I'm of the belief that centuries from now, history will record 9/11/2001 as the day America died. I've seen countless number of ridiculous security measures and 'enforced patriotism' since, including seeing someone thrown out of an independent league baseball game for not removing their hat for God Bless America. He stood there quietly and listened, just didn't remove his hat.

Hi Jay - I too was at the 9/10/2001 game with my brother. We sat in the right field bleachers for what seemed like forever in the pouring (and I mean POURING) rain. I had no umbrella and every part of clothing I had on was soaked to the maximum. My sneakers actually sloshed water as a walked. Finally, it stopped and the umpires and grounds crew inspected the field. Everyone was hopeful the game would start, but after another delay Bob Shephard came on and announced the postponement. Needless to say, the interminable wait in the rain did not seem worth it. It seemed surreal that I had been in NYC less than 9 hours before the attacks (I lived near Newburgh at the time).

In any event, I agree about the degradation in the fan experience at the Stadium since then. While I have not been to nearly as many games in recent years as I used to, the games I have been to have not been as enjoyable as the pre-2000 ones.

The "security measures" are stupid, they seemed designed primarily to make it difficult to bring in outside food and beverages, and there is no such thing as enforced patriotism, that is in fact some other kind of -ism. The "relocation plan" is awful, and runs the risk of alienating the core customer -- my Sunday plan seats in the Tier Box "MVP" section are going to be LUXURY BOXES next year; they were $16 a pop when I started getting them in 1995. On the plus side, the new stadium (call it Steinbrenner Field) will make it a lot easier to get in and out and have all those modern things that make going to a game in Pittsburgh so pleasant. But, like the Yanks failing to make the playoffs, the transition to luxury boxes was inevitable.
Feh.

I attended the next-to-last game (the 1-0 win on Saturday) with my sister, a good friend and my twelve year-old nephew.

Right before the bottom of the 7th, my nephew, perhaps because of the coffee he needed to have mid-game because he had a "late night" (for a 12-year-old), asked to go to the restroom. We rose as the O's made the last out, and were let out of our Section (Box 59). But the corridor was totally chained off.

I said to the first usher "excuse me, please." He immediately moved the chain. Came to the second usher. He paused, then moved the chain.

I said "excuse me, please" to the third usher, and she said "You're not allowed to leave." I told her that I was taking my nephew to the restroom, and asked her to please move the chain. She grudgingly moved it, then stood in the way. I squeezed by, and as I did, she yelled "don't push." I looked back to make sure my nephew got through as well, and said nothing, with the recent shenanigans well in mind, and the knowledge that whatever came out of my mouth in that moment might only exacerbate the situation.

It's just wrong.

~gr

At Dolphin Staduim they make you remove your hat when you enter the park for "security reasons". They actually state that you may have a bomb. They do not check your pockets, pants or waist. Which leads to the philisophical question, if one were to attempt to blow themselves up at a Marlins game how do you know it happened if there is no one there but empty orange seats to see it?
I stongly suspect that there was a hightend sense of security and that people in charge were scrambiling to check everything in lite of how dumb the airport security system was on the morning of 9-11. Now I think that half of these security measures at the stadiums are one part a way to keep their jobs and two a way for teams like the Yankees to squeeze you for more money. You cannot bring in water because you may throw the bottle at the players but you can buy beer sold in plastic bottles that you can throw at the players. As if my arm was ever that good anyway.
Adam

I had a similar experience back in the early 1990s while attending my first game at Yankee Stadium. Back then I was into autographs and was standing behind the Orioles dugout watching batting practice and waiting for some stars to come by. I was behind one side of the dugout when Andy Van Slyke walked toward the other side of the dugout. In my quest to reach Van Slyke, I stepped over a railing, only to have an usher begin running after me.

He escorted me out of the stadium (I guess stepping over a railing is a big deal to the Yankees). Not only that, but he took my ticket and told me that if he saw that I had re-entered he would have me arrested.

Why such heavy-handedness?

I wasn't going to miss the game so I simply bought another ticket -- albeit in a section on the other side of the stadium -- and enjoyed the game.

I want to thank you for writing this, Jay. This homogenous Yankee Stadium hagiography was starting to feel forced, as if stadium security weren't permitting a dissenting opinion. I have never been to Yankee Stadium, and frankly have no idea what it was like to see a game there, but given the security at the expense of liberty adopted since 9/11, I have long suspected this was the case.

It's a wonder stadium security never ejected Carlos Delagado when Toronto was in town.

