Honorable Mention to Horace Clarke, 1965-74. He had terrible timing, getting to the big leagues right as the old dynasty was collapsing, and tailing off just as it was all coming back together. For years, he was the answer to a trivia question: "Who was the only player to play 10 years for the New York Yankees without winning a Pennant?" There is now, of course, one who played 14 seasons for the Yankees without winning a Pennant: Don Mattingly.

Clarke wasn't a terrible ballplayer; you generally don't last that long if you are truly terrible. But he was a typical middle infielder of his time, the kind often described with the expression "good field, no hit." He batted .285 in 1969, but that was pretty much as good as it got: He never topped 6 home runs (1966) or 48 RBI (1969), was a good but not exceptional base stealer (also topped out in that stat in '69, with 33), and never won a Gold Glove or made the All-Star Team.

He gave his best, and was hardly the worst of the players the Yankees had when CBS was running the team (into the ground). Roy White, who came up at the same time and did last long enough to help the Yankees win titles, paid him a pretty good compliment: "A 100 percent player. He wanted to play everyday."

His Number 20 has been retired, but for Jorge Posada.

Honorable Mention to Brian Doyle, 1978-80. He stepped in for the injured Willie Randolph in September and October 1978, and helped to put the finishing touches on what was, until 1996, my favorite baseball season. Speaking of which...

Honorable Mention also to Mariano Duncan, 1996-97. He was only a Yankee for a season and a half, but that full season was 1996, when the Bronx Bombers won the World Series, with Duncan batting .340 and giving the team its motto: "We play today, we win today, das it."

Honorable Mention to Luis Sojo, 1996-2003. Okay, he wasn't a great player, but he played on 5 Yankee Pennant winners and 4 World Champions, and got the hit that won the clinching Game 5 of the 2000 World Series against the Mets, making him (at least, from the perspective of those of us who had to listen to Met fans in the Eighties) one of the most important players in Yankee history.

Honorable Mention to Jose Vizcaino, 2000. He played a grand total of 82 games for the Yankees, but 4 of them were in the aforementioned 2000 World Series. His hit won Game 1, and essentially decided the Series that means that, no matter what the Mets did after that, the Yankees would have the edge over them for all time.

Honorable Mention to Alfonso Soriano, 1999-2003, returning 2013-14. The Yankees had him at the beginning and the end of his career, and didn't really get the best of him, although he came within 2 outs of being the hero of the 2001 World Series, and in 2002 he led the American League in hits, runs and stolen bases.

He hit 412 home runs during his career, but only 121 were with the Yankees. He played on 7 teams that reached the postseason, but never won a World Series ring, playing for the Yankees in the 2001 and '03 Series. But his weak postseason performance in 2003 (I called him Strikeout Soriano) made him trade bait in the offseason, being exchanged even-up for Alex Rodriguez.

10. Aaron Ward, 1917-26. If you say you saw him play, either you're about 100 years old, or you've got a time machine, or you're lying. But somebody had to be the 1st Yankee 2nd baseman to win a Pennant, and the 1st to win a World Series.

This Arkansan was the Yanks' regular "keystone sacker" from 1920 to '25, and batted .306 in '21 to help win that first Pennant. The coming of Tony Lazzeri was the beginning of the end for him, but it should not be forgotten that he was at the beginning of the original Yankee Dynasty.

9. Billy Martin, 1950-57. Let's clear something up: Billy was batting .241 when he was sent to the Kansas City Athletics at the trading deadline, June 15, 1957. True, he was at the Copacabana Club that night a month earlier, but he never threw a punch, and it can be legitimately argued that he was traded because he wasn't hitting. He was not traded because of "the Copacabana Incident," even if it did give general manager George Weiss, who hated Billy's guts, the final nail in his coffin, one his beloved manager Casey Stengel couldn't keep from being slammed shut.

Nevertheless, prior to that, Billy the Brat had his moments. He was a good fielder, and in 1953 hit 15 homers with 75 RBIs. In all 7 seasons he played for the Yankees, 1950 to '57, they won the Pennant. They failed to win it in '54, when Billy was in the Army. (The Korean War was over, but he got drafted anyway.) He never got tired of pointing out that fact.

In the 1952 World Series, his catch of a bases-loaded popup by Jackie Robinson, lost in the sun by all the other infielders, ended a potential Dodger rally and saved a Game 7 lead for the Yankees. In 1953, he got 12 hits, tying a Series record (since broken), and his 12th and final hit drove home the Series-winning run in Game 6.  He's often called the MVP of the 1953 World Series, but the award wasn't created until 1955.

He batted .257 during the regular season, but .333 in the 4 World Series where he was a regular. Counting only full seasons, Billy was a member of 4 Pennant winners (1952, '53, '55 and '56) and 3 World Champions (all but '55). In those 4 Series, he played every game, despite the potential availability of Jerry Coleman.

It was his managing, from 1975 to '78 (and 4 more times between '79 and '88) that got him his Plaque in Monument Park and the retirement of his Number 1. But for most of his playing career, Billy was a good player.

Weiss said Billy was a "bad influence" on his teammates, especially Mickey Mantle. Oh yeah? In 1950, in his brief callup, Billy was roomed with Phil Rizzuto; in 1951, with Yogi Berra; in 1956, with Mickey; in all 3 seasons, his roomie won the AL's MVP. As Mickey himself said, "In 1956, I roomed with Bill,y and I won the Triple Crown and the MVP. How bad an influence could he have been? Then they traded him, and they realized it was Whitey (Ford) who was the bad influence on me."

8. George "Snuffy" Stirnweiss, 1943-50. The native New Yorker helped the Yankees win the World Series in 1943, '47 and '49. In 1944, he led the American League in hits, triples, and, rare for a Yankee, stolen bases, with 55. In 1945, he led the AL in all those categories again, and also in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage and total bases. Had the Yankees been in the Pennant race that year, he would have been a good choice for the AL's Most Valuable Player.

He played his last big-league game at age 33, and went into private business. On September 15, 1958, shortly before his 40th birthday, he was 1 of 48 people killed in a commuter train crash in Newark. He wore Number 1, which, as I said, has been retired for Billy Martin.

7. Jerry Coleman, 1949-57. Billy's fellow native of the San Francisco Bay Area (San Jose and later San Francisco, as opposed to Billy's Berkeley) both preceded and outlasted him. Coleman served in both World War II (delaying his big-league debut) and the Korean War (causing him to miss all but the start of the '52 season and all but the end of '53), and was a renowned Marine Corps pilot -- though he said many times that he didn't consider himself a hero.

In 1949, his 8th-inning double in the season finale against the Boston Red Sox clinched the Pennant, putting him on the way to winning a World Series ring in his rookie season. He remained the Yanks' regular 2nd baseman in '50 and '51, with his reserve callup into the Corps giving Billy his chance. He was the regular again in '54 when Billy was in the service, but once Billy came back, that was it for him. Still, he won 5 Pennants (1949, '50, '51, '55 and '56) and was on the World Series roster for 4 titles (all but '55).

Coleman went into the broadcast booth, teaming with former double-play partner Phil Rizzuto for a few years -- what a mess that must've been, between Phil's whacked-out stories and Jerry's "Colemanisms" (known as "Colemanballs" in Britain in honor of sportscaster David Coleman, who died within a few weeks of Jerry) -- before going to the expansion San Diego Padres. He was the voice of the team almost throughout their history until his death, and for this service received the Ford Frick Award, the broadcasters' equivalent of election to the Hall of Fame.

Like Ralph Kiner with the Mets and Herb Score with the Cleveland Indians, Jerry was known for malaprops -- like the other two, he has used, "He slides into second with a standup double." He's also used, "Rich Folkers is throwing up in the bullpen." About a Cy Young Award winner with blond curly hair reminiscent of Harpo Marx, he said, "On the mound for the Padres is Randy Jones, the lefthander with the Karl Marx hairdo." Then there was this line, used on a Padre star who became a Yankee star: "There's a long fly ball, deep to right field, Winfield goes back to the wall, he hits his head on the wall! And it rolls off! It's rolling all the way back to second base. This is a terrible thing for the Padres!"

But he was also known for his equivalent of Rizzuto's "Holy Cow": "Oh, doctor!" which was often paired with, "You can hang a star on that baby!" For this, his notation along with the Padres' retired numbers at Petco Park is a star. The uniform number he wore with the Yankees has been retired, but it's 42, so it was retired for Mariano Rivera (and, officially, is already retired for Jackie Robinson).

6. Bobby Richardson, 1955-66. After brief callups in 1955 and '56, Richardson stepped into the void caused by the trade of Martin in '57, and was the Yanks' starting 2nd baseman for the next 10 years, winning 7 Pennants (1957, '58, '60, '61, '62, '63 and '64) and 3 World Series (1958, '61 and '62).

He made 7 All-Star Teams. In 1961, the 1st season of the 162-game schedule, he became the 1st player ever to play in 162 games in a season. In '62, he set major-league records with 754 plate appearances and 692 at-bats (both since broken), got a League-leading 209 hits, batted .302, and finished 2nd to Mickey Mantle in the MVP voting -- after Mantle, asked in an interview who should get the MVP, said it should be Richardson.

Richardson's 2 most impressive feats came in losing causes. In the 1960 World Series, he collected a record 12 RBIs, including a grand slam, but the Yankees lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1964, he became the first player to get 13 hits in a World Series (since tied but not broken), but the Yanks lost to the St. Louis Cardinals. But he's best known for catching a Willie McCovey line drive that ended a San Francisco Giant threat and preserved Ralph Terry's 1-0 shutout to win Game 7 of the 1962 Series. He was a .266 hitter in the regular season, but batted .305 in Series play.

Injuries forced his retirement at age 31. He became an ordained minister, and the head baseball coach at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Virginia, and, in his home State, at Coastal Carolina University and the University of South Carolina, leading them to the Final of the 1975 College World Series. Rev. Richardson presided over Mantle's funeral in Dallas in 1995, and recently published a memoir, Impact Player.

5. Chuck Knoblauch, 1998-2001. Go ahead, make your jokes. And, I admit it, after that "Knob-block-head" play in the 1998 ALCS, I personally wanted to beat him to death with my own hands. But this man won 4 World Series rings, in 1991 with the Minnesota Twins (he was AL Rookie of the Year that season) and in '98, '99 and 2000 with the Yankees, and another Pennant in '01.

The Houstonian's home runs tied up Game 1 in '98 and Game 3 in '99, and his sacrifice fly sent Game 1 in 2000 into extra innings, making Yankee wins in those games possible. He started the rally that won Game 5 in '01, scoring the winning run.

He made 4 All-Star Games. He led the AL in doubles in 1994 (had 45, a great total for a full season, in 2/3 of a season before the strike hit) and in triples in 1996. He had 3 .300 seasons and just missed a 4th. He had over 300 doubles and 400 stolen bases despite playing only 12 big-league seasons before whatever happened to his throwing also began to affect his hitting. But he still hit .289 for his career.

4. Willie Randolph, 1976-88. The 1st Yankee 2nd baseman I knew, and until recently still the best in my memory. He got a cup of coffee with the Pirates in 1975, and was on their postseason roster as they won the NL East. Then he was on 3 straight Pennant winners with the Yankees, winning the Pennant in '76 and the World Series in '77 and '78, although he got hurt in September '78 and missed the postseason. In fact, starting in '75, he reached the postseason in 6 of his 1st 7 seasons.

But that was it, and the rest of his career, while respectable, came with lots of injuries. His last 4 seasons in Pinstripes, '85 through '88, he missed significant time each year; each year, the Yankees were in first place late, but didn't make the Playoffs. His injury shortly after the 1987 All-Star Game was particularly troublesome, as the Yanks went from 1st to 4th in the AL East before he came back. Still, he twice batted .300, had 2,210 hits (1,731 as a Yankee), 271 stolen bases (252 as a Yankee), made 6 All-Star Games (5 as a Yankee), and was as dependable at getting on base and fielding his position as anybody the Yankees have had in my lifetime.

After bouncing around for 4 years, he returned to the Yankees in 1993, first as an assistant general manager, then as 3rd base coach, winning 4 more rings and guiding several young players including Derek Jeter.

