Bernie Williams To Attend Home Opener At New Stadium, Appear On CenterStage

Found these tidbits in Newsday, in an article about Bernie's desire to play baseball, and thought this news might matter to fans:

Williams also said he will be on hand when new Yankee Stadium opens with its first regular-season game April 16.

"CenterStage" with Williams will premiere on YES after the Yankees-Orioles game April 8. It will include a musical performance by Williams and his band.

Bernie's will likely recieve a wild ovation when they show him on the massive screen in center field.

Maybe they'll be able to retire his number this year, or next year when he decides to OFFICIALLY retire. He deserves a true farewell as one of the good guys in the game, especially considering the era he played during. Not to mention, if that silly phrase "True Yankee" ever applied, it's to this guy. Read the full post, after the jump

Forget the Exhibition Game - What About Who Starts The Yankee Stadium Home Opener on April 16th?

Earlier today, Nick excitedly posted about the previously announced starting pitchers for the Cubs vs. Yankees exhibition games on April 3 and April 4. Shortly thereafter, Joe Girardi upstaged Nick's post by announcing that CC Sabathia was starting opening day at Yankee Stadium on April 16 - idle speculation that Joba would start on opening day, be damned. According to Peter Abraham's breakdown of the first month's probable pitchers, it looks like the Yankees are already building extra off days into Joba's schedule, opening the door for Sabathia to start on April 16. It should be a memorable day in the Bronx.

Making things even more memorable, sources say that George Steinbrenner will be propped up Weekend At Bernie's style and will attend the first game at the "House That Big Stein Built." All jokes aside, he deserves to be there. Criticism over the stadium funding and the ticket prices are well deserved, but the stadium is going to be a palace - his palace.

Rounding out the day's news, Joe Girardi has apparently rediscovered his copy of Baseball Prospectus to make up for his Xavier Nady blunder. Derek Jeter batted leadoff in a Spring Training game today, while Johnny Damon followed him in the second spot of the order. Perhaps Girardi is providing the impetus that Jeter needs to stop sacrificing at bats by bunting, or hitting behind runners with disregard for his own chance of getting a hit. Jeter is still one of the best pure hitters in the league and needs to start acting like it. Wasting at bats after the leadoff guy gets on base is not the proper use of a man on pace to break the all-time hits record.

Maybe Girardi is sick of seeing Jeter hit into double plays. By batting Jeter leadoff, it is one less at bat that the possibility exists for him to do what he has recently become great at doing. Most likely, Girardi took a look at Jeter's career on base percentage of .385 and compared it to Johnny Damon's of .354. He even might have noticed that PECOTA projects Jeter to slug a measly .384 in 2009, while Johnny Damon mashes his way to a .422 slugging percentage. Whatever the reason is, Girardi got this one right. Read the full post, after the jump

Ticketmaster Bait and Switch and New Yankee Stadium Social Stratification Update

The other day, we shared the sad story of an unsuspecting Yankee fan who fell victim to a shady bait and switch technique by TicketMasterNation while trying to purchase some uber-expensive Opening Day Yankee tickets.

Today, we received word that Ticketmaster recognized their error, but was unwilling to make good on it. Here is the email that was sent:

Hello [name redacted], this is Ticketmaster Customer Service with an important alert regarding your order, [order No. redacted]. The tickets that you ordered from Ticketmaster for the New York Yankees vs. Cleveland Indians on Thursday, April 16, 2009 scheduled at the Yankee Stadium were put on sale inadvertently, allowing you to order tickets at an incorrect price.

We are currently holding replacement tickets for you in the price level that you had originally selected in Section 16, Row 9, Seat(s) S5.

Please call customer service at 800-653-8000 on or before 12 noon Eastern time on Monday, April 13, 2009 and you will be given the opportunity to exchange your tickets for these additional tickets to the New York Yankees vs. Cleveland Indians on Thursday, April 16, 2009 scheduled at the Yankee Stadium.

You are also free to decline the exchange and receive a full refund. If we do not hear from you by noon Eastern on Monday, April 13, 2009 your original tickets will be cancelled and your credit card refunded.

Please note your original tickets will be cancelled and will not be valid for entry.

We regret that we were not able to provide you with the tickets you ordered. We really appreciate your business and hope you give us the opportunity to better serve you in the future.

