Gettin’ Carried Away

Nearing the close of the 2008 baseball season, I being to think of all the past games I have attended over the years. And with my recent postings being about New York City, I can’t help but reminisce about the first Opening Day Major League Baseball game I every attended back in 2005.

I wish I could say that my first Opening Day MLB game was in Chicago, at Comiskey Park (I never call is U.S. Cellular Field). However, I had to settle for going to the New York Yankees season opener on Sunday, April 3, 2005 at Yankee Stadium. I wasn’t really settling. I just don’t want the good guys in black to think I abandoned them for the bad guys in blue!

I still cannot believe that I was at the 2005 home opener at Yankee Stadium. Why, you may ask? It’s because the Yankees started this season against the Boston Red Sox. And if you didn’t know, the year before, the Red Sox broke an 86-year-long “curse”/losing streak, becoming World Series champions for the first time since 1918.

Not only was this my first Opening Day game, but it was my first trip to Yankee Stadium, as well. Living in SoHo at the time, I had to trek quite a long way to get up to the Bronx to see the game. There are several ways to do this. I had to take the 6 train at City Hall, transfer to either the 4 train at 14th Street or the D train at Bleecker and eventually get off at Yankee Stadium. This probably sounds confusing to most of you. However, when traveling to Yankee Stadiums from any point within the five boroughs, keep in mind that the best route to take depends on the flow of subway traffic and the possibility of station closings.

My first view of Yankee Stadium was from the subway platform at 161st Street . It’s oversized. It’s full of life. It boasts the same characteristics as its home, New York City . Like Fenway Park and Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium is this great American ballpark that sits in the middle of a lively neighborhood. After walking up thousands of ramps (okay – so there are not thousands of ramps – I was just super tired after walking up to the upper level), we arrived at our seats. We were about 10 or 15 rows back, sitting on the third base line.

One of the highlights of my first night at Yankee Stadium was seeing my favorite pitcher, Randy Johnson, debut after he was traded from the Diamondbacks. I took very blurry photos of him warming up in the bullpen and I excitedly watched him lead the Yankees to a 9-2 victory over the Red Sox.

Q: What’s snowy, orange and full of trees?
A: Central Park from February 12 – 27, 2005

In 2005, Artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude constructed a massive art installation made up of 7,503 metal gates that were spread across 23 miles of paths in Central Park. While I am not sure what the point of The Gates instillation was, I’m happy I was able to see it. After all, it was the largest artwork since the SPHINX! Many New Yorkers offered mixed reactions to them. Some said it defaced the landscape, and others claimed it was a hazardous distraction to runners and bikers. To me, the bright orange (aka saffron) flags that waved in the cool breeze brightened up the bleak, wintery appearance of the park.

Before moving to New York City, I had only visited the island for four days, with a huge group of teenagers, accompanied by several adult chaperones. In 2005, at 19 years old, I was moving to the biggest city in the U.S., all by lonesome. However, because my mom is… my mom… she decided to stay with me my first few nights to help me settle into my new apartment.

Even though it was the beginning of January, when I arrived in NYC, it was raining. Hard! I had never been to my apartment building before, so all I had for the cab driver was an address. My mom and I hopped in, and I eagerly shouted, “80 Lafayette Street, please!” The driver instantly took off as if he knew where he was going… but he didn’t have a clue. A smooth ride that should have taken 40 minutes was actually an uncomfortable, bumpy ride that took about an hour and a half. We pulled up to an unfamiliar building and he asked, “Is this it?” My mom, being my mom, replied in a stern tone, “Um, no. We have no idea. We have never been here.”

Squinting very hard, attempting to look past the heavy rain and read the addresses on the buildings, I saw that 80 Lafayette Street was just a few big steps away from the taxi. I kindly asked the cab driver to pull up a little closer. We got out as fast as we could, grabbed my oversized bags (I am a girl, you know) and headed into the building.

I’ll skip the whole drama-of-getting-into-my-apartment story, because it just made me frustrated back then. In a nut shell, you need a student ID to get into the building. Being a new student, and arriving after all the offices were closed, I didn’t have a student ID yet. Needless to say, I was eventually allowed to get to my 12th floor apartment, room 1208 A.

My new roommate Jenny had e-mailed me a month before to apologize and to tell me that her old roommates would probably leave a huge mess in the apartment before they moved out. So aside from the fact that some of the previous inhabitants of 1208 left the apartment in shambles, when I walked in, I was instantly impressed by this breathtaking dwelling! Very high ceilings soared above the sparkling hardwood floors that began in the common room and extended into the two bedrooms. A small kitchen was nestled in the corner of the common room. It came equipped with ample wood cabinets, a double stainless steel sink, an electric stove, a large refrigerator and enough counterspace to prepare a yummy meal.

I was to share my bedroom with one other girl, Georgie. We really lucked out, because we were living in the bedroom that features a double closet and an ensuite bathroom. While the three-person bedroom was bigger, their bathroom (and closet) was in the corner of the common room. There was also a huge cut-out in the wall, allowing all noise being made in the common room to travel up and over into the second bedroom at any given time.

Because it was late, and because the apartment was rather dirty, I spent the night in my mom’s hotel room. However, in the days to come, after lots of cleaning, rearranging and decorating, the Fab Four of room 1208 had a rockin apartment!