The last game was played today at Yankee Stadium, and it was a day for the ages. The New York Yankees have long been the class of the baseball world, and they bid adieu to the cathedral of baseball in the manner that it deserved. The game played was almost an afterthought, as this night was all about the stadium, and all the history that lives in its walls.

The ceremony brought back to the stadium many of the greats that wrote history on those basepaths. It is always great to see Yogi out there, and the little movie that ESPN made with him talking about the Stadium brought a lump to my throat. I loved watching my favorite Paul O’Neill come out to the adulation of the crowd. But there were two moments that really brought me to the brink of tears.

The first was when Bernie Williams was welcomed back to the Stadium. The cheers he got were the loudest and longest of the night, as the Yankee faithful showed their appreciation to one of the classiest Yankees for all that he meant to this franchise.

The second was when Mariano entered the game in the 9th inning. As I watched him run to the mound that he has owned for so long, with ‘Enter Sandman’ playing for the last time on the stadium’s loudspeakers, I got chills. It was the definitive reminder of the Yankee greatness that I have witnessed, those championships in 1998, 1999 and 2000 and that great season in 2001 that did so much to heal the seemingly unhealable.

The night was not perfect by any means. The last game of the Stadium that has hosted more postseason games should not have been a regular season game. The true way to honor the Stadium would have been for the Yankees to have gone deep into the postseason, not miss it for the first time in 13 years. And all due respect to Girardi, but Joe Torre should have been there, as the manager of the Yankees. He led the current Yankees on the Championship run that enabled management to build a new stadium. And he should have been here at the head of that line that formed at the beginning and the end of the game.

I wish I could have been at the game. I envy everyone who was. I did get to say goodbye to the Stadium, first when I took a tour of the Stadium, and then on Friday, when I went to the 1st game of the last series played there. But tonight was special, and you could see that even as you watched it on TV (or in my case, with crappy reception on a flight, and then later in the replay late at night). It was a night to remember. It was a night of stars, but the biggest star was a stadium that transcended sports to become one of the greatest venues in the whole world. If only all of us could go out this way.

Monday, we did the NYC Waterfalls cruise again, this time with my parents. Last time Tanu had to stay inside the boat with Arav, so this time I took the job of keeping Arav entertained. It was a nice evening, so later we drove across the Bridge once more to head to Brooklyn Bridge Park. We were a little bummed to find a huge line outside Grimaldi’s, and the ice cream place closed. We spent some time walking around a bit, and explored a newly opened part of Brooklyn Bridge Park. We had a great look at the waterfall under the bridge from there, even though the wind directed a bit of spray our way.

But the real find of the evening was Grimaldi’s. As we headed back to our car, we decided to check out the length of the line again. It was still long, which almost dissuaded us, but we decided to stick it out instead, and boy was it a good decision. Their pizza is some of the best I have ever tasted. Usually when you hear about something being “the best in New York”, it turns out to be all hype. But Grimaldi’s was everything it is advertised to be. It’s a great little pizzeria, that has a family-owned vibe to it. And the pizzas are great. I think the only place I have had better pizza is in Italy, but this wasn’t far behind.

If you are in New York, and you love pizza, you have to make a trip across the Brooklyn Bridge to try out a little slice of heaven. Just remember to bring cash, because they don’t take credit cards. You won’t be sorry.

It’s a bit late due to my trip to California last week, but I can finally recap what a great week I had before I left. My Best Sports Week Ever consisted of my first ever visit to the US Open where I watched Federer stretched to 5 sets, going to the New York Giants home opener where they celebrated their win in Superbowl XLII and taking a tour of Yankee Stadium before it shuts its doors forever at the end of the season. A great combination of rare sports related activities that just happened to converge on the same week of my life. I uploaded the photographs to the ‘Life As We Know It‘ section of my website, along with the photos from our visit to Princeton earlier in the week. Check them out.

Next stop in my best sports week ever was the Bronx, as I took a tour of Yankee Stadium. The most historic venue in baseball (if not all of sports) is in its final year, as the Yankees prepare to move to a bright and shiny new Yankee stadium just across the street.