In other words, you can have your single, overpriced ticket for Opening Day, but it is not going to be the single overpriced Opening Day ticket that you purchased in the first row, it is going to be the one that Ticketmaster decides you can have. Hopefully this guy will give Ticketmaster the finger and let the seat rot.

Switching gears a bit, our post about the introduction of the caste system at the new Yankee Stadium drew interest from around the interwebs, and plenty of banter in the comments section. The "A-Z Guide" has not been updated, but some fans have taken it upon themselves to contact their ticket representatives for some clarification. We would never recommend trusting any information passed along by a Yankee ticket rep. Not because they are incompetent, but because they are constantly fed false information by their clueless leaders. That being said, our buddy "Legendary 23" on Twitter contacted his ticket rep who has always been good for accurate information. According to him, "people will have access to all food courts on all levels" and "the same rule applies to watching bp....you will have to leave and go back to your seat when they are done." Put simply, the guide on Yankees.com "is wrong."

We fully expect an update to the "A-Z Guide" resulting in the disappearance of the verbiage in question. Luckily we will always have the original words archived, proving just how out of touch the Yankee Stadium decision makers were prior to the fan uproar. Read the full post, after the jump

Housekeeping Note: Introducing a New Commenting System

At some point today, we realized that the built-in blogger commenting system did not have IP tracking functionality built it. We certainly don't want to collect IP addresses, but we plan on running some contests this season based on the comments, and want to prevent cheating by tracking IP addresses. We are well aware of IP masking, but it is doubtful that any of our contests will be worth all of that trouble.

That being said, we proudly present the new comments. It will now be necessary to register a username of some sort which hopefully won't be too much of an inconvenience to anyone. The website that runs the new commenting system "Intense Debate" actually claims that their commenting system ENCOURAGES conversation on blogs, but then again, why wouldn't they claim that? It should be noted that the old comments will remain on old posts, and you will still use the old commenting system if you decide to comment on those posts. Everything from this point forward will utilize the new system.

In any case, this means that everyone from myself to Fake IPK to the commenter actually named Anonymous will have to create a new username. Just get it out of the way on this post, and why not introduce yourself? We have seen a considerable increase in traffic and in comments lately, so now is as good of a time as ever to start building a Stadium Insider community.

Just keep in mind, if we ever see the first comment on a post say "first" and nothing else, we will retire from blogging. Also, it will automatically ban your IP address from ever winning a New Stadium Insider contest.

Along those lines, look out for the announcement of our first ever contest in the coming weeks. The prize will be a pair of Grandstand tickets for the Yankees vs. Orioles on May 20. No, they are not great seats, but yes you will be able to check out the new Yankee Stadium. Details will follow, so be sure to bookmark the blog, add us to your RSS reader, and follow us on Twitter for all of the latest news. Read the full post, after the jump

Probable Starters For Stadium Openers Vs. Cubs and updated information about Bob Sheppard

Enough talk about obstructed seats, ticket pre-sales and urinals. Let's talk baseball!

We're a mere 8 days away from the opening of the BRAND NEW Yankee Stadium, with two exhibition games on tap against the lovable losers, the Cubs. Ok, they're actually pretty damn good nowadays. Could this be a World Series preview?

For those of you headed to the stadium to see its first live action next weekend, here's what you can expect as far as probable starters go:

Friday, April 3: Ted Lilly @ Chien Ming Wang
Saturday, April 4: Rich Harden @ AJ Burnett (Andy Pettitte slated to appear as well)

Meaningless as the game may be, that Saturday match-up has me salivating. Those two fire-ballers are sure to make a few guys look silly. Let's hope Burnett doesn't get too "geeked"(Thanks Michael Kay) for this meaningless game.

My question for all who plan on attending is this: What are you most excited about experiencing in the New Stadium? Me? I'm just hoping we can put the "YMCA tradition" behind us. Actually, I'm hoping we can put it in a time machine, and send it back to the 70's where that annoying song belongs. Please Yankees. No one likes it anymore.

