Stadium 2 - Shea

Shea Stadium, Mets vs SF Giants, 7-3 win by the Mets! For this lovely afternoon game, myself and my father, sister, and her boyfriend, Jay, were fortunate enough to have those special tickets from some very generous friends which enabled us to sit in our own suite. Unlimited hot dogs, hamburgers, wings, fruit, cheeses, and of course wine & beer, all complimentary, made this game our favorite so far. Here are some shots from our day at Shea, followed by some more of my ramblings on the park:

Me & pops

Hottest subway ride of our lives

Baseball!

Outside

Inside


Exboyfriend at the same game as me!

Dad watchin the game from our fabulous suite.

Jay, me & the sis. (Jay is Sarah's above average boyfriend)



























At the end of a very long day. Trapped in a sweat train for a half hour.

Ratings
Because of our private suite, the ratings for this ballpark cannot follow my usual format. We had a private bathroom, food was on hand, and free, as was beer. I can make some general comments on what I observed, however.

-Beer was served in the stands by vendors. Excellent.
-Sound system was great.
-Lots of giveaways to the fans.
-Not very friendly greeters/ushers.
-First pitch ceremony performed.
-Not the easiest ballpark to maneuver through efficiently and get from one level to the next.
-National anthem was sung live.
-Beer: $8
-Hot dog: $4.75
-Soda: $5.25

Overall aura: Excellent. Fans were great, enthusiastic, and always cheering.

Luxury before camping!

For the first two games, Yanks and Mets, the logistics of driving our 22 foot RV around a crowded city was too much for us to handle. Instead we called upon some very sweet friends of ours, Phil & Lisa, who put us up in Buckingham Palace, as we so appropriately named it, in Ridgefield CT for our first and third nights on the road.

The second night was spent in NYC with my dear sister in her lovely apartment on the upper east side.

Stadium 1 - Yankees

Yankees vs. Tampa, 2-1 win by the Yanks, thanks to Abreyu in the 10th. It was also moustache day, in support of Giambi trying to make it to the All Star game.

As diehard Red Sox fans in a sea of Yankee lovers, this was a fairly difficult first game for us. As we proceed through our tour of the 20 parks, I will be assessing each ballpark based on my own criteria, which is as follows:
1. Seating comfort
2. Food availability
3. Food pricing
4. Food quality
5. Bathroom quality
6. Alcohol (price & availability)
7. Overall aura (completely subjective - I am a red sox fan, afterall! Unabashedly biased)

Each will be judged on a 1 to 5 scale: 1 = poor, 2 = needs improvement, 3 = acceptable/unremarkable, 4 = good, 5 = excellent.

I, of course, will be also be supplying additional remarks for each stadium, from my own perspective. In no way is this an objective look at each ballpark. Take the information in this webpage at your own risk. Remember, I am a Red Sox fan. The stadium I have been to the most is Fenway, so most of my judgements are based off of my intimate knowledge of Fenway. Now let's begin.

Yankee Stadium
My father purchased our tickets to Yankee stadium months in advance; closer to our date of departure, a very kind family friend gave us 4 tickets (4 to include my sister and her boyfriend to see the yanks and the mets) to Yankee, Shea, and 2 to see Minnesota. Now these were very special tickets, at prime locations in the respective ballparks. For Yankee stadium, we were sitting in the 4th row behind the visitor (Rays) dugout. We could see the sweat on the players faces as they returned between innings. A big thank you to these very generous friends, who must know how much we appreciate our spectacular view, even if we could not bring ourselves to root for the Yanks.

Ratings
1. Seat Comfort: 4
-wide enough, ample leg space, cupholders
2. Food Availability: 2
-difficult to find exactly what you wanted; almost too much variety and not enough of the basics
3. Food Prices: 2
-even higher than Fenway! $5.50 for a hotdog, $4.75 for a bottle of water
4. Food Quality: 4
-excellent assortment & taste
5. Bathroom Quality: 3
-stocked, clean enough
6. Alcohol: 3
-many beer stands but very few light beer stands; points for vendors who brought beer to you in the seats.
7. Overall aura: 2
-I'm simply anti Yanks.

General Comments
There was no first pitch ceremony. The National Anthem as well as "God Bless America" were simply played over the loudspeakers and were not sung live. The sound system was less than desirable. The fans did not chant for the Yanks very much, even when the game was tied and went into extra innings. BUT! It was an amazing experience to enjoy the game in a stadium that holds 82,000 of my rivals.

"We would all be perfect if we each had three arms".

Preparing for this trip is an endeavor of its own caliber.




Luckily, I have this fine young man as my guide.




Poor papa, wrestling with hoses and things.



A bit of a mess at first...



...but entirely clutter-free up front.



And my little nook is absolutely lovely!



I even have a little window to spy out of.



And with Wally as our mascot, were allll set.