In 2005, he became the 1st black manager in New York -- albeit with the Mets, the team he grew up rooting for in Brooklyn (though he was born in South Carolina). He got the Mets to the 2006 NL East title (their only first-place finish since 1988), but we know how that ended. The Mets were still in contention for another Division Title on the final day in 2007, but we know how that ended. Then came the Midnight Massacre (not to be confused with the one the Mets pulled on Tom Seaver in '77), and "Witless Willie," as the Mets' buh-rilliant fans called him, was gone. It wasn't just the results they hated: They hated him because he was a Yankee. Then Jerry Manuel was hired as Met manager and proved that it wasn't Willie's fault at all.

He is now working with the U.S. national team. Last year, he got a Monument Park Plaque, although his Number 30 will probably never be retired. On Old-Timers' Day in 2008, shortly after being fired by The Other Team, he got the biggest ovation of the day -- bigger than Yogi, Whitey, Reggie or Donnie. And in the pregame cermonies for the final game at the old Stadium, Willie, then 54 years old, ran out to his old position and slid into the base, to another thunderous ovation. It may have been 2nd base he was standing on, but, a Yankee forever, he was, truly, safe at home.

3. Robinson Cano, 2005-13. When I originally did this list, I had him at Number 1. Now, I've dropped him to 3. Is it fair to hold his leaving, or the way he left, against him on this ranking? I don't know. After all, neither of the guys ahead of him ended their careers with the Yankees -- then again, neither left in bitterness or in a way that was insulting to either the Yankee organization or the Yankee Fans. Cano did.

The Dominican's parents named him after Jackie Robinson, and he wore Number 24, the reverse of 42, as a tribute, Robbie was 2nd in the race for AL Rookie of the Year in 2005 and 3rd for MVP in 2010. As a Yankee, he was named to 5 All-Star Games, won 2 Gold Gloves, batted .309 with a 126 OPS+, hit 204 of his 239 home runs thus far, and had 3 100-RBI seasons and 7 40-doubles seasons.

He had just turned 31 when he left. He should have had several more solid seasons in him. But was it worth acceding to his contract demands, given the ways the Yankees had already been burned on long-term contracts in the 21st Century? His 1st 2 seasons with the Seattle Mariners have been good, and certainly would have helped the Yankees in place of the weak-hitting Stephen Drew. But the decision to let him go was never about his next 2 seasons; it was about his last 2, and maybe his last 5, whenever those turn out to be.

2. Joe Gordon, 1938-46. Born in Los Angeles and raised in Portland, Oregon, he was one of many West Coasters to come east in the 1920s and '30s to put on the Pinstripes. With the science-fiction movie serial becoming a phenomenon in the Thirties, it surprised no one that he was nicknamed Flash Gordon, and he certainly knew what it was to "flash the leather." There was no Gold Glove Award until 1957, but Gordon would have been a perennial contender.

But it's not his glove that finally, over 30 years after his death in 1978, got him into the Hall of Fame: Unusual for a 2nd baseman in those days, he was a heck of a hitter. A 9-time All-Star, he had a 120 career OPS+, and collected 1,530 hits in only 11 seasons.

In 1942, he was named AL MVP even though Ted Williams won the Triple Crown. Red Sox fans are still pissed about that, but it's Most Valuable Player, not Most Outstanding, and Gordon led the Yankees to the Pennant with a .322 average, 29 doubles, 18 homers, 103 RBIs and 12 stolen bases (not much, but then the Yankees rarely needed a running game until Billy Martin became manager so this was a lot for a Yankee).

Gordon then missed 3 seasons due to World War II, and had a bad first season back in 1946. Then the Yankees pulled off a stunning trade, sending Gordon to the Cleveland Indians, straight-up, for pitcher Allie Reynolds. This may have been the greatest trade in baseball history, because it worked wonders for both teams. Reynolds became the ace of a staff that won 6 of the next 7 World Series. The one AL Pennant the Yanks didn't win in that stretch was in 1948, when Gordon and his manager and double-play partner Lou Boudreau led the Tribe to what is still their last World Championship.

Gordon later became a manager, taking the Indians to a 2nd place finish in 1959 and, 10 years later, becoming the first manager of the expansion Kansas City Royals.

1. Tony Lazzeri, 1926-37. Yet another -- perhaps the first -- great player who came out of the Pacific Coast League to star with the Yankees. Like Joe DiMaggio, basketball pioneer Hank Luisetti, and football legend turned criminal defendant O.J. Simpson, he came out of Galileo High School in San Francisco, and became a star on the playing fields of the Bay Area.

In 1925, playing for the Salt Lake Bees, he became the 1st player in the history of professional baseball to hit 60 home runs -- albeit in the PCL, where the weather allowed them a 200-game schedule. But it was enough for the Yankees to send the Bees 3 players and $50,000 for him. As sports historian Bert Randolph Sugar would say, these were Coolidge dollars: It's about $650,000 in today's money.

He wasn't the 1st Italian player in Major League Baseball, but he was the 1st who was that good, and New York's Italian community saw runners on base and yelled from the stands, "Push them up, Tony!" In their accent, he became known as Poosh-em-Up Tony.

In his 1st big-league season, 1926, the Yankees won the Pennant. Unfortunately, the Yanks lost the World Series to the Cardinals, with aging legend Grover Cleveland Alexander coming out of the bullpen to strike Lazzeri out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 7th in Game 7. It is still the most famous strikeout in baseball history, save for the fictional one of the poem "Casey At the Bat."

It didn't faze the 22-year-old star. He helped the Yankees win 6 Pennants (1926, '27, '28, '32, '36 and '37) and 5 World Series (never losing one after that first). In 5 seasons he batted at least .300, and 7 times he had at least 100 RBIs. In 1933, he was the AL's starting 2nd baseman in the 1st All-Star Game. In 1937, he dropped from a .287 average the year before to .244, and Gordon was brought in to replace him. He signed with the Chicago Cubs, and in 1938 won one more Pennant, but losing the Series to the Yankees. He hung on in the high minors until 1943, age 39.

In 1945, in an interview for John P. Carmichael's classic book My Greatest Day In Baseball, Alexander chose that 1926 Game 7, and mentioned that, just the other day in New York, he'd met Lazzeri on the street, and said, referencing how many times he'd been asked to tell the story, "Tony, I'm getting tired of fanning you." Lazzeri didn't think it was funny, and said, "Maybe you think I'm not!"

Sadly, within 5 years, both men would be dead. On August 6, 1946, Lazzeri, who had epilepsy, suffered a seizure at his San Francisco home, fell down the stairs, and broke his neck, killing him at age 42. Alexander, by a sad twist of fate, also had epilepsy, but it was not that but alcoholism that ruined his health and led to his death in 1950, at 63. Alexander did live long enough attend his election to the Hall of Fame in 1938. Lazzeri, with only 14 big-league seasons under his belt, didn't make it until well after his death, in 1991.

I previously chose him as the greatest Yankee 2nd baseman because he was the first Yankee 2nd baseman elected to the Hall; Gordon recently joined him. But there is no consensus that Lazzeri was better than Gordon; in fact, a lot of people disagree.

As a result of there not being a consensus on who the all-time Yankee 2nd baseman is, neither Lazzeri nor Gordon has a Plaque in Monument Park. Nor has the Number 6 that both wore for most of their careers been retired for either of them: It was retired, but for Joe Torre. And there are very few fans left who saw either of them at their peak. But they deserve to be remembered.

September 21, 1952: The Boston Braves play their final home game at Braves Field. They lose 8-2 to the Brooklyn Dodgers. They close the season with a trip to New York City, losing 3 to the Giants, and then a loss to the Dodgers, a win over them, and a tie that is not replayed.

March 18, 1953: The Major League Baseball owners approve the Braves' move to Milwaukee. You could do that in those days, move a team within a month of Opening Day.

There are 11 former Boston Braves still alive, 63 years after the move. I have arranged them in chronological order, by time with the Braves, not necessarily by age:

* Eddie Carnett, 99, from Oklahoma. Left fielder, he played 2 games for the Braves in 1941, before going into the service, got his discharge, and played with the 1944 Chicago White Sox and 1945 Cleveland Indians. If he lives to see October 21, it will be his 100th birthday.

* Mike Sandlock, 100, from Greenwich, Connecticut. Catcher, played 2 games in 1942, returned for 30 games in 1944, later played for the Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates. The oldest living former major leaguer.

* Harry MacPherson, 90, from the Boston suburbs. Pitcher, faced 4 batters on August 14, 1944, and got 3 of them out, without allowing a run -- and never made another big-league appearance. He was finished at age 18, a situation that could only have happened with the manpower shortage of World War II.

* Clint Conatser, 94, from Los Angeles. Outfielder, 1948 and '49. The last survivor of the Braves' last Pennant team in Boston, of 1948.

* Johnny Antonelli, 85, from Rochester. Pitcher, 1948-50, then went into the Korean War. By the time he pitched for the Braves again, they'd moved. Traded to the New York Giants in 1954, won 21 games, the National League ERA title, and the World Series. Was also with the Giants when they moved in 1957, and closed his career back with the Braves in 1961.

* Del Crandall, 86, from the Los Angeles suburbs. Catcher, 1949-50, then went into the Korean War. By the time he pitched for the Braves again, they'd moved. An 8-time All-Star in Milwaukee, won 3 of the 1st 4 NL Gold Gloves for catchers, and starred on their 1957 and '58 World Series teams. Later returned to Milwaukee as Brewers manager.

* Luis Olmo, 96, from Puerto Rico. Outfielder, appeared in the 1949 World Series for the Dodgers, then wrapped up his U.S. big-league career with the Braves in 1950 and '51, before returning to the Caribbean.

* Dick Manville, 89, from Des Moines. Pitcher, tossed 2 innings on April 30, 1950, and had a brief return to the majors with the 1952 Chicago Cubs.
* Bob Addis, 90, from the Cleveland suburbs. Outfielder, 1950 and '51. Briefly played in the Yankees' minor-league system.

* Bert Thiel, 89, from Marion, Wisconsin. Pitcher, made 4 relief appearances for the Braves in 1952. Ironically, given his home State, never got called back up after they moved to Milwaukee.

* Gene Conley, 85, from the Seattle suburbs. Pitcher, made 4 appearances in 1952, the last season in Boston. Went into the service, came back to the Braves in Milwaukee, was the winning pitcher in the 1955 All-Star Game in Milwaukee, and pitched for them in the 1957 and '58 World Series. Also pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox.

The last active player for the Boston Braves was Eddie Mathews, who was also the only player to have played for them in Boston, Milwaukee (all 13 seasons) and Atlanta (just the 1st season, 1966). He remained active until 1968. The last active player for the Milwaukee Braves was Phil Niekro, who lasted until 1987.

Every season, it's the same story: Arsenal Football Club of North London have high hopes, and world-class players; and every year, there's key injuries and referees' decisions that screw us out of multiple games; and every year, even when we manage to win the FA Cup, we finish Top 4 in the Premier League but don't win it; and every year, while we always get to the knockout round of the UEFA Champions League, we don't get much, if any, farther.

There are 800 soccer teams (or "football clubs") in England that would love to have kind of "failures" and "mediocrity" that Arsenal produces.

But what we do isn't enough. As if they were Real Madrid fans, there is a small but very loud minority of incredibly ungrateful and disrespectful Arsenal fans who believe that, if we don't win the League every year, the manager needs to be fired.

If we did win the League, which current manager Arsene Wenger has done 3 times, although not since 2004, these people would complain that we didn't also win the Champions League; if we win the CL, which we've never done (closest call was reaching the Final in 2006), they'd complain that we didn't win the PL; and if we won both, and the FA Cup too for a "European Treble," they'd... what? Complain that it wasn't done years sooner?
They complained that, for 9 years, he didn't win any trophies. Then, finally, in 2014, he guided Arsenal to the FA Cup, the oldest competition in the sport. Then he did it again the next season. Suddenly, people began talking about this major trophy as if it didn't matter anymore: "Only the title matters."

So, which is it? Do trophies matter, or does only one trophy (or two of them, counting the CL) really matter?
"We want our Arsenal back!" Which Arsenal would that be? Do you mean the Arsenal that Wenger brought you, winning the League and FA Cup Double in 1998 and 2002, another FA Cup in 2003, the Invincible season (going through the League unbeaten) in 2004, and another FA Cup in 2005?

