NEW YORK (AP) -One by one, David Ortiz and his Red Sox teammates walked down the clubhouse tunnel, climbed the seven steps up to the dugout and took their first peek at the new Yankee Stadium.
“It’s beautiful,” Ortiz said, surveying the rain-soaked ballpark before the start of Monday night’s game against New York was delayed. “Where are those expensive seats?”
Then, with a gleam in his eye, the slugger gazed toward the inviting right-field wall.
“I know the pitchers aren’t too happy about it,” he said. “CC tells me the ball flies out there.”
Yankees ace CC Sabathia wasn’t scheduled to start in this two-game series between the old rivals. With showers in the forecast until midweek, no telling if anyone would get to pitch.
“Doesn’t look good,” Ortiz said, flipping open his iPod and punching up The Weather Channel’s Web site. He looked at the radar map and saw a green monster – not the familiar one at Fenway Park, but an oncoming storm.
tour of the visitors’ clubhouse at the $1.5 billion showplace. No more concrete pillars and cramped corners for video work like across the street – here, there are four roomy couches and a separate room to review tape.
Francona also noticed a certain feature about the architecture.
“The upper deck is not on top of you anymore. I enjoyed that part,” he said. “I loved the games at the old ballpark.”
The Red Sox went 285-484-4 at The House That Ruth Built. They played the first game there, losing when Babe Ruth homered in the Yankees’ 4-1 win on April 18, 1923.
J.D. Drew, Jason Bay and Tim Wakefield were among other Red Sox who popped their heads out for an early look. There were 31 home runs hit in the first nine games at the park, 22 of them to right, and Drew was eager to take aim.
“It’d be nice to play with that every day,” he said.
Batting practice on the field was canceled – the new park has spacious cages next to each clubhouse – and a few Boston players briefly played catch in the right-field corner.
“The first thing when I woke up, I wanted to get to the new stadium,” leadoff man Jacoby Ellsbury said.
Red Sox captain Jason Varitek had another goal – finding the right place to get treatment.
“Where’s the trainer’s room?” the catcher asked a clubhouse attendant. Told to head down the hall, turn left and keep walking, Varitek rolled his eyes.
pregame session in a separate interview room, Francona started to slip out a door, stopped and asked a team official, “This way?”
“We’re all routine oriented,” Francona said. “I like to know where I’m going.”
Ortiz joked he got lost while trying to find the dugout, and instead wound up in the kitchen and gym.
Ortiz has been perplexed at the plate, too. The All-Star DH has not hit a home run this season after 96 at-bats, and is hitting only .208 with 12 RBIs.
He wore a red T-shirt on Monday that read, “It’s Not How You Start.”
“I haven’t ever been in this kind of funk,” Ortiz said. “I’ll take this like something the baseball gods want to teach me.”
Notes: Red Sox SS Julio Lugo will likely get a couple of days off while he continues to recover from surgery on his right knee. … Boston OF Mark Kotsay was headed for further treatment. He had back surgery, and left Sunday’s game for Triple-A Pawtucket with tightness in his calf. … Yankees LHP Damaso Marte was seen Monday by New York Mets medical director Dr. David Altchek, who diagnosed left shoulder inflammation.
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