The LoHud Yankees Blog

The ballgame experience is about so much more than the game itself. It’s the people you’re with, the food you eat and whether you were in the bathroom for that three-run homer in the seventh. It’s the weather, the atmosphere and the trip to and from the stadium. It’s the full experience, and all of it matters to some degree.

In the Bronx, Yankee Stadium is a monster. In a lot of ways, it seems over-the-top by design. It’s huge — from the video board to the Steinbrenner monument — but what else would you expect from the biggest name in baseball? For me, it’s a comfortable place to work, and the two times I’ve watched a game from the seats — when my best friend was in town two years ago, and when my parents were here last year — I’ve enjoyed it.

It’s hard for me to compare the new place to the old one because I wasn’t at the old Yankee Stadium enough, but I don’t think the current Yankee Stadium is a bad one. Like Matthew pointed out in this morning’s Pinch Hitter post, the stadium has its flaws, one of which is that it’s not a perfect replica of a stadium fans knew and loved for decades.

But the ballgame experience really is about more the game itself, and it’s about more than the stadium itself. My three favorite road trips are probably Minnesota, Oakland and Tampa Bay, and those three have little to do with the stadiums or the teams. My sister lives 10 miles — at most — from the Oakland Coliseum, my girlfriend lives in Minneapolis and I’ve spent so much time in Tampa that it feels like a second home.

Yes, Yankee Stadium is flawed, but so is every other stadium in the country. And my guess is that you still have a good time going to the ballpark, and that it starts to feel a little more like home the more times you go.

Associated Press photo

Our next Pinch Hitter is Matthew O’Connor, who was born in western Massachusetts in 1972 but taught to be a Yankee fan by his Brooklyn-born father. “If Dad had to survive being a Yankee fan in Brooklyn in the 50’s,” Matthew wrote, “then it was only fair that I walk the New England gauntlet in the wake of Bucky Dent.”

For this post, it’s important to note the Matthew was a Yankees season ticket holder from 1996 through 2000 until he was married and moved to London (he had to work the work the day after Aaron Boone’s game winning Game 7 home run, which happened at roughly 6:02 a.m. over there). Matthew moved back to Manhattan in 2007, and says he tries not to tear his eyes out when he years about a piece of old New York dying in the name of greed progress (see: Island, Coney).

It’s with that love for history, memories and the Yankees that Matthew wrote about the new Yankee Stadium.

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The Reason We Came

The second incarnation of Yankee Stadium (1976-2008) provided some indelible memories for fans – Chambliss being bum rushed by what looked like the cast of The Warriors after ending the ’76 ALCS, Reggie’s third homer landing halfway up “the black,” the time that guy threw a full beer in the air from the upper deck as Tino’s grand slam in the ’99 Series left the yard (I may have seen replays of that homer too many times). The old Stadium always popped on TV during the big moments.

But you had to experience it in person. That ballpark, in October, could be counted on for its hostility factor – daunting for the opposition but thrilling if you were a fan. Upper deck seats seemed to hang right over the field making a bad situation worse for the other team. It was the kind of ballpark where you would hurry back to your seat after a bathroom break because you didn’t want to miss the action, but also because there was literally nothing else to do. The place was short on comforts and amenities, but who cared? You schlepped up to The Bronx to watch a ballgame and shout yourself hoarse.

As the 90’s gave way to the aughts, you could sense the change in the stands. Going to a Yankee game had become THE thing to do when visiting New York. You would notice more tourists and out of town business colleagues of finance executives. Attendance increased sharply, from 2.2 million at the beginning of their title run in 1996 to well over 4 million by the close of business at Yankee Stadium II. By this time, control of the team had been transferred over to George Steinbrenner’s sons Hal and Hank (less Hank, for reasons I love to speculate about), COO Lonn Trost and the delightful Randy Levine as President. The brass recognized a huge opportunity to cash in on this portion of paying customers at the new stadium being built across the street.

Enter the Yankee Stadium III, replete with all flavors of distraction for the non-fan. From dated pop culture artifacts for the average tourist (“Get your Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts he-ere!”) to the pre-French Revolution excess of the Legends Suite. At first glance, the new place screamed, “If you aren’t interested in watching a baseball game, you’ve come to the right place!”

But what of the core fan base, the one that came for the main event?

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Easy Fixes

The New York Yankees are a business, we all get that. Here are a few humble suggestions that can be easily accomplished without affecting the bottom line.

