goodbye yankee stadium

today is the last day of baseball for the cathedral in the bronx known as yankee stadium, so often visited my such characters as mystique and aura, victory and championship, even, once in a while by those must elusive of guests, no-hitter and perfect game. much has been written and will be written during this time about the grandeur of this place, the history and mystery of this baseball stadium, a concrete sanctuary where the sultan of swat swang and the yankee clipper amazed and the mick powered his way to popularity and maris made history. much respect will be paid to this arena for gehrig, and his 'luckiest man on the face of the earth' speech, for jeter, and his dive into the stands, even for boone and bucky. much will be said. and most will say it much better than i.
but i didn't want this day to pass without at least stopping to recognize the symbol that this stadium has been for me. as much as i have written about baseball in the past, romanticizing it to an almost immortal game, this stadium has served as the main stage for the acting out of that romance. the actors here have been some of the greatest of all time. the moments almost too many to count. for me, in a way, yankee stadium is baseball, with all its history and monuments and magic.
now, don't get me wrong. i'm not in love with the stadium itself. i mean, i love the history there, but the stadium itself is ugly from the outside, annoying to get to, almost unbearably uncomfortable, and has a kind of 1970's feel to it. i've been there 7 or 8 times, and i'm thankful for each one of those opportunities. i got to see the yankees beat the red sox there. i got to see the yankees lose to the indians there, 22-1 or something. in short, i paid my respects to what i consider to be the greatest 'space' in baseball.

goodbye, yankee stadium. thanks for the memories. here's wishing you all the mystique and aura you can handle right across the street.