UPDATE (3/26 11:00 AM): Via River Ave. Blues there is word that Bob Sheppard will be making his triumphant return as PA announcer for the April 3 exhibition game against the Cubs. We have always criticized El Capitan, Derek Jeter for insisting on a recording of Sheppard's voice for his at bats while Sheppard was out sick. That being said, a Yankee game just isn't the same without Bob Sheppard's impeccable pronunciations. No offense to Jim Hall, who did an admirable job and will likely be the permanent replacement once Sheppard is forced into retirement due to turning 130 years old.

UPDATE (3/26 4:22 PM): Via Newsday is word from Sheppard's family that he won't be able to make it back, even for the April 16th home opener. We are aware that Bryan Hoch was merely responding to a "mailbag" question, but that was some pretty shoddy reporting.
Read the full post, after the jump

Ticketmaster For Your Car! Introducing Baseball-Parking.com

No, this is not an ad. This is just a preview of the new way to park your car at Yankee Stadium. Before just hopping into your car to head to the ball park, you better head over to Baseball-Parking.com to make sure that your car's preferred "seat" is available.

The interface seems simple enough, just five easy steps and your car is as good as parked.



Clicking the "Reserve Parking Now" button takes you to a Ticketmaster style game selection page. From there, you select the "section" of parking that you want for that game, and whether you are self-parking or splurging for valet. Here are some of the parking lot choices:



Ahh, we see where this is going. Standard Parking Company (likely partnering with the Yankees and utilizing the Click and Park system) are working toward turning the spaces for your car into the equivalent of seats for your butts. Different game choices? Check. Different "sections" or, in this case lots? Check. Illogical service fee? Check. The only thing missing right now is different prices for the lots that are "closer to the field," and lots "selling out" quickly for big games.

This is a good thing for those traveling to Yankee games by car. Instead of unprepared cars pouring in to already full lots, people will need to plan ahead of time and their reward will be knowing which lot has a space for them. It is pretty strange that a system like this was not already in place. It probably has something to do with the addition of many new parking lots that were built along with the new stadium. In the past, their probably weren't enough parking choices to facilitate a system like Baseball-Parking.com offers.

In addition, season ticket holders can buy "season parking packages." Why take care of your own seat, and not your car's for the entire season? Baseball-Parking has you covered, but doesn't even offer a discount from the per game rate, actually charging $19.40 per game instead of $19. Then again, only one service fee of $5 is added on top, instead of a the $324 in $4 service fees that would be added if each game was purchased individually.

If anyone can figure out how this could possibly be perceived as anything but a huge postive for the Yankee game experience, please feel free to let us know in the comments. We'll withhold judgement until we have proof of how smooth the entire process goes. For now, Baseball-Parking should probably be paying "Stadium Insider," since we are typically more skeptical about new features related to the building of the new stadium. Read the full post, after the jump

Yankee Full Season Ticket Holder Number "Was An Internal Team Miscommunication," Actual Number Considerably Lower

According to the NY Post, Lonn Trost shared false information that the equivalent of 39,393 full season ticket plans had already been sold for the new Yankee Stadium back in January. As it turns out, only 36,000 full season ticket plans were sold in total, and the 39,393 number was a mistake based on "an internal team miscommunication."

That would be an acceptable error, except very similar information was shared with a journalist from the AP by Lonn Trost back in March 2008:

As for the regular seats, the Yankees hope to send out a relocation plan in April. Through Thursday, the Yankees had sold 39,141 full-season equivalents.

Trost said there will be about 11,000 non-premium seats at field level and 12,000 at the main level. He said 25,000 seats from the final year of the current ballpark won't be increased for 2009.

In other words, we have all witnessed an absolute vintage Lonn Tross tactic right there. Make up a large number of tickets already sold to scare the crap out of people and force them to upgrade to the highest possible ticket plan.

As it turns out, the higher season ticket holder number was from the old Yankee Stadium. Now, the truth has been revealed - the Yankees have sold less full season equivalents this year than they did last year. Along with the high percentage of the most expensive seats remaining unsold (you know, the ones that were planned to subsidize the money lost by keeping the lower ticket prices unchanged?) and the Bank of America deal crumbling this means that the Yankees may not have such an easy time of paying for this 1.3 billion dollar luxury home. Lets hope a foreclosure is not in the future. Read the full post, after the jump

Yankee Stadium Field Level Seats Behind Home Plate Will No Longer Be Covered By a Screen

A memorable feature of the old Yankee Stadium was the on-again, off-again mesh wire screen that ran from the backstop up to the mezzanine level. It seems that the Yankees were never sure whether or not it was necessity, as it disappeared without notice during certain seasons. Luckily, the screen has been there lately, especially when a drunk kid jumped off of the upper deck back in 2005.