In all the years I have been coming to Yankee stadium for the home games, I have never done the tour. I decided to go with Rajji-B this week, as it looks highly likely that this will be the last month the Yankees play here (unless by some miracle, they happen to make the playoffs). I would have liked to combine it with a home game, but on those days the tour is curtailed, so I decided to do the full tour instead while the Yanks are on the road.

Tickets have been sold out for months, so our only chance was to get there early and line up for the few same day tickets that are released eachday. At 7:15am, I was 8th in line. By the time the ticket window opened at 8:50am, the line was about 60 people deep. I managed to get tickets for the 11am tour, so I think getting there a little later might have been okay. I spent my time walking around the two Yankee stadiums, checking out the progress on the construction of the new one, and grabbing a nice breakfast at a local diner.

The tour started with a visit to the Press box, where we got to see the view the press has during the game. It was interesting to hear that due to Hideki Matsui’s presence on the Yankees, the Japanese newspapers are considered “local” and therefore have a spot among the various local newspapers, ahead of the visiting press.

Next stop was Monument Park. This was the part of the tour that I had been waiting for, a visit to the shrine to Yankee greatness. As a Yankees fan, standing there listening to the guide talk about all the Yankee greats over the years, you could feel Yankee pride envelope you. No other team can boast such a history. Looking at all those plaques, all those retired numbers, standing where greats have stood before walking out onto the field, one can understand why Yankee stadium is called the cathedral of baseball. The feeling standing there is hard to describe (especially since it only lasts a moment before you are shooed out of there by security guards anxious to get the next tour in). But history does come alive here.

Next on the agenda was the Yankee dugout. It was a really cool feeling to follow the path the Yankee players take every home game heading to the dugout, passing under the famous sign with Joe DiMaggio’s immortal line “I thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankee“. We got to sit on the bench where O’Neill, Jeter, Rivera and my other Yankee favorites sat during games. We got to hang over the protective railing looking at the field the way Jeter does during games. And we heard more stories associated with the dugout and the Yankees.

Last stop was the players locker room. No cameras are allowed there, to protect the players privacy, since their stuff is pretty much sitting in their lockers where anyone can see (there were a few jokes cracked by the guide about eBay and tabloids). It was a cool feeling, being inside the locker room where Ruth, Gehrig and Mantle once roamed, and being a few feet away from Rivera’s locker. Seeing Thurman Munson’s locker, which has stood there empty ever since his tragic death, gave me chills. We also got to hear how the pinstripes, the interlocking NY, and the jerseys with numbers but no names came into existence.

As we left the stadium after the (all too short) 50 minute tour, and saw the signs for “The Final Season” all over the place, I was struck by a great sadness as I realized that I will never be able to bring Arav here. Sure, he’ll grow up to be a fan of the Yankees (he doesn’t have a choice in the matter), hearing all the stories of Yankee greatness, learning about the history. He’ll go to the new Yankee stadium, where he will get to visit the new version of Monument Park, and see all those great photographs that currently adorn the walkways under the stadium. But it won’t be the same.

He won’t get to walk the same halls that Ruth walked as he strode into the Stadium that “he built”. He won’t get to visit the locker room where Gehrig quietly, stoicly contemplated the future that faced him as a disease now named for him wracked his body. He won’t get to sit in the dugout from which O’Neill, Jeter and other Yankees rushed out jubilantly when Tino and Brosius hit those 9th inning home runs in that magical 2001 season that literally lifted the spirits of New Yorkers in a year straight out of hell.

The new Yankee stadium will be great, but it will be a long time (if ever) before it can boast the kind of history that this stadium does. And that is a very sad thing. I’m glad I got to say goodbye to this coliseum of baseball, because there will never again be anything like it.

My best sports week ever continued on Thursday with me heading to the Meadowlands to attend the home opener of my Superbowl champion New York Giants (thanks, Ranjeet).

First of all, I am sooo happy that football is back. And every home opener is special in its own right, filled as it is with the promise of a new season. But the home opener following a championship-winning season? As a fan, nothing can compare to that. It was my first trip to Giants stadium since I saw my Giants stand toe-to-toe with the mighty and undefeated Patriots in the last regular season game of 2007 – a magnificent game that they ended up losing, but which gave them confidence and propelled them on their fairy-tale run all the way to Superbowl XLII to reclaim the Lombardi trophy. Seeing that championship banner hanging outside Giants stadium was just awesome!

