NEW YORK (AP) -Four flat-screen TVs hanging from the ceiling, spacious lockers and plush leather couches – and this was the visitor’s clubhouse, second-rate digs compared to what the New York Yankees call home in the new Yankee Stadium.
Still, it sure impressed Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella, who spent 11 years playing for the pinstripes and later served as manager just across 161st Street at the old ballpark.
“I was hoping coming in here that you would recognize the old Yankee Stadium, and you do, you really do,” Piniella said Friday night, before the Cubs and Yankees christened the place with an exhibition game. “There’s a good flavor to it.”
Several Cubs players talked about how the visiting clubhouse was nicer than the home clubhouse at their beloved Wrigley Field, with programmable safes for valuables in each locker and plenty of nooks and crannies in the back to hide from the media.
of the padded folding chairs in front of his locker and marveled at all the amenities.
When the outfielder walked down the ramp and into the dugout, the enormous video screen beyond the center field wall – measuring 59 feet by 101 feet – immediately caught his eye.
“The screen, that’s very good,” Soriano said. “It’s big.”
It was a familiar drive to the ballpark for Aaron Heilman, too.
Heilman, who entered in relief of Ted Lilly in the fifth inning, spent the past six seasons pitching across town for the New York Mets, but has many memories of the old Yankee Stadium from those heated Subway Series games.
Heilman raved about the new stadium but noted that the field dimensions make it look and play very much like the old one, the only real differences being more foul-ball territory down the lines and less behind home plate.
Piniella thought it looked very much like the old ballpark, too.
“I think the home-field advantage is made up of really good pitching and solid hitting and defense,” he said, alluding to the premise that the stadium is meant to intimidate opposing clubs. “This is still New York.”
The 65-year-old manager was then asked whether he thinks Wrigley Field might ever be replaced, along with Fenway Park the last remaining throwbacks to baseball’s early years, and said a new ownership group might at the very least consider some renovations.
igley Field? Good luck pitching that to the Cubs faithful.
“Wrigley is a very unique place to me, it’s almost like a Field of Dreams-type stadium, right in the neighborhood,” Piniella said. “You’ve got the ivy, the bleacher bums, the people right across the street on the rooftops. It’s got its charm and it’s got its history and it’s got its tradition.
“You know, it’s amazing, in these old stadiums you get some of the best attendance in baseball,” he added. “They’re wonderful, wonderful old bastions of baseball and they’ll remain to be so.”
That doesn’t mean he doesn’t appreciate all that new can bring, especially for the fans.
“Athletes can adjust and play on any field, but for the fans, for them to enjoy the experience more and for them to have wonderful amenities, they’ll keep coming back,” he said.
“And hopefully the Yankees will field really, really good teams here. One of my desires would be to come here in the postseason and play them.”
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