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!

duh!journal scours the earth for dumb behavior….some low brow…some high minded…all duh!

perhaps this is more whoops!journal than duh!journal…but there are a ton of people feeling pretty dumb and they are not named steinbrenner nor are they wearing yankee pinstripes…..

Rodriguez Faces Test at Ballpark Reopening

By the time the news broke that Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez had tested positive for steroids in 2003, the invitations had been out for weeks.

“The University of Miami,” they read, “cordially invites you to Dinner on the Diamond as we commemorate the Grand Opening of Alex Rodriguez Park and Start of the 2009 Hurricane Baseball Season.”

Boasting a personal appearance by Rodriguez, who donated $3.9 million to Miami’s project to renovate its ballpark, the invitation heralded the arrival of a “new era in Hurricanes baseball.”

What Miami did not anticipate was Rodriguez’s becoming the latest major leaguer to be linked to steroids.

On Saturday, six days before the scheduled dedication of Alex Rodriguez Park, reports emerged that Rodriguez had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs six years ago.

But the news is not expected to change Miami’s decision to rename the stadium, the sports information director Mark Pray told The Miami Herald. Still, because the event is a fund-raiser that depends heavily on Rodriguez’s popularity and charisma, the dedication could turn into an early gauge of how much his image will suffer.

A call to Rodriguez’s publicist was not returned, and several messages seeking comment from the Miami athletic department were also not returned Sunday.

Rodriguez did not actually attend Miami, but over the years he has become a patron of the baseball program. As a high school standout in baseball and football, he signed a letter of intent in 1993 to play both sports for the Hurricanes. But when the Seattle Mariners selected him with the first overall pick in the amateur draft that year, his signature on a professional contract took precedence.

As with most steroid matters these days, the Roger Clemens saga offers a parallel. A month after George J. Mitchell’s report on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball linked him to steroids in December 2007, Clemens was scheduled to appear at a convention for the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association. At the time, the organization said that it was happy to give Clemens the benefit of the doubt and that he was still eager to address a group of about 1,000 coaches on his rigorous workout routines. Clemens spoke to the group in January 2008.

But the Texas group was not counting on Clemens to help it raise money.

Miami’s athletic department, charging its guests $75 each and $1,000 to sponsor a table at Friday’s dinner, has made its goals for Rodriguez’s appearance clear. He will be joined by Miami’s athletic director, Kirby Hocutt, the baseball coach Jim Morris and the 2009 Hurricanes team.

Rodriguez’s donation, the largest in the baseball program’s history, went toward upgrading and constructing facilities like a clubhouse, meeting and video rooms, a press box, four V.I.P. luxury suites and a weight room.

****************

maybe this is duh!journal crystal ball style….predicting how dumb people will feel and look like the people who will pay to show up to the event. and the officials running the event will feel at least conflicted playing nice to their million dollarsponsor.

this event has not happened yet! you can get still tickets in attempt to appear in the pages of duh!journal!

starting soon! as nykr’s reflect on the city and 9/11 this week, a wide range of nyc posts raining down on you soon. back to the regular programming…

duh! journal scours the world for stupid(and overtly obvious)news! we found a diverse three course meal for all!

this is from gampepro.com: seems that this is news to microsoft!

‘Xbox vice president Don Mattrick acknowledged that regaining first place from Nintendo is unlikely, but he’s confident in a second place finish over Sony.

Microsoft will do everything within its power to beat arch rival Sony in this generation’s console war — even if it’s for second place.

In an interview with Business Week published on Wednesday, Xbox vice president Don Mattrick admitted the 360 probably won’t catch Wii, but he still believes his company will outsell the PlayStation 3.

“I’m not at a point where I can say we’re going to beat Nintendo,” he said, before predicting, “We will sell more consoles this generation than Sony.”

Microsoft has sold an estimated 20 million Xbox 360 units worldwide since November 2005. By contrast, Nintendo has sold 32 million Wiis in half the time, while Sony has sold 15 million PS3s during the same period.’

really? nintendo is going to win? microsoft even declared themselves the winners of this competition at one point! what they meant was that they were ahead. a year ahead as the 360 was released a full 365 before the wii. its like declaring yourself the winner way before the finish line. but now, microsoft is willing to mouth what everyone already knew….the wii is a hit! it is the winner of this round of console wars!

**********************

this is why so many (yankee)fans hate arod…he’s just not aware of his team or seemingly the game. the suspicion that he is self absorbed gets reinforced.

on sunday, the yankees lost and the blue jays won, moving ahead of the yankees in the standings. here’s the q/a from the nytimes that follows:

‘Without realizing what he was saying, Alex Rodriguez wrote off the Yankees’ chances. Asked about falling to fourth, Rodriguez tried to compliment the Blue Jays but made a damning statement about the Yankees in the process.

“I tell you what, a lot of people should be happy they’re not in the playoff race, because they’d be the scariest team,” Rodriguez said of the Blue Jays.

When reminded that the Yankees now trail Toronto — the team he had just stated was not in the race — Rodriguez did not know quite what to say.

“I’m too tired to answer that,” he said. “You confused me on that one.’

can you imagine jeter making the same mistake? no.

sigh. more like duh!

*******************

speaking of the nytimes, here’s some crappy reporting by them at the toronto film festival:

‘Over the last three days parties celebrated movies that were intended as much to be heard as seen. “It Might Get Loud,” a documentary about the electric guitar and what it becomes in the hands of Jimmy Page, Bono and Jack White, had a Friday night bash. “Every Little Step,” a documentary about the musical “A Chorus Line,” held a dance party (naturally) on Saturday, while “Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” a film about teenage love and the modern version of the perfect mix tape, rented the Tattoo Rock Parlour club in downtown Toronto a few hours later.’

seems innocuous enough….except look at the accompanying photo with the article: jack white, “bono” and jimmy page:

wow! get your facts right! what makes it even more damning….here’s the accompanying caption for the photo:

‘From left, the musicians Jack White, the Edge and Jimmy Page at a screening of the film “It Might Get Loud” at the Toronto International Film Festival.’

doh! nytimes, you just wrote for duh!journal by accident! (btw, bono plays a terrible guitar)

my yankee buddy jackie got the green light from her husband, larry to buy anything she wanted from the all star game. but she had the same attitude that i did. why buy today when its all going on sale tomorrow? its like buying christmas candy on dec 25 when you can buy it dec 26. or buying easter candy the day after easter sunday. i can wait one more day. and i did. so i picked up this shirt for $10 at 50% off or more. there were ample supplies of multiple styles.

larry said we were being chinese. jackie said…no….we’re being smart.

to thank me for taking her to the all star game….while she was doing her own yankee all star scavenging, jackie picked this up for me:

jerseys are expensive. but the all star jerseys were half the price of most authetics and with 50% off i was tempted to get one myself but after getting to go to all star week events, i was satisfied with my t-shirt. but jackie wanted to upgrade me. she got a jeter all star jersey. we’ll wear them for the yankee stadium tour and hopefully the playoffs! however, the yankees have been in a downward slide lately……

but thanks, jackie!