Or is the Arsenal you want back the one you had before him, where the last 5 finishes were 4th, 10th, 4th, 12th and 5th? If Wenger had done that, you'd want him fired and shot. Not necessarily in that order.

"But we won trophies!" Yes: In 1993, Arsenal became the 1st English team to win the "Cup Double": Winning both domestic cups, the FA Cup and the League Cup; in 1994, Arsenal won the European Cup Winners' Cup. But they finished 10th in 1993. Actual midtable mediocrity. (There are 20 teams in the League.) And the Cup Winners' Cup was Europe's 3rd most significant trophy, behind the European Cup/Champions League and the one known from 1958 to 1971 and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, from 1971 to 2010 as the UEFA Cup, and since as the Europa League. The Cup Winners' Cup was considered so insignificant, it was phased out in 1999, a previous season's national cupholders qualifying for the UEFA Cup/Europa League instead.

"But George Graham won the League twice!" Yes, he did: In 1989 and 1991. However, in 1988, 1993 and 1995, he finished behind arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur. That's 3 times in 9 seasons. In his 1st 19 seasons, Wenger has never finished behind "The Scum." (It could happen this time, but Tottenham's record of Spring collapses suggests that it won't.)

"But Graham didn't put up with weak players!" Oh no? In 1991, he sold Michael Thomas, the hero of the 1989 season finale. In 1992, he sold David Rocastle, the best all-around player he ever managed. Both sales were, clearly, too soon: Not only did they have plenty of good soccer left in them, but Arsenal's midfield was seriously weakened, hence the 10th of 1993 and the 12th of 1995.

"But Graham won a European trophy!" In his one chance at the big one, in 1991-92 (to be fair, the Heysel ban prevented the chance in 1989-90, but we were not going to beat that AC Milan side), he lost 3-1 at home to a Benfica team that was hardly up to that club's legendary standards. He never got back, not at Arsenal, not at Leeds, not in his time with the noisy lot up the Seven Sisters Road.

"But Graham's sides never bottled it! Wenger got knocked out of the cups by Bradford! Blackburn! Sunderland! And now, Watford!" Oh really? Do the words "The Wrexham Disaster" ring a bell? Or the League Cup Final loss to Luton Town in 1988? Or losing the FA Cup Semifinal to The Scum in 1991?

Don't even get me started on why Graham had to be fired in 1995.

Some people are only happy when they're unhappy. As David E. Kelley's character Ally McBeal put it, "Some people are happier when they lose, because, when you win, there's no one to blame."

Yesterday, Arsenal emerged from a typical February/March run where they went from challenging for the League, the FA Cup and the Champions League to fighting to achieve Top 4 and thus qualification for next season's CL, by beating Everton away, 2-0. And now, of course, just when we need to build on this and get some momentum going, there's an international break. No more Arsenal for 2 weeks.

Sometimes, I wonder if Arsene should leave after the season, with 1 year left on his contract, just so he doesn't have to put up with this shit anymore.

*

To the tune of "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio -- or, if you prefer, "Amish Paradise" by Weird Al Yankovic:


Note: Szczesny was caught smoking tobacco in the shower, not marijuana. I just went with the rap theme.

Unlike most positions, the Yankees' long-term record at shortstop is thin, especially after (or should that be "before"?) the top 2. If you're looking for 1980s or early '90s shortstops like Bobby Meacham, Andre Robertson, Wayne Tolleson, Alvaro Espinoza or Spike Owen, forget it.

But what a top 2.

Honorable Mention: Phil Linz, 1962-65. Yes, he's best known for "The Harmonica Incident" on the team bus late in the 1964 season. But there's a reason he was called Supersub. When Tony Kubek got hurt late in that season, Phil became the starting shortstop, and was a big help down the stretch. It was his only season as a major league regular, but it should be remembered.

Honorable Mention: Fred Stanley, 1973-80."Chicken" was a "good-field, no-hit" middle infielder, who batted .216 lifetime. He was, however, the starting shortstop on the 1976 Pennant winners, and a backup on the '77 and '78 World Champions, even finishing the 1978 Playoff with the Boston Red Sox at 2nd base.

10. John Knight, 1909-13. Not much information is available about this Philadelphia native, but he did help the New York Highlanders (the name "Yankees" was already being used, but didn't become official until 1913) finish 2nd in 1910 with a .312 average.

Like later Yankee pitcher Waite Hoyt, he was known as "Schoolboy," possibly due to his Ivy League education, attending the University of Pennsylvania in his hometown of Philadelphia. He played every infield position, plus one game in right field.

9. Gene Michael, 1968-74. Like Thurman Munson, he was born in Akron, Ohio, although he grew up there, unlike Thurman whose family moved to nearby Canton when he was young. Also like Thurman, he played baseball at nearby Kent State University, before the massacre in an antiwar protest on its campus on May 4, 1970.

"Stick" was another "good field, no-hit" middle infielder. He was a good enough fielder to be the Yankees' starting shortstop from 1969 to 1973, the last years of the pre-renovation Yankee Stadium. His specialty was the hidden-ball trick, doing it successfully 5 times as a Yankee.

But, despite having the advantage of being a switch-hitter, his OPS+ was 67, which means, even in that pitching-friendly era, he was 1/3rd worse than the average hitter. Only in 1969 was his OPS+ over 100 (barely: 101), his peak in home runs was 3, and in RBIs 47 (both in 1973, also hitting 3 homers in '71).

He redeemed himself by doing just about everything in the organization. Minor league manager. Major league coach (1st base coach on the 1978 World Champs). Major league manager (managed most of the '81 Pennant-winning season, but was fired before it ended). General manager (rebuilt the farm system and rearranged the acquisition priorities after the George Steinbrenner-induced wreckage of the 1980s). And, since 1996, the team's "superscout," overseeing the whole operation.

The Number 17 that he wore as a player will never be retired for him (he wore several other numbers as coach and manager), but he may be deserving of a Monument Park Plaque.

8. Norman "Kid" Elberfeld, 1903-09. The man the Highlanders/Yankees brought in with the 1st trade the franchise ever made, he was from Pomeroy, Ohio, and known as the Tabasco Kid for his hot temper, and later as just "Kid." He had 2 .300 seasons, and while he wasn't a great hitter he was not terrible by the standards of the Dead Ball Era. There's not much I can say about his fielding: The gloves used back then were not conducive to shortstops making fewer than 40 errors a season.

He did help the Yankees finish 2nd in both 1904 and 1906 (his best season), although by the time the team finished that high again (1910), he was gone.

7. Everett Scott, 1922-25. The native of Bluffton, Indiana wasn't a Yankee for very long, but he was a member of the '22 Pennant winners and the '23 World Champs. He was yet another member of the 1910s Red Sox sort-of dynasty that became a part of the 1920s Yankee dynasty. He didn't hit much, but was dependable in the field.

And he set a major league record of 1,307 consecutive games played. Oddly enough, that streak ended on May 5, 1925, when "the Deacon" was pinch-hit for by Paul "Pee-Wee" Wanninger. Just 27 days later, on June 1, Wanninger was taken out for a pinch-hitter named Lou Gehrig. You know the rest of that story, and you should also know Scott's, because he held the record before Gehrig, and long before Cal Ripken was even born.

6. Russell "Bucky" Dent, 1977-82. He came from South Florida, and with the Chicago White Sox, he nearly won Rookie of the Year in 1974, and made the All-Star Team the next season. The Yanks picked him up just before the '77 season started, and he made 2 more All-Star Games and won 3 Pennants and 2 World Series.

He was not a great hitter, but he got some great hits. For 2 weeks in October 1978, he was touched by God: That home run at Fenway on the 2nd (only his 5th homer of the season), through the ALCS, to the World Series that ended on the 17th with him being named Series MVP with a .417 average and 7 RBIs. And he and Willie Randolph turned some of the best double plays you'll ever see.

He has returned to Florida, and runs a baseball school, whose field is designed to look like Fenway Park. He calls it Little Fenway. He has coached for several big-league teams, and even briefly managed the Yankees. Whenever he returns for Old-Timers' Day, he gets a huge hand. It's not all about October 2, 1978, but it's still one of Yankee Fans' favorite moments, even for those who are not old enough to remember it. For those of us who are, like myself, Bucky Blessed Dent is a treasure. Red Sox fans wish he was a buried treasure.

5. Mark Koenig, 1925-30. Even before Tony Lazzeri (see Top 10 Yankee Second Basemen), he was a San Franciscan who moved east to play for the Yankees. He batted .285 in a Yankee uniform, including .319 in 1928. He won Pennants in 1926, '27 and '28, and the World Series in the latter 2 years.

He turned out to be the last survivor of the 1927 Yankee team that became known as "Murderer's Row" and "the Greatest Team Ever," and the last survivor of the 1928 World Champions as well, living until 1993. In an interview with Sports Illustrated near the end, he joked, "I've got Heinz disease: 57 varieties." But he was always happy to share his memories of that time, and Major League Baseball Productions got his recollections down on video.

4. Frank Crosetti, 1932-48. A 2-time All-Star, "the Crow" was another part of the Yankees' Golden Gate connection. He didn't hit many homers, although he had a memorable round-tripper off Dizzy Dean that provided the runs that won Game 2 of the 1938 World Series. (Dean, best known for the St. Louis Cardinals, had hurt his arm and was mounting a comeback with the Chicago Cubs.) He hit 260 doubles, an extraordinary number for a shortstop in the 1930s. He helped the Yankees win 8 Pennants (1932, '36, '37, '38, '39, '41, '42 and '43) and 7 World Series (all but '42).

However, he went into a noticeable decline in '39, just 28 years old. In 1940, it made a difference, as, for the first time in 5 years, the Yankees did not win the Pennant. This led to Phil Rizzuto, The Sporting News' 1940 Minor League Player of the Year, being called up. Crosetti hung on, and when Rizzuto was drafted, became a starter again. While his hitting was still weak, his fielding was a key component of the war-stripped 1943 World Champions.

He Later he became the Yankees' 3rd base coach. In 1969, he became the 3rd base coach for the ill-fated Seattle Pilots. That team failed, and after 1 season was moved to become the Milwaukee Brewers. They'd be totally forgotten today had they not been immortalized in former Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton's book Ball Four. He doesn't come off well in that book: Bouton describes him, and manager Joe Schultz and the rest of the coaching staff, such as pitching coach Sal Maglie, as being too set in their ways, and unwilling to try to relate to the modern player.

Bouton also joked that, due to his being the 3rd base coach for the teams of DiMaggio, Berra, Mantle and Maris, Crosetti must have dealt out more pats on the ass to home-run hitters than anyone in history. Due to his association with the Yankees from the end of the Ruth-Gehrig era to the end of the Mantle era, he earned 17 World Series rings (the 1st in 1932, the last in 1962), which is probably a record for a man in uniform (not counting guys who may have moved into the front office).

Crosetti closed his career as a coach with the Minnesota Twins in 1970 and '71. He then retired to Stockton, California, and never came east. He never attended Old-Timers' Day. He refused most interview requests. And he was the one member of the 1932 Yankees who deviated from the party line and said that Babe Ruth did not"call his shot" in the World Series that year. My guess is, he had a grudge against the Yankees that he never dropped, holding it through his death in 2002.

3. Tony Kubek, 1957-65. The Milwaukee native ended his 1st 2 big-league seasons playing his hometown's new team, the Braves in the World Series, losing in 1957 despite his own 2 homers and 4 RBIs in that Series, and winning in 1958.

In 1960, he took a ground ball to the throat in Game 7 that gave the Pittsburgh Pirates the lift they needed to win. The American League and the Cincinnati Reds got no such help in 1961, though, as Kubek's slick defense helped the Yanks win 109 games and the World Series. He wrote about that team in his book Sixty-One: The Team, the Record, the Men.

He was AL Rookie of the Year in 1957, and an All-Star in '58, '59 and '61. He won 7 Pennants (1957, '58, '60, '61, '62, '63 and '64) and 3 World Series (1958, '61 and '62). A back injury forced him to retire in 1965, not even 30 years old.

He went into broadcasting and was one of NBC's main baseball voices, paired with Joe Garagiola in the 1970s and Bob Costas in the '80s. He did Yankee games on MSG Network, but after the Strike of '94 hit, he quit, saying he was sick of what the game had become.

