Last Friday I had the chance to visit my third different ballpark of the season- and I haven't yet been to a Phillies game- as my dad and I watched the Twins play the Yankees at the new Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. We saw the Twins lose to the Yanks 8-4 after Ron Gardenhire inexplicably walked Mark Teixiera to face Alex Rodriguez, who promptly hit a grand slam.
The ballpark, however, was a huge improvement over its predecessor. Just as the old Yankee Stadium was renovated in the '70s to make it look more like a '70s park (i.e., round, concrete-dominated, and awful), it has been reconstructed in the '00s to make it look more like the parks of the current age, a much more successful transition.
The concourses are wider, the food better, and the sight lines improved. Gone, also are that weird black hole in centerfield, as well as the super-steep upper deck steps that made me think I was going to fall to my death every time I went up there.
And not only that, I couldn't believe how nice the fans were. Sure, a few douchebags got into the "Twins suck!" thing. But about ten different came up to us and said some variation on "you guys have a pretty good ballclub! Too bad we couldn't get Mauer." My only complaint? They did the wave. Seriously. I thought it was based from East Coast ballparks.
The Twins lost Saturday too, bringing us to Sunday, the day of my son Noah's bris. The Yankees were leading in the eighth but the Twins had runners on, but we had to turn the TV off, because it was time for the bris to start. Once it was over I got the word that the Twins had hit a grand slam off Mariano Rivera, and went on to win the game, their first victory at Yankee Stadium in two years.
I don't know whether to attribute these events to baseball, to God, or to the Baseball Gods, but no question, a great miracle happened there.