You would think that I get enough of baseball being at Wrigley Field all the time and working about 79 games a year.  You would be wrong.  I have a goal in life to get to all 50 states and to every MLB ballpark that I can in my travels.  I’m a lot closer to the all 50 states goal than I am all the MLB ballparks.  38 states vs. 16 ballparks but 4 of those (Tiger Stadium, Old Yankee Stadium, Candlestick Stadium and Riverfront Stadium) are no longer used by MLB teams.  Therefore, I have 18 current ballparks still to go.  I try to get to at least one new stadium every year but due to several reasons, I was unable to add one last season.  To rectify that mistake, I made up for it by going out to NYC this year on vacation with my wife and made sure to get to new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field while I was there.

We did the trip to Yankee Stadium first.  On Tuesday night, June 25th, we went to see the Yankees play the Rangers.  It was Yankees Hat night for the promo so I was able to get a free hat for a buddy of mine that is a huge Yankees fan.  We picked up a magnet and my wife bought a couple of apples so she could post a photo of our purchases and say “how do you like them apples?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first thing that caught my eye when entering the stadium was the giant picture of Reggie Jackson hitting a home run in the World Series.  Reggie was one of my favorite players when I was a kid and while I have heard hundreds of horror stories about what a flaming assbag he is in real life, the one time I got to meet him at an autograph show, he was very nice to me.  That’s more than I can say about a lot of these athletes.  Anyway, I was impressed to see this just inside the entrance:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we bought our souvenirs, we went to take a look at the field.  It was just as massive as I imagined it would be:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am not a fan of the Yankees at all.  As a matter of fact, when I came across the decorated All Star Game apple for the Yankees, this was my reaction:

That being the case, we decided not to stick around for much of the game and left early.  We had a long week ahead of us and I got to see the stadium and say that I’ve been in the new ballpark.  It didn’t hold the same aura of importance as the old Yankee Stadium and it just seemed like a lot of the other newer stadiums…just gaudier so the Yankees could have their stamp on it.  Stacy had severely sprained her ankle a couple of days before the trip (Drinky McTrippy in action) and needed to get to a Target to get some more ibuprofen and some athletic wrap to put on her ankle.  Thanks to Foursquare, we saw that a Target was within half a mile of the stadium.  In asking a season ticket salesman the best way to get there, his suggestion: “Do you know this neighborhood?  You DO NOT want to try to walk through it.”  That was very encouraging so we went back to the car and drove to Target for our medical supplies.  Here’s what MrcTrippy’s ankle looked like the whole week in New York:

The wife was moving slightly better a few days later when we went to the Mets vs. Nationals game on Friday night June 28th at Citi Field.  The main reason I chose NY for the vacation instead of going to Baltimore/DC and hitting up Camden (my favorite park outside of Wrigley) and adding the Nationals stadium to my list was two fold.  1). NY gave me two new stadiums instead of 1.  2) When the Mets were at Wrigley, I met a great guy from their clubhouse staff that said he would get me an on field pass during batting practice if I came out to a game.  That won me over immediately.  The perks of working at the clubhouse door!  Let me start by saying that Citi Field was much nicer than I thought it was going to be.  Not sure what I expected but I had heard bad things about the park before going.  I came away impressed.  Maybe it was the low expectations I had going in but I rank it just behind Camden, Dodger Stadium and PNC Park in Pittsburgh for places I’ve been.  Not too shabby.

Stacy and I showed up and went to the Hodges gate to get our field passes.  I loved how the entry gates were named for great Mets players.  I thought that was a nice touch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were then led out onto the field to watch the teams take batting practice.  It was a surreal experience and I can’t thank the Mets enough for treating me so nicely and letting me have this opportunity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I even wore my UK shirt so I would have Mets colors (sort of) and not be wearing my usual Cubs gear.  The experience just kept getting better as sure fire Hall of Famer Joe Torre was at the game.  While I followed the rules on the pass (NO AUTOGRAPHS) and thus didn’t bring any baseballs out onto the field to get signed, everyone else had baseballs on them and got Joe Torre to sign.  I decided to hell with and asked for a photograph so I didn’t leave completely empty handed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the on field experience was over, we went up to our seats.  We ended up having access to the Caesars Club on the third level in behind home plate and spent most of the game inside there as it had great food and kept us out of the rain that began falling shortly after first pitch.  The view we had from our seats before we moved weren’t bad at all:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the rest of the baseball trip revolved around getting to the All Star Game Apples that we could find while hitting other touristy destinations around the city.  Here I am finding the White Sox apple:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Cubs:

 

And here are the others we found…just the apples:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, it was one of my favorite vacations.  I loved getting to see two stadiums and the hunt for the ASG Apples was a lot of fun.  I just wish the wifey had a better ankle so we could have taken in more of them.  I thought adding special apples for the two teams that left New York was a great idea and a nice touch.  Both of those apples were located inside Grand Central Station which I thought was very fitting for the teams that moved.  While the apples will be gone soon if they aren’t already, I would highly recommend that any baseball fan get out to New York and see both of these ballparks.

 

If all goes well, I might try to add Comerica Park to my list before the end of the season too.  Might as well stockpile then at this point!