This screen served the obvious purpose of protecting the fans in the seats behind home plate, in the main level of the old stadium. Player's families sat back there, and it was important to keep them covered. The screen also added a bit of fun into the stadium. When balls were hit onto the screen, the momentum would carry the balls up the screen and directly toward the seating area of outside of the few suites at the old stadium. The rich kids who were lucky enough to be sitting in those seats always had huge fishing nets ready for these foul balls, and were booed loudly if they didn't capture them before they rolled back down the screen.

All of that fun is in the past, as this photo from inside of the new stadium reveals the view from behind home plate, complete with the permanent "Be Alert For Bats And/Or Balls" sign:


Photo Courtesy of Newsday

The seats back there should be a hotbed for foul balls in the new stadium. If anyone ponies up the big bucks and decides to occupy those seats, they better bring a glove and be ready to flash some leather. The balls that are fouled straight back usually don't lose much of the velocity of the pitch by the time they are on top of you. That being said, all it will take is one Yuppie getting smacked in the face by a foul ball and the screen will be back. Read the full post, after the jump

A Once in a Lifetime Opportunity to Purchase a Urinal From The Old Yankee Stadium

You really can't make this stuff up.

The old Yankee Stadium will be chopped up and sold to fans in little pieces as part of a $10 million-plus deal the team struck with the city, The Post has learned.

The payment will give the team the right to sell city-owned portions of the ballpark, including all 57,000 seats, the foul poles, dugouts and even the urinals sources familiar with the deal said.

Hey, at least if we get one of those urinals for our home, we will finally be able to relieve ourselves in peace, without being "splashed" on.

So, what would YOU pay for these beautiful, urine-soaked urinals?



On a serious note, we can totally envision a sports bar purchasing these urinals as part of a bathroom theme. The free market is a beautiful, but strange beast sometimes.

For those of you out there interested in buying a pair of seats from the old park, be aware that pairs of seats from the now-demolished Shea Stadium sold for $869. The Mets were smart and started those sales earlier, so the recession was not as deep as it is now. We'd expect seats from Yankee Stadium to start out at a higher asking price, but eventually settle down to the Shea Stadium price. Who has expendable income for stupid stuff like this anymore? Read the full post, after the jump

New York Yankees Introduce The Caste System: Only Allow Field Level Ticket Holders To Roam The Field Level Concessions

The Yankees have finally updated the official "A-Z" guide to the new Yankee Stadium on their website. There will likely be many nuggets that we are able to draw from this comprehensive guide to the stadium. For now, the most glaring change is the following:

Field Level Food Court

The food court located near Section 126 on the Field Level offers guests a taste of New York with a variety of concessions, including Boar¹s Head deli sandwiches, Famous Famiglia pizza and Asian cuisine. Please note that only Field Level and Legends ticket holders have access to the Field Level.

We have mentioned before that one of the most enjoyable aspects of going to baseball games is roaming around the stadium and checking out all of the nooks and crannies of the ballpark. Never before have we been to a ballpark that does not let fans explore the concessions on an entire level of the Stadium. We have been to Camden Yards in Baltimore, Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia and Safeco Field in Seattle in the past few years and NONE of those stadiums have this policy.

To prevent us from using the facilities or making purchases on an entire level is really creating social stratification in the new Yankee Stadium that we are not comfortable with. This also means that the middle-class family coming to Yankee Stadium to see their heroes suit up in the pinstripes will not be able to watch batting practice from the Field Level or try to procure autographs from their favorite players.

Batting Practice

Guests are welcome to watch batting practice from their seat location. Yankee Stadium gates will open at 10 a.m. for regular-season day games and 4 p.m. for regular-season night games. For Saturday Fox games during the regular season, gates will open at 1 p.m.

All of this is completely out of line with most other sporting venues where fans are encouraged to congregate close to the action during the pregame. We can only hope that the Yankees enforce the new A-Z guide as well as they did the old one, meaning hardly at all.