I've been to a zillion games at Dolphins Stadium, too. I don't have a problem with taking my hat off to show the usher that I don't have a bomb on my head. I also don't have a problem throwing away my opened water bottle (unopened water bottles are allowed).

Sorry, but isn't chaining off exits against fire code? Has anyone asked the NYC Fire Marshall his opinion of the Yankees egress restrictions?

Yankee Stadium was a great place because of all the great events and accomplishments that happened there.

Yankee Stadium (at least in my lifetime) was a mediocre stadium by every other angle. The good seats were expensive; the cheap seats were very far away from the action; the food was bad, expensive and hard to get to; the crush to and from (and in) the subways was better suited for lemmings than people; and all these problems got worse the more crowded the place got. This is all true.

However, baseball was played there. Even better, mostly great baseball was played there.

Thanks for the realistic - if saddening - take on the unpleasant state of stadium culture in the Bronx.

I did attend the game last night, and am happy I did so. But against my better judgment I fell for the line "show up at 1:00 and get to walk the warning track". The sad ineptitude of stadium security and PR was in full force, naturally, and those who arrived after 12:30 never set foot on the field (but were treated to hours of confusion, misinformation, authoritarian morons, and stifling heat in overpacked corridors).

The pre-game festivities were great, occasionally even very moving. (Though there was a tendency toward feeding the impulses that, say, cast Brosius as a better 3b than A-Rod.) The game itself was a delight. Ronan Tynan seems to have learned to speed up his tempo a bit, making the forced patriotism at least bearable.

And then a field full of riot police, complete with a 20-officer pile-on of the one soul bold enough to dare them (or was that just theater?). And the police mares which pawed gouges in the outfield grass (good thing the fans weren't allowed to mess up the field).

So yes, a very bittersweet night, confirming all of Mr. Jaffe's mixed sentiments.

I did leave the stadium wondering if I hadn't witnessed the longest, loudest, most sustained ovation for an 0 for 5 performance in the history of the game, but perhaps that's a question for Steven Goldman?

I'll bite and try to defend the Stadium a little bit.

First, while you may want to question the effectiveness of some of the Yankees' security policies, and criticize them for profiteering off the security measures, to call the team paranoid for tightening security after 9/11 is unfair. The Stadium is a high-profile landmark where large crowds gather, and as such is a natural target. The team would be remiss to not do something.

Secondly, BP seems to encourage an unsentimental, market-based approach to roster construction and player-team interactions. Given that position, it's tough to hear complaints about rising ticket prices coming from a BP writer. I suppose the team should consider the "intangibles" and "chemistry" that will be lost by pricing out the "true" Yankee fans.

And while the security has perhaps gotten a little overzealous in recent years, and it's important to report abuses, all one has to do is watch footage from the 1976 Chris Chambliss home run or the final out of the 1977 World Series to understand why riot police were out in full force on that field last night.

Part of the reason the stadium is filled to capacity every day is the effort to make the stadium a safer, more family-friendly place to see a game. Unfortunately, a bi-product of this is that security is sometimes a little too heavy-handed. You can't jump the occasional railing, you can't bring a backpack into the stadium, you can't pee during God Bless America. The Yankees can certainly do better, but I think we're a ways away from some of the comparisons to fascism.

If the "security measures" had anything to do with actual security, and not forcing people to buy $5 ponchos and the like, I think we'd all complain less about them.

My favorite story about this is from Game 4 of the 2001 World Series, which I was fortunate enough to get tickets for from a friend who used to work for the Tigers. (Apparently one reason WS tickets are so impossible to come by is that MLB hands some out to every team, many of which have no idea what to do with them.) I knew that post-9/11, security was going to be nuts, with no bags of any kind allowed, so I dutifully loaded up the pockets of my winter coat (which I wore even though it was about 60 degrees) with snacks, binoculars, etc.

I walked in the gate, stopped at security, and readied myself to empty my pockets to show I didn't have any contraband. Instead, the guard said, "Open your jacket." Then he patted me down *inside my coat*.

Then he said "Take off your hat." I took off my fitted Yankee cap, showing him I didn't have a millimeter-thick bottle of vodka under it. Then he waved me through, never once even looking at my visibly bulging coat pockets.

As I walked to the escalators, still dumbfounded, a fan near me who'd just gotten the same treatment turned to his friend and said in a loud voice: "This security sucks! I just walked in with a whole pound of crack!"

Yanks are a tough team to love, I'll give you that. Having invested so much time and emotion into them, though, I couldn't turn away now, even if I wanted to. Still, articles like this do sting. A lot.