A Day Full of Georges

Should be an exciting week for me. Heading to see Foof Ighters Tuesday night with a friend at MSG. Foof always puts on a good show.

With the day off from work (thanks Abe, George, George, George, etc.), I took the opportunity to tour Yankee Stadium with my brother and niece.

The new stadium is a stone's throw away from the old one. I was surprised with how much progress has been made for (and I'm using the tour guide's words) The House That George Built.

The tour was pretty quick but hit all of the key sites. It was a little difficult to hear our tour guide at times but it was Yankee Stadium, so I really didn't care too much what he had to bring to the table.

The interesting part came at the end of the tour. My brother uses a camcorder in lieu of a digital camera. We had no problem getting into the tour and when the security guard saw the video camera, he said, "No videos!"

My brother explained that he was taking still shots and the guy didn't have a problem with picture taking....only videos.

I'm not clear as to why this is a stadium policy, but it is. I mean, we have no intention of capturing the full hour tour (including the trip on the elevator where I felt like a sardine or the jam-packed dugout or the 4 minutes we spent in Monument Park) and selling it on ebay. I'm sure that could get top dollar.....OR take shots of Clemens locker complete with tubs of HGH, steroids, and some type of fish tranquilizer. There were no secrets to the tour. I thought the Camden Yards ballpark tour was a million times better.....but still, rules are the rules.



No videotaping. The individuals from Jamaica, Cuba, Mexico, and Haiti made it very clear to us.



As we went further along on the tour, a female security guard (the lovely Jasmine Higgins....who I hope spends the rest of her life working the $7/hour job as a security guard in the Bronx) started giving us a nasty look. While in the locker room (where no photos can be taken....and we obliged), she continued to stare us down, making it very uncomfortable for all of us.

As we came to the close of the tour, Miss Higgins (and I say Miss because no man would want to marry this ugly wench) camped out behind us and saw my brother using his video camera to get a still shot of centerfield. She demanded to have his camera and delete everything on it (including STILL pictures of family related events). I guess this advanced technology hasn't hit that part of Mexico, yet.

We were promptly escorted out of the press box by a guard who used the phrase, "I understand" about 30 times. When we came across the man in charge of security, who was a joy with whom to deal, he didn't care that we were taking pictures. He was more intent on protecting the sanctity of the $15 Yankee Stadium Tour.

After this experience, I didn't decide to become a Mets fan (I'd rather eat my own feces....something the Sandman tends to do every October)....but it did sour my experience of the entire organzation. Luckily, we got to see all four key parts of the tour (press box, park, dugout, locker room) before they realized we were a threat to the billion dollar Yankee empire.

In other news

JBecht and I are planning a trip to see 5 stadiums in 5 days.

• 4/21 Cardinals at Brewers




• 4/22 Mets at Cubs (day); Yankees at White Sox (night)
  
  
  


• 4/23 Rangers at Tigers...possibly meet up with VFR and Reako.





• 4/24 Mets at Nats

Needless to say, I am fired up.

I guess it would make sense to send my regards to George, who is probably working another late shift at one of NYC's largest publications.

Thank you Mr. Sandman for this. It's extremely difficult to do so without laughing. Hard.

And on a more somber note, I have mentioned Professor Randy Pausch in the past. He has pancreatic cancer and was told in August that he had 3-6 months to live. Here is an 11 minute abbreviated version of the lecture to his students. He's a tremendous person and role model.