We got to the stadium way too early, so we killed time just walking around the stadium, and watching the teams warm up. Around 7, the pre-game ceremony started, a tribute to not just the 2007 Giants, but also the past New York Giant championship winning teams. Video recaps of the 1986 and 1990 seasons accompanied an on-field tribute to some of the members of those Giant teams who were on hand. And then, the video tribute to the 2007 New York Giants started. The loudest cheers rang out for the Eli-to-Tyree play, the TD pass to Plaxico, and the sack of Brady by Jay Alford in the final minute. The crowd was absolutely besides itself with joy, and I tried to capture the roar of the crowd as much as I could in the video below.

At the end of the video, accompanied by fireworks, who steps onto the stage but none other than #92, Michael Strahan, holding aloft the real Lombardi trophy. Boy, did he ever get a huge reception. Everybody loves seeing that Lombardi trophy! He then proceeded to pump up the crowd like only he can. He got the crowd going so much that the cheers of the crowd pretty much drowned out whatever it was that he was saying. And what he was doing was getting us revved up as our beloved Giants ran onto the field. It was amazing. The video below tries to capture the moment.

Then, after Kate Mara sang the Star-Spangled Banner and 3 Black Hawk helicopters did a cool flyby over the stadium, it was time to play some football. The Giants started really well, with Eli showing some moves and rushing for the first TD himself (whodathunk?). Justin Tuck let everyone know that despite all the losses on the defensive unit, it was still going to be a  force to reckon with by getting a sack on the first defensive play for the Giants. The Giants dominated the first half, but seemed to lose their rhythm along the way, holding on for the 16-7 win.

But hey, a win is a win, especially against a division rival. The 2008 season is upon us, and the quest for a Superbowl repeat is now underway. As Rajji-B and I talked about it, we realized that no matter how well they do this year, there is no way this Giants team will approach the magic that was the 2007 Superbowl Champion New York Giants.

If one thing has become clear over the last week or so since McCain announced that Sarah Palin is his running mate, it is this: the Democrats have NO idea how to deal with the move. Nothing they are throwing at the wall is sticking, and it’s probably because they are going after the wrong things the wrong way.

Palin delivered an impressive, strong speech last night. But leaving aside the parts where she laid out her narrative to the crowd, it was a rhetoric filled tirade that lacked substance and was built on some pretty blatant lies. Nonetheless, she made it pretty clear that she is going to be a formidable part of this presidential race. And McCain has already achieved what he wanted by naming her his running mate – mobilizing a conservative base that to this point was wary of his candidacy.

The Democrats are fumbling badly in trying to counter the McCain campaign’s “surge” (pun completely intended). They have taken to attacking Palin on lack of experience and substance, a slippery slope when you consider that is exactly what Obama gets attacked for. And the first response to her speech is Harry Reids press secretary calling it “shrill”? Are you kidding me? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

What they should do is attack her on what she has done during her executive career, not its length. Talk about how as Mayor, she inherited a town with no debt, and left it in debt to the tune of $20 million. Talk about how she supported the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” and cancelled it only because she wasn’t getting more money for it. Oh, and she never returned the Federal money that Alaska got specifically for that bridge. Talk about the allegations of abuse of her executive power, and the earmarks she supported (contradicting her public statements).

Talk about her positions. Talk about how she believes the war in Iraq is a “task that is from God”. Take her to task for so arrogantly dissing community organizers, some of the most selfless Americans working for the betterment of others, in her speech last night. Talk about her positions on the issues important to those Hillary supporters – healthcare, equal pay for equal work, the right to choose…the list goes on and on.

But most importantly, don’t attack the fact that McCain selected her. Attack how he selected her – with an almost cavalier attitude that completely shirked the idea of a vetting process. As Stephen Colbert would often say of Bush, McCain went with his gut, ignoring the “elite” idea of using his brain. This is the person we want making the most important decisions for this country? Someone who takes important decisions without bothering to collect facts, consult experts or spend time in contemplation? Someone who sizes up a persons political makeup and policy-making capabilities based on a few phone conversations? This is the person we want with his hand on the trigger of our military and nuclear arsenal? The one managing this nations relationship with the world?

