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With ongoing grateful thanks to the Wall Street Journal for kindly providing such a neat summary, and so – for Saturday January 30th 2010 – here’s what was hot during the past week, and what……wasn’t;
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With ongoing grateful thanks to the Wall Street Journal for kindly providing such a neat summary, and so – for Saturday January 23rd 2010 – here’s what was hot during the past week, and what……wasn’t;
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With ongoing grateful thanks to the Wall Street Journal for kindly providing such a neat summary, and so – for Saturday January 9th 2010 – here’s what was hot during the past week, and what……wasn’t;
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Readers will forgive a rare departure from our established format, but I felt compelled to recognize the passing of an era.
For the sake of brevity, I’ll quote the NY Daily News
Few tears may be shed Sunday when fans file out of Giants Stadium for the last time, or in February when the wreckers move in to level the place. Certainly, it doesn’t hold the nostalgia of the old Yankee Stadium.
Yet, looking back on its 34 years of existence, neither is it void of memories. It’s where Pele said goodbye, where Lawrence Taylor said hello and where Pope John Paul II said Mass, where Springsteen sang and where the stadium itself seemed to weep for the death of Wellington Mara, who was as responsible as anyone for building it.
The Generals came into their brief existence and the Giants came of age there. And if the Jets lost their identity there, some 70 million visitors found a little bit of their own, including me.
Well, that’s the grand slam. All of our iconic (and mostly butt-ugly) stadiums have been razed to make way for “new ones”. So far the two completed structures are just as awful looking as the ones they replaced, just ugly in a more modern way.
The oldest: Yankee Stadium 1923 – 2008 (57,545 seating capacity)
The smallest: Shea Stadium 1964 – 2008 (57,333 seating capacity)
The youngest: Giants Stadium 1976 – 2010 (80,200 seating capacity)
I know, I know…I’m going to get flack for calling Yankee Stadium (“The House that Ruth Built”) ugly, but I find it extraordinarily difficult to find any genuinely attractive features when looking at any sports stadium. Granted, the limestone facade on Yankee Stadium was distinctive. The reason we we wax nostalgic is because ballparks and football stadiums have assumed a disproportionately evocative place in our regional psyches. On an emotional level I guess it’s impossible to argue that. Memories are memories after all. Even more so if you’re a diehard sports fanatic.
In closing, although I always thought Giants stadium was an eyesore, its looming bulk at the side of the Jersey Turnpike was oddly reassuring. “Almost home” was my usual thought as I passed it heading North. Oh well, now the “New Meadowlands Stadium” will gradually assume similar landmark significance for another generation. In a weird way I’ll miss the old stadium. I attended the opening Giants game in October 1976 because a ticketholder was unable to attend, and gave me his ticket. 33 years and a couple of months later, I watched the Jets hand the Bengals a 37-0 pounding, but from across the ocean and a world away. Yes, there’s much room for reflection in that set of statistics, for sure.
Memories are memories, after all.
Images courtesy of Getty Images & The NY Daily News
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With ongoing grateful thanks to the Wall Street Journal for kindly providing such a neat summary, and so – for Saturday January 2nd 2010 – here’s what was hot during the past week, and what……wasn’t;
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