He has been awarded the Hall of Fame's Ford Frick Award, their equivalent to Hall election for broadcasters, but has never gone back to broadcasting, and except for 1986, in connection with the 25th Anniversary of the 61 in '61 season, does not do interviews and does not attend Old-Timers Day ceremonies. Indeed, he says he has not even been to a major league game since the Strike.

2. Phil Rizzuto, 1941-56. His Monument Park Plaque calls him "the all-time greatest Yankee shortstop." At the time it was dedicated on August 4, 1985 -- along with the retirement of his Number 10, and I was there at The Stadium that day -- it was a pretty solid opinion.

Had there been a Rookie of the Year award in 1941, the Richmond Hill, Queens native almost certainly would have won it, batting .307. He missed 3 years serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II -- getting seasick all the time, admitting, "I was the worst sailor ever" -- but came back strong, and in his 13 seasons the Yankees won 10 Pennants and 8 World Series. He was released late in the 1956 season, so that one doesn't really count, but he did earn 7 World Series rings.

He was a 5-time All-Star, and AL MVP in the 1950 season, collecting 200 hits and batting .324. Contrary to popular belief (and his Plaque), he was not the MVP of the 1951 World Series. Perhaps he would have been had there been such an award, but it was not first awarded until 1955. He was unceremoniously and cruelly -- if statistically justifiably -- released in mid-1956. (Gil McDougald was moved over from 3rd base to shortstop, and was the starter until Kubek was ready in the middle of the next season.)

On Phil Rizzuto Day in 1985, the Scooter said, "This means more to me than getting into the Hall of Fame ever could." I was also at the old Stadium on Old-Timers' Day 1991, which celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak, and most of Joe's surviving teammates, including Phil, were on hand. Joe, a man of few words and not one to praise just anyone, told the crowd, "Nobody had a better view than I did of watching him play shortstop... and, Phil, I just want to say that you're my Hall-of-Famer. And I mean that." Huge ovation. In 1994, Phil was finally elected to the Hall, and found out how wonderful it was.

Holy cow, that huckleberry, he was unbelievable. Because of his longevity, he may be the most beloved Yankee ever, having entertained 4 generations of fans. However, Phil's last year in the broadcast booth, 1996, was the 1st full season for the man he would live long enough to call "my favorite player," one he would admit had surpassed him as the greatest Yankee shortstop:

1. Derek Jeter, 1995-2014. What can you say about him? He's won 7 Pennants and 5 World Series, the last of them as Captain of the Yankees. He's an 14-time All-Star and a 5-time Gold Glove (and should have more, but people actually though A-Rod and Nomar were better shortstops, ha ha). He's the Yankees' all-time leader in hits, with 3,465: No living person under age 74 (Pete Rose is about to turn 75) has more. He has played more games in a Yankee uniform than anyone: 2,747, surpassing the 2,401 of Mickey Mantle.

He reached the postseason in 17 of his 20 seasons (including his brief callup in 1995 although he wans't on the roster). His postseason record looks like All-Star stats for a single regular season: .308, .838 OPS, 61 RBIs, and 20 homers.

Some of those postseason homers will live forever: The 1996 ALCS Game 1 homer that was, uh, helped by Jeffrey Maier; the one to lead off Game 4 of the 2000 World Series and kill off the Mets' momentum, and another homer in Game 5 to set up the clinch; the walkoff in Game 4 of the 2001 Series.

Sports Illustrated named him its 2009 Sportsman of the Year. He was the face of the Yankees for 20 years, the franchise's most popular player since Mantle, nearly 50 years ago.

Born in Pequannock, New Jersey, the family lived in North Arlington, New Jersey before moving to Kalamazoo, Michigan. In spite of living halfway between Detroit and Chicago and being surrounded by Tiger fans, he remained a Yankee Fan.

He used to kid people about wanting to get a single-digit uniform number before they were all retired; he got Number 2, and, barring unusual circumstances (such as the Tigers did, letting the starters in the last game at Tiger Stadium in 19999 wear the numbers of the greatest players their team ever had at their respective positions), he will forever be the last to wear a single digit in Pinstripes.

To put Jeter in a historical perspective: Baseball-Reference.com's Hall of Fame Monitor has him at 337 out of 100 (meaning he's an easy choice to get in), and their HOF Standards has him at 67 out of 50 (ditto). Their 10 Most Similar Batters are Craig Biggio (in), Paul Molitor (in), Robin Yount (in), Roberto Alomar (in), Charlie Gehringer (in), Ripken (in), Joe Morgan (in), Ivan Rodrgiuez, Johnny Damon and Eddie Collins. All are in the Hall except I-Rod, who may never get in due to steroid accusations; and Damon, who may not quite have the career numbers to make it.

We have no way of knowing if Didi Gregorius will one day join this list. But cracking the top 2 will be nearly impossible. The Scooter and Captain Clutch worked long and hard to help define the phrase "Yankee Legend."

Bobby Cox played 3rd base for the Yankees in the 1968 and '69 seasons, and he’s in the Baseball Hall of Fame. But these 2 things are not linked, by any means. However, he did coach for the Yankees in the 1970s, including as 1st base coach in the 1977 World Championship season, and that got him his 1st managing job, with the Atlanta Braves, in 1978.

Honorable Mention to Joe Dugan, 1922-28. "It’s always the same," Jumpin' Joe, the 7th-place hitter on the "Murderer’s Row" Yankees, said: "Combs walks. Koenig singles. Ruth hits one out of the park. Gehrig doubles. Meusel singles. Lazzeri triples. Then Dugan goes in the dirt on his can."

Actually, while hardly as fearsome as his teammates, Dugan wasn't a bad hitter, batting .280 lifetime, and reaching 60 RBIs 3 times, decent totals for a 3rd baseman in his era. He was a slick fielder, and helped the Yankees win 5 Pennants (1922, '23, '26, '27 and '28) and 3 World Series (1923, '27 and '28). He also had the “honor,” along with Hall of Fame pitcher Herb Pennock, of being sold off by both Connie Mack of the Philadelphia Athletics and Harry Frazee of the Boston Red Sox.

Had he still been with the Yankees when they started wearing uniform numbers in 1929, he would have gotten Number 7 for his place in the batting order. He closed his career with the 1931 Detroit Tigers, wearing Number 25, the only number he ever wore.

Honorable Mention to Aaron Boone, 2003. He did more for the Yankees with one swing of the bat at 12:16 AM on October 17, 2003 than Alex Rodriguez did in his 1st 5 seasons as a Yankee -- and then made a mistake in the offseason, resulting in the acquisition of A-Rod.

10. Mike Pagliarulo, 1984-89. A native of the Boston suburb of Medford, Massachusetts, "Pags" grew up as a Red Sox fan. He used to wear a T-shirt that had "Boston Red Sox, World Champions 1903 1912 1915 1916 1918" on the back and the Yankees' titles on the front.

He was nearly as good a glove as the man he replaced, Graig Nettles, and, also like Nettles, he seemed to have that sweet lefty swing meant for Yankee Stadium. In his 4 full seasons in Pinstripes, he hit 94 home runs, and topped out at 87 RBIs.

Unfortunately, he went too far in mirroring Nettles’ biggest flaw: He didn't make contact enough, striking out 510 times in what amounted to 5 seasons in The Bronx. He batted in the .230s, then dropped to .216 in 1988 and was at .197 in ’89 when he was traded, like Nettles, to the Padres.

In 1991, playing for the Minnesota Twins, he had his best average, .279, and won a World Series. In that Twin infield with him was Chuck Knoblauch, just as he’d once been in an infield with Willie Randolph. So Pags is linked to both the 1976-81 dynasty and the 1996-2003 dynasty… but not closely enough: The Yanks got very close to the AL East title in ’85 and ’88, and made strong runs in ’86 and ’87, but he had to go to Minnesota to win a Pennant and a ring.

He started out wearing Number 46, then switched to 6, then to 13. 46 and 6 have been retired, and 13 might be, but not for him. He now runs a baseball-themed website, dugoutcentral.com. His son Mike helped Dartmouth’s baseball team win the 2009 Ivy League Championship.

9. Billy Johnson, 1943-51. Batting .280 with 94 RBIs as a rookie on the 1943 World Champion Yankees, the Montclair, New Jersey native missed the next 2 years in World War II, then came back and helped the Yankees win the Series again in 1947, '49 and '50. A solid hitter, he was an All-Star in 1947. He started out wearing Number 7, then switched to 24. The former is retired by the Yankees, but not for him.

8. Scott Brosius, 1998-2001. He was only a Yankee for 4 years, but what a 4 years, just 3 outs away from being 4 straight World Championships. A .203 hitter with an OPS+ of 53 in his last season with the Oakland Athletics, the Yankees sent the hopeless Kenny Rogers (the choking pitcher, not the country singer) to the East Bay for the Oregonian, to replace the man at Number 7 on this list. Joe Torre said he just wanted him to field his position and not worry about hitting.

Turned out, in 1998, it was pitchers who had to worry about his hitting: Not only did he give the Yankees yet another great glove at the position, but he batted a career-high .300, posted a 121 OPS+, hit 19 homers, had a career-high 98 RBIs, made the All-Star Team, hit 2 home runs in Game 3 of the World Series, including a 410-foot game-winner to dead center off the San Diego Padres' supposedly invincible closer Trevor Hoffman, fielded the last out of the Series the next night, and was awarded the Series MVP.

He was hardly done, even in October. The Yankees won again in 1999, aided in part by Brosius' only Gold Glove season and 2 homers against the Red Sox in the ALCS. He hit another homer in the 2000 Series against the Mets, and in Game 5 of the 2001 Series, he tied the game in the bottom of the 9th with a homer, leading to a Yankee win in the 12th. Although he was only 34 and had just batted .287, he retired after that Series. He thus appeared in 4 World Series with the Yankees, and hit at least 1 home run in all of them.

He went on to become the assistant coach, and then the head coach, at his alma mater, Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. He was recently hired as the hitting instructor for the Tacoma Rainiers, the Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. He is a member of his State's Sports Hall of Fame. He wore Number 18 as a Yankee, although it is unlikely to be retired for him, or anyone else, in the near future.

7. Wade Boggs, 1993-97. He was already a Hall-of-Famer-in-waiting for what he’d done with the Red Sox. This ranking is based solely on what he did with the Yankees. And what he did was help to bring the team back from its 1982-92 doldrums, including its 1989-92 dark age.

Upon arriving in 1993, he instantly became a good influence on the team's young hitters, and the Yankees finished 2nd, their highest finish since ’85. Indeed, he may have provided a more important service to the club as an extra hitting instructor than he did as a player.  Nevertheless, he was hardly done: He batted .302, .342, .324, .311 and .292 in his 5 seasons in Pinstripes. He was the starting 3rd baseman on the 1996 World Champions, won both of his Gold Gloves as a Yankee, and made 4 of his 12 All-Star appearances as a Yankee.

Overall, he batted .328 lifetime, with a 130 OPS+, 3,010 hits including 578 doubles, reached postseason play 6 times, winning 3 Pennants and a World Series – and that doesn't count the 1994 season when the Yankees had the AL's best record when the strike hit and didn't get to find out what would happen.

The image of him, his face puffy and pink with tears, in the Shea Stadium dugout after the Red Sox blew the 1986 Series will live forever; the image of him equally pink with tears of joy on the Yankee Stadium mound in '96, and then riding that police horse along the outfield track, will also stick in our minds. As actor-comedian Denis Leary, a Worcester, Massachusetts native and huge Red Sox fan, has said, "If you had told my father that, one day, Wade Boggs would win the World Series with the Yankees, his head would have blown up."

Boggs returned to his native Tampa Bay, and became the Devil Rays' 1st retired number, 12, which he also wore with the Yankees, rather than the 26 he wore with the Red Sox, which they've announced that they will retire this coming May 26. The Yankees may never retire 12 for him, but a Plaque in Monument Park would be nice. After all, Reggie Jackson is there, and he, too, played 4½ seasons as a Yankee starter.

6. Gil McDougald, 1951-60. Yet another part of in the Yankees' old-time San Francisco connection, he was AL Rookie of the Year in 1951, ahead of teammate Mickey Mantle. A 5-time All-Star, he played 10 seasons, winning 8 Pennants and 5 World Series (1951, '52, '53, '56 and '58).

