Post by capitalgull on Jun 14, 2009 15:38:40 GMT
Some of you will have known I was in New York for the last week, hence the lack of postings on the forum over that spell, so here are a few shots from the trip on the days that were not spoiled by a series of thunderstorms, some quick and some really bloody heavy!!
Belmont Park on Belmont Day - the only winner I backed and it came in the very first race. Some 70,000 in attendance spread over a huge course much better designed to host big races than anywhere over here.
The facade of the new Yankee Stadium, home of baseball's New York Yankees, and only costing £1bn (yes, billion). It was opened in April this year and has been sold out virtually ever since. I doubt that will continue next season after the 'first season' johnnies have decided paying at least £25 quid for a ticket (81 home games a season as well) and £7 for a cruddy Miller Lite beer isn't worth it. Personally I doubt I would ever visit again. It's just a temple to the commercialism of US sports.
Inside the new stadium, the Yankees Hall of Fame. There is also a Monument Park inside the stadium which you can visit on matchdays but the queue was immense!
Batting practice, where unlike in England, fans crowd the edge of the ballpark hoping to catch a flyball hit by one of their heroes and then try to get it signed as well. There are warnings about people keeping an eye on things, just in case the ballclubs should get sued by someone getting hit by a stray ball.
Hours before the game, before the Americans spoiled things by turning up and not bothering to start up an atmosphere!
During the game, and not far off a sellout apart from the expensive seats near the front behind home plate, some of which go for over $1000 a game!!
Ellis Island, taken from the Staten Island Ferry. The first place most immigrants to New York saw when they arrived after months on boats. It was eventually closed in 1954 and became one of the newer members of the National Parks system soon after, and is one of the more popular tourist attractions in New York. I didn't visit this time, but have been before and actually found the names of some distant relatives on one of the ship manifests.
The lower Manhattan Skyline, again from the SIF. Just to the right of this, until September 11, 2001, would have been the two World Trade Center buildings, dwarfing the remainder of the area and currently being rebuilt as a permanent reminder to that tragic day.
The Staten Island Ferry, used by hundreds of thousands of people every day who travel to New York City for work, as well as bundles of tourists who make the 25 minute trip to the Island just to come straight back!! (Like me)
Citi Field, new home of the New York Mets (Metropolitans). Based in Queen's, the Mets are New York's second team but this new ballpark makes you feel much more at home than Yankee Stadium and a mere snip at only £650m to build! Everything inside is designed for the fan, and the whole experience was so much nicer for want of a better word!! Food was cheaper, so was the beer to make Stepho happy, and you actually felt like you wanted to spend money inside the stadium unlike my own extreme levels of avoidance at Yankee Stadium. (For that, read cheapskate!)
Another view of Citi Field's facade.
Okay, so there is a little bit of commercialism here as well, based on the scoreboard.
Inside Citi Field, the crowd all arrived a bit later in the evening. This park is right on the takeoff path of LaGuardia Airport and watching the planes almost going vertically upwards to get over the place can be a little disconcerting at times!
Ah, the little bit of football on the trip. Welcome to the Boca Juniors themed restaurant near enough next door to our hotel, and serving Argentinian steaks of the huge variety! Everything inside was Boca based, although the pictures of Diego Maradona were not idolised by these visitors! All the staff wore Boca kits, there was footy on the tellys, and the meat was some of the best I have ever had. Fairly cheap by New York standards too.
Pop Diner, the American staple next door to Boca and perfect place for breakfast most days. Just like something you would have expected to see in Happy Days.
The Coney Island fairground, sadly shut at the moment. Old fashioned fairground rides on what passes for the only real beach area in New York. Easily accessible by subway through Brooklyn it can be a fun day out, but when it is cold, damp and windy, it's best just to take a couple of pictures and head for cover.
KeySpan Park, home of the minor league Brooklyn Cyclones. Another new stadium, opened only in 2001, and one I visited when full not long after it opened. The Cyclones play short-season Single-A baseball, which for most of you uninitiated characters, is basically the sixth tier of professional baseball. We are talking games for the players who will be major league players in a few years time, if they make it that far.
