SeaTown Goes to the Bronx

Hello from the City that Never Sleeps. The Mariners are in a three game series in the Big Aplle and I was lucky enough to be there at the same time, so I went. While I've been to several ballparks other than Safeco, I had never seen the M's as the away team. Plus, having been to the old Yankee Stadium (and hating it), I wanted to see if the New Yankee Stadium was improved.
The game itself was pretty disappointing. It was delayed for 45 minutes because of the rain, and the Mariners never held the lead, though the game was tied as late the the eighth inning. At least it was competitive enough so that I didn't get embarrassed. A couple more notes about the game before I get to the stadium.

+One of the things I heard from the Yankee fans near me was disbleif of seeing Cedeno and his sub .150 AVG in the lineup. This was before Cedeno's homerun went fifteen rows into the right field seats. Never heard anything about him again. Revenge is sweet.

+Gutierrez was easily the mariners MVP for the game, continuing his hitting tear with three hits but also making more sweet plays in center. My seats were in left-center field, and I can truly say that his greatness can be appreciated much more fully up close. The man is simply one of the best outfielders I have ever seen.

+Griffey is as bad in the field as Gutierrez is good, possibly worse. The Mariners were lucky that he only had one ball hit hard near him, though that ball, easily catchable by a competant fielder, ended up a ground-rule double. The Mariners would be well served to take his glove and set it on fire.

+Chris Woodard should never play third base again ever.

+Kenji Johjima gets a lot of crap for his defense for some reason, but he was amazing tonight. Not even Morrow knew where his pitches were going tonight, and that Kenji didn't allow any passed balls is a miracle. For his first day back he got a workout.

+Morrow still has zero command and needs to go to AAA right now. His offspeed pitches need a ton of work too, though he threw a couple good curveballs.

+Aside from the mistake pitch to A-Rod, Jakubauskas looked great. His curve really is a thing of beauty, and when its on it almost unhittable.

+My seats were in the first row overlooked the M's bullpen. Apparently they take thier spartan helmets on the road.
The Stadium itself was great. It's not as good as Safeco, but its an astronomical improvement over old Yankee Stadium and is something to be proud of.

• As I mentioned before, the game was delayed my rain. Coincidentally, the game I saw in the Old Yankee Stadium was also delayed by rain, so I can draw a good pregame comparison. In the old stadium, the concourses were really tiny cement hallways with no natural lights. If your seats weren't one of the few under cover, you were forced into there with 50,000 others, not a fun experience. The New Yankee Stadium is much improved in this way, with a much wider Safeco style concourse which allows fans to see the field from all around the stadium (except center field). With televisions everywhere for some entertainment and guardrails to lean on, it was a much better place to complain about how any new stadium, especially in a place that rains fairly often, would even consider not putting a retractable roof on the place.

• If you didn't know, it may take you awhile watching on television to realize that the Stadium is any different. The inside looks just like the old. The only real differences are the elimination of the black seats in center field, the move of Monument Park from left to center field, the shrunken backstop, and the new jumbotrons. Otherwise, it looks like Old Yankee Stadium with a fresh paint job.

• The food is the best I have ever seen at any stadium. In addition to multiple sit-down restaurants, there are many varieties of food availiable (before the game I ate some fresh pineapple from a fruit stand). The food is overpriced, but no more than the food at Safeco.

• I was wearing all Mariner gear, and I was prepared to get insults, trash, etc. thrown at me throughout the game. I was plesantly surprised though: the vast majority were polite and kept to themselves. That's not to say that there weren't jerks: there were a couple foul-mouthed idiots in my row, and one drunk guy ten rows behind me that kept taunting me for standing up, but I was happy to see that the idiots and drunks were in the minority. Sure, Yankee fans still think that the league only has two teams, but at least they were polite about it.

• The other side of that, however, was that the Stadium was really quiet most of the game. This may have been the most surprising aspect of the trip: the old stadium was as loud as a Seahawks game, if not louder. However, the fans at Yankee Stadium were really quiet, even when they scored. Safeco gets louder most of the time. Additionally, after A-Rod's homer in the seventh, literally a quarter of the fans left. It was a two run game in the bottom of the seventh, and yet everywhere I looked there were empty seats where there used to be people. I thought Dodger fans were supposed to be the ones that did that.
  

That's all I have to say about that. Saturday, weather permitting, I'll see the Mariners at Fenway. I'll have another writeup then.