NEW YORK -- A little more than two hours before the first pitch of tonight's exhibition game between the Yankees and the Cubs, I found myself in the visitors dugout, where Cubs players were milling about, checking out the new Stadium. (Yes, we capitalize "Stadium" when we talk about the one the Yankees play in.)"Nothing's changed," Cubs pitcher Chad Gaudin said, looking out at the field and pointing. "The lines, the alleys, you had the bullpens right there in the same places. It's the same."
Gaudin sounded disappointing, and while his analysis had some holes (one of the bullpens is in right-center and the other in left-center -- in the old Stadium they were next to each other in left), his fundamental point was a decent one.The new Yankee Stadium retains many of the features and much of the feel of its predecessor. Pitcher Chien-Ming Wang said the mound felt exactly the same. Jorge Posada said the feel of the area behind the plate felt the same. And none of that is an accident.
"They called us in and asked us, when they were building it, and we gave our input on how it should feel and look around there," Posada said. "The place is obviously new and bigger and there's a lot of it we still haven't seen. But the way it feels, the way it plays -- that's all the same."
There are obvious differences, of course. The seats in foul territory in the outfield all turn to face the field, which is a nice feature of most new ballparks that was neck-achingly absent in the old ones. Instead of the old "black seats" in center there's a "batter's eye" restaurant with tinted windows to create a black background for the hitters. And there's a hi-def JumboTron in center that's got a better picture than any I've ever seen, on any TV, anywhere.
But the outfield dimensions are the same, and the wall is the same height and the place certainly reminds you of the old Yankee Stadium, because the Yankees wanted to make sure that would be the case.
"It's like they took all the great parts (of the old ballpark) and kept those, and took the bad parts and made them better," said pitcher CC Sabathia, who will start the Yankees' regular-season opener Monday and also is scheduled to start the home opener April 16. "This place is second to none."
Left fielder Johnny Damon said the stuff that's going to take getting used to is mainly behind the scenes.
"This place is so huge and has so many rooms," Damon said, looking around the home clubhouse. "You can go all day without seeing certain players, certain members of the coaching staff or some of the kids who work here. So that's an adjustment we're going to have to make. But there's so many great things about it, it's a real pleasure to be able to play here."
