So Long Yankee Stadium

Please forgive my Macdonald Carey moment here . . . like sands through the hourglass, so goes the last game at Yankee Stadium. Tomorrow is the last game there.

But doesn't it seem like people are getting too worked up about this? I'm a lifelong Yankee fan and I'll be the first to admit the Stadium was a bit, well, not so good. It was filthy, it stunk, and your feet would get stuck to the floor if they set in one place for too long. The beer from the upper deck canteen guys tasted like an unbelievably foul perversion of the brewing process. The big bat was ugly. And to top it off, the Yankees were (and will continue to be) located in a dire neighborhood.

I thought the Stadium actually lacked character, especially those lifeless blue padded outfield walls that destroyed the original uniqueness of left center field. Those monuments were in play at one time!The Stadium was special because of the team, and for not much else. My mom used to go back in the 40's and 50's, before the Stadium got cookie-cuttered in the 70's, and she always felt the Stadium was ruined after the rebuild. Anyway, it's all a moot point because the financial crisis caused by people taking mortgages they couldn't pay, combined with the astronomical ticket prices the Yankees are asking means none of us will ever step foot in the new Stadium.

Still, I've got just a ton of great memories of all the games I watched there.

The one thing I hope the Yankees leave behind is the Bob Sheppard announcement impersonations by Jim Hall. He's Sheppard's backup as the Yankee Stadium announcer, and since Sheppard has been sick for quite a while, it's all Hall all the time. Hall, it seems, intentionally tries to sound like Sheppard, and it's very irritating to me because he doesn't. Please, please use your own voice!

Oh, and Pavano is 4-1. I am stunned.

United head to Stamford Bridge tomorrow to take on Chelsea! FSC, 9:00 AM ET.