Let’s get ready to rumble in the Bronx?
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Sep 11, 2009 
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
These two little guys at the Stadium yesterday are among the baddest dudes on the planet.
They are Manny Pacquiao (right) and Miguel Cotto, who were in the Bronx promoting their Nov. 14 fight in Las Vegas.
Verbose promotor Bob Arum said the event was a lead-in to a card being held at the Stadium. The Yankees would love to get the Pacquiao-Cotto winner against the victor of next weekend’s scrap between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez. Arum shot that idea down, but did say the Stadium could get Cotto at some point.
“I think one of the reasons we had the press conference here is a precursor for a big, big event,” Arum told The Associated Press. “Certainly a big fight is going to happen next year, and it’s going to happen at Yankee Stadium.”
The old Stadium was one of boxing’s great venues back in the day. Muhammad Ali fought Ken Norton there in 1976. Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis and Carmen Basilio also fought there.
As the Yankees try and find new revenue streams, boxing makes a lot of sense. There are logistical and security concerns, but those can be addressed. When the matchup is right, there are few events more exciting in sports.
I must be a bad Yankee fan. My father just offered me (via my brother-in-law, who has fantastic seats) tickets to tonight’s game and I turned them down……..I just don’t feel like schlepping to the Bronx in such terrible weather. I know it means missing Jeter’s likely breaking of the record, but so be it. I guess I should feel guilty for not going, lol, but I don’t..
I would love to see other events in the Stadium. You always hear about football games, concerts, and boxing matches taking place in the old Stadium so it would certainly be neat to be apart of those things again at the new place.
I think a Paul Simon concert at Yankee Stadium would be perfect
There would be 20% more punches landed than had the fight been somewhere else
I must be a bad Yankee fan. My father just offered me (via my brother-in-law, who has fantastic seats) tickets to tonight’s game and I turned them down……..I just don’t feel like schlepping to the Bronx in such terrible weather. I know it means missing Jeter’s likely breaking of the record, but so be it. I guess I should feel guilty for not going, lol, but I don’t..
–
You’re a bad baseball fan. Forget about just being a bad yankee fan.
I love how the curvature of the camera lens makes the foul poles look like they are falling down.
So, if a fighter is circling his opponent around the ring, gets his back to right field, then gets hit with an uppercut, will he fly over the right field wall?
Erica, it was by no means a concert, but I went to Joe Dimaggio Day after he died, and Paul Simon stolled around center field with a guitar and sang “Mrs. Robinson” (somber version). It was pretty cool.
Mayweather/Pacquiao in Yankee Stadium would be amazing. I doubt that a fight that big would happen in the Bronx but it would be awesome, and I will keep dreaming until it is completely 100% impossible.
That would be apt, Erica.
(Poignant about your mom’s birthday falling tomorrow, too).
Every weather report says the same thing: rain, rain, rain through the night.
They HAVE to call this game off tonight.
I do NOT want to see Posada pull another hamstring because of rain. That’s the first thing that came out of my mouth before we played that rain-soaked game where he DID pull a hammy. I said: “If we play, Posada’s going to pull a hamstring.”
He did.
Can’t see how they can play, with a steady rain predicted, and risk players’ health. Play the DH tomorrow and put a slacker lineup out for one of the games. It’s only Baltimore.
That said, I’m very anxious to see Tillman and Matusz’s stuff live, especially latter’s curve.
It will be interesting to see if Baltimore can return to its former incarnation as a pitching power in the AL.
ditmars1929-
I remember that performance. I am thinking a fullblown Simon & Garfunkel show at Yankee Stadium would be perfectly fitting for New York
Link to the video of Paul Simon on Joe DiMaggio day:
http://vids.myspace.com/index......2012354156
Jerkface, I was just kidding……so I hope you are, too.
I’d love to see Wrestlemania at Yankee Stadium, but it would never happen because it’s too cold when WM usually happens (Late March/Early April)
However, a Winter Classic would rock the house.
Blackaccord-
Sorry about your dad
Matty Viernes
September 11th, 2009 at 11:42 am
I’d love to see Wrestlemania at Yankee Stadium, but it would never happen because it’s too cold when WM usually happens (Late March/Early April)
However, a Winter Classic would rock the house.
****
Maybe a SummerSlam in late August if the Yankees are on a road trip
I think it’s stupid to play the game as well, Bodh. I mean, forget rescheduling it or making it part of a DH – just don’t play the game. If it means something, then play it at the end of the season……but I don’t think it will come to that.
Erica, that would be great, and thanks for the link, Mark.
Best concert I ever saw was Pink Floyd at Yankee Stadium. The stage was in right center and I had seats right where second base would be under the tarp. I kept an empty beer cup with me and filled it up with dirt from the warning track on my way out.
maybe they could box under the o’neill banner!
I don’t really care about other events at the stadium. If they left it purely for baseball, it would be fine with me. Boxing is a barbaric sport……
Louis, Robinson, Ali, Pacquiao? (“Ruth, Gerhig, Dimaggio, Mantle… Costanza??!?!?”)