Don't get us wrong, the suddenly non-existent big spenders who normally snatch up those Field Level seats deserve special amenities. That is why there are membership only clubs in the stadium such as the Audi Yankees Club on the H&R Block Suite Level and the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar above Monument Park in center field. That is also why they can order food from their padded seats. These people who are spending a minimum of $95 for game day tickets do not need their own level of concessions. It is completely understandable if the Yankees don't want fans milling around or sitting in the actual seating area of the "Field Level" and that is what security guards/ushers are for.

According to the 2009 Yankee Media Guide:

Approximately two-thirds of the Stadium’s seats are in the lower half of the building, which
reverses the arrangement of the old Stadium, which had roughly two-thirds of the seats in the upper half.

Since the "lower half" of the building is split between the "Field Level" seats and the "Main Level" seats, it is fairly safe to assume that less than one third of attendees will have access to any of the offerings on an entire level.

This might be some sort of ploy to ramp up demand for the "Field Level" seats that remain unsold. In that case, all the Yankees are going to be left with is the most visible area of the stadium looking empty in TV clips. Meanwhile, just like on the Titanic, the "lower-class" people in the upper reaches of the stadium will be packed in tightly, but also having the most fun. This also might just be an "official policy" that is never enforced and therefore a non-issue. We can only wait and see.

As is the case many times on our blog, this post was inspired by the passionate Yankee fans on the NYYFans message board. We don't have much experience with discussing actual on-the-field action on NYYFans, but their "Out of Play" forum is one of the most informative places on the internet when it comes to breaking down all aspects of being a Yankee fan. Read the full post, after the jump

UPDATE: No All-Access Statium Tour For NSI

Apparently, some higher-ups at Turner caught wind of unimportant Yankee bloggers being given the All-Access Tour of the new Yankee Stadium, and have nixed it. There are no hard feelings toward the kind engineer who was willing to take us on the tour, but this just reeks of unprofessionalism on the part of Turner Construction. Just because we have a blog does not mean that we don't have plans or professional lives that we had to alter in order to make this happen. As a working professional, we had to move meetings around in order to leave work in time for this tour, and we told colleagues about the exciting opportunity. Now, all we are left with is embarrassment.

For the record, we were informed of the possibility of having to sign some sort of NDA regarding the tour and were told we would not be able to post photos. This was fine by us, as we were extremely excited about the opportunity to tour the stadium. We were under the impression that this was not a "secret" tour, as the engineer openly asked us if we wanted to take the tour on the public domain of Twitter. Therefore, we posted on our blog about the tour last night, encouraging the submission of questions for the engineers.

At the end of the day, it appears that this engineer was planning on taking us on the tour as personal guests, and not as members of the media on behalf of Turner Construction. We were misled into believing that this tour was arranged because of admiration for our blog, and that we were being encouraged to ask questions. We had plans to write a feature, just as if we were journalists from a newspaper invited on the tour.

If the intentions of this tour were clear from the beginning, this awkward and unprofessional situation would have never occurred. We didn't ever expect to be given this opportunity, so we don't have any illusions of entitlement. We just didn't want to tell our family and friends about it, only to have to suffer the embarrassment of telling them the tour was canceled, because we are bloggers. Read the full post, after the jump

NSI Cuts Through The Hype: Six Dollar, 12 Ounce Beer At New Stadium: Not A Better Deal.

Ross seemed surprised when the Yankees unveiled quite the "bargain": a six dollar 12 ounce beer. He noted that he didn't remember seeing a deal like that in the old stadium.

I'm here to burst his bubble. Just last season the Yankees were selling 24 oz beers for 12 dollars, with even Heinekens available for that price. So maybe there wasn't the good deal on 12 oz'ers, but if you went super-size, you'd be drunk in no time for that same "bargain" price.

