April 06, 2009

Yankee Stadium: The reaction-thon continues

More commentary and reviews of the New York Yankees' new stadium from the past few days:

The New York Post's Joel Sherman calls it "a monument to greed" and "a fake place designed to manipulate my emotions and get into my wallet." Long Island University history professor Joe Dorinson says the Yanks and Mets stadiums are "unnecessary, building almost for the sake of building," and "reinforce the notion that baseball is not a sport; it's a business." Daily News columnist Filip Bondy says it has "little charm" but will be okay if the Yankees win, and complained that Citi Field's WiFi wasn't working. Carlos Zambrano wishes the Cubs had one just like it, but his manager Lou Piniella says Wrigley Field with some improvements would be just fine. Joe Torre said it looked nice on TV. The Newark Star-Ledger's favorite part was when the new megapowered p.a. blew out on Saturday, temporarily leaving the field in blessed silence. Daily News columnist-turned-blogger Lisa Olson loves the new place, especially that "the green design ensures that beverage cups are made of biodegradable material rather than petroleum based plastic," though she doesn't exactly say what this has to do with the new stadium.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the blogoverse, New Stadium Insider has a long list of pros and cons, concluding, "At this point we would trade our surprisingly good sushi and Lobel's steak for the amazing views from the upper deck of the old Yankee Stadium in a heartbeat." Bronx Banter's Cliff Corcoran says he couldn't find any pretzels, notices the scoreboards don't work too well, agrees the p.a. was way too loud, and says any resemblance to the old stadium "began to fade half-way through my second visit." His co-blogger Alex Belth was dazzled, but not necessarily in a good way:

It is not only the TV, which cuts to live action as a Yankee player circles the bases after hitting a home run (what to watch, the player running around the bases or the TV?). It is all the other billboards, one brighter than the other—Delta, Pepsi, Bank of America, Dunkin Donuts (I wonder how it will play during the afternoon). And there are several scoreboards. The entire area is so busy, so insistent, it was difficult for me to focus on the field of play. And I didn't exactly know where to look. My eyes were overwhelmed and I felt lost...

The new Yankee Stadium does not look elegant or stately once you are in the stands. It is remarkable though. It looks like the inside of a pinball machine. Or a slot machine. It is Vegas, sparkling state of the art technology, spectacular in a way that WOULD MAKE TOM WOLFE SMILE. It is Times Square redux—a Disney production, but not imperial in the manner of the Time Warner buildings. It's more like baseball's answer to the Francis Ford Coppola epic, One from the Heart. I missed the sense of awe, the sheer volume of the old building. This park is wider, fatter in the hips, but it isn't nearly as steep.

Finally, Jay Jaffe of The Futility Infielder sums up his feelings after his first visit to the new place: "To my mind, the Yankees need a new park more than ever."