Great start, my eyes dart.

What a PERFECT opening day. My roommate and I made home run predictions at lunch yesterday. He predicted 3 dingers, with the first being by A Rod. You gotta go with A Rod for first homer of the year, right? Apparently not!

The youngster Melky stole that one! And stole the show for that matter with his far ranging, highlight reel catches in the fourth inning. Wang was great, out-dueling the Jays ace. And the reigning MVP, A-Rod, copped the first of many RBI's he'll accumulate this season. And Joba-Mo did their thing!

I said my eyes dart... Where do they dart? Well, straight past tonight's game. To tomorrow nights game, as Phil Hughes will make his 2008 debut. I know, Moose will be just as important, if not more so, to this seasons success than Hughes. But I don't care. I can't NOT look ahead. He is the future.

I'd bet there are a bunch of Yankees fans who feel the same way!

Talk about it in the NYYSI Forums! Read the full post, after the jump

NYY Stadium Insider takes the Yankee Stadium Tour

Click on the photo above for a full page of photos and videos from the Yankee Stadium Tour

I've been a Yankee fan my whole life, but have never taken the time out to go on the "behind the scenes" Yankee Stadium Tour. Being that the current Yankee Stadium is closing after this season, I figured now was as good of a time as EVER to drop the $15 and get the behind the scenes look.

Before I gush on about how AWESOME it is, let me get the minor complaints out of the way...

1) Note to the Yankees - there is no need to hawk LAST YEAR'S media guide for $5 to paying customers on the tour. We get robbed blind enough by the Yankees. Those media guides were produced en masse and are all headed for a garbage dump and soon. At the end of the tour, they gave away the most cheesy keychain in the history of the world - would it have been that tough to give out the OLD media guide instead???

2) If you have a kid, and he/she/it is under the age of 5, don't bother taking them. They won't get it and all they will do is disrupt the others while they are trying to hear the tour guide give some of his nuggets. The annoying kid yelling "down, down down" while in the press box portion of the tour caused most of the tour participants to not hear what the tour guide was saying. I nearly demanded some money back from the dude with the annoying kid. I ask you this - why drag your under 5 year old kid through the boredom? They will never remember it and they won't enjoy it.

3) The clubhouse was part of the tour, but they squeezed 50 people into one quarter of the clubhouse and closed off the rest of it. Unfortunately, the part of the clubhouse that you were allowed in was not where the famous Munson locker is and I could not get a glimpse of it. That was a big disappointment.

Ok, I got the negative Nancy out of me - on to the good stuff. This tour is well worth the money for any Yankee fan over the age of 5. It is an experience you will be able to cherish forever, especially with this stadium being blown up a year from now. Getting to visit the areas of the stadium that are always off limits, even to the most diehard of fan is a real treat. I have been going to Yankee Stadium for 25 years, but until today I had never been into the press box, the clubhouse or the dugout. It was worth the wait. Just being in those places and thinking about all of the history that had taken place in the very spot you were standing was invigorating.

NYY Stadium Insider has a special web page dedicated to the tour. Definitely check it out - there are some cool pictures there.

If you are interested in taking the Yankee Stadium Tour, surf on over to the page on Yankees.com and get the 411. Do take note of the red fine print at the bottom of the page, detailing the MANY dates upcoming when your tour will NOT include the clubhouse portion of the tour. If you want to see the Yankees locker room, you will want to AVOID those dates.

*During the Final Season of Yankee Stadium, tours will not be available on the following dates: May 3, 4, 8, 17, 18, 24, 25, June 5, 7-9, 19, 21, 22, July 4-6, 19, 20, 23, 30, August 2, 3, 16, 17, 28, 30, 31, and September 13 and 14th.

*Due to additional events taking place during the dates of March 17-April 7, April 16- April 23, and July 10-17, there will be no tours available.

*The following dates are for when the Clubhouse will NOT be available during the 2008 Stadium tours: April 8, 29, 30, May 1-9, 16-26, June 3-10, 16-23, 27-30, July 1-9, 18-24, 28-31, August 1-4, 14-18, 25-31, September 1, 11-19.

Once again, I can't stress enough how worth it this tour was for $15. Although it was a blustery, cold winter day in March, the tour was exceedingly enjoyable and NYY Stadium Insider HIGHLY recommends it!


Talk about it in the NYYSI Forums! Read the full post, after the jump