Instead, this season we could go to Tommy Bahama's Bar, which will serve mixed drinks. Perfect for those who have whiny, beer-hating girlfriends in need of a buzz. Sure, the drinks will be expensive, but hey, it's the price you have to pay to get... I won't go there. Read the full post, after the jump

2009 Yankee Tickets Go On Sale For The General Public Today - Beware Of The Bait And Switch

Today at 10:00 AM the general public finally gets their crack at Yankee tickets without any preconceived notions of licensee status, lottery winner or anything else. All you have to do is be a human being (or a cleverly written computer program that knows how to read CAPTCHA), and you can log on to Ticketmaster.com to see what is left after the three separate presales. The good news for everyone not lucky enough to have been included in a prior presale is that the Yankees have created pools of tickets available for each presale. In theory, there should be close to as many Opening Day tickets for today's sale as there were for the other presales - or at least an incrementally lower number of tickets available.

That being said, everyone clicking away at Ticketmaster this morning should be aware of bait and switch tactics that we were alerted to by a tipster. This story is pretty unbelievable, but the screen grabs are there to prove it.

A well-off friend of one of our readers happily plopped down over $900 for a single ticket in section 24B, Row 5 for Opening Day against the Indians. Apparently these tickets are directly above the visitors dugout and $900 was in his budget. More power to him. This is the ticketfast confirmation of the purchase:


Order confirmation number redacted for his safety

Excitedly, he clicked on the "pick up your tickets" link, but to his dismay he was shown that he was assigned a ticket in a different section. Suddenly, his ticket was no longer directly above the dugout, but in section 24, and four rows further back. Here is what currently shows up in his Ticketmaster order history:



Sadly, this isn't even the worst part of the story. Not about to let this go, the poor guy who dropped nearly a G, only to have his tickets switched went back into ticketmaster to investigate. He searched for similar tickets and found that Ticketmaster had the audacity to put his original seat back up for sale, and was now charging $2,625:



As we mentioned, this entire story is almost too far-fetched to believe. However, when following the progression with the screen grabs, it is apparent that all of this actually happened. It looks like Ticketmaster made some sort of error selling that original ticket as a single seat, or selling it for the $900 price. Instead of alerting the customer, they just decided to switch out his ticket and put them back for sale - for $1,600 more.

So, what is this guy supposed to do now? It is likely that he splurged for a $900 ticket because he would be on top of the dugout for the first game ever in the new Yankee Stadium. Now he is sitting in the ridiculously priced box seats all alone and not even where he wanted to sit. It is unlikely that Ticketmaster's useless customer service will understand this complicated situation, so an easy resolution is not in the cards. Can anyone offer suggestions on the next steps to take for this poor guy? Read the full post, after the jump

The Ice Cream of the Future - we'll miss you

With New Yankee Stadium just a few short weeks away from opening to sell-out crowds every game, and the buzz of a new ballpark that hasn't been felt since before most current Yankee fans were born, Yankee fans may get so wrapped up in the hoopla that they may not even notice the loss of an ahead-of-its-time treat that served them well for so many years.

I speak of course about Dippin' Dots: The Ice Cream of the Future.

As the Yankees released an extensive list of all the wonderful new dining options the upgraded new stadium will feature, conspicuously absent was the cryogenically frozen snack, which did not make the cut among the seemingly random list of vendors like Johnny Rockets, Carl's Steaks, or Famous Famiglia Pizza.

After a quick peak on their website or their Wikipedia page it actually seems like Dippin' Dots is doing OK--did you know that in 2007 they had a revenue of $46.4 million? True story!

I guess people get nostalgic in different ways. While the "true Yankee" fans clamored for one more year at Yankee Stadium, I said good riddance. Of course I recognized the history of the old place, but knew that it could no longer service the hordes of people who waited on VERY long lines to enter the stadium, buy $12 beers, and go to the bathroom--and dry their hands on their shirts, because there were no paper towels by the time May rolled around.

But today I realized why I'm so nostalgic about Dippin' Dots: I've never even had them. My parents never bought them for me when I was a kid (they're disproportionately more expensive than regular ice cream) and a small helmet-shaped cup is hardly big enough for an adult. I thought that--like the future--the Dippin' Dots guy and his little stand would be waiting for me on the day I finally decided to fork over my $5 in exchange for the cold, beaded treat.

