Is this heaven?

In my previous post I mentioned that I was away from home for a few days @ Incite, a XA staff training conference for the Northeast. Incite just happed to be held @ Nyack College in Nyack, NY, just 25 miles north of Yankee Stadium. The schedule also had a little free time that coincided with a game (there were geniuses on the planning committee). Play ball!

I found 24 bleacher tickets on stubhub.com for $8 a piece and we had ourselves a group outing. After our half-day on Wednesday we piled into vans and headed across the Tappan Zee Bridge into the Bronx. We found parking right next to the stadium (after our 15 passenger van was turned away from 3 other lots) and since we had a couple of hours before game time, we headed into Manhattan in search of espresso. We found it @ Joe’s: The Art of Coffee. Randy, XA director @ Georgetown did the research off of Bill Walsh’s coffee blog. Bill gave it his highest rating and we agreed. It was the best macchiato I’ve had in awhile. After dinner @ the University Diner (just happened to be one that my Uncle Dave took me to years ago). We hopped back on the 4 train to Yankee Stadium.

We found our seats, 2 rows from the top in the bleachers (must be in the front row!) and settled in for what turned out to be an incredible game. Derek Jeter passed Mickey Mantle’s record for hits and Mike Mussina passed Bob Shawkey for 7th place on the Yankee strikeout list. There was also enough timely hitting (including Wilson Betemit’s 2 hr of the season) to give the Yankees a 5-1 lead. The less than reliable, Yankee reliever Kyle Farnsworth had a 1-2-3 8th inning and Mariano Rivera was his usual dominating self striking out 2 and enticing a weak grounder to the pitcher’s mound to end the game. To top it all off, I when I went looking for a hot dog, I found a foot-long with brown mustard! Good friends, great coffee, 2 records, a hot dog, and a Yankee win–almost a perfect day. My last visit to Yankee Stadium will be one I’ll remember for a long time