Who gives a bleep about boxing anymore? I am all for off-season events at The Stadium, but lets have some meaningful ones. An outdoor Rangers game would be cool. Ditto a Manning Bowl the next time the NFC East gets the AFC South in the NFL Schedule (although there is no way the Giants would agree to willingly give up home game revenue for their own new crib). Finally, could we please keep the Domers from tainting the Stadium (they are a dying football program, notwithstanding their impressive win over Nevada).
Pacman is going to destroy Cotto. Pacman vs Mayweather is going to be awesome. Hopefully they fight 3 times.
Cotto usually fights at MSG on the eve of the Puerto Rican Day Parade. The atmosphere in the Garden is always electric for a top Puerto Rican fighter no matter who the opponent is.
It may not work out schedule wise (if the Yankees are home that weekend), but if they staged a Cotto-Pacquiao rematch at the Stadium on Puerto Rican Day weekend, it would be a giant event.
Speaking of Boxing -
We have monuments for non-baseball events in Monument Park. Why SHOULDN’T there be a monument for Ali in there? When Ali was appearing at the stadium earlier this year, that ran through my mind.
Betsy,
I hear you about just not playing it, but it’s Baltimore, which is a skip and a hop down the road, so they probably couldn’t justify not getting it in, whether it has ramifications or not.
They’d also have to refund – something they’d be loathe to do, lol.
But this weather is ridiculous – out here in North Central Jersey, these huge trees in the yard are doing dervish dances and they’re a blur out my window.
Posada’s hamstrings up against these conditions don’t stand a chance. Also don’t want Alex diving around, Pettitte slipping off the mound. Don’t care how well the place drains – these will be awful conditions come game time.
With all due respect to Ali, Joe Louis is much more important to the history of the Stadium than Ali. He fought there a dozen times, including both Schmeling fights and the famous Billy Conn fight.
Suj boxing has taken a step back in the American sports lexicon but people still care about it. And it is a part of the Yankees’ history, boxing, so like it or not the Stadium should and probably will host a fight in the future. The stadium was built to keep with the tradition of the last 100 years of the franchise, so boxing is probably going to be a part of the new house.
Bod –
If they play and they are that worried about the field, there is always the Mitre/Cervalli possiblity. Throw in Shelly at DH, Pena at SS, Hairston at 3B, Hinske somewhere, and you limit the potential damage.
Oh and I did not think of the Puerto Rican community aspect re: Cotto fighting in NY, and now the idea of him fighting in the Bronx–so thanks for bringing that up, JasonR. That would seem to increase the likelihood that Pacquiao/Mayweather will not happen in YS…but I’m going to keep the faith nonetheless.
” Boxing is a barbaric sport……”
it’s a surprise that the yankees are looking into boxing because it’s seems like a dying sport.
i don’t know that i’d call muhammad ali a barbarian though. there is an art to boxing that the great ones like ali had.
when i was a kid, boxing took place all winter in the youth center above the police station. we did it just like little league in the summer.
i remember willie pep coming in once a year and giving us all lessons before the big annual local boxing tournament . being able to fight was a part of self esteem in those days.
i guess just having a big mouth is part of self esteem now. i’m not sure that’s progress.
also i got hurt worse in football than i ever did in boxing. they made us use big gloves as kids and no one was really ever hurt badly.
i’m not against it because it’s barbaric. boxing just seems boring now because there isn’t the interest in it that produces quality fighters.
Largo,
LOL.
But you’d have to have Jeter DH. He gets his hit in the first inning, and then they pull him.
Ladies and gentlemen… The 6-time World Champion… Manny “Pacman” Pacquiaooooooooo!!! Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!!!
(sorry guys, can’t help it… peace! =P)
Another thing is, do they really want Derek’s record-breaking hit sullied by weather and a sparse crowd?
Betsy ain’t going out there, I’m sure others feel the same.
betsy September 11th, 2009 at 11:44 am
I don’t really care about other events at the stadium. If they left it purely for baseball, it would be fine with me. Boxing is a barbaric sport……
———————————
Betsy, I’m with you, especially in your comment about boxing being barbaric.
To each their own …
since it’s the bronx, wouldn’t cockfighting on the pitcher’s mound be more appropriate?
since it is the bronx, wouldn’t c*ckfighting on the pitcher’s mound be more appropriate?
Usted es una persona muy inteligente!
I really wud love to see Yankee Stadium host a wrestling event, particularly Wrestlemania in the near future. Yes there r days when NY gets cold and the baseball schedule interferes, but Wrestlemania is determined even before the regular season schedule for that year’s season gets released. Also Wrestlemania is no stranger to George Steinbrenner, he was apart of a skit at Wrestlemania VII with Vince McMahon. I hope that the next time that Wrestlemania comes to NY, no knock to the garden but it shud take place in a place where history has been made over the years, and two billionaires with two different agendas. As a Yankee and WWE fan, never say that Wrestlemania at Yankee Stadium will never happen, because someday it will.
It will also be unique if they put the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony at the birthplace of Wrestlemania (Madison Square Garden) where so many legends performed to honor them if they decide to put it there, think about it.