New Yankee Stadium

I will be working for the Yankees this season as an ambassador and will be responsible to greet and assist fans. My responsibilities will be to help everyone locate everything they desire from a restaurant to monument park or even a food stand. I had the opportunity to visit the stadium the other day. The following are some pictures that I took:

A-Rod and Steroids

A good amount of Yankee fans seem to forgive A-Rod for his involvement with steroids. Why is it only A-Rod's name that was exposed out of the 104 positive tests? Obviously he was being targeted. Are you telling me there weren't any Red Sox in that 104?

I'm not condoning A-Rod's use of steroids, but I am saying he was 1 of 104 and his to be the only name plastered all of the newspapers is unjust. All of those names should be released by Major League Baseball and the Union. Everyone who cheated should be exposed. Not only would it point out who cheated, but it was clear the names of the players who were clean during this time period.

Remember how everyone said Jeter was the 3rd best shortstop behind Garciaparra and A-Rod? Jeter couldn't hit homers like they did and his offensive statistics were not as gaudy. Defensively people claimed Jeter's range wasn't as good. Today, he's the only one left standing out of the 3. There are probably other players like Jeter who didn't use steroids and the only way they'll receive credit for playing by the rules is to release the names of the 103.

Spring Training

I went to Tampa for spring training. Guess who was on my flight from Newark? The Yankee radio broadcasters, John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman, sitting in first class. Nobody recognized them except after I mentioned it. I was looking forward to catching them at baggage claim to say hello, but luck would have it I was one of the last off the plane and the monorail I was on from the gate to baggage got stuck for about 5-10 minutes. By the time I got down to baggage claim the bags were out and they were gone. For those of you not familiar with the Tampa airport, the bags get loaded quickly from the airplane and often beat you to baggage claim. Not like Newark.

I attended two games while I was in Tampa. The home opener against the Rays and the second home game against the Twins. During the game against the Rays half of the stadium was filled with Rays fans. Bernie Williams threw out the first pitch and all of the guest instructors were introduced before the game started. When A-Rod came up to hit he got booed by the Rays fans, but received an ovation from the Yankee fans. Mark Teixeira seemed to have already won over a bunch of Yankee fans, he would constantly be cheered through out the games.

Some highlights from the games were great defense by Teixeira on a few plays, it was good to see Posada hit a homer after coming back from his injury, and it was great to see fan favorite Shelley Duncan crush a 3-run homer way over the left field fence.

My highlight of the trip was arriving early to the Twins game to watch batting practice. The treat wasn't batting practice, but the superstar who stayed after practice to sign autographs. Reggie Jackson was on hand as an instructor and he graciously stayed for about a half hour to sign for a mob of fans. I managed to make my way through the mob, being crushed in the process, to receive his autograph.Other fans have said he has done this before and is very good with the fans. I remember last year during the last few games at Yankee Stadium he would sit in different parts of the ballpark and sign autographs for fans.