1. Ease up on the muscle – No need to call out the dogs on people eating sandwiches at conveniently located standing room stools two hours before game time. Encourage your security staff to use discretion before the breaking of balls for insignificant infractions. Yes, this happened to me — the steak sandwich from Lobel’s demands immediate consumption and cannot be asked to travel. The policy banning non box seat ticket holders from standing behind the dugout before games is especially heartless. Let the kids ask for their autographs.

2. Let the good people relax before game time – The impact of losing organist Eddie Layton has been huge. Even in his later years, it was clear Yankee brass were phasing out his tinkling of the plastic ivory for more bombastic ambient noise. This phenomenon isn’t restricted to Yankee Stadium – the YES network crew will often remark that Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City has the most overwhelming sound system in baseball. But time was, you could get to your seat early and soak up the sights of the ballpark with Mr. Layton as your soundtrack. Maybe you could even carry on a conversation with a friend. But does anyone, seriously ANYONE, prefer the new pre-game entertainment of a roving reporter shown on that ginormous screen loudly educating fans of all the various locations in the Stadium they can hemorrhage their hard-earned dollars?

3. Empty seats behind home plate are embarrassing, especially in October – Ticket prices for some field level seats have reached such levels of absurdity that it now only appeals to a previously undefined baseball fan – the person so wealthy he or she can afford to drop $1,250 or so on a single seat, but also wealthy enough to blow it off when something better comes up. If the spoiled little emperors don’t show up by the third inning, grab a group of fans from the cheap(er) seats above and let them watch the game from here. I know, I know – we’ve all read the studies proving that unmoisturized skin of the non-wealthy will degrade teak armrests (seriously, this is a trumpeted feature). But let’s let the eggheads sort that one out.

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Wish They Didn’t

If I had my druthers (and I don’t), these features would’ve hit the drawing room floor during the design process.

Mohegan Sun Sports Bar – Looks like a wonderful simulation of the experience of watching a baseball game at a sportsbook in Connecticut. Proud parent of hundreds of visually obstructed bleacher creatures and Monument Cave.

Steinbrenner monument – By all means, you guys own the stadium so feel free to erect a tribute to your father. To have the size of it dwarf the monuments for Ruth, Mantle and Gehrig redefines the word grandiose.

Legends Boxes – Mr. Levine, tear down this moat!

Upper deck – Cheers for making it harder to hit one in the upper deck. Jeers for moving upper deck fans further away from the action and most likely reducing the noise factor.

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Many Happy Returns?

My lifelong love of baseball and the Yankees ensures that I will continue to be a paying customer for the foreseeable future. The powers-that-be will continue to assault us with what this curmudgeon finds distasteful, and I’ll keep coming back for more. But if they change even one molecule of that Lobel’s steak sandwich, I might be forced to turn into one of these guys.

Associated Press photo up top, other two pictures submitted by Matthew

Some veterans are starting to settle for minor league deals at this point in the offseason — Carlos Guillen, Juan Cruz, Livan Hernandez — and you have to think the Yankees would like to get in on that action. I don’t think Brian Cashman is bluffing when he says he’d like to trade for a bat, but I also think the team could find some cheap bench options out there. Sometimes they work out (Eric Chavez) and sometimes they don’t (Ron Belliard) but they never hurt.

A few notes and links on a fairly quiet Wednesday.

By the way, that’s an AP picture of CC Sabathia at the Knicks game last night.

• Interesting little nugget from our buddy Bryan Hoch: At last night’s Thurman Munson Dinner, Thurman’s wife Diana said that George Steinbrenner told the Munsons that he was hoping to have Thurman become the Yankees manager at some point. “George said positively, he was grooming him,” Diana said. “And I always laugh. I’d say, ‘How many times do you think George would have fired him?’

• No surprise, but Cashman once again said he’s comfortable with A.J. Burnett as a piece of the pitching staff. “He’s extremely talented and has been inconsistent,” Cashman said. “But I can tell you I’m comfortable with the effort he’s giving, I’m comfortable with everything that he does, the accountability that comes with him.”

• For whatever it’s worth, Curt Schilling said the Yankees are the favorites to win the American League East.

• Interesting piece from Kevin Goldstein, who asked MLB executives to compare Yoenis Cespedes to five young big league center fielders, wondering whether the executives would prefer Cespedes or the known quantities. Of the five, Adam Jones was the only big leaguer seen as a consensus better player than Cespedes. Six of the eight executives interviewed preferred Cespedes to Colby Rasmus or Drew Stubbs.