Unfortunately, he may be best remembered for an accident: On May 7, 1957, he hit a line drive right back at Cleveland Indians pitcher Herb Score, hitting him in the eye. Gil was so upset, he said he'd quit baseball if Herb lost the use of the eye. Herb did recover (although he wore glasses thereafter), and insisted unto the end of his life that it was an injury in the next year's spring training that really cut his career short. But Gil was never the same player again, either, although he did hit a key home run in the 1958 World Series.

Although just 32 years old, he retired after the 1960 season, expecting to be left unprotected in the expansion draft and not wanting to play for a considerably lesser team. He wore Number 12 throughout his Yankee career, and was later the baseball coach at Fordham University.

5. Frank Baker, 1916-22. John Franklin Baker was nicknamed "Home Run" Baker due to 2 homers he hit for the Phildelphia A's in the 1911 World Series, off New York Giants, and fellow future Hall-of-Famers, Rube Marquard and then Christy Mathewson. And he did lead the AL in homers 4 times… peaking at 12. It was the Dead Ball Era. Still, his career OPS+ was 135, meaning he was 35 percent more productive a hitter than the average player of his time.

A member of Connie Mack's first A's dynasty, 1910-14, the native of Maryland's Eastern Shore formed "The $100,000 Infield" with shortstop Jack Barry, Hall of Fame 2nd baseman Eddie Collins, and 1st baseman Stuffy McInnis. He sat out the 1915 season in a contract dispute, and, having already broken the dynasty up, Mack sold him to the Yankees for $37,500 – as sports historian Bert Randolph Sugar would say, these were Woodrow Wilson dollars. The year off hurt Baker, but he did hit .308 for the Yankees in 1918 and help them win their 1st 2 Pennants, in 1921 and '22, after which he retired.

4. Clete Boyer, 1959-66. Debuting in the major leagues with the Kansas City Athletics in 1955, the same year Brooks Robinson debuted with the Baltimore Orioles, it was impossible for Clete to win a Gold Glove as long as he stayed in the AL – and, in fact, he only won 1, and that was in 1969, with the NL's Atlanta Braves.

But, at his peak, he was every bit as good a fielder as Robinson, his performance in the 1961 World Series nearly as amazing as those of Robinson in the 1970 edition and Nettles in 1978. He used to dive for balls, come up only to his knees, and throw runners out.

He wasn’t a great hitter, not topping 20 homers until he was traded and went to Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, a.k.a. the Launching Pad. But he did hit 162 homers, 95 as a Yankee, and probably would have hit a lot more had he not been a righthanded hitter aiming for Death Valley at the pre-renovation old Stadium. A member of the Yankees’ 5 straight Pennant winners of 1960-64, he won World Series in 1961 and '62.

In 1964, he and his brother Ken, Captain of the St. Louis Cardinals, became the only brothers to both homer in the same World Series game. Their brother Cloyd pitched for the Cards a few years before Ken got there, and was briefly Clete's teammate on the A's, near their hometown of Alba, Missouri. Clete wore Number 6 through most of his Yankee career, and it has been retired, though not for him.

3. Robert "Red" Rolfe, 1934-42, after a 1-game callup in '31. The New Hampshirean is not in the Hall of Fame or Monument Park, but in an interview in 1980, broadcaster Mel Allen called him the best 3rd baseman he’d ever seen. Mel was biased (there's a shock), because Rolfe was the Yankee hot-corner man when he became "the Voice of the Yankees" in 1939.

But Rolfe did provide some justification for Mel's hyperbole. He was a fantastic fielder, who would have won several Gold Gloves had the award been around then. He also batted .289 lifetime, with 4 .300 seasons. He led the AL in triples in 1936 and in hits, doubles and runs in 1939.

He helped the Yankees win 6 Pennants (1936, '37, '38, '39, '41 and '42) and 5 World Series (all but the last). Oddly, he retired after the 1942 season, only 34. And it wasn’t to serve in World War II, either, but to become baseball coach at Yale University. He was a Dartmouth graduate, and later served as their athletic director and as manager of the Detroit Tigers. He wore Number 2 throughout his Yankee career, and it will be retired, though not for him.

2. Graig Nettles, 1973-83. He was the last player obtained, from the Cleveland Indians for Charlie Spikes, by the CBS regime before George Steinbrenner and Gabe Paul took over – and, with their Cleveland connections, it may have been a setup. But he hit 71 homers in 3 full seasons playing in what was usually called "Cavernous Cleveland Stadium," so what could he do at Yankee Stadium with its short right-field porch?

It took a while to find out, as he hit "only" 22 homers in '73, but he hit another 22 in '74 and 21 in '75, despite playing in Shea Stadium, a pitcher's park, while Yankee Stadium was being renovated. In the refurbished Stadium, with the RF pole being 310 feet from home plate and straightaway right just 353, Nettles hit 32 homers in '76 to lead the AL. He hit 37 in '77, although it wasn’t enough to lead the League with Jim Rice hitting 39; nevertheless, it was the highest home run total for a Yankee between 1961 and 1980. He had a .248 lifetime batting average, lower than that of any nonpitcher in the Hall, but he hit 390 homers and had a 110 career OPS+.

It's for his fielding that he's best known. His stops in Game 3 of the '78 World Series saved the Yankees' bacon, and that was just what he did when the whole country was watching. He made plays like that all the time when it was only the Tri-State Area watching on WPIX-Channel 11. Starting his career when Brooks Robinson was still around, and playing at the same time as Aurelio Rodriguez and George Brett, limited him to 2 Gold Gloves, but he was at least as good a fielder as the former and better than the latter.

In 1984, the Yankees traded him to the San Diego Padres. Playing for his hometown team, alongside former Yankee teammate Goose Gossage, he helped them win their 1st Pennant. It was his 5th career Pennant, after 4 with the Yankees (1976, '77, '78 and '81) and 2 World Series wins (1977 & '78).

Should he be in the Hall, despite that .248 average? Baseball-Reference.com’s Hall of Fame Monitor has him at 63 out of 100, and their HOF Standards has him at 31 out of 50. Their 10 Most Similar Batters is loaded with really good 3rd basemen and others who weren’t quite good enough to get in: Darrell Evans, Gary Gaetti, Ron Santo, Dale Murphy, Brian Downing, Chili Davis, Don Baylor, Ron Cey, Joe Carter and Andruw Jones.  Santo is now in; of the rest, a case can be made for Evans and Jones, but that's about it.

But, until recently, Nettles was the greatest 3rd baseman in Yankee history. Though it should be noted that, when he was traded, the Yankees retired his Number 9 not for him, but for Roger Maris. And he has never received a Plaque in Monument Park. No Hall of Fame, no Monument Park, no number retirement. Just a Yankeeography and a big cheer every Old-Timers’ Day.

1. Alex Rodriguez, 2004-present. Someone check on Lisa Swan of Subway Squawkers, just to make sure my choice of A-Rod as the all-time greatest Yankee 3rd baseman hasn’t shocked her into unconsciousness or hysteria. She and I have debated his greatness and his status as a "winner," a "clutch player," and a "real Yankee" for a few years now.

Sure, he’s had his difficulties in the postseason, but with him, the Yankees 9 times, and he was the biggest reason the Yankees won the 2009 ALDS and ALCS, and he came through in the World Series as well. No one can say he was "just along for the ride."

Whether he will become the game’s all-time home run leader with 763 or more, we don’t know. But he goes into the 2016 season 687, plus 2,055 RBIs, and 3,070 hits. It remains to be seen what honors he receives in the future, possibly including the retirement of his Number 13, and a Plaque in Monument Park.

David Ortiz has been far less honest about his use of performance-enhancing drugs, and far below A-Rod in quality of play and in career statistics: On Baseball-Reference.com, A-Rod is a 390 on their HOF Monitor and a 78 on their HOF Standards; Ortiz is at 154 and 49. If Ortiz gets into the Hall of Fame, and A-Rod doesn't, then the people who vote for Big Papi and not A-Rod need to get slapped.

This is a tough one. Several center and right fielders in Yankee history have also played left field at various times in their careers, including Major League Baseball All-Century Team honorees Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. I decided to limit this to only players who are best known for playing the position.

That gets harder when you consider that, from 1955 to ’58, the Yankees’ main left fielder was Elston Howard, who was a catcher by trade, but was waiting behind Yogi Berra. In 1959, Yogi’s decline began, although he could still hit, and he and Ellie switched positions. So both Yogi, who remained the starting left fielder until 1962, and Ellie could be among the Top 10 Yankee Left Fielders -- even among the Top 5. But I won't, since I’ve already included them in the Top 10 Yankee Catchers. That means there’s going to be a big gap from 1955 to 1962, one of the most successful periods in Yankee history. This also lets out Johnny Damon.

Honorable Mention to William “Birdie” Cree, 1908-15. The 1st time I did this, I put him at Number 10. He got his nickname because he liked to whistle. He twice batted over .300 and helped the Highlanders/Yankees finish 2nd in 1910. In 1911, he batted .348 with 30 doubles, 22 triples, 4 homers and 88 RBIs.

Dishonorable Mention to Ben Chapman (1930-36) and Jake Powell (1936-40). Chapman was a member of the 1932 World Champions, a .302 lifetime hitter, a 4-time All-Star, and one of the few base-stealing threats the Yankees had between the 1920 arrival of Babe Ruth and the 1975 return of Billy Martin.

But as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1947, he led the most vicious bench-jockeying any athlete has ever received, the noxious racial abuse hurled by the Phils at Jackie Robinson. The backlash got so bad that it was recommended that, when the Dodgers got to Philadelphia, the two men pose for a conciliatory picture. But the Alabama-born Chapman refused to shake hands with Robinson, settling instead for posing with the two of them holding the same bat.

The next year, with the Phillies having rising stars like Richie Ashburn and Robin Roberts but still far behind the National League lead, Chapman was fired, and, except for a brief tenure as a Reds coach, never worked in the game again. And the Phillies began to get better, winning the Pennant in 1950. This was the last NL Pennant won by an all-white team, and the Phils would be the last NL team to integrate, in 1957.

Years later, Chapman would admit he had gone too far with Robinson. Powell did not. He was, effectively, Champman's replacement as Yankee left fielder, and was a member of the 4 straight World Championship teams of 1936-39.

But in 1938, with the Yankees in Chicago, White Sox broadcaster Bob Elson interviewed him for a pregame radio show, and asked Powell what he did in the off-season. The native of the suburbs of Washington, D.C. said he was a police officer in Dayton, Ohio. Asked what he did to keep in shape, Powell told Elson, "Crack (N-word)s over the head with my nightstick."

Even as notorious a racist as Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis knew this was too much – and, as a former federal judge, probably also cared that his claim of being a lawman was a bald-faced lie – and he suspended Powell for 8 games. Two years later, Powell was out of The Bronx, and was out of the game by 1945. In 1948, arrested for public drunkenness, he grabbed a cop's gun and shot himself, an ironic end considering what he’s best known for.

10. Brett Gardner, 2008-present. Along with Alex Rodriguez, Gardy is the last remaining Yankee who played home games at the old Yankee Stadium. Like Willie Randolph, he was born in Holly Hill, South Carolina; unlike Willie, his family stayed there, and he grew up there. Like Willie, he became a Yankee star.

He's best known for his speed, having stolen 202 bases in his career. In 2011, he led the American League with 49 steals. In 2013, he led the AL with 10 triples. Last season, he was named an All-Star for the 1st time. He's never won a Gold Glove, which is ridiculous.

He probably won't get a Plaque in Monument Park or his Number 11 retired, but he was a member of the 2009 World Champions, and he deserves our thanks for that.
9. Tim Raines, 1996-98. He spent just 3 seasons in Pinstripes, but they were all Playoff seasons, and '96 and '98 were World Championship seasons. "Rock" batted .321 in '97 and .290 in '98, despite being 37 and 38 years old in those seasons. In Game 3 of the ’96 Series, he led off the game with a walk, and scored on Bernie Williams' single to give the Yanks their first lead of the Series, and later started a double play. His 2-out walk in the top of the 10th led to his scoring the winning run in Game 4.

Overall for his career, he was a 7-time All-Star, with a .294 average, a 123 OPS+, 2,605 hits, and a whopping 808 stolen bases, 5th all-time and the most of anybody not in the Hall of Fame. Judging by Baseball-Reference.com’s HOF Monitor (90 of 100), HOF Standards (47 of 50), and Top 10 Most Similar Batters (4 of 10 already in), he’s got a very good case.

