Rant #1,715: Take Me Out to the Ballgame

On Saturday, my family and I took in a ballgame at Yankee Stadium.

The game was awful, the Yankees lost to the Red Sox 5-2, but being at the Stadium was great.

There is nothing like baseball, and there is nothing like being at the game, live and in person.

The ballpark is so big, so spectacular, that even though the game was a dud, it was fun being there.

It reminded me of the first game I ever went to, at the old Yankee Stadium, back in 1965.

I was all of eight years old, and my friend's father got us tickets for a day game against the old Kansas City Athletics.

I was just getting into baseball at that time, and although the Yankees stunk that year--the first year of a downfall that lasted until 1976--I was really, really into the Yankees and the sport in general.

I remember walking into the Stadium, and the immenseness of the park--this was the original Yankee Stadium, which seated upwards of 67,000 people--really struck me.

The perfect diamond and grass, the scoreboard, the outfield ... I was wide eyed and bushy tailed, and I was immediately taken in by the enormity of the whole thing. ]

I fell in love with Yankee Stadium and baseball right then and there, and it has been a love affair that has literally lasted more than 50 years.

While the Stadium has changed, my love of the game has not, and even though I don't hang on every pitch of every game anymore, I still enjoy watching baseball, in particular on TV.

It is just so expensive to go to a game, but if I can get to one with my family once a year, I am more than satisfied.

You have to deal with the traffic, with the people, with all the nonsense that revolves around being at the ballpark, but there is simply nothing like it, in particular on a hot summer day.

And it was hot on Saturday, in the mid 90s, but we sat in nosebleed land all the way up under an overhang, so we didn't feel the worst of it.

There was also a breeze, and it did rain a little, so it really wasn't that bad.

It was fun. It was my birthday present from my wife, so it was going to be fun anyway, win or lose.

They lost, and I still had a great time.

We probably won't get to another game until next season, but everytime I go to one, I am just reminded of that first time, when I was a little kid.

On Saturday, I become that little kid again, and I am just struck by the Stadium and its beauty, even though we all know that this really isn't the Yankee Stadium, just a facsimile for the younger generation.

But that being what it is, it was great being there. It would have been greater had the Yankees won, but I guess you can't have everything.

And at this point, I will take what I can get.