• Speaking of Cespedes: Baseball America took a look at six other Cuban free agents who are on the international radar. 

• The International League announced that former Yankees pitching coach Dave Eiland has been elected to the league’s Hall of Fame. Most of his time as a player in the league was spent with Triple-A Columbus.

Associated Press photo

For longtime rivals, Brian Cashman and Theo Epstein have always seemed to have a friendly respect for one another, and yesterday they spoke together at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.

Tyler Kepner used the occasion to take a look at the relationship between Cashman and Epstein.

Cashman: “The best compliment you can give is when you start studying your opponent. We actually took a lot of different things that (the Red Sox) were doing and have acclimated into our business.”

Epstein: “We tried to focus on just executing our strategy and building our organization the way we wanted to. We got some rewards from that. But I was never able to totally relax, because I felt like (Cashman) was always lurking.”

As Kepner points out: You have to wonder how long it will be before Cashman and Epstein finally make a trade with one another now that Epstein is the general manager of the Cubs, and the former Cubs GM Jim Hendry is a Cashman assistant with the Yankees.

Associated Press photo

Yankees relieved Kevin Whelan has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Whelan was designated for assignment to make room for Hiroki Kuroda on the 40-man roster. The former college catcher had a breakout season as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre closer last season, finally cutting down on his walks to finish with a 2.75 ERA with 54 strikeouts and 14 walks in 45 appearances.

He made just two appearances in the big leagues. He walked four batters and got just two outs in his debut, but he pitched again two days later and pitched a scoreless, hitless inning.

Whelan is the last piece remaining from the 2006 Gary Sheffield trade. Consider him additional relief depth this season.

Mark Teixeira is a home run hitter with a problem. His batting average is sinking, and the aggressive defensive shift used by opposing teams is giving him problems left-handed.

“I might lay down some bunts this year,” Teixeira said before last night’s Thurman Munson dinner. “I’ve been so against it my entire career. But I might lay down a few bunts. If I can beat the shift that way, that’s important.”

Teixeira hit just .224/.325/.453 as a lefty last season. He hit 24 home runs left handed, but all-around consistency that made him such a dynamic hitter two years ago was missing, and it’s been missing for two years now (from the left side).

“Obviously I’d love to bring my average up and it’s very simple, left-handed singles,” Teixeira said.

Of course, I don’t think Teixeira is going to try to become Juan Pierre from the left side, but since the end of last season he’s said that his left-handed approach is something that needs a change. He said he’s talked to Kevin Long about squaring up his stance a little bit, and he’s thought about becoming more willing to take an opposite field single rather than trying to always pull extra-base hits.

“I have to adapt,” Teixeira said. “I’ve been frustrated the last few years, because those balls haven’t been falling in. Finally I’ve kind of given in, and I’m going to hopefully start using that side a little more.”

I couldn’t get to the Munson dinner, but MLB.com has some videos of Teixiera at the event.

Associated Press photo

Technically, I’ve seen a no-hitter. Or technically, I haven’t. I guess it depends on your point of view.

Down in the minor leagues, most doubleheaders are seven-inning games. Several years ago — 2004, maybe? — I watched Robert Ellis throw a seven-inning no-hitter on his first day with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre team. He literally met his catcher in the afternoon, then threw a no-hitter that evening. Michel Hernandez was the catcher, and I’m pretty sure a guy named Mark Smith homered. Not nearly the same as a perfect game in the big leagues, but it was still pretty cool.

And baseball’s good for little moments like that. Even if you weren’t there to see it person — or if you walked out early like this morning’s Pinch Hitter, David, did when he was a kid at David Wells perfect game — the memory lingers.

I’ve said before that Derek Jeter’s 3,000th hit is probably the memorable thing I’ve ever seen on a baseball field. I covered the World Series clincher in 2009, but a championship is different. It’s a culmination, a part of a bigger picture. What Jeter did stands on its own.

The 2003 postseason, do you immediately think of the World Series loss or the Aaron Boone home run? This year’s World Series, do you think Cardinals fans will remember more about the clinching Game 7 or the David Freese heroics of Game 6? Wells made 10 postseason starts for the Yankees, but do you remember any of them quite like you remember the perfect game?

Those unexpected moments along the way don’t minimize the importance of a championship — I don’t think Jeter grew up dreaming of 3,000 hits the way he dreamed of playing in the World Series — but they’re unforgettable because they’re so wildly unpredictable. We all knew Jeter was approaching 3,000, but who could have predicted he’d get there that way? It makes the list with the dive and the flip, anoter moment that stands out.

