Yankee Stadium, not only the House That Ruth Built.

It's 1986, I'm 7 years old and about to find my greatest love in life. I'm not even sure how I became a fan. My father was non existent is my life and I never even got to toss a baseball with him. So I had no connections to baseball or any sports. I found the Yankees on my own, I remember flipping through the channels and not being able to find anything on TV, I came across a Yankee game and Don Mattingly was up. I knew from the newspaper and TV who Don Mattingly was so I left the game on and what do you know Don hit a hr to right field. I said wow, left the game on and tried to understand the game. Over the next couple of years I figured baseball out, I never missed a game. Keep in mind the Yankees were terrible at that point. Mattingly ended up hurting his back, Dave Winfield was about on his way out of NY, George Stienbrenner was not allowed to run the Yankees for a couple of years after he banished by baseball for trying to dig up dirt on then Yankee Dave Winfield. But I held on, i read up on players like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle etc.

My love for the Yankees at the time was shared by my downstairs neighbor Richard. Richard was in his late 30's he was also a quadriplegic and was always talking to me about baseball. i would visit with him often and he would tell me about what is was like to see The Mick in the outfield and what it was like to see Reggie smack 3hrs against the Dodgers in the world series. I would spend a lot of time watching ballgames with Richard and we both shared the agony of defeat more times than not.

One summer Friday Richard had someone knock on my door to get me to come down, so I come down and he says how would you like to go see the Yankees play with me and a couple other family members. I ran to find my mother who was probably doing laundry, she already knew and she sent me on my way. It was at that point the greatest day in my life. They got Richard in his wheelchair and got him into a van and I sat int he back with him and my brother. We finally get up to Yankee stadium and my eyes are glues to the window. I see the Big Blue Letters that say YANKEE STADIUM. I was mesmerized, I couldn't believe that I was actually there, Yankee Stadium....the place where Babe Ruth played. We get into the stadium and I pear through the gates to the seats and all I see is green grass. As we get to our seats the place felt magical. I sat there for a minute and said to the other fella that took us, where's Richard sitting? I could sit about 30 Rows from the third base dugout but Instead I chose to watch the game with my buddy Richard who was in a designated wheelchair accessible area further back and higher up. To this day I can close my eyes and still remember that feeling i got watching the game with him. The game? The Yanks lost too the Blue Jays. A couple of years later I moved about 40mins away from Richard and we spoke over the phone about the Yanks. As i got older and started doing teenager things I lost touch with Richard. Sadly Richard died in 1994 or 1995. The Yankees finally won again in 96. After an hour of celebrating the yanks victory, I was alone and getting ready for some sleep. I said a prayer that night to Richard for helping the Yankees win and I knew he was watching with me. Richard your probably reading this right now, and I still haven't forgot that day you took me to my first game. I still haven't forgot about you either. Thank you for introducing me to Yankee Stadium.
Since that time, I've been to a lot of Yankee games. The last game I went to was this year in May, where the Yanks won a thrilling game in the bottom of the ninth against the Orioles.