Goodbye, Yankee Stadium

Even as a Sox nut, it was hard not to feel a twinge of emotion as Yogi Berra and other Yankee greats (or their stand-ins) were called onto the field last night, prior to the last game at Yankee Stadium.

The place was dramatically changed during a mid-70s renovation, but it maintained its iconic power as the base of what we now call the empire.

I've seen a few games there going back over time. The best, by far, was a Randy Johnson-Tim Wakefield duel on September 11, 2005, when Wake pitched one of the best games of his life, only to get beaten, 1-0, on a cheap Giambi HR down the RF line.

There's some social critique to be applied to Yankee Stadium (designed by the same firm that planned Fenway, oddly enough) and its more lucrative successor. For now, though, let's just bid this giant a polite farewell.