I wish the Democrats would hire the writers at The Daily Show to create their campaign ads. In one of the best segments that TDS has ever produced (they have been on an absolute tear during the conventions), Jon Stewart ripped into the hypocrisy of the Republican elite, juxtaposing their completely contradictory, politically convenient statements separated not by decades, or years, but by mere weeks and months. Watch the video below, it is masterful. Karl Rove would be proud (if he weren’t a star in it).

My week has a theme. It is going to be the best sports week ever, as I will be completely immersed in some really cool sports related goings-on. I will be posting about it as things happen.

The kick-off was my first ever visit to the US Open on Tuesday. I have never been to a live tennis match, let alone a Grand Slam event. Having been in the New York area for so long, it is kind of a shame that I have put it off so long. But I ended up heading to Flushing Meadows in Queen on a gorgeous, sunny day. The Flushing Meadows complex is very nice, and because of the nature of tennis events, very different from any other sports stadium I have ever visited. Walking about the grounds, I was able to see lots of the side courts where doubles and junior events were being played, and even got to see the Davis Cup, thanks to the fact that the US team won it most recently. I know a lot of Americans don’t care about it, but growing up in India, the Davis Cup was huge, and watching the progress of the Indian team was a source of great pride.

Our tickets were for Arthur Ashe stadium, the main court where most of the high profile matches take place. Since it was early in the second week, the matches we were to watch were 4th round matches. As we entered, Novak Djokovic was in the process of losing the 4th set of his match to  Tommy Robredo. He then came back to win the 5th set, followed by a pretty funny post-game interview where he cracked jokes about his beat-up state. The crowd was pretty good, though the sun-drenched parts of the upper deck were pretty empty. Jeremy Piven was in the house, and the announcer played the Entourage theme song while showing him on the jumbo screen. Tennis great Billie Jean King was also there, and got a standing ovation from the crowd, as she waved to them while waiting for the next match.

That is the one we were really there for, to watch one of the all-time greats, Roger Federer, in person. He was up against Igor Andreev (who?) in a match we figured would be over in a hurry. How wrong we were. Federer was broken in his very first service game, and looked out of sorts as he lost the first set in a tie-break. It looked like Andreev was actually overpowering him. But in the 2nd set tie-break, something seemed to switch on in Federer, and he powered through the tie-break and the next set to take a 2 sets to 1 lead.

But Andreev didn’t give up, coming back with some strong shots and taking advantage of a number of errors by Federer to win the 4th set. As it looked like Federer was floundering, the crowd really got behind him, cheering the 4-time defending champion on. It seemed to work, as Federer took control of the match in the 5th set. Click here to see a video I took of how the crowd went crazy when he broke Andreev’s serve to take the lead in the 5th set for good. It wasn’t like the greatest tennis match ever, but it was a great one for my first US Open experience.

As we filed out of the stadium while it was cleared for the night session, we saw huge crowds waiting to get in to watch Andy Roddick play. We could have stayed, but decided it was too late and went home instead. We took a circuitous route back to the subway station though, deciding to walk through the grounds of the nearby Worlds Fair grounds and visit the huge globe that is the unofficial symbol of Flushing Meadows and Queens. Seeing it lit up at night and with the fountains going was pretty cool. A nice way to end what was a great day.

For Labor Day, we decided to stay local. The morning started with some delicious pancakes at the Brownstone Diner. After which we headed to Liberty State Park for a walk. This time, we decided to drive down to the far end of the park and explore that area.

It was a pretty nice day, sunny with a slight breeze. There were a lot of people out to enjoy the end of summer, and all the barbeque grills were in use. The aroma would have been mouth-watering, if we were not already full from the brunch we had just devoured. We had a great view of a little seen view of the Statue of Liberty, the torch gleaming in the sun.

And in Flag Plaza, we came across Liberation Monument made by Nathan Rappaport. It shows a WWII soldier carrying a survivor out of a concentration camp. While not the best example of sculpture, it is an elegant and simple design that evokes a strong emotional reaction with its powerful imagery. And standing in Flag Plaza surrounded by all those American flags, with the Statue of Liberty in the background, it certainly fits well into its surroundings.

Arav loved watching the flags flutter in the breeze, but keeping him out of the sun had us fashioning a traveling pavilion out of his stroller and various blankets, cutting off his view. So after spending some time there enjoying the view of New York Harbor, we decided to get out of the sun and head home.