Opening Day New Yankee Stadium 2009
The last time Yankee Stadium opened,Appropriately, the first official pitch at America’s most expensive stadium will be thrown by the pitcher with the richest contract, CC Sabathia.
From Sabathia’s fat deal to single-game ticket prices of $2,625, everything about New York’s home opener Thursday says wealth or comfort or both.
Sunshine was forecast and frail owner George Steinbrenner was expected to be on hand to personally watch New York play Cleveland in the first official game at the house he built. The Hard Rock Cafe and new steakhouse in the right-field corner figure to be filled, along with the stadium club in left, the sports bar in the center-field batters’ eye, the Bleachers Cafe above it, the 67 suites ringing the field, and the three clubs and lounges for the spectators in the first nine rows around the infield.
Players can drive their cars directly into the granite-and-limestone stadium, relax in the swimming pools or sauna when they arrive, then take batting practice in the spacious indoor cages off the dugout steps. Or they can e-mail from the laptops installed in each of their lockers.
“I think everyone was a bit overwhelmed by it because, you know, if you’re sitting down and you’re thinking of how you’re going to build a stadium, I don’t think there’s anything else you can really put in this thing,” Yankees captain
No, this is not the House that Ruth Built across 161st Street, a structure considered lavish when it opened in 1923 but Spartan by the time it closed last September.
New York Gov. David Paterson and New York City Mayor
“I know
StubHub.com has sold more than 5,000 tickets at an average price of $400 — $20 higher than the average for the final game at the old Yankee Stadium last year. It’s StubHub’s ninth best-selling event by dollar volume, trailing the old Yankee Stadium finale (No. 6) and last summer’s All-Star game at Yankee Stadium (No. 4), and the resale prices have ranged from $65 to $5,883 per ticket.
That’s quite a leap from the opening of
The 52,325-seat stadium is much like
“I saw our laundry room for the first time,” manager Joe Girardi said. “It’s quite large.”
With three shops filled with pinstriped merchandise, a Yankees art gallery, a memorabilia store, a Yankees museum, a 31,000-square foot Great Hall — there’s even a farmer’s market behind home plate, a branch of the Madison Avenue butcher Lobel’s behind third base and a Tommy Bahama’s Martini Bar behind home plate — it feels like a mall as much as a ballpark.
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Sabathia, 1-1 after signing a $161 million, seven-year contract, gets the honor of the first start and left 25 tickets for family and friends. He’ll face his original big league
"I guess it’s going to be weird, my first time ever pitching against them,” Sabathia said. “I’m glad it’s a day game so I won’t get blinded by the flashes.”
Ruth famously hit a three-run homer as
Yogi Berra will throw out the ceremonial first pitch, and fellow Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson, Whitey Ford, Rickey Henderson, Rich Gossage and Dave Winfield will be among more than 40 former Yankees in attendance. The plate and pitching rubber will be the ones used in the final game at the old stadium.