the afternoon.

the opening day ceremony was underwhelming with an old time band tribute to the original yankee stadium. there was the obligatory parading of former yankees….some surprises like david wells(who wound up sitting with us in the bleachers), dave winfield and ken griffey sr. who had love/hate relationships with the fans and management.  but other than that and the giant flag….it was a pretty vanilla ceremony. the best part for me was bernie williams playing take me out to the ballgame acoustic…then getting serenaded ala paul oneil….a proper send off that he did not receive thanks to cashman and the brain trust.

btw, the game was a dog. we got blown out…..so the real story of the day was….

food! this steak sandwich is the premium item at the park. hearty, carved slices of prime rib? in a specialty bun. when we got in line, they ran out of meat but almost nobody got out of the line for 25 minutes. eventually, two guys did and then the meat showed up! but it was undercooked….they had to go back into the kitchen. so they started handing out burnt end samples and ribs. delicious!…..but it only made us hungrier.

when the food got there…the crew got to work. the chef barked instructions and admonishments:”there’s the best….and then…there’s the rest….we want to be the best!!!! right???!!!!”

if you’re a vegan, you’re throwing up. but if you’re a carnivore……this is one of the best items i’ve ever had at a ballpark. i think i would have prefered it cook just a tad longer but like the bronx natives drooling at the stand were saying: that’s legit. that is the real deal.

we stayed in our seats until we realized that we didn’t have to. we walked around closer to the plate and watched part of the game from behind the rich seats. then the usher let us down for the last half inning since most people had already headed home. the cushion on the seat took 5 seconds…five!….to sink when i sat on it. pretty luxurious. wing and i enjoyed our brief moment feeling old money.

here we are….enjoying our first look at the new stadium! we are of course freezing in our winter jackets in the bleachers. its still too cold for a baseball game despite it being spring…even after two-three weeks in! we’ve had a weird, cold season in nyc. maybe its to accommodate the visiting cubs for the exhibition series.

because of a pre-sale, i was able to scoop up .25 cents tickets. no typo! 50 cents for the two of us to get into the throwback games. i should have splurged and gone for the dollar seats!!! i think the uber-rich seats were still uber pricey.

being an exhibition game, we spent most of our time exploring the park and the new cuisine. here are some of the things we got….including garlic fries…it had its own section/booth! get the large…that’s what we did. the small is tiny!!!!

up next is the steak sandwich….it is much better than this picture shows. it was cooked medium…its an inch thick….and pretty tasty. in fact, they’ve jacked the price from $10 to $15 since this game. there is also a carved beef sandwich which i’ll detail during opening day reporting.

finally, frickles! fried pickles from jimmy’s bbq. yummy fried goodness/badness.

overall, i think citi field has more brand name chef-ing. but the premium food offerings at yankee stadium are still pretty appealing. redefining expectations for ballpark food.

and this is crazy impressive….these premium meats are used at the real steakhouse in the stadium as well as in some of the high end beef offerings throughout the park. meats are also available for take home grilling and cooking in the great hall.

the game was a laugher but it was only preseason…so the score was not important….more important were the little touches around the park…a little bit of old and a little bit of new. the scoreboards on the field are actually part manual with old fashioned paneled numbers and a guy(or two)putting them up everytime something happens. but there are also the state of the art high definition displays throughout. i’ve seen them use it for multiple purposes. including keeping score.

all in all, we had a great time exploring and discovering. looking forward to finding new things in our future visits to our new baseball home!