His Number 30 was retired by the Montreal Expos, but Willie Randolph was coaching with the Yankees at the time, so Raines took 31. If that number is ever retired by the Yankees, it will be for someone else on this list.

8. Roy White, 1965-79. He was the 1st Yankee (or former Yankee) I ever actually met (if you’ll pardon the choice of that word), and all the talk about him being classy was an understatement.

His timing was bad, arriving just as the old dynasty was collapsing, but he was a 2-time All-Star, led the American League in walks in 1972 and runs in 1976, and finally got to play in 3 World Series, winning 2. His 1st-inning homer in Game 3 of the ’78 Series gave the Yanks their 1st lead of the Series, and in Game 4 he scored the winning run in the 10th. It was against his hometown team, the Los Angeles Dodgers: Like Brooklyn and L.A. Dodger legend Duke Snider, Roy was, literally, straight outta Compton.

He never batted .300, hit 25 homers or had 100 RBIs, although he came close to each. But he won games and he won titles. He wasn’t a headline, but he helped make them. He later became a Yankee coach. His Number 6 has been retired, although not for him. But he was the 1st former player introduced at the old Yankee Stadium finale in 2008, and deservedly got a big hand.

7. Gene Woodling, 1949-54. He was from Akron, Ohio – the 1st Yankee star to be born there, but not the last – but became the last Yankee star to be purchased from the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League.

He helped the Yankees win the next 5 World Series, batting over .300 in 1952 and '53. Not that anybody knew it at the time, but he led the AL in on-base percentage in '53, .429. He bobbled what should have been the last out of the 1950 Series, costing rookie Whitey Ford a shutout, but in a far tighter situation (ahead by 2 with the winning run at the plate in Game 7, as opposed to the earlier 5-run lead in a sweep-clincher), caught the last out of the '52 Series.

The Yankees included him in the biggest trade in baseball history, the 18-player deal with the Baltimore Orioles after the '54 season that brought in 2 pitchers who would make their mark in Pinstripe history: Don Larsen, still the only man to pitch a no-hitter in the World Series; and Bob Turley, the 1st Yankee to win the Cy Young Award. It was with the O’s that he reached his only All-Star Game, in '59. (A guy named Ted Williams being in the AL and having the one subpar year of his career in '59 had something to do with that.)

6. Tom Tresh, 1961-69. He had a cup of coffee with the M&M Boys’ Yankees, then was the AL Rookie of the Year in 1962, playing shortstop while Tony Kubek was spending most of the season in the Army. He moved to the outfield when Kubek came back, and, depending on how big the field was in a ballpark and how much Mickey Mantle’s legs were bothering him, spent much of the next 4 seasons switching between left and center with Mickey.

An All-Star in '62 and '63 and a Gold Glove in '65, his homer won Game 5 of the '62 Series, and his homer in Game 1 of '63 broke up a no-hitter by Sandy Koufax (though it didn't stop Koufax from fanning 15, then a Series record and still a Series record for lefties).

He never batted .300 or had 100 RBIs, but topped 20 homers 4 times – and, like Mantle, was a switch-hitter, so he wasn't just taking advantage of the pre-renovation Stadium’s right field "short porch," and in fact was hurt by its left and center field Death Valley.

He grew up outside Detroit, where his father Mike Tresh grew up; unlike his father, who played mostly for the White Sox, he finished his career with their hometown Tigers. His own son, Mickey (named for Mantle), was a Yankee farmhand, but never got past Double-A ball.

5. Lou Piniella, 1974-84. The 1969 AL Rookie of the Year with the Kansas City Royals, he didn't get along with management there, so they sent him to the Yankees for lefty reliever Lindy McDaniel. This was a great trade for both teams. McDaniel was washed up, but he was practically an extra pitching coach for the Royals' young staff. Piniella, well, let’s just say he was called "Sweet Lou" for his swing, not for his disposition.

Originally, he played mostly right field, with White in left. By the time Reggie Jackson arrived for 1977, White was mostly a bench player and Lou was the main man in left, and he became a pretty good left fielder, his catch taking a home run away from Ron Cey of the Dodgers in Game 4 of the World Series. In the 1978 Playoff with the Red Sox, Reggie was the DH, Roy was in left and Lou in right, and he made 2 key plays in that game to save it.

And what a hitter: .291 lifetime average, 109 OPS+, 6 .300 seasons (4 with the Yankees), and always seemed to come through in key situations. As a boy, I enjoyed Nathan Salant's book This Day In Yankee History, and as he wrote of the 1978 "Boston Massacre" series, he mentioned that Reggie had been intentionally walked: "That made no sense at all, because the next batter was the Red Sox killer himself, Lou Piniella."

Salant was right: Piniella went 10-for-16 with 5 RBIs in that series. He also batted .305 with 2 homers and 6 RBIs in his 5 ALCS appearances, and .319 with 10 RBIs (albeit none on homers) in his 4 World Series. His single in the 10th inning won Game 4 of the '78 Series, driving in the aforementioned White. If it was October, and Lou was batting against you, you were not thinking it was sweet.

He retired, and became the Yankees hitting instructor, then, except for a brief 5th term for Billy Martin, was the Yankees' manager from 1985 to '88, getting them in the AL East race 4 straight seasons, but never getting that 1 extra starting pitcher he needed from George Steinbrenner. He helped make Don Mattingly a great hitter, but had to go to the Cincinnati Reds – where he helped make Paul O’Neill a great hitter, if one with a similarly explosive temper – to win a Pennant and a World Series as a manager. (The opposing manager was Tony La Russa of the Oakland Athletics -- he and Lou played high school ball together in Tampa.) He remains the only manager to lead the Seattle Mariners to a postseason berth, 4 of them.

It's unlikely that the Number 14 he wore as a Yankee will be retired anytime soon, but Lou was a classic Yankee, and one of my 5 favorite players of my time.

4. Bob Meusel, 1920-29."Long Bob" and his brother Emil (known as Irish even though the family was of German descent) were from San Jose, and among the earliest Californians to reach the majors – or, as the people involved in or rooting for teams in the Pacific Coast League said until 1957, "the eastern leagues." Both went to New York, Irish to the Giants, Bob to the Yankees, and they opposed each other in 3 straight World Series, the Giants winning in 1921 and ’22, the Yankees in '23. Bob also helped the Yankees win the '26 Pennant and the '27 and '28 World Series.

He was a lifetime .318 hitter, who was a perfect fit in the Yankee lineup, 5th after Babe Ruth batted 3rd and Lou Gehrig 4th – hence, in his last full season, 1929, the 1st season in which the Yankees wore uniform numbers, Meusel was the first to wear the Number 5 that would be solely identified with Joe DiMaggio (who, of course, did not always bat 5th).

Five times, Meusel drove in at least 100 runs, and led the AL in homers and RBIs in 1925. He played with the Cincinnati Reds in 1930, then headed back west and ended his career in the PCL. He died in 1977, at age 81.

3. Charlie Keller, 1939-49, with a brief return in '52. He was big and strong and hairy, and for this they called him "King Kong"– though not to his face, as he hated the nickname. (This was also true of Joe Medwick, who was called "Muscles" because you didn't use "Ducky" in front of him.) This guy formed one of the greatest outfields ever, with Joe DiMaggio in center and Tommy Henrich in right.

His best known hit was a double off the right-field wall at Ebbets Field to complete the rally after Mickey Owen’s muff kept the Yanks alive in Game 4 of the 1941 World Series. He was hitting at a Hall of Fame pace, averaging a .296 batting average, 24 homers and 98 RBIs in his 1st 5 seasons, 4 of which ended with Yankee Pennants (1939, '41, '42 and '43) and 3 with World Series wins (all but ’42).

Then he went off to war, and when he got back, a back injury slowed him down. He helped the Yankees win a 4th and 5th Series in '47 and '49, but that was pretty much it for him: His last great year was at age 29, and he packed it in at 35. He returned to his native Maryland and trained racehorses at his Yankeeland Ranch, many of them with "Yankee" in their names.

2. Hideki Matsui, 2003-09. In his 1st home game at a Yankee Stadium, he hit an Opening Day grand slam. In his last home game at a Yankee Stadium, he went 3-for-4 with a homer and 6 RBIs to clinch a World Championship for the team, and the World Series MVP for himself. In between, he gave us a bunch of memories, including one of the 4 straight hits off Pedro Martinez in 2003 ALCS Game 7, maybe the best game ever played at the old Stadium.

In U.S. play, he batted .282 with 175 home runs. In 4 seasons, he drove in 100 or more runs for the Yankees; twice, he batted over .300. In the U.S. and Japan combined, he hit 507 homers. I know, it doesn't work that way.

"Godzilla" was a beast. I wonder if he'll be the 1st Yankee to get a Plaque with part of its text not in English? His Number 55 is currently being worn by relief pitcher Bryan Mitchell. That's a travesty: If you're not going to retire it, at least give it to a better player.

But then, look who's gotten Number 31 since the guy at Number 1 on this list: Good players like the aforementioned Tim Raines, Lance Johnson, Glenallen Hill, Ichiro Suzuki, and currently (though he'll miss the entire 2016 season due to injury) Greg Bird; but also the disappointing Hensley "Bam Bam" Meulens, Aaron Small and Jose Veras; a once-good but washed-up Frank Tanana, the execrable Javier Vazquez in his totally unnecessary 2nd go-round in Pinstripes; and nonentities like Brian Dorsett, Mike Humphreys, Xavier Hernandez, Brian Boehringer, Dan Naulty, Steve Karsay, Jason Anderson, Edwar Ramirez, Josh Phelps, Michael Dunn, Pedro Feliciano, Gregorio Petit and Ramon Flores.

No, it's about time the Steinbrenner brothers put their father's grudge against this man behind them, and retired Number 31 and gave a Plaque in Monument Park to...

1. Dave Winfield, 1981-90. In the strictest sense, Big Dave was the Yankees' main left fielder for only 3 seasons: 1981, '82 and '83, before moving over to right field. (Steve Kemp was the main one in '84, Ken Griffey Sr. in '85, Dan Pasqua in '86, Gary Ward in '87, Rickey Henderson moving from center to left for '88, then Mel Hall taking over after Rickey was traded in '89.)

Big Dave went 1-for-21 in the 1981 World Series, and that led George Steinbrenner to eventually call him "Mr. May." It was totally unfair, and even less fair was how George got rid of him -- which led to baseball temporarily getting rid of George, and Dave getting the hit that clinched the 1992 Series for the Toronto Blue Jays.

He collected 3,110 hits, including 540 doubles and 465 home runs, 205 of those as a Yankee.  He had 1,833 RBIs, 17th all-time, 6th among players born after World War II, and if you take away steroid users he is thus surpassed only by Eddie Murray and Ken Griffey Jr.

He is in the Hall of Fame, and had most of his great years with the Yankees. No ring? Don Mattingly has a Plaque but no ring, and he was not a better player than Winfield. The ovations Dave gets when he comes back for Old-Timers' Day are not enough: Hank, Hal, give him his Plaque! And don't ever let another kid just off the Columbus -- excuse me, Scranton -- Shuttle sully his 31!

There are glamour positions in sports. Quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. Wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Linebacker for the Chicago Bears. Center for the Los Angeles Lakers. Goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens.

Baseball has a few also. The Giants, in both New York and San Francisco, have had several great 1st basemen. The Chicago White Sox have long specialized in great shortstops. The Boston Red Sox are renowned for their left fielders.

No position in any sport can compare to center field for the New York Yankees.

Ironically, the very fact of the longevity that some of these players had made it hard for me to get 10 men. And how do you choose between the top 2?

Well, I'm not going to put Jacoby Ellsbury on this list just yet.

10. Elmer Miller, 1915-21. Somebody had to be the starting center fielder on the Yankees' 1st Pennant winner, right? Actually... not that much of a somebody. He may have started all 8 games in the 1921 World Series that the Yankees lost to the Giants (that was the last time the Series was not a best-4-out-of-7), but he only made 270 plate appearances in the regular season. The rest of the team's center fielders that season aren't particularly noteworthy. But in that '21 Pennant season, Miller did bat .298.

