Yankee Stadium actually might suck

July 15th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

So, here’s something I enjoyed: the New York Times pressed some All-Stars and got them to say discouraging things about the House that Ruth built. I enjoy this because I had to listen to Yankee Stadium get verbally jerked off last night to no end. I’m pretty sure Reggie Jackson is still blabbing about how being a True Yankee is the greatest thing on this here Earth. (Which, all things told, if I lived and breathed that environment day and day out, I’d probably end up sounding like Reggie, too. But I haven’t, so I don’t. And I won’t.)

BUT ANWAYS, here are the quotes:

The smell,” the Texas Rangers’ Michael Young said.

“The tiny clubhouse,” Justin Duchscherer of the Oakland Athletics added.

“Hitting my head on the dugout,” the Chicago White Sox’ Joe Crede offered. “Every time somebody scored or got a hit, you jumped up and forgot how low the ceiling is in there.”

[ … ]

“Especially when it rains, the smell that comes up through the drainage system is not pretty,” said Jason Varitek of the Boston Red Sox. “It affects your sinuses, I’ll tell you that much.”

Young added: “It depends on the day. The last time we were there, which was a couple of weeks ago, a pipe burst. I was going back up the tunnel, and there was a flood — a sewer line broke or something like that. So I still have that kind of in my nose right now.”

You know what? I change my stance: these guys just don’t get it. That sewer spell? That’s the smell of champions. The small dugouts and clubhouses? That builds character. It’s all so simple, really.