One Long All-Star Game

15 innings....I thought we were going to end up with another one that Selig was going to have end in a tie. Doc pitched a scoreless 4th inning using only nine pitches. The AL Stars seem to have caught the Jay's disease....couldn't hit with running in scoring position. They had 14 hits, 7 walks and the NL committed 4 errors and still the AL could only get 4 runs in 15 innings. JD Drew was the game MVP going 2 for 4 with a home run.

The Canadians in the game each did well. Russell Martin went 1 for 3 and made a great tag at the plate in the 11th inning. Justin Morneau fresh off winning the home run derby went 2 for 4 with a walk, a double and a run. Ryan Dempster pitched a 1,2,3 9th, striking out the side.

Before the game more than 40 hall of famers walked onto the field, including Gary Carter, whose autograph on a baseball is looking down at me from my mantle. But the big star of the show was Yankee Stadium....me and my family, made a pilgrimage to Yankee Stadium last summer. I wanted to see it before it was torn down. We took the tour of the Stadium while there.....it was very interest to wander around the place that has seen so much history.

I really enjoyed seeing the monuments in CF, walking along the outfield track, sitting in the dugout (my middle boy, who isn't a basball fan thought it was so cool that he was sitting where Babe Ruth might have sat), and seeing the press box. And my oldest, wearing his Red Sox cap, had fun bantering with the tour guide.

Being in the park.....I really could see why they wanted a new park. The concourses are very narrow, there is little room for food or merchandise sales. Washrooms were small and ummmm not great. Seats were narrow. Sight lines were not always great....we sat once in the bleachers in right center and one game in really good seats behind the plate. Sitting under the over hang, on a hot day it was sweltering...the air didn't move at all.

Sitting in the bleachers was the greatest fun I've ever had at a baseball game. People around us were very friendly, we all talked and had fun together....really messed up my view of a typical New Yorker. The only less than enjoyable parts was the food (awful) and how narrow everything was.

We were there when ARod was trying for his 500th home run......and his swing was messed up, but every pitch there were thousands of camera flashes. He hit the 500th home run while we were in New York, but we didn't go to that game, we went to see Spamalot instead, which was great fun.

I am not at all a Yankee's fan...my favorites teams are the Blue Jays and whoever is playing the Yankee's that night. But it was great fun watching them, it was great being at such a historic ball park. I bought a tee-shirt that says 'The House that Ruth Built', I bought a very nice framed photo of the ball park that is looking down at me beside the autographed ball.

Going to Yankee Stadium is something I'll remember all my life. But I can see why they are building a new park. Compared to Safeco Field in Seattle with its wide concourses, the ability to buy any kind of food you might want, great sight lines it's an ugly place. And I loved every moment there.