9. Roberto Kelly, 1987-92. He was the Yankees' starting center fielder from 1989 to '92, and was the best native of Panama to play for the Yankees until Mariano Rivera. Number 39 hit 20 home runs with 69 RBIs in 1991 and made the All-Star Team in 1992. In 4 full seasons with the Yankees, he stole 151 bases.

But after the 1992 season, the Yankees traded him to the Cincinnati Reds. I thought it would be a great trade for both teams. As a righthanded hitter in Yankee Stadium, Kelly was hampered by Death Valley in left and center field (not as bad as in the pre-renovation Stadium, but bad enough), while Riverfront Stadium was hand-neutral. Plus, the artificial turf would help his speed, both in the outfield and on the bases. While the player the Yankees got for him seemed perfect for then, with a lefty swing meant for the Stadium's short porch in right, and he was a real hustler and a gamer.

Unfortunately for the Reds, while Kelly was an All-Star again in 1993, he got hurt, and bounced around the majors, having only 2 more good seasons before finishing his career with a brief comeback with the Yankees in 2000. The player the Yankees got for him? A bit more successful: Paul O'Neill.

8. Lawton "Whitey" Witt, 1922-25. Born Ladislaw Waldemar Wittkowski in Orange, Massachusetts, you might guess he was one of those guys that Harry Frazee sent from the 1910s Red Sox to the 1920s Yankees. Instead, he was a direct pickup from the ashes of Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, a rookie on the worst team (still, by winning percentage) in AL history, the 1916 A's that lost 117 -- but he did hit 16 doubles and 15 triples that season.

The Yankees got him in 1922, and he batted .297 and led the AL in walks with 89. The Yankees won the Pennant, and their 1st World Series the next season with Witt batting .314. But, like Bodie, his hitting dropped off dramatically, and 1926 (with the Dodgers) was his last season in the majors.

7. Mickey Rivers, 1976-79. The Miamian's real name is John Milton Rivers, and he was named for the English poet, author of Paradise Lost. As the great sportswriter Roger Kahn, schooled in the classics at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn and New York University, put it, Rivers might be the only man named for John Milton who has never heard of Paradise Lost.

In 1974 and ’75, playing for the California Angels (as the Anaheim outfit was known at the time), he led the American League in triples. In ’75, he stole 70 bases, still a record for any player for an L.A.-area-based team other than Maury Wills. The Yankees picked him up for the ’76 season – which turned out to be his only All-Star season, and he was 3rd in the MVP voting behind teammate Thurman Munson and that bastard George Brett, with teammate Chris Chambliss 5th – and in his 3 full seasons in New York the Yankees won 3 Pennants and 2 World Series.

Mick the Quick is the 1st Yankee center fielder that I can remember. He was not an ideal leadoff man – he only drew 73 walks in his 4 Yankee seasons – but his crouch shrank his strike zone, enabling him to post .312 and .326 batting averages in his 1st 2 Yankee seasons. Overall, he was .295 for his career (.299 as a Yankee, .308 in postseason play), and stole 267 bases (93 as a Yankee).

In the 1978 edition of The Complete Handbook of Baseball, perhaps the defining literary work of my childhood, editor Zander Hollander (or somebody working for him) summed Mick up very well: "Walks like an old man, but runs like a scared rabbit." No, not even Billy Martin could make the Yankees a running team, but nobody could turn a single into a double like Mickey Rivers.

He wasn’t a Hall-of-Famer, he’ll never get into Monument Park, and if Number 17 is ever retired, it won’t be for him. He’s not even the greatest Mickey ever to play center field for the Yankees. But he deserves to be on this list.

6. Johnny Damon, 2006-09. It's easy to forget, but before the Orlando native proclaimed himself and his 2002-05 Red Sox teammates "Idiots," he was already a really good player. In 2000, with the Kansas City Royals, he led the AL in stolen bases (46) and runs scored. In 2001, he helped the Oakland Athletics reach the Playoffs. Then came his Fenway days, when his hirsuteness suggested breaking The Curse of the Bambino, long thought to be hard, was so easy, a caveman could do it. (Certainly, those Sox had their share of Neanderthals.)

But in 2006, the Yankees decided to try an old, previously successful strategy: If you can't beat 'em, sign 'em. Johnny got the haircut and the shave, and his 4 years in Pinstripes were all good ones, culminating in the 2009 World Championship, including his brilliant baserunning in Game 4, taking advantage of the lefty-pull shift the Philadelphia Phillies had on Mark Teixeira, leaving 3rd base uncovered. He and reserve Eric Hinske thus joined 1996-2002 Yank pitcher Ramiro Mendoza (who was on the '04 Sox) as the only players to have won a World Series with both the Yankees and the Red Sox since the 1920s.

Unfortunately, he played just 2 more games in a Yankee uniform (Game 5 and the clinching Game 6), and the Yankees didn't re-sign him. He'll never get a Plaque in Monument Park, and Number 18 will never be retired for him, perhaps even if he makes the Hall of Fame.

Is Johnny Damon a future Hall-of-Famer? He'll be eligible in the election to be held in January 2018. He has a .284 lifetime batting average (.285 as a Yankee), a 104 OPS+, 235 homers and 2,769 hits, including 522 doubles and 235 home runs. And he is a 2-time World Champion -- with, arguably, baseball's 2 most popular teams.

Baseball-Reference.com's HOF Monitor has him at 90 out of 100, their HOF Standards at 45 out of 50 -- both figures leaving him a little short. Their 10 Most Similar Batters to him include 5 guys who are in: Paul Molitor, Roberto Alomar, Robin Yount, Lou Brock and Roberto Clemente; 2 guys who should be in: Tim Raines and Al Oliver; and 3 others who fall a little short: Vada Pinson, Steve Finley and Bobby Abreu.

5. Bobby Murcer, 1965-83. Or, more accurately, 1965-66, then he spent 2 years in the Army during the Vietnam War (stayed Stateside, no combat), then 1969-74, then he was traded to the San Francisco Giants, then to the Chicago Cubs, then back to the Yankees, 1979-83. Then served as a Yankee broadcaster, 1983-2008.

He was from Oklahoma, like Mantle, so he was the first "next Mickey Mantle." Considering the pressure Mickey was under to be "Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio all rolled into one," that was totally unfair. Besides, being Bobby Murcer was pretty good.

In 1971, Bobby batted .331, and led the AL in on-base percentage. In 1972 he led in total bases and runs. He was a 5-time All-Star (4 with the Yankees). In what amounted to just 12 full seasons, he hit 252 homers (175 as a Yankee) and 285 doubles (192 as a Yankee). His lifetime batting average was a fair .277, but his OPS+ was a strong 124.

His misfortune was the get to the Yankees right after the old dynasty collapsed, and to be traded away just as the new dynasty was being built. There was no shame in 1974 in being traded, even-up, for Bobby Bonds. But Bonds didn't work out, and after one season was traded to the Angels for the aforementioned Mickey Rivers, and also for Ed Figueroa. So, in a way, Bobby was traded for Mick the Quick and Figgy, 2 indispensable parts of the 1976-77-78 Pennant winners.

Bobby was brought back in 1979, gave a eulogy at the funeral of his dear friend Thurman Munson, and then, in that night's game, drove in all the Yankee runs with a 3-run homer in the 7th and a 2-run double in the 9th, Yankees 5, Orioles 4 in one of the most emotional games in Yankee history.

He was a member of the 1981 Pennant winners, but never got a ring as a player. In 1983, in order to bring Don Mattingly up to the majors (and to begin his own career as a beloved Yankee who never got a ring), George Steinbrenner asked Bobby to retire and join the broadcast booth. For 25 years, until cancer finished taking its toll, he delighted us alongside Phil Rizzuto, Bill White, Tim McCarver, Michael Kay and Ken Singleton.

Okay, Bobby was not the brightest of men. In 1992, I was watching the Yankees play in Detroit on WPIX-Channel 11. And Bobby said, "The Detroit Tigers are very tough at home, especially when they play at Tiger Stadium." Putting aside the facts -- they lost 87 games that season, and were 38-42 at home -- Uh, Bobby, where else are the Detroit Tigers going to play at home? The Silverdome? Are they gonna go into Ann Arbor and play at Michigan Stadium?

It got worse: In 1999, when the Seattle Mariners left the dreary, gray-roofed Kingdome and got into the retractable-roof Safeco Field, Bobby looked at the unusually beautiful weather in the Pacific Northwest, and said, "Ah, gotta get that sun. Gotta get that Vitamin C." I half-expected Tim to yell, "It's Vitamin D, Bobby! The sun gives you Vitamin D! Vitamin C is what you get from citrus juice!" But Tim was too classy to say that on the air. (Yes, both moments actually happened. I still have them on tape.)

Still, it was a big thrill to meet him. On July 30, 1999, the Yankees beat the Red Sox 13-3 at Fenway Park. I was there, and loved it. On the way out, I unknowingly reached the press entrance, and, quite literally, bumped into Bobby and Tim. Nice guys. Good people. Good for the game, both of them. (Even if Tim's broadcasting does get on our nerves every once in a while.)

Bobby wore Number 1 in his first go-around with the Yankees, Number 2 in his second. 1 has been retired for someone else, and 2 will be. But he deserved to get his Monument Park Plaque while he was still alive. There is plenty of room in the new Stadium's Monument Park for more Plaques. What are Hank and Hal waiting for?

Knowing he might not have much time left, Bobby wrote a memoir, titled Yankee For Life. I got it, oddly enough, on his birthday, May 20, 2008. It turned out to be his last birthday. In spite of my comments about his thought processes, at no time does his book feel like a man's thoughts straightened out by a smarter man. It is a story of, told by, a very thoughtful and decent man. Mel Stottlemyre's book Pride and Pinstripes is also very good. Someday, I should do a list on the best books by or about the Yankees; the recent bios of Roger Maris and Thurman Munson were both really good, but I was rather unhappy with the recent one on Reggie Jackson.

4. Earle Combs, 1924-35. The Yankees could afford to lose Witt, because they now had one of several athletes (including a later Yankee, pitcher Jim Turner) known as the Kentucky Colonel. In 1925, his 1st full season, he batted .341, and that would be the 1st of 9 seasons in which he batted at least .300 (he batted .299 in another). He led the AL in triples in 1927, '28 and '30. His lifetime batting average was .325, his OPS+ 125. In what amounted to 10 full seasons, he had 309 doubles.

Good stats for a leadoff hitter, which he was, which is why, when the Yankees adopted uniform numbers in 1929, and decided (at least at first) to assign the numbers according to a player's place in the batting order, Earle Combs became the 1st Yankee to wear Number 1. Which, I suppose, made him the first Yankee to wear any number. (Well, not quite: The Yanks' first game of the '29 season was at home, so the 1st Yankee to be involved in a play would have been the starting pitcher, George Pipgras. The pitchers' numbers were assigned by seniority, and Pipgras wore Number 14, so that's the 1st number worn by any Yankee.)

Combs was also a fine center fielder, but, like Pete Reiser and Lenny Dykstra after him, he had a tendency to crash into outfield walls. Like Reiser but unlike Dykstra, the walls of his era were not padded. On July 24, 1934, in brutal St. Louis heat, he crashed into the wall at Sportsman's Park in a game against the Browns. He fractured his skull and his shoulder, and was hospitalized for 2 months. In spite of a brief comeback the next season, he was done. He did, however, return as a coach in 1936, essentially to teach his successor how to handle center field at Yankee Stadium. Worked pretty well.

Combs was a member of 4 Yankee Pennant winners (1926, '27, '28 and '32) and 3 World Champions (all but the first of those). His Number 1 has been retired, although not for him. Nor does he have a Plaque in Monument Park. However, he was the earliest (if not the first) Yankee center fielder elected to the Hall of Fame.

His managers couldn't praise him enough. Miller Huggins said, "If you had men like Combs on your ballclub, you could go to bed every night and sleep like a baby." Joe McCarthy said, "They wouldn't pay baseball managers much a salary if they all presented as few problems as did Earle Combs." And the greatest player of them all, his outfield mate Babe Ruth, said, "Combs was more than a good ballplayer. He was always a first-class gentleman."

3. Bernie Williams, 1991-2006. This guy was so cool, he even got a mention from the President of the United States on the 2002 season finale of The West Wing. He was smooth and graceful in the field and running the bases, just like our grandparents' generation said DiMaggio was. Actually, few players ever looked worse swinging and missing or fouling a ball off, but when he got a hold of one, he had a beautiful swing.

