I hate the Yankees

Since MLB released the 2008 schedule, I've been looking forward to September 21st, 2008. The scheduling gods had giving my Baltimore Orioles a blessing - a chance to ruin the last game at historic Yankee Stadium. The O's could have gone 1-161, so long as they beat the Yankees in the last game at that stadium. 

But that assumed that the Yankees didn't make the playoffs, which would never happen.  Even if they didn't win the A.L. East, thay would defiantly the Wild Card, right?

Well, when I went to my first and only game at Yankee Stadium last October, against the Cleveland Indians, I told my girlfriend that would be the last playoff game at Yankee Stadium as we walked out following the Yanks loss to the Indians that eliminated them from the playoffs. 

 Little did I know I would be right.  As this day drew close, I realized that this would basically be the Orioles playoff game- the Atmosphere, what they were playing for, would all generate a playoff atmosphere. And the Orioles would be on Sunday Night Baseball in late September for the first time since 1997. The Nation would actually be interested in a late-season Orioles game. 

It was tough to watch the O's jump out to a 2-0 lead and then lose 7-3. To see those damn Yankees celebrating and the O's not coming through in the biggest game they've played in since they lost to the Indians in the ALCS back in 1997. I so wanted the O's to beat the Yankees - the team that use to be in Baltimore before moving to New York in 1903. 

I think what really bothers me about the entire night isn't the fact that the Yankees beat the O's. What is really sad is that Yankee Stadium is a). going to be torn down and b). represents the death of baseball to the common fan. 

The House that Ruth Built was a first - a first 3-tier stadium, the first stadium that packed in fans from all walks of life. Yankee Stadium is a cathedral to baseball but it was also the site of the birth of the modern NFL with the 58 Championship game, it was the site of the first papal mass in the Western Hemisphere, site of some of the best boxing matches ever. So what replaces this sports museum - the House that was made into a home?

The death of baseball.  The death of the common fan.  The furthering of corporate America's intrusion into sports.  $2,500 seats PER GAME for baseball, insisting on having luxury boxes and thus needing a new stadium.  The New Yankee Stadium represents everything that is wrong with our world - the only thing missing is a corporate name on top of that new stadium.

Way the ghost of the Base haunt their new stadium and prevent them from ever winning another championship - punishment for tearing down a true sports and baseball cathedral.

death of sports - house that Ruth built - common man, no more.

welcome in an era of greed, corporate america  - onlything missing is corporate name.