NEW YORK -- One great thing about jetting to the big city is the chance to listen to hysteria on sports talk radio once you're there. Bob from Bayonne, Tyler from Queens and Junior in the Bronx aren't happy. Both the Mets and Yankees had forgettable openings to their stadiums on the field and early returns are that both teams may not be worthy of their shiny new palaces. Prices are obscenely out of whack in the stands.
And the one frightening conclusion I drew from the Yankee Stadium opener that repeatedly crackled over the airwaves was this: Baseball in the Big Apple has lost its soul. Maybe forever. The new Yankee Stadium is an incredible place. I'm looking forward to seeing Citi Field in a couple of weeks and I hear rave reviews of its new amenities, too. But they're almost too nice. At old Yankee and Shea, you didn't want to be in the dirty, claustrophobic concourses. You had no choice but to sit in your seat and watch the game.
Why do that now when you can visit the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, the Great Hall, the Shake Shack, the Hard Rock or the Tommy Bahama Bar?
Does that mean you shouldn't go? Of course not. You won't be disappointed. If you're a hardcore fan, just understand these ballparks are now bona fide tourist attractions. The game is going to be a small part of the sideshow as folks walk around, stand in two-inning lines to enter the gift shop and then eat and drink themselves silly.
In the fifth inning of Thursday's opener at Yankee Stadium, I took a walk out of the press box. The Bahama Bar was jammed -- and I mean jammed -- with people. All of them, of course, were ticketed patrons but none of them were in stadium seats, which had empties all over the place. There were people lined up to get inside the NYY Steak House. There was a crowd in the Yankees Museum. Folks were snapping pictures in the Great Hall.
Somehow, I don't think a tie game on Opening Day in the old stadium was such an afterthought.
That lawyer making six figures sitting in the 10th row with his lamb chop and chablis isn't taking his shirt off on a sun-soaked day, much less standing and bellowing when there's two strikes on an opposing batter. The fan in that spot used to have a dog and a beer and he could quote the maiden name of the hitter's mother.
There won't be much of a home-field advantage anymore as the Mets and Yankees learn their new parks. The fans don't breathe down opponents' necks and the visitors have clubhouse amenities that are better than what many of them have at home. Couldn't say that at Yankee or Shea.
The Yankees are essentially built for their place because the dimensions are basically identical so they don't have huge adjustments to make. The Mets, however, were stunned to see how big the outfield at Citi plays. Some of those David Wright blasts that were long gone at Shea might die at Citi.
Yankee Stadium, in particular, might look the same but it's horribly different. There will be no more upper-deck home runs. It's just too far back to hit one up there. The folks in the bleachers tried to make it like another day Thursday but they're farther back, too.
They chanted, "We're still here, we're still here," at the start of the game, toasted their beers to the sky at the start (no more prohibition in the bleachers) and were downright entertaining when they chanted, "We want Swish-er, we want Swish-er," as the Yankees were getting blown out, a tribute to outfielder Nick Swisher's relief work last week in Tampa.
But they're not happy with all the obstructed views caused by the members-only Mohegan Sun Sports Bar in center field.
The upper deck won't shake anymore. The sound flies out instead of getting corraled by that top deck. You can hardly hear the PA, hardly hear Sinatra after the final out.
The fans cheer more wildly now for Tino Martinez and Bernie Williams and David Wells than Reggie Jackson, Whitey Ford and Don Larsen. Guess the '50s, '60s and '70s never happened. Over at Citi, you'd think Mike Piazza actually won something the way Mets fans react to him.
The YES Network does show "Yankeeography" 20 times a day and the Babe Ruth episode was on the video board prior to Thursday's game. Maybe Michael Kay might want to introduce the real legends as loudly and enthusiastically as he does the role players of the most recent Yankee dynasty, even as beloved as they still are.
As for the current teams, they are definitely in trouble. The Yankees' bullpen is a joke and can the Move-Joba Chamberlain movement be far behind? A-Rod can't get back soon enough, Mark Teixeira is an overpriced sub-.200 hitter with a bad wrist and CC Sabathia looks as overweight as ever.
The Mets have major questions with their starting pitching outside of Johan Santana (and don't even get me started about what they sent to Buffalo this year either).
It's a long, long way to October but both teams are woefully unimpressive. Both ballparks, meanwhile, are huge upgrades. Just don't yell too loudly to offend the high roller next to you and make sure you have your credit cards close at hand.
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More on Yanks opener
*The 10-2 loss to the Indians snapped New York's MLB-record 11-game home opener winning streak, dating to 1998.
*Only two teams have ever opened a park with a worse defeat -- the 1991 White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field (losing to the Tigers, 16-0) and the 2003 Reds at Great American Ball Park (losing to the Pirates, 10-1).
*Ex-Bison Ben Francisco, on scoring the first run in the new park: "I've got a ton of text messages from people telling me, 'Hey, you scored the first run.' That's a cool experience I can take with me and remember forever."
*Tribe manager Eric Wedge: "I'm a big believer in the history of Baseball, how that involves American history and beyond that, how it's international now. I know what the old Yankee Stadium meant to the game of Baseball. To be here for the first game ever at the new ballpark, I'd be lying if I didn't tell you it was special. It's special to the game."
*Grady Sizemore's bat from his seventh-inning grand slam is going to the Hall of Fame.
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Around the horn
*Item: Dice-K goes to the DL. Reaction: The Red Sox must be thrilled Japan successfully defended its World Baseball Classic championship.
*I know it's only 10 games in or so but the standings in both East divisions look downright bizarre. The Jays and Orioles on top of the Yankees , Rays and Red Sox? The Marlins and Braves atop the Philies and Mets?
*The cycle Wednesday by Texas' Ian Kinsler was the first by a player who had six hits in the game since Philadelphia's Sam Thompson in 1894. Yes, 1894.
*The cycle by Orlando Hudson on Tuesday was the first by a Dodger at legendary Dodger Stadium since it opened in 1962. Only odder first I can think of that's still out there is a no-hitter by the Mets, also born in '62.
e-mail: mharrington@buffnews.com
