For those of you who don't know, the baseball season has started already. No, seriously. They played the games and everything. The Red Sox and Athletics are both 1-1 after splitting the first two games of their season-opening series. What, you don't pay attention to baseball games that start at 6 a.m. and take place halfway across the globe? Where are your priorities?
Now that baseball is officially in season, it's not long before we get caught up in the day-to-day tussle and news of the league. Yes, you will see John Kruk and Steve Phillips on ESPN talking about the playoff implications of the first two weeks of the season. Jayson Stark will write his annual column about how the Yankees' slow start in April will prevent them from getting to the playoffs. "The Yankees are four and a half games back with only 132 games to go. What's gone wrong with their season?"
But before that happens, there's a topic I want to approach before it's too late: the last game at Yankee Stadium. This is the last year of the Yankee Stadium that I have known for my entire life. Next year, a new $1 billion stadium will open adjacent to the current one.
Will the last game at Yankee Stadium be a touching, emotional regular-season affair?
Will it be an October contest? That would be all too fitting for a stadium that has seen more than its share of historic playoff moments.
No, the last game in Yankee Stadium will not be played by the Yankees at all. It won't even be a baseball game. The last contest to take place on the storied diamond will be... a hockey game.
Yes, the New York Rangers are working toward playing an outdoor game at Yankee Stadium during the 2008-2009 season. And the Yankees are completely for it.
Excuse me, but aren't the Yankees supposed to be one of the classiest, most prideful organizations in all of baseball?
Isn't this the team that just a few seasons ago refused to put Spider-Man advertisements on the bases during interleague contests because they respected the game too much?
Isn't this the team that has never sold the stadium's naming rights? Aren't they one of the few organizations in the league that has a park named for the team that plays in it? It's not U.S. Cellular Field or the Energy Solutions Arena. It's Yankee Stadium. And yet the last competition ever seen in the House that Ruth Built will exchange catchers' helmets for goalies' masks and bats for hockey sticks?
The whole thing makes me want to go on a Mugatu-like diatribe. "Blue Steel? Ferrari? Le Tigra? They're the same face! Doesn't anybody notice this? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!"
What the hell is going on? Is George Steinbrenner still alive?
It's not the idea of an outdoor hockey game. The outdoor game between the Sabres and Penguins last year was fun and exciting, and it garnered higher ratings than Wayne Gretzky's last game. It's not even the idea of playing hockey in Yankee Stadium that gets me worked up; it seems like an entertaining idea. But why does it have to be the last game?
This is the place where David Wells and David Cone pitched perfect games. It's where Don Larsen threw the only perfecto in World Series history. It's where Derek Jeter became "Mr. November" in the 2001 Series. It's where Roger Clemens won his 300th game and recorded his 3,000th strikeout.
What if (no jinx) the Yankees make it to the World Series this year? What if they win at home? The last image of Yankee Stadium won't be the players celebrating on the field, but Jaromir Jagr skating on the ice.
That's not an image any Yankee fan - or baseball fan - should be happy about.
David Heck is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at David.Heck@tufts.edu.
