Meanwhile, Back in NY . . .

Every year for Pete's birthday I try to come up with something creative to make the celebration memorable. This year we went to a Yankee's Game. (Sorry to all you fundamentalist Rod Soxers,but we were in New York. What's more New Yorkish than the Yankees?)

Ironically enough, the Yanks were playing the Seattle Mariners, which is the team Pete grew up watching, so we didn't even know beforehand which team we were there supporting. But it really is more fun to support the home team, especially if they're winning, and so we cheered for the Yankees.

Speaking of their home, have you ever been to Yankee Stadium? My goodness, it almost felt like hallowed ground.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not becoming the world's most psycho Yankee fan; anyone who's heard my spiel about professional sports knows that I am disenchanted with the whole industry. I feel like if athletes get paid too many millions to play a game it losses its soul and becomes a (corrupt) business venture rather than a sport. But some of the best baseball players to swing bats have been Yankees. And baseball is a nostalgic piece of our country's heritage. Some of my favorite all-time books and movies about growing up in America involve hero worshiping great baseball players--think The Sand Lot, Al Capone does my Shirts, The Wednesday Wars, Bat 6, A League of their Own and The Old Man and the Sea.

Of course, this wasn't the stadium that the Yankees played in, not the legends like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe Dimaggio and Micky Mantle. It's a new stadium, less than a year old, but it's been designed as a monument to the greats as much as a venue for the current team to play in. That's probably what I enjoyed about the game the most.

 

Pete, well he just loves the game. Which is precisely what made it the perfect birthday celebration for him. Happy 28 Sweetbaby!