A Visit to Ruth's House

For any of you that AREN'T baseball fans, this is the last year that the Yankees are playing in their stadium.  The team is building a new ballpark across the street (they're really branching out into the unknown).  Both Shane and I were RAISED as Yankee fans (even when I lived in California, 15 minutes away from the Angels). 
Since this year has been so crazy, I thought it would be "special" (I really dislike that word...but I can't think of another one) if we (Shane and I) took our Dads to a Yankee game.  With two Pastor Dad's, scheduling can get tricky, but we were able to plan a Friday night trip to the Bronx on Friday, 7/18.  The Yanks were playing the Oakland A's.  It was the first game back after the All-Star Game (which also happened to be at Yankee Stadium).

Around here, last week was "The 3 H's", as the weather guys love to say: Hazy, Hot & oh so crazy Humid.  As we were heading out the door, Shane suggested I grab a jacket.  A what?  Um, Shane...it's 90+ degrees outside and the humidity is like 85%.  "Oh, but it could get chilly, Amy."  So, I grabbed one, just in case.  There was NO WAY I wanted to hear about it, if, and that was a BIG IF, suddenly, the hole in the Ozone ripped wide open and New York became one giant Iceberg.  Of course, the jacket never actually made it out of my bag.

Sorry...I digress...back to the Yankee game.

We made it there in record time and had a blast.  Parking was nutty, but Shane knew what he was doing and went straight to a lot that had plenty of room.  We walked a good 15 minutes to the stadium, but it wasn't too bad.

Mussina pitched.

(That's Moose coming in from the bullpen for the start of the game.)

Our seats were great.

The game was great.

The Yanks won 7-1!

I had my favorite Stadium treat: a Frozen Lemonade!

A WONDERFUL time was had by all.

(From Left: Shane, my Dad, Shane's Dad)

Right before the game, the Yankees signed Richie Sexon.  This was also the first Yankee game after the death of longtime Yankee, Bobby Murcer.  There was a moment of silence and a great tribute of Murcer clips.

But I think my favorite part of the night (aside from just hanging out with my Dad, my FIL, and my hubby) was listening to the Dads share their memories of going to the stadium as kids.

There's so much history in that stadium...and not just Babe Ruth's homeruns.  When Shane and I first started dating, my Dad & I met his younger sister and him at the Stadium for a game.  Half way through the game, Bethany (11 at the time) announced that the center field wall "didn't look 408 feet tall!"

How many other people have similar stories?  How many fathers took kids to their first ball game there?  How many guys proposed there?  How many boys swore they'd be the next Ruth, DiMaggio, Mattingly, Jeter, after watching the Yankees play at the Stadium?

I'm sad it's going away.  But I have to tell you, I'm excited to visit the new stadium and make new memories there, too!