Wednesday, October 8, 2008

No Long Goodbye For Yankee Stadium

The Yankees have decided that the last game in Yankee Stadium should really be the last event in Yankee Stadium:

The Yankees have scratched plans to host one final farewell to the stadium, disappointing New Yorkers who were counting on a last visit to the House that Ruth Built.The team had promised a final salute in November, which fans speculated would be a star-studded goodbye to the doomed stadium."The Yankees were considering having a charitable event at Yankee Stadium," team spokesman Howard Rubenstein told amNewYork, reading from a prepared statement. "However, the Yankees realize that the final event at Yankee Stadium should be a baseball game, which in fact took place on Sept. 21, 2008."
Whatever the motivation here -- maybe Lehman Brothers was underwriting it or something -- this is probably the right call. For all of the excess that surrounded the last season in the joint, the final day was handled pretty darn well. They went out with a win with Mariano Rivera on the mound, and that's a way preferable final shot than some tone deaf speech by Hank Steinbrenner or some halfbaked musical number or whatever the hell they would have done.

(link via River Ave. Blues)

3 comments:

Vegas Watch said...

I see what you're saying, but if I hadn't attended the last weekend because of the ticket prices and was instead planning on going to this thing, I'd be pretty pissed.

Jason @ IIATMS said...

As a local, I don't "get" what a goodbye event to a building would in fact accomplish? Say goodbye to a building? Do we really need to go give the concrete a hug?

The last game was a fitting capper on an eventful last season, despite the end result (missing the playoffs). Why can't that be the lasting image?

Vegas, if anyone wants to go see the building one last time, go. Hop the #4 or the D and go take a walk around. Or, if you're lucky enough, take one of the last tours they are offering. I did that and it was great.

Mark S said...

Maybe they'll invite Clemens and Torre to this event only to have them standing in an empty stadium.