Opening Day is Near

Hello everyone.  Let me tell you--I love sports.  I grew up watching different sports and get great enjoyment out of watching a game.  I feel very fortunate to have been in attendance at some legendary games.  Even though football is my favorite sport, there is no moment of any sports season that I like more than Opening Day for Major League Baseball.  I guess the reason I feel that way is because it is a sign that spring is definitely here and the weather is warming up.  Also, I love the game of baseball and knowing that it is now something I am able to follow on a daily basis is exciting.  For those of you who do not know, I am a Yankees fan.  I am not one of those Yankees fans that hates the Mets.  The only baseball team that I am absolutely not a fan of at all is the Red Sox.  If any Yankees fan is a fan of the Red Sox they aren't, well....a Yankees fan.  I'm not saying I actively root for the Mets--I don't.  What I am saying though is that I am not opposed to the Mets doing well and I am disappointed that the past two seasons have ended in disgrace for a team that seem destined for the playoffs in each of those seasons.  New York baseball fans are fortunate in that this year there are two new stadiums to visit.  I am going on the record here, on this blog that has a grand total of 40 viewers after several months, in saying that I am more excited for the Mets new stadium, Citi Field, than I am for the new Yankee stadium.  How could this be?  I'll explain it like this:  1) I was a fan of the old Yankee Stadium and while I do think renovations needed to be made I am not pleased that a stadium that gave me so many great memories is no longer open; 2) one of the things I didn't like about the old Yankee Stadium was the traffic and difficulty getting there, combined with a lousy parking situation, and the new Yankee Stadium seems to do nothing to alleviate those things; 3) whereas I liked the old Yankee Stadium I thought that Shea Stadium was horrible and that other than looking at the second base/shallow center field area and realizing that The Beatles performed in that vicinity there was no reason to keep the stadium around...therefore, Citi Field is a dramatic improvement in a stadium that is much greater than the improvement seen at the new Yankee Stadium; and 4) something really annoys me about a general sense of arrogance on the part of the Yankees management to charge what seems like $1,000,000 a ticket per game....now Mets tickets are expensive too, but the Yankees seem to have prices that are out of this world.  Look--I am excited for the new Yankee Stadium.  It does look amazing and seems to have amenities that other ballparks don't offer.  I'm just saying that Citi Field is such a major and dramatic improvement over Shea Stadium and clearly was needed, whereas the new Yankee Stadium may not be as necessary.  It does also seem bizarre to see so much money being spent on stadiums while our country faces a recession.  That's a whole other story though...play ball!