So what's the moral of the story? Don't wait until tomorrow to do what you can do today. Carpe diem. The Ice Cream of the Future waits for no man--not even a Yankee fan. Read the full post, after the jump

More about the Food at the New Yankee Stadium, Ticket Sales, Stadium Tours and More Monday Night Yankee Thoughts

If we didn't have a day job, this would be spread across multiple posts. Here is a day's worth of thoughts neatly bullet pointed for your reading pleasure:

• We happened across one of the engineers working for Turner Construction (the company building the new Yankee Stadium) on Twitter, and he liked our blog. Next thing you know, we're being offered an All-Access tour of the New Yankee Stadium on Tuesday evening. We're told that posting photos from the tour are a no-go, but that is likely only for the "backstage" areas such as the clubhouses. There will be a full report up tomorrow night, and we'd like to give you all the opportunity to participate in some way. We are collecting questions that you would ask one of the engineers who worked on the new Yankee Stadium. Questions about any construction delays, obstructed seats, or anything else that someone from Turner could answer are fair game. We need to send the questions off tonight, so please fire away in the comments section.
  
• The food options at the New Yankee Stadium are pretty amazing. When my girlfriend utters the words: "I'm starting to like this new Yankee Stadium," you know they are doing something right. We knew the food would be an improvement over the old stadium, but selection is truly surprising. It sure does make us look forward to embarking on our New Stadium Insider food tasting series.
• Also from today's release, the revelation of $6 beers is a pretty big deal as well. As far as we can remember, beers hovered around the $9 mark for the past couple of seasons. Perhaps with the increased numbers of points of sale, the Yankees can afford to lower prices a bit. Bud Light or not, it will cost less to get intoxicated at a Yankee game. We've never understood people who likes to spend a small fortune to go to a baseball game just to not remember it, but to each their own.
• Some people get pretty riled up about the Coke vs. Pepsi debate. Anyone paying attention to the photos that have been leaking out from the interior of the stadium noticed the Pepsi ads plastered all over the place. Today, Legends Hospitality Management confirmed that the "House That Big Stein Built" is a Pepsi palace. We'll stick with beer and water. What else do you need in life?
• This morning at 10AM, the lucky Yankee fans who won the public presale lottery got their F5 on (the refresh key for those not privy to internet language) and tried to score tickets to the premium games. Sadly, it seems that the luck ran out for most of them. Many of these formerly lucky souls were greeted with the all too familiar $2,625 seats right above the Yankee dugout. Astute commenter "HorseRun" points out that if the Yankees can't sell these seats for the first ever game in the brand new stadium, when will they sell them?
• Never has the crass term "if there's grass on the field, play ball" seemed more appropriate. There is no longer grass on the field at the old Yankee Stadium, and they will no longer be playing ball there. Back off, Chris Hansen, its just an expression.
  
• We'd get all stat-heady and uppity about Joe Girardi's revelation that Xavier Nady is the opening day right fielder, but driveline mechanics did all of the work a couple of week ago and Kevin Goldstein piled on today. Some will base their argument on the 2008 season and claim that it is a coin-toss. We would like to point out Swisher's terrible luck on balls in play last season and his history of being a masher. Bold prediction: if Nick Swisher gets 500+ ABs in 2009, he will approach 30 home runs. Scott Boras must somehow be involved in this. Last year we learned that Joe Girardi reads Baseball Prospectus, now he is picking Xavier Nady over Nick Swisher in a position battle. Something is fishy here.
  
• We posted on Twitter about this earlier, but since when do hookers have the right to run to the press with stories? There is something seriously wrong with our culture when newspapers provide a platform for people who have sex for money to air their secrets about superstar athletes like Alex Rodriguez. We don't condone ballplayers cheating on their wives, especially with paid whores. However, women have been making tons of money in the world's oldest profession since Wooly Mammoths were roaming the earth (OK, maybe not that long). Everyone's favorite Yankees of yester-year like Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin, Jason Giambi (ha) all frequented prostitutes. This Eliot Spitzer/A-Rod hooker is clearly trying to get out of the game, but all she is doing is putting the entire profession at risk. Athletes are going to start paying non-professional whores and just make them sign an NDA. Journalism isn't the only field undergoing major change.

Don't forget to give us some ideas for construction-related Yankee Stadium questions to ask tomorrow. This may be the last time to ask these types of questions, as Turner Construction will soon be on their way to building a 2 billion dollar stadium somewhere else in the world. Or they just won't be in the Bronx anymore. Read the full post, after the jump