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                         July 26, 2002

A daughter's first visit to Yankee Stadium

Commentary by Jim Fox
Staff Writer

Finally, after seven long years of waiting I got a chance to take my oldest child, my daughter Jenny, to Yankee Stadium July 18.

Jenny and over 100 of her West Point School Age Services classmates trekked down to the Bronx on a hot, muggy day to see the Yankees hold off the Detroit Tigers 6-5.

Jenny wasn’t in peak condition that day, she was feeling the effects of the onset of a cold, but still wanted to go.

Really, I couldn’t talk her out of it.

I drove her down in our car, while her classmates traveled down by bus. While trying to explain the surroundings to her on the trip down the Palisades to the Tappan Zee Bridge and, ultimately, down the Major Deegan -- she feel asleep.

So much for Dad’s grand tour.

Once we got to the House that Ruth Built, we lucked out and found a parking lot right across from the giant bat outside Gate 4. I was a little leery of the $15 to park, but it proved well worth it once the day was done, as we were able to jump out of the parking lot and right onto the northbound lanes of the Deegan.

Though we had left early enough to try to get in the Stadium to see Monument Park -- we were still too late.

By the time we wove our way around to the bullpen area Monument Park was full and closed, no more than 22 minutes after it opened.

Instead we toured the upper reaches of the Stadium on our way to our seats, finding along the way such key points of interest as the bathrooms and the Frozen Lemonade stand.

Our seats were near the top of the reserved tier section behind home plate about 20 rows from the top of the stadium. That may sound like a bad thing, but what it did provide us with was blessed shade throughout the game.

It was 96 degrees in Central Park that day. As the game wore on it became overcast and quite breezy which gave us some relief from the heat.

Jenny, despite being hot and tired, picked up the rhythm of the crowd. Whenever the scoreboard told us to clap she clapped.

The noise and filler sound that permeates ballparks today, I now see, is to keep the interest of the little people between innings and during television timeouts. At least that makes sense to me when it’s an afternoon game that features giveaways such as "Bernie Williams Bobble Head Day."

As the Stadium filled it became apparent that the colorful splotches sprinkled here and there in the stands denoted the locations of youth groups.

Jenny’s group wore dark blue, but there were also reds, yellows and oranges nearly everywhere you looked.

We were only two Foxes out of 54,725 fans in attendance for the afternoon contest. With such a young audience there was a good bit of clamoring for cotton candy, peanuts, soda and most important on this scorcher of a day -- water.

There wasn’t enough water to go around. Four bucks a pop for a large bottle of water caused the lines at the drinking fountains to be longer than the lines for the bathrooms.

The day went well, from my perspective. But Jenny slowly petered out and ended up dozing on my leg from about the sixth inning on.

"You have a soft leg, Daddy," was her innocent remark after the day’s events were over and it was off to find some water and the blessed air conditioning of the family car.

On the way home we had our routine discussion about what our "favorite" things were about the day.

Somehow over the last few years since both kids have been able to speak well enough to express their own thoughts it has become a Fox family custom to explain to everyone else in the group what their "favorite" thing was about the just attended event, be it a movie, a trip to the zoo, etc.

Mine, of course, revolved around Yankees scoring runs and making plays in the field.

Jason Giambi actually made two or three good plays in the field. I was shocked.

Jenny agreed with me that Yankee Stadium was bigger in real life that it looks on TV.

She also liked singing God Bless America, during which she showed me the proper way to hold my hat over my heart.

And she liked it when Yankees second baseman Alfonso Soriano’s bat exploded while he fouled off a pitch.

"It went into over 100 pieces," she noted.

She did well for a seven-year-old who was a bit under the weather and more than a bit overcome with the tedious pace of a major league baseball game.

Maybe if Yankee Stadium added a playground like the Staten Island Yankees and the Hudson Valley Renegades have she would have been a bit more enthused.

My primary goal was accomplished though. She now considers herself a Yankees fan.

One kid brainwashed. One to go.

Now I only have to get my five-year-old son, Joe, to sit still for four-plus hours and he will be ready for his first major league game.

Hopefully, there will still be major league baseball when he is mature enough to sit through it.