Baseball Break

It seems that when the Yankees decided to move out of the cathedral, they had no choice but to move into Mount Olympus. As a Yankee fan, I’m a bit of a dilettante. I romanticized the old stadium I only visited occasionally while ignoring its season-long limitations.  I thought I would miss it, though I should confess that I did not have a very good record there.  Even during a winning season, they usually lost if I was in attendance.  I was the reverse curse.  I blamed myself for wanting it too much, avoided series with the Red Sox, and just prayed it wouldn’t be total blowout.  I’ve watched the rally clip from Rocky II played on the jumbotron more times than I ever care to remember.

With family visiting, I finally attended a game in their new home last night.  Walking into the the Great Hall, with its enormous banners of Yankee greats and rows of ticket takers that were still can-you-believe-it ecstatic, you understood why people used to attend games in a suit and tie.   Everywhere you looked the gods were at play-laughing, celebrating and of course eating.

Safely under the overhang, we watched Mark Teixeira hit a go-ahead, three run homer in the seventh inning to clinch the game against the Detroit Tigers, 5-3.  Even as the rain drenched the field causing a rain delay, I couldn’t help but feel my Yankee luck had finally turned.