hip! hip! jorge!

saturday was the most beautiful day i have seen in a long time here in nyc, and it was perfect timing, too: we went to the yankees game. yankee stadium is in it's last season (you could see the cranes slowly building the new ballpark just beyond left field) and i just had to see a game in the stadium my grandfather used to go to. i bought s tickets for his birthday back in march, and all week they kept predicting rain, so when we woke up to blue skies and sun, i knew the day was totally blessed.

yankee stadium has its own subway stop, it's own little world. the surrounding streets are devoted to baseball paraphenalia (my favorite store: stan the man's baseball land for men, women and children.) we entered through gate four and climbed slowly to the top of the stadium, seated high above the field (sorry again, sweetie) with a view of green plaid fields and miniature men in white. it was a perfect, gorgeous day, and despite the cold breeze, i was happy in my new hat, pretzel in hand, nestled up against my love, watching the bronx bombas (as s liked to say. he does a good silly accent, that boy.)

they lost, the yankees, though not as pitifully as they almost did. we were down 6-1 for a lot of the game, until jorge posada sent some runners home. the crowd went totally crazy, which is of course why we go to sporting events in the first place, that joy in shared victory (they've done psychological studies about it, how happy people can be when their teams are winning.) the guys behind us were a powerful cheering section, going horse with their cries of "here we go yankees, here we go!", "john-ny dam-mon", and my favorite "hip! hip! jorge!" we had a yankees family in front of us, mom and dad and sons and daughters and a granddaughter, all in hats and jerseys, noo yawk voices calling down the guy carrying hot dogs. i felt like we were a part of the crowd--no one knew we weren't just as die-hard as them (i think i put on a pretty good show, too, jumping out of my seat at the exciting moments.) it was just such a perfect afternoon.

i took the cutest pictures of us in our matching hats, too. if i give up on my psuedo-anonymity (i mean, only my friends read this anyway), i shall post them.