The “original” Stadium..my Pop came to NYC from upstate in 1964, a 20-yr old bumpkin from a small-town of 2000 people. After a week of fruitless job-hunting he decided to finally go and see a game, having grown up in Yankee-country upstate NY, the chance to see Mantle live was a thrill. He took the subway uptown, came out of the station and walked along a big concrete wall, looking around for the stadium..at the corner he stopped a policeman and said in his corn-pone smalltown accent “Excuse me sir, but I was told it was this stop for Yankee Stadium..but I can’t seem to find it..” The cop glared at him like he was from Mars, and without saying a word just pointed up behind my Pop…he turned and looked wayyyy up and saw the “frieze”, realized what an idiot he was, thanked the cop, and went looking for the bleachers…

One year later, my dad is “courting” my mom. She had come to the US a few months earlier from the island of Trinidad&Tobago, an Indian-West Indian immigrant. On their second date he takes her to Yankee Stadium no a blisteringly hot day. Having never seen a baseball game before, she was a bit confused by the 1-0 pitchers duel, and even more confused by my dad’s comment of “if you feel like a dog, just holler”..(this confused me too at first)..eventually a “hot dog” was introduced and that comment became more clear to her..yes, it’s a miracle when looking back at my pop that we were ever born…