Yankees' Opening Day 2019

March 28, 2019

Fearing the crowds that caused delays entering our ballparks last season, we decided to leave for Yankee Stadium by 10:30 for a 1:05 start. We arrived at 11:30. Parking cost $30, which is relatively cheap for a New York special event parking rate. Gates opened at 11 and arriving so close to the opening time may have been the game changer for us in terms of getting into the stadium relatively quickly. The lines were still extremely long, but unlike last season, we moved through the line within minutes (as opposed to an hour or longer). Our first stop (as usual) was food. Every year, Lisa checks out the new food offerings from Yankee Stadium and Citi Field in advance and this year was no exception. For Yankee Stadium, she set her eyes on the following new items:
Big Mozz
Tater Kegs
Bacon Cheeseburger Crispy Dumplings
Buffalo Wild Wings
Avocado Bites
Chorizo loaded fries

She never got a chance to have the new shakes that were introduced last season, so now she's double obsessed with getting one this year.

The Big Mozz can be found in the food court of Yankee Stadium for $12.49. They're essentially ginormous mozzarella sticks and DELICIOUS.

We briefly met up with our friends, Mike and Sam, before deciding that we needed to get tater tots. Unfortunately, we noticed that the pre-game ceremony had started, so we stopped and stood in the concourse to watch it alongside other a-holes that either didn't find their seats yet or purchased cheap SRO "seats." We'll be discussing this topic in a later blog post, but whoever came up with this concept to introduce standing room only tickets at sporting events is a giant ass clown.

 

 

 

 

Mariano Rivera threw out the ceremonial first pitch. For those of you unaware, in the off season, Mariano was the first player to receive a unanimous vote into the Hall of Fame, surpassing the previous 99.32% vote received by Ken Griffey Jr. in 2016.

After seeing the first pitch, we picked up our Tater Kegs from the garlic fries stand nearby. Tater Kegs are giant tater tots served on a skewer and topped with shredded cheese and sour cream (GROSS). Baked inside the tater tots is cheese and bacon bits. We apparently couldn't order the tots without sour cream, so we had to scrape it off. Serena also spied a giant Yankees' helmet filled with french fries, so she decided that we needed that as well. The taters cost $8.09 and the helmet fries cost $11.09.

On the way to our seats, we found the new City Winery stand and decided to check it out. They had little tables to rest our food plate on, so we chose to eat the food there and Lisa ordered two glasses of rose for us. Each glass was $12.99. The bartender tried to convince Lisa to get the carafe for $48 because it would've given us each an extra glass, but $50 gets us five whole bottles of Dr. L from the liquor store, so really, is that a deal? The stand also offers cabernet, sauvignon blanc, and chardonnay by the glass.

A security guard approached us and mentioned that we needed to leave some room for wings. We replied that it was still early in the game. He said, "Just don't get fat." Wow. Okay. The truth hurts. Way to be up front about that sh*t.

FINALLY, we headed to ours seats. We arrived at our section just as Luke Voit crushed a three-run home run.

 

Greg Bird also hit a home run, but no one was on base, the Yankees were already winning, and prior to that at bat, he'd struck out three times. So, who cares?

A drunk man sauntered up the steps asking if we'd seen his big foot friend. Lisa had visions of vomit. He sat behind us for three innings before leaving and asking us to tell his friend that he was going to search for him in the dugout. A tall man with big feet eventually did show up, but didn't seem to know anything about the drunk man searching for his big foot friend in the dugout.

Mike's friend happened to have extra tickets to field level seats, so Mike texted us and we upgraded our situation. We arrived just in time for Giancarlo Stanton's at bat. Lisa took many photos of his butt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Yankees won 7-2.

 

 

 

After the game, we went to Michael's Craft Store, which takes place post-baseball games more often than you'd think. We also left hungry because we didn't eat nearly as much as we'd intended. We had to stop at Taco Bell on the way home.