I had a nice seat (not that there are any bad seats in a small stadium like RCB) in reserved seating:

Section 14, Row A at Richmond County Bank Ballpark

The stadium looks empty here at the start, but it filled up as the game went on and Staten Island announced their first sellout of the year.

As part of the opening ceremonies, some sort of motorcycle rec club on Staten Island rode around the stadium (on the edge, not across the actual field of course). The three Yankees mascots hitched rides and were dropped off around home plate.

Mascots on motorcycles.

The game itself was pretty uneventful, but if you want to know more about the events check out Robert Pimpser’s game story on Gotham Baseball.

A huge amount of the crowd was made up of group ticket sales, which is not uncommon for Staten Island games.  Section 14 seemed to be made up of me (I went to the game by myself), the two people next to me and then three or four groups who had a large number of drunk angry people in them. I don’t think they were angry about the game so much as just angry people. There was a group of Little League kids I’d say were in 4th or 5th grade. They were not being aggravating or annoying, just cheering for the Yankees and occasionally yelling for a ball. Several people in the (not Little League) groups just constantly shrieked mean things at them. I was rather taken aback, and in the 4th inning I decided that I didn’t want to sit near these people anymore and went to get some food and walk around to see what changed since last year.

There were two big changes in concessions this year:

1. The food stands now take credit/debit cards–hooray!
2. All you can eat food is served at the normal concession stands through separate lines rather than in their own areas like last year.

The lines were, to put it simply, atrocious. I walked around trying to find one of acceptable length but found nothing. I wasn’t willing to stand on line for an hour to get a hot dog so I passed on eating. A lot of season ticket holders complained, and in an attempt to make good the team apologized over the PA and is offering ticket exchanges for people who had tickets to the game.

I took a picture of a line to document it. You see all those people on the concourse? They are on line for food:

I was not able to attend yesterday’s game, so I’m not sure if they’e had any luck working out the kinks yet. I may go Wednesday, and am definitely going Thursday so I’ll know soon enough.

I was hungry, but I still had fun. It’s really hard to not have fun at a minor league game. Here are a few more pictures from the night.

Staten Island Yankees Opening Day 06-18-10

Next day was Old Timer’s Day, where there were no big boats but there were some big fish. I took a lot of pictures (though significantly fewer than last year), so check them all out if you want.

Teaser shot:

Jeff Nelson tips his hat after a show-off catch.

Full Old Timer’s Day Gallery:

I brought my camera as I always do, but forgot to put the memory card back in it after transferring some files off. Luckily, I had my camera phone and my DSi to take bad quality pictures with. So if you’ve ever wondered what the stadium looks like from the inside during a long rain delay, here you go.

Not pictured: people playing cards in the Grandstand to waste time, everyone running around when the wind started whipping the rain into a flurry.

There’s a lot so here’s a preview picture and make sure to follow afterward:

The crowd who stayed behind hiding from the weather.

On July 3rd, I made my way to Yankee Stadium for their series opener against the Blue Jays. There were a lot of red hats, which I really hate. I am easily confused and they disorient me. Plus can anyone explain to me why the Jays have to wear them too? Nobody wears special Canada Day hats for Toronto (except maybe the Jays themselves but I know nothing about that).

Then on actual Independence Day, I went to the Staten Island Yankees game. They always have fireworks on Saturdays and you could see the fireworks from the Macy’s extravaganza if you sat or stood in the right place so though I am not a huge fan I got to see a lot of them on the 4th.

Overall, a good weekend. Especially since I didn’t get rained on at a baseball game for what felt like the first time this year.

Sure, it’s not good baseball but it’s fun. Where else can you see Subway Series Mets-like defense at every game? Every routine play is an adventure!!

In all seriousness, minor league baseball rules and if you live in the area you should check out Richmond County Bank Ballpark. Big boats go by, the beer costs about as much as it does in a bar and it’s all very fun. Need some more convincing? Here’s my first batch of photos from the year:

The crowd on Tuesday (at least in my section) was hands down one of the most annoying I have dealt with, ever, at a Yankee game. Now I admit that I am a fairly grouchy person, but as long as I can see what is going on in the game I am excellent at just bitching about it and continuing to watch the game. This was made very hard at times on Tuesday as there was a very large block of very drunk people (they didn’t appear to all be together, which made it even more frightening) who just stood up constantly no matter what was going on.

Yankees have a runner on base? STAND UP
Orioles have a runner on base? STAND UP
Pitcher is about to throw a pitch? STAND UP

In Old Yankee Stadium, this wasn’t really that annoying as you could see anyway because of the steep incline. In New Yankee Stadium, it can sometimes be hard to see if there is a big guy four rows in front of you sitting down.

This got too long but if I think too hard about it, I get annoyed all over again. In short: If you are at a game, please be considerate of the people around you. Don’t stand up and block the view during the action, and if you do, don’t be surprised when people yell at you to sit down because you are…blocking the view.

These annoyances were all washed away by the performance of the Yankees pitchers and hitters. CC Sabathia is really looking like the guy we thought he was, and Phil Hughes put together a very solid 5 innings (could have pitched 6, but I don’t disagree with the decision to pull him out on a high note). Many baseballs left the park, including Nick Swisher’s first at home. Good times all around.

The back-to-back-to-back homeruns from Swisher-Robinson Cano-Melky Cabrera was just ridiculous. The first two of that trio, not a big deal. But Melky joining in on the action? It will never happen again. Ever. Especially bizarre because Melky’s was a monster that ended up in the Main level of the stadium.

And as usual, some pictures.

May 19th

May 20th

I probably will not return to these seats, or any near them, this year since I’m pretty much set for the season with my ticket plans. But they were very nice and I’d like to sit down there again, it just probably will not happen this season.

I would also enjoy if the Yankees bullpen could avoid giving up runs or not make a situation overly tense. Maybe I’m asking too much, who knows!

While some of the Upper Deck infield views are no longer as awesome as they used to be, the Outfield is much improved. You can now see the whole field pretty well, though the corners are still hiding. I’m sitting a bit further out (432A) on Wednesday, so I’ll have some more comparison pictures available then.

I haven’t sat outside of the Grandstand, but tomorrow I’ll be down on the Main Level thanks to the level of demand, and therefore the price, of tickets to non-premium games plummeting on StubHub. $35 (with fees) for tickets with an Advance Sale price of $90? Yes please!