Tribute to the impact of African-American players in baseball outside KeySpan Park, this statue of Jackie Robinson and 'PeeWee' Reese marks the 1947 debut of Robinson for the Brooklyn Dodgers, the first black man to break through the racism and segregation that had previously existed in major league baseball until then. Robinson's stand against racism was deemed so important that his number 42 was retired from use across every MLB team in 1997 , with only Mariano Rivera of the Yankees currently wearing it as he had been back when it was retired, after agreement from Robinson's widow. The only time it is ever worn by other players is on Jackie Robinson Day (April 15) when this year it was worn by every single player, manager, coach and umpire. The statue comes from an occasion in Cincinnati when Robinson was being booed, sworn at and abused by fans and Reese attempted to show unity for his colleague by putting his arms around his shoulder in the outfield, silencing the crowd. Reese had also refused to sign a document saying the Dodgers would boycott the team if management agreed to signing Robinson, such was the hatred towards Negro League players - the leagues black players had been forced to play in until the days after WWII.
Just down the road from KeySpan Park lies the Nathan's Hot Dog Stand, the first created back in 1916. Still on the same site today, the stand is one of the most popular eateries in New York for those who make the sometimes hour-long subway pilgrimage to Coney Island. On July 4 there is a world-famous hot dog eating competition and the winners are noted on the Wall of Fame, the first picture here. The current world record is held by Joey Chestnut who consumed a stomach churning 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes in 2007. Chestnut also won last year and will be going for a hat-trick next month when his main competition will come from a Japanese chap by the name of Takeru Kobayashi, who had won the event for the six years previous to 2007. Take a look at his Wikipedia entry en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeru_Kobayashi and see some of the feats he has managed in his life. Amazing to think he reportedly weighs in at less than 12 stones, much like Joey Chestnut!! These guys are apparently athletes ;D
Belmont Park on Belmont Day - the only winner I backed and it came in the very first race. Some 70,000 in attendance spread over a huge course much better designed to host big races than anywhere over here.
The facade of the new Yankee Stadium, home of baseball's New York Yankees, and only costing £1bn (yes, billion). It was opened in April this year and has been sold out virtually ever since. I doubt that will continue next season after the 'first season' johnnies have decided paying at least £25 quid for a ticket (81 home games a season as well) and £7 for a cruddy Miller Lite beer isn't worth it. Personally I doubt I would ever visit again. It's just a temple to the commercialism of US sports.
Inside the new stadium, the Yankees Hall of Fame. There is also a Monument Park inside the stadium which you can visit on matchdays but the queue was immense!
Batting practice, where unlike in England, fans crowd the edge of the ballpark hoping to catch a flyball hit by one of their heroes and then try to get it signed as well. There are warnings about people keeping an eye on things, just in case the ballclubs should get sued by someone getting hit by a stray ball.
Hours before the game, before the Americans spoiled things by turning up and not bothering to start up an atmosphere!
During the game, and not far off a sellout apart from the expensive seats near the front behind home plate, some of which go for over $1000 a game!!
Ellis Island, taken from the Staten Island Ferry. The first place most immigrants to New York saw when they arrived after months on boats. It was eventually closed in 1954 and became one of the newer members of the National Parks system soon after, and is one of the more popular tourist attractions in New York. I didn't visit this time, but have been before and actually found the names of some distant relatives on one of the ship manifests.
The lower Manhattan Skyline, again from the SIF. Just to the right of this, until September 11, 2001, would have been the two World Trade Center buildings, dwarfing the remainder of the area and currently being rebuilt as a permanent reminder to that tragic day.