And he got a hold of a few. Lifetime batting average .297, including 8 straight .300 seasons, including the 1998 batting title at .339. An OPS+ of 125. 2,336 hits, including 449 doubles (2nd on the all-time Yankee list behind Gehrig), 55 triples and 287 home runs. He had 5 100-RBI seasons, 4 Gold Gloves and 5 All-Star appearances.

The native of the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan is also the only Yankee to hit 2 walkoff homers in postseason play, both in Game 1 of an ALCS: 1996 vs. Baltimore (11th inning) and 1999 vs. Boston (10th inning). His 80 RBIs and 51 extra-base hits in postseason play are records, and his 22 homers would be if you don't count that cheating steroid freak Manny Ramirez. He made 12 trips to the postseason (every year from 1995 to 2006, and that doesn't count strike-shortened '94), winning 6 Pennants (1996, '98, '99, 2000, '01 and '03), 4 World Championships (1996, '98, '99, 2000).

Should Bernie be in the Hall of Fame? Baseball-Reference.com's HOF Monitor has him at 134 out of 100 (meaning he absolutely should be in), their HOF Standards has him at 48 out of 50 (just slightly misses). Their 10 Most Similar Batters, however, show no current HOFers, but some interesting players, including former teammates Abreu and Paul O'Neill and Ruben Sierra; also Will Clark and Reggie Smith, Magglio Ordonez and Scott Rolen.

I don't think Bernie will ever make it, but he sure had a great career. His Number 51 has been retired, and he has received his Monument Park Plaque.

2. Joe DiMaggio, 1936-51. Okay, how do I put DiMaggio at 2 and Mantle at 1? Simple: Mantle was a better ballplayer, and I'll explain why when I get to him.

Joe was named "Baseball's Greatest Living Player" at a special banquet honoring the 100th Anniversary of professional baseball in 1969, and that year, when Joe presented Mickey with his Plaque to hang on the center field wall -- this was the pre-renovation Stadium, no "Monument Park" yet, and Mickey was the first living person so honored -- Joe had to be thinking, "What about me?" Mickey had been told beforehand about this, and he had a Plaque to give to Joe, and he called Joe "the greatest player I ever saw" and added, "His oughta hang just a little bit higher than mine." And so they were hung on the wall, until they were moved into the renovated Stadium's Monument Park in 1976, where they remained until each man died and it was replaced with a Monument.

To look at some of the stats, it's really not clear why Joe is held in that kind of esteem. He played "only" 13 seasons, missing 1943, '44 and '45 in the Army Air Corps (forerunner of the Air Force) during World War II, and retired after the '51 season, having just turned 37, due to injuries catching up with him to the point where he said, "I no longer have it." He hit "only" 361 home runs and got "only" 2,214 hits.

But it's important to remember that those 361 homers were, at the time he retired, 5th all-time, behind Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Mel Ott and Lou Gehrig. Which means Joe was 2nd all-time among righthanded hitters, behind Foxx. And that he was a righthanded hitter at the pre-renovation Yankee Stadium, with its 402 feet to straightaway left, 461 to dead center, and "Death Valley" in between. "In 1951, his last year, my first year, I must've seen him him 30 balls that went over 400 feet that were caught," said Mantle. In a ballpark that was fairer to him, he would have had 450-500 homers. As it was, he had 361, plus 389 doubles and 131 triples.

Only 13 seasons? He was named to the AL All-Star Team in all 13. He had 11 .300 seasons, peaking at .381 in 1939 -- no New York ballplayer has come within .015 of that since. He had 10 100-RBI seasons -- he was 34 before he had a full season with less than 95 RBIs. In 1936, he led the AL in triples; in '37, runs, homers (his 46 were a Yankee record for righthanders until Alex Rodriguez in 2005), slugging and total bases; in '39 and '40, batting average; in '41, RBIs and total bases; in '48, homers, RBIs and total bases.

He was named the AL MVP in 1939, '41 and '47 -- and deserved all 3: In case Red Sox fans want to speak up for Ted Williams, I remind you that the Yankees won the Pennant and the World Series in all 3 seasons, and the Red Sox were nowhere near contention in any of them (they were 2nd in '39 and '47, but a distant 2nd each time). The 56-game hitting streak in '41, as amazing as it is, is really just another one of those things that made him Joe DiMaggio. Like his fielding: He was regarded as the best defensive outfielder of his generation, like Tris Speaker before him and Willie Mays after him.

Ten Pennants (1936, '37, '38, '39, '41, '42, '47, '49, '50, '51 -- he was in the service in '43). Nine World Series wins (all of those except '42). He was the man who showed that the Yankees could survive the retirements of Ruth and Gehrig. Number 5 retired. Hall of Fame. All-Century Team. Monument Park Plaque in 1969, replaced with a Monument after his death in 1999.

Joe DiMaggio's greatest legacy is that, late in his career, someone asked him why he went all-out every game in spite of his injuries. "Because there might be somebody out there who's never seen me play before. He deserves my best."

Bob Costas was born in 1952, and Mantle was his guy. "Every man in my father's generation told me the same thing," he said. "'You never saw DiMaggio, kid. You never saw the real thing.'" I never got to see Joe DiMaggio play baseball. But I did get to see Joe DiMaggio, on 4 occasions: Old-Timers' Day in 1987, '91 and '94, and throwing out the first ball on Opening Day in '95.

Most of my generation only knew him as the man who appeared in black-and-white films, did commercials for Mr. Coffee and The Bowery Savings Bank (since bought out a few times, and now under the Capital One name), and was briefly married to Marilyn Monroe. And since his death, his reputation has taken a hit, now that he's not still around to cow the scandalmongers into submission. But he remains one of the icons of sport.

Besides, a lot of the guys we tend to praise at his expense weren't exactly saints, either. For example:

1. Mickey Mantle, 1951-68. Joe had the much higher lifetime batting average, .325 to .298, and Joe had the higher slugging percentage, .579 to .557. But Mickey had the higher on-base percentage, .421 to .398. Their OPS's were nearly identical, .977. And since Joe played in a hitting-friendly era and Mickey in a pitching-friendly era, Mickey had the higher OPS+, 172 to 155. In other words, Joe DiMaggio was a 55 percent better hitter than the average hitter in his time, but Mickey Mantle was a 72 percent better hitter than the average hitter in his time.

And while neither man tried to steal many bases, Mickey had one of the best stolen-base percentages ever -- better even than Willie Mays. Mickey wasn't as good a fielder as Joe or Willie, but as his catch to save Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series showed, he was damn good out there.

Still think Joe was the better all-around player? I don't. As long as Mickey was alive, the title of "greatest living player" was, much more fairly, the eternal debate between him and Willie than an easy award to Joe.

Mickey also won 3 MVP awards, 1956, '57 and '62. He also won the Triple Crown, in '56, with a .353 batting average, 52 homers and 130 RBIs. Gehrig is the only other Yankee to win it -- Ruth didn't do it, neither did DiMaggio, nor Reggie Jackson, nor Dave Winfield, nor Don Mattingly, nor Derek Jeter, nor Alex Rodriguez. Three men have done it since, but Mickey is the last man to have led both leagues in the 3 categories.

Gehrig played in 2,130 consecutive games, but, in spite of all his injuries, Mickey played in 2,401 games. "I played in more games as a Yankee than anyone," he liked to say, "and nobody knows that." Jeter has now surpassed that total, and both he (20) and Mariano Rivera (19) have surpassed Mickey's record of 18 seasons playing for the Yankees.

Mickey won 12 Pennants (1951, '52, '53, '55, '56, '57, '58, '60, '61, '62, '63 and '64) and 7 World Series (1951, '52, '53, '56, '58, '61 and '62). He and Roger Maris combined for 115 home runs in 1961 (Maris 61, Mantle 54), still a record for any 2 teammates, in spite of the Steroid Era. Others have hit 18 or more homers in postseason play; Mickey hit 18 homers in the World Series, the only round of postseason play available to him, breaking the previous record of 15 by Ruth.

Yes, he drank too much, until he drank himself to death. Yes, he treated women poorly -- although, as of this writing, I know of no record of him ever having hit one, which is not something that can be said of DiMaggio. Yes, he played some goofy pranks. Yes, he was occasionally surly to fans and to the media. No, he wasn't perfect.

But as Costas said in his eulogy to Mickey in 1995, "In his last years, Mickey Mantle, so often hard on himself, began to understand the difference between a role model and a hero. The first, he often was not. The second, he always will be. And, in the end, people got it."

Yes, they did. His original Monument Park Plaque called him "The most popular player of his era." DiMaggio was a hero for the age of newsreels and radio. With the World Series being televised, and he appeared in far more of them than Mays, Mickey was the first television superstar of baseball. The Hall of Fame, the All-Century Team, the retirement of his Number 7 and the dedication of first his Plaque and then his Monument, they don't change the facts of the way he goofed off and disappointed people. But the great sportswriter Roger Kahn said it best: "You couldn't possibly approve of Mickey Mantle. What you could do was love him."

Even if you only saw him as an Old-Timer, as I did. When I heard him say, after he stopped drinking, that he was going to follow Whitey Ford's advice and get his knees replaced, "as soon as the doctors tell me my liver's in good enough shape" to do the surgery, I thought, Hey, maybe one of these years, on Old-Timers' Day, I can finally get to see Mickey Mantle play baseball -- live, not on film! That was not to be. But at least I got to see him.

The day Mickey died, August 13, 1995 (the Yankees beat Cleveland, 4-1, David Cone pitched and Paul O'Neill homered), the 1st batter of the game was Kenny Lofton -- center fielder, Number 7. And he flew out to Bernie in center. That couldn't have been scripted.

On Joe DiMaggio Day, October 1, 1949, the Yankee Clipper said, "I'd like to thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankee." On Mickey Mantle Day, June 8, 1969, the Mick said, "Playing 18 years in Yankee Stadium for you folks is the best thing that could ever happen to a ballplayer."

Whatever their flaws, we Yankee Fans, including those of us who don't remember them as active players, even those of us who don't even remember them as alive, have been lucky to have had them both.

And so I close with the last remaining position. Or should I do the Managers as well? Or the Broadcasters?

Two things you’ll notice about Yankee right fielders: They win a lot of Pennants, and they have great nicknames. Number 1 on the list having more nicknames than James Brown and Apollo Creed combined.

And, keep in mind, I’ve already included Lou Piniella and Dave Winfield among the left fielders.

Mention... Honorable?... to Gary Sheffield, 2004-06. He was only a Yankee for 3 seasons, only had 2 good ones, and he did sort of get caught using steroids. But look at the numbers: In 2004 and '05, he batted .291 with 57 doubles, 70 homers and 244 RBIs. That’s some heavy production.

And then, in 2006... injuries limited him to 166 plate appearances. He still batted .298, but only 5 doubles, 6 homers and 25 RBIs. And, in postseason play, while he tore it up for the 1997 Florida Marlins (his only World Series win), he was otherwise invisible, both for the Atlanta Braves before he came to the Yankees, and in Pinstripes.

In that infamous 4-game flop in the 2004 ALCS (cough-Roid-Sox-cough), he went 1-for-17 (.059 -- 5-for-21 counting walks for an OBP of .238). In the 2006 ALDS, in which the Yankees meekly went down to the Detroit Tigers, 1-for-12, no walks, no XBH, no RBIs.

His career led to some great totals: .292 BA, 140 OPS+, 2,689 hits, 467 doubles and 509 home runs. But will we ever know how much of that was legit?

10. Nick Swisher, 2009-12. He hit 105 of his 245 home runs as a Yankee, with a 124 OPS+ (113 overall), helped the Yankees reach the Playoffs all 4 times, and helping the team loosen up after a few years of a "corporate" image was a big reason why the Yankees won the 2009 World Series. He now plays for the Atlanta Braves.

9. Jesse Barfield, 1989-92. One of the great embarrassments of my life came when I attended my first Opening Day, in 1990 – and not because it was the start of the worst Yankee season in my lifetime. In fact, the Yankees won that day, beating the Cleveland Indians. But there was a point late in the game when Barfield came up, and I yelled, "Come on, Jesse, you can do it!" Guess