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NEW YORK - APRIL 26: A general view of Yankee Stadium during the game between the Los Angeles Angels and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on April 26, 2014 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Rob Tringali/SportsChrome/Getty Images)

Citi Field isn’t better than Yankee Stadium: Have some pride

I just don’t understand Yankee fans who go out of their way to say that Citi Field is better than Yankee Stadium. I’ve seen this a ton and, with the surge of the Mets, it’s an idea which has come out more. These are just some quotes I found scavenging social media.

Citi field is a much better designed stadium for viewing baseball.
And I’m a Yankee fan.

I’m a big yankees fan. But citi field is 100x better than yankee stadium. Citi field is built for baseball. Yankee stadium was built for businesses to bring their clients. The atmosphere is different.

I hate to say this but they have better food at Citi Field than Yankee Stadium and I am a die-hard Yankee fan.

I’ve taken plenty of my Yankee fan friends to Citi, and they say it’s 10x better

I’m a Yankees fan but the reality is Citi Field is a better ballpark than new Yankee Stadium ….. and it’s not even close. Old Yankee Stadium destroyed Shea …. but Citi absolutely owns new Yankee… just a fact

Diehard Yankees fan but after coming from a Mets game… I have to say the gaming experience is so much better at Citi Field… Yankees hire me! I specialize in community engagement!!

If you don’t get goosebumps sitting in the stands or the bleachers of Yankee Stadium when the weather is just right, the boys are coming off the field to bat, and the sun is setting on them with a glowing gold that’s there to make room for the evening, then maybe the experience of coming to a game isn’t for you. It’s moments like these that are truly perfect. It cannot be rivaled in any other sport or any other stadium – and this current incarnation of Yankee Stadium isn’t even the House that Ruth built.

This is why it just annoys me at a fundamental level when Yankee fans – not Mets fans who SHOULD be saying this – say that Citi Field is better. This image here is the most beautiful sight in all of sports and it’s not even close. When the Baseball Gods worked with the Architect(s) of the Universe to create baseball, this is the first image they had in mind.

And no, you can’t get sunsets this great at any other stadium because no other stadiums have the Yankees. That’s a fact.

I’ll give Citi Field this. It’s a modern ballpark. There are a lot of fun things to do there and a ton of food options but is that even the point? Are you a tourist or a baseball fan? The reality of the situation is this. Nothing about Citi Field screams: “This is where the Mets play” other than the screams of grown men howling aloud at the thought of Edwin Diaz coming in to piss away another game.

If you take away the logo behind the batter’s box and the apple right behind the center field wall, what differentiates this stadium from T-Mobile Park in Seattle or Sun Trust Park in Atlanta? You remove that interlocking NY from Yankee Stadium and look out to the short porch or the arches going around the stadium though and you know whose house this is.

The Arguments

But what about the food?

Here’s a really important rule as it pertains to evaluating a ball park. Can you find it in a bodega, pizzeria or a deli? If the answer is yes, then that disqualifies using food as a way to say that Citi Field is better than Yankee Stadium. In New York, food is everywhere and if you’re going to a ball park to eat, then I can’t stress enough how touristy that looks. Also there is nothing inside Citi Field – or any stadium for that matter – better than a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich you can find on any street corner in any of the boroughs.

If you have questions about Yankee Stadium food, let JJ be your guide.

 

But why is Yankee Stadium so expensive?

It’s true that, earlier in the year, if you used the code “Brodie Ruined Us” to buy Mets’ tickets you got them for more than 110% off. That doesn’t mean you can’t also find cheap tickets to see the Yankees, despite their elite status. Here’s a cool trick. You have to use this thing called StubHub and type “YANKEES” into it. You will always find really cheap tickets.

You’re obviously not going to get playoff tickets for under $23 but this is America. Tell me what major sporting event has affordable playoff tickets in a major city? If you look at the 2015 World Series, for example, you’ll see that a small-market team in the Royals and the alleged cheap alternative to the Yankees forced fans to spend an exorbitant amount of money. Look at this headline from USA today back in 2015:

The article highlighted how expensive these tickets were:

  • Game 1 @ KC: $496.90 avg. ($232 cheapest ticket)
  • Game 2 @ KC: $745.25 ($282)
  • Game 3 @ NYM: $1,760.57 ($705)
  • Game 4 @ NYM: $1,653.22 ($589)
  • Game 5 @ NYM: $1,640.27 ($595)
  • Game 6 @ KC: $1,286.73 ($468)
  • Game 7 @ KC: $1,606.56 ($612)

But what about the exterior or the attractions inside?

Well you’re telling me you can’t get better attractions at the MOMA? You’re in New York. If you want sights, walk through Manhattan. Why are people who call themselves baseball fans not going to games for baseball?

But look at all the cool screens and sounds! SO MODERN!

The answer for this is similar to the previous answer. If you need sounds, go to one of the 9,000 shows going on every night in Brooklyn or the city. 100% chance that Primus is playing somewhere and they are WAY better than some random, badgering noise in between every pitch forcing you to chant “LET’S GO METS.”

The Band Box Insult is Stupid

Yankee Stadium is a player’s park. Find me one left-handed batter, or hitter who regularly goes Oppo Taco, who wouldn’t look at that legendary 314 ft mark and not salivate at the idea of hitting one right to those seats. The only people complaining are fans who just hate the Yankees because that’s what they were taught to do.

That’s about it, because even their favorite teams see that and think: “Well this could be fun.” The opposing team has just as much of an opportunity to hit it out as Didi, Voit, or Judge.

You know what I can guess hitters don’t like? Having the ability to go deep be taken from them the way it did for someone such as David Wright after he moved into Citi Field. Take a look at Wright’s slugging in 2007 and 2008 when when he played at Shea Stadium. It was .540 in those years. On top of this, he had back-to-back 30-home-run seasons.  Now look at the immediate drop in 2009 and 2010 after Citi Field opened. His slugging plummeted to .476. After hitting more than 30 in 2008, he hit 10 in 2009. (Wright was injured that season, but the injury came later in August. Had nothing to do with his drop in power.)

ESPN highlighted how Citi Field took home runs away from players at a shockingly high rate in 2009:
“In the first 37 games of Citi Field’s existence, the Mets and their opponents have been “robbed” of a combined 36 home runs that might have cleared the fences at Shea.”
The article then specifically gets into Wright:
“Wright, though, has also lost the most homers as a result of the differential between Shea’s and Citi Field’s dimensions. According to Rybarczyk, six of Wright’s batted balls at Citi Field would have cleared the fences at Shea; those plays instead resulted in one single, three doubles and two triples.”
The Mets have since brought in the fences a bit, but there’s only so much you can change. From the standpoint of my tribalism as a Yankee fan, but also to the standpoint of wanting good baseball, Citi Field just isn’t better than Yankee Stadium. I don’t even know why this has to be a thought in anybody’s head.