There are a lot of baseball games in a season — a lot of at-bats, and a lot of pitches thrown — and people who don’t like the game will say the long games and long season makes it boring.

The rest of us will say you have to keep watching, because you never know when you’re going to see something great.

First, a story: A few years ago, my little sister was living in Boston when Jon Lester threw his no-hitter. I’d seen highlights of the final out, so I knew about the milestone, and within a few minutes, my sister called me. There was enough noise in the background that I believed her when she said she was at Fenway. Now, my sister knows and likes baseball – she’ll go to games anywhere — so she understood what a no-hitter meant, but she had no idea of the historical significance of what she’d just seen.

“The crowd went crazy,” she told me. “Was that his first one or something?”

That’s my random no-hitter story. Here’s David Fox’s.

David is our next Pinch Hitter, and he’s in his final semester at Binghamton University. He wrote that he’s been a programmer most of his life, “so I’ll probably be doing that after college.” David also enjoys photography, writing, collecting sports memorabilia, and following the Yankees. You can also check out his personal blog.

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I just turned 22, and it’s hard for me to believe that I have baseball memories which date back more than a decade. Through the years, I’ve formed a mental scrapbook of all the great Yankee moments I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing. Each “page” features one of these memories from my unique perspective. Only recently did I fondly, yet somewhat begrudgingly reflect on a bit of history that I was present for during the magical 1998 season.

In the late 90′s, as some might remember, a fad called “Beanie Babies” had reached its peak and everyone wanted them. My mom and her friend were avid collectors and there was little they wouldn’t do to get their hands on the rare ones. When they heard that the Yankees were featuring a Beanie Baby giveaway, they knew they needed to get tickets. I was only 8 at the time, and my love for baseball had not yet emerged. Looking back, I’m pretty certain my friends and I wouldn’t have been invited if the giveaway weren’t only for kids.

Fast forward to May 17, 1998. It was Beanie Baby Day at Yankee Stadium, or as it’s sometimes better known: the day David Wells pitched a perfect game.

In the morning, my mom and her friend set out to the stadium, and they dragged my 8-year-old self and my two friends with them. We got there, received our prized Beanie Babies and took our seats.

Let’s do a quick rundown of our cast: We had two moms who that didn’t know baseball and three 8-year-old kids whose attention spans were less than admirable — a recipe for baseball-spectating disaster!

Unsurprisingly, when my mom decided in the sixth inning that it would be smart to leave so we could beat traffic, there were no objections. I can only imagine the odd looks we got as we happily walked out of Yankee Stadium with a perfect game in progress!

About an hour after leaving, my mom and I opened the front door of our house, and all we heard was my dad yelling, “How could you guys leave early?!?!? Do you realize what happened?!?”

I can’t help wonder if we were the only five people out of the 49,820 in attendance to leave Yankee Stadium before the last pitch that day.

Thirteen years later, I’m a die-hard Yankee fan and I have been for years. My early-exit perfect game experience has left me with positives, negatives, but most importantly, lessons. Although I didn’t get to appreciate what I saw and could have seen, I ended up with a ticket stub and Beanie Baby from the game, both of which I still have. But obviously, as a huge baseball fan, it’s difficult to accept that I left a first-hand viewing of baseball’s rarest feat. I’d do anything to go back in time and stay until the end. However, this leads me to the lesson.

It has become abundantly clear to me that there is so much more to witnessing history than just being present. It’s the ability to truly appreciate the significance of the event that means the most. So I propose this to dedicated baseball fans: If you’re lucky enough to find yourself in the stands at what is shaping up to be a significant baseball moment, or maybe even a perfect game, take a good look around. There might be 50,000 people in the stands, but how many have the knowledge to truly appreciate the incredible moment they’re about to witness? If you’re one of those lucky ones who can be watching a perfect game with the aptitude to realize you’re getting to see something that’s happened 20 times in 140 years, then you certainly get to take the event in at a higher level.

When you’re watching any incredible baseball moment unfold, I implore you never to take the fact that you’re able to fully appreciate it for granted. There’s a great chance the significance is passing by many people right around you, like it did to me that day.

It might even be nice to let an unknowing spectator in on the secret.

Photo from David

News broke earlier today about the Yankees hiring former Cubs general manager Jim Hendry. Later in the day, the Yankees went ahead and made that signing official, along with several other non-player moves. Here’s the announcement. 

