Day 6: NY to E-ville

Day 6: New York – E-ville

Quote of the day:

I'm going to Radio Shack to buy one of those headsets like the broadcasters use. It seems as soon as you put them on, you get 100 times smarter. Especially important so you can’t hear the other airline passengers complain about how bad your cheese smells when you start eating lunch.

Weather: Clear, cool, no hint of rain (forecast is for rain tomorrow) except in the final final, it starts to rain a bit while we are in the plane awaiting pullback (delayed a few minutes because Air Force 1 is due in to SFO just before we supposedly arriving)

Pics: THB getting ready for a home game

FCtr, then over to Starbucks…CLOSED! Hmmmm, it’s after 7am. A line was forming early yesterday in front of Foot Locker, THB assumed for a new release of a shoe available when the store opened later. No, those were guys getting in line for today’s opening (one can only hope it was today, 50 hours in advance for a pair of sneakers seems excessive). THB and DB saw the same thing when in NY a few months ago…quite a brand cachetfor someone!

Breakfast of almond croissant from SSB, free coffee from downstairs.

Easy cab ride to airport, a reverse commute, $60. Easy flight, easy free ride back to E-ville.

That makes 46 major league parks for THB, only 4 more to go.

Observations:

1. Citizens Bank Park (Phillies, for those of you who can’t place the bank with the city), a repeat visit for THB, is nice, modern , excellent food, good sightlines, and great access via the metro from downtown.

2. Citi Field (Mets) sucks, hard to believe they built this lifeless 5 level, wind-blown monstrosity after all those great parks before them; pastrami sandwich excellent, very good beer choices, and an impossibly long subway ride to/from (especially from) the park. Way, way below average. Ultimate insult: at our decent (and expensive) lower deck seats, the ushers have not bothered to wipe the rain off the seats. THB is prepared, pulling out his “never used at a game” A’s rally towel.

3. THB does not know how the Mets do it: spread a crowd across every section in the stadium; maybe it is all in the cause of giving every fan a chance to have an unobstructed view (which for most seats doesn’t matter, they can’t see the whole field even if nobody sits anywhere in front of them for many rows)

4. Yankee Stadium same as it ever was, pretty dull, and expensive beer, and $80/tix to sit in the 4^th row of the 2^nd deck out past 3^rd base. Crowd knew less about baseball than other two parks (very “homei-ish”). Easy subway to/from, particularly from Aloft in Harlem (3 stops)

5. Aloft worked out very well, and Detroit would kill to have 15% of the crowds in and around 125^th Avenue.

6. THB has to get rid of this rain curse, especially with the O’s coming up; London in the rain will not be good

7. 9/11 memorial best visited after all the construction around it is completed, say 2016 or 2017

8. Lastly, 8pm games in the eastern time zone on Sundays are a great illustration of how far back the fans are in the minds of MLB (ahhhh, the joys of TV money) and for a team that does not sell-out every game, the fans vote by staying home.