OCTOBER
24, 2004 --
With
the future of Yankee Stadium in question, these words --"Courage
Tradition Heart"-- above the entrance
to the Yankee office at the Stadium are beginning to seem rather hollow.
Commitment to "Tradition" would, LPR believes, keep Yankee home games
on the field trod by Ruth and Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra (who
left Game 7 of the Red Sox-Yankees playoff
before it ended), Mickey Mantle, Phil Rizzuto, Whitey Ford, Allie Reynolds,
among so many great Yankees who
played with courage and heart and brought 26 World championships to the Stadium.
LPR noticed, before Game 7 began, that the flag of a sporting goods company
flew alongside the flags bearing the names of the cities in the east division
of the American League. Are, then, the Yankees to abandon the Stadium for a
new "Adidas Field"?
Perhaps it is time for Major League Baseball to call itself "Major League
Business." One Red Sox fan told LPR
outside Fenway Park, October 23, (photos of this visit to Bostonare planned
for posting here next week) that it costs $400 for a family of four to see
a Red
Sox game. (World Series parking close to Fenway Park goes as high as $50 --
to maintain parity with the price of crude oil?)
It would seem that the future of ordinary fans is to go to certain business
establishments close to the ballpark to inhale the atmosphere of major league
games, as did hundreds, perhaps thousands of fans in the Stadium neighborhood,
during the 2004 playoffs that, LPR believes, brought the Bambino's curse to
the Yankees -- for, LPR fears,
lacking the courage and heart to hold fast to the tradition of the beloved
Yankee Stadium. |