The New York Yankees today announced the hiring of Jim Hendry as Special Assignment Scout. The Yankees have also named Steve Donohue as Major League Head Athletic Trainer and Mark Littlefield as Major League Assistant Athletic Trainer. Additional promotions to the baseball operations department include naming Jean Afterman Senior Vice President/Assistant General Manager, Billy Eppler Assistant General Manager and Will Kuntz Manager, Pro Scouting.

Hendry spent the previous 17 seasons with the Chicago Cubs organization, the last nine-and-a-half years as Vice President/General Manager. The Cubs made the postseason three times in his tenure (2003, ’07 and ’08), making him the first general manager in franchise history to accomplish the feat. He began his time with the Cubs as the Director of Player Development in November 1994, before taking over as the club’s scouting director prior to the 1996 season. He assumed the role of Director of Player Development and Scouting in October 1998 and then became assistant general manager from August 2000 until his promotion to GM two years later.

Prior to his time with the Cubs, Hendry worked for three seasons with the Florida Marlins in roles as a scout, minor league manager and Special Assistant to General Manager Dave Dombrowski. He served as the head baseball coach at Creighton University from mid-1984 through 1991, earning Baseball America’s “National Coach of the Year” Award in 1991 after leading the team to a third-place finish in the NCAA College World Series.

Afterman enters her 11th season as the Yankees’ Assistant General Manager and first as a Senior Vice President. She became only the third female to hold the position of Assistant General Manager when she was hired by the Yankees prior to the 2002 season, and is the only female to currently hold such a title. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and the University of San Francisco School of Law, Afterman was recently named one of 2010’s “Women of the Year” by Women in Sports and Events (WISE) as well as a “2010 Power Woman” by New York Moves magazine.

Eppler assumes the role of Assistant General Manager under Brian Cashman as he enters his eighth season with the Yankees organization. He joined the Yankees as Assistant Director of Baseball Operations in November 2004 and has also served as Director of Professional Scouting (2006-09) and Senior Director of Professional Personnel (2010-11). He began his career in professional baseball in January 2000 as an Area Scout (Southern California) for the Colorado Rockies and served as Area Scouting Supervisor before being promoted to Assistant Director of Pro Scouting and Player Development in February 2003. A native of San Diego, Calif., Eppler earned a finance degree, with honors, in 1998 from the University of Connecticut where he also played baseball until a labrum tear prior to his senior year.

Donohue takes over the Head Athletic Trainer position in 2012 following the retirement of his longtime partner and mentor Gene Monahan. The upcoming season will mark Donohue’s 34th in professional baseball – all with the Yankees franchise. He had served the previous 26 seasons working directly under Monahan, sharing the honor of “Best Athletic Trainers” in Major League Baseball in 2010 by the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainer Society (PBATS) and “Athletic Training Staff of the Year” from Major League Baseball in 1990. A Bronxville, N.Y., native and graduate of the University of Louisville, he began his athletic training career in 1979 with the Yankees’ Double-A West Haven affiliate.

Littlefield, who joined the Yankees organization in 1991, enters his 22nd season with the club. He served as the minor league head athletic trainer in each of the last 18 seasons, also overseeing all Major League rehab assignments.

Kuntz has been named Manager, Pro Scouting after serving as a Pro Scouting Assistant for the Yankees since October 2006. He began with the organization as a Baseball Operations summer intern from 2003-05 before joining the organization full-time as a Baseball Operations assistant in June 2006.

Yankees Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra and first baseman Mark Teixeira will be among those honored at tonight’s Thurman Munson Awards Dinner in New York City.

Berra will receive the Munson Legend Award, given to the Yankees icon in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the 1962 championship.

Teixeira is one of four players receiving “Thurmans,” awarded based on success on the field and through philanthropic work off the field.

Here are some more details.

Who: The honorees – Yankees Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra (Legend Award); Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira; Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey; Basketball Hall of Famer/ St. John’s and Warriors guard Chris Mullin; Georgetown/NBA star center Dikembe Mutombo (all accept Thurman Munson Awards); Mets infielder Daniel Murphy (inaugural Thurman Rising Star Award); Robert Tillis, Chief Executive Officer, Imperial Bag and Paper Co., Inc., (Corporate Hero); Thurman’s widow Diana Munson.

What: The 32nd annual Thurman Munson Awards Dinner to benefit AHRC New York City Foundation

Where: Grand Hyatt Hotel, 42nd Street, New York City

When: Tuesday night, January 31, 2012

Associated Press photo