Such A Strange Day At Yankee Stadium
Alex Rodriguez: DNP – Broadcast-related injury.
There are two versions of how A-Rod came to miss this afternoon’s second game of the Yankees-Red Sox series. In the first version, with Rodriguez standing near third base while teammate Lance Berkman took his batting practice cuts, my former Fox Baseball colleague Joe Buck shouted out to him. Rodriguez, in his 17th professional season, inexplicably turned to answer him, and while not keeping his eye on what was happening at the plate, got nailed in the shin by a Berkman liner.
In the second version, Buck was minding his own business in foul territory behind third base, when Rodriguez, in his 17th professional season, inexplicably turned to yell “Hi, Joe!,” and while not keeping his eye on what was happening at the plate, got nailed in the shin by a Berkman liner.
Both versions then converge with Rodriguez then doing the Elizabeth-Elizabeth-This-Is-The-Big-One-I’m-Comin-To-See-You-Elizabeth bit, trying to shake off the pain, finally collapsing to the turf behind a protective screen in centerfield, not far behind second base (“I just remember getting hit and started jumping around like a rabbit,” he told The New York Times, “It looked like a scene from ‘Platoon.'”). Several of his teammates, who have long found Mr. Rodriguez to be a kind of dramatic figure, laughed uproariously as they surrounded him, assuming he was overdoing it. The Times includes Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira in this list.
After being attended to by Yankee trainer Gene Monahan and a couple of Yankee Stadium paramedics Rodriguez limped off. We are told he personally told utilityman Ramiro Pena something like “You’ll have to play kid, I’m not going to make it.” It is believed the Yankee team laughter ended before the pronouncement but this has not been verified.
X-Rays of Rodriguez’s leg showed no damage and, to date, no nomination for a Tony, Emmy, or Oscar.
MEANWHILE, IN A HOLE IN THE GROUND:
Since the new Stadium opened a year ago, media have noticed this odd scene — just to the visitors’ side of the area behind home plate — in the giant aqueduct-sized main tunnel that connects the clubhouses and runs from one end of the park to the other (forgive the eerie green colors, that’s pretty much what it looks like back there):
My assumption all this time – and my fairly good sense of direction/location from my tours of the park while still under construction in 2008 – was that this was the exact spot from which the contractors pulled the David Ortiz shirt which had been buried by a mischievous Red Sox fan (I was told the guy also buried a scorecard from the 2004 ALCS in which Boston rallied from down oh-three, but the Yanks have always denied this). But why the railing?
The answer is below:
The hole was never filled back in!
The seemingly solid surface shown in the first photo is in fact a large piece of plexiglas, clouded with dust, which can be lifted up by an alert uniformed attendant, for the benefit of fans in the Suites Club. They can then stand around and take pictures of an attempted Reverse Curse (or, for the less dramatically-inclined, a hole in the ground).
AND FINALLY:
The front edge of a new age. Heard, for the first time, before the Yanks and Sox met, from a fan, to one of the swarming Stadium employees, outside the home plate entrance: “And where did you say the old stadium was?”
Baseball Nerd 
Tales from the Crypt. Great story, Keith. Love the pictures as I will never be able to see it in person.
Getting whapped in the shin had to have hurt like a son of a gun. But being attended by a trainer and two paramedics? That is over-dramatizing just a little.
Gotta admire New York. There you have a hole in the ground covered with a sheet of plexiglass, surrounded by railing, with a uniformed attendant hopefully at the ready for all the picture taking tourists. If that was California, even with plexiglass, railings, attendants and blaring warning signs all over the place in every language known to the planet, the stadium would be in litigation like forever, with all of the chuckleheads falling into that hole in the ground. Oy.
Hilarious ?Sanford & Son? and ?Platoon? references. 🙂
First Keith’s description of taking a picture of a “hole in the ground” made me think of this, and then ashoein’s comment clinched it.
So, how exactly did the Red Sux fan’s intention of jinxing the Yankees with the burial of Big Floppy’s jersey turn out?
If that was California, even with plexiglass, railings, attendants and blaring warning signs all over the place in every language known to the planet, the stadium would be in litigation like forever, with all of the chuckleheads falling into that hole in the ground.
a man is not happy until he can use a electric log splitter!
well this is interesting and thanks for posting i really like it keep it up