The Staten Island Ferry, used by hundreds of thousands of people every day who travel to New York City for work, as well as bundles of tourists who make the 25 minute trip to the Island just to come straight back!! (Like me)
Citi Field, new home of the New York Mets (Metropolitans). Based in Queen's, the Mets are New York's second team but this new ballpark makes you feel much more at home than Yankee Stadium and a mere snip at only £650m to build! Everything inside is designed for the fan, and the whole experience was so much nicer for want of a better word!! Food was cheaper, so was the beer to make Stepho happy, and you actually felt like you wanted to spend money inside the stadium unlike my own extreme levels of avoidance at Yankee Stadium. (For that, read cheapskate!)
Another view of Citi Field's facade.
Okay, so there is a little bit of commercialism here as well, based on the scoreboard.
Inside Citi Field, the crowd all arrived a bit later in the evening. This park is right on the takeoff path of LaGuardia Airport and watching the planes almost going vertically upwards to get over the place can be a little disconcerting at times!
Ah, the little bit of football on the trip. Welcome to the Boca Juniors themed restaurant near enough next door to our hotel, and serving Argentinian steaks of the huge variety! Everything inside was Boca based, although the pictures of Diego Maradona were not idolised by these visitors! All the staff wore Boca kits, there was footy on the tellys, and the meat was some of the best I have ever had. Fairly cheap by New York standards too.
Pop Diner, the American staple next door to Boca and perfect place for breakfast most days. Just like something you would have expected to see in Happy Days.
The Coney Island fairground, sadly shut at the moment. Old fashioned fairground rides on what passes for the only real beach area in New York. Easily accessible by subway through Brooklyn it can be a fun day out, but when it is cold, damp and windy, it's best just to take a couple of pictures and head for cover.
KeySpan Park, home of the minor league Brooklyn Cyclones. Another new stadium, opened only in 2001, and one I visited when full not long after it opened. The Cyclones play short-season Single-A baseball, which for most of you uninitiated characters, is basically the sixth tier of professional baseball. We are talking games for the players who will be major league players in a few years time, if they make it that far.
Tribute to the impact of African-American players in baseball outside KeySpan Park, this statue of Jackie Robinson and 'PeeWee' Reese marks the 1947 debut of Robinson for the Brooklyn Dodgers, the first black man to break through the racism and segregation that had previously existed in major league baseball until then. Robinson's stand against racism was deemed so important that his number 42 was retired from use across every MLB team in 1997 , with only Mariano Rivera of the Yankees currently wearing it as he had been back when it was retired, after agreement from Robinson's widow. The only time it is ever worn by other players is on Jackie Robinson Day (April 15) when this year it was worn by every single player, manager, coach and umpire. The statue comes from an occasion in Cincinnati when Robinson was being booed, sworn at and abused by fans and Reese attempted to show unity for his colleague by putting his arms around his shoulder in the outfield, silencing the crowd. Reese had also refused to sign a document saying the Dodgers would boycott the team if management agreed to signing Robinson, such was the hatred towards Negro League players - the leagues black players had been forced to play in until the days after WWII.
Just down the road from KeySpan Park lies the Nathan's Hot Dog Stand, the first created back in 1916. Still on the same site today, the stand is one of the most popular eateries in New York for those who make the sometimes hour-long subway pilgrimage to Coney Island. On July 4 there is a world-famous hot dog eating competition and the winners are noted on the Wall of Fame, the first picture here. The current world record is held by Joey Chestnut who consumed a stomach churning 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes in 2007. Chestnut also won last year and will be going for a hat-trick next month when his main competition will come from a Japanese chap by the name of Takeru Kobayashi, who had won the event for the six years previous to 2007. Take a look at his Wikipedia entry en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeru_Kobayashi and see some of the feats he has managed in his life. Amazing to think he reportedly weighs in at less than 12 stones, much like Joey Chestnut!! These guys are apparently athletes ;D
Funny you mention the "horseshoe shape"...................I went with Anthony to watch the Arsenal Development Under 10s play yesterday (he plays next week for the Under 9's) and as soon as we got there he was called into the technical area to watch the game from there with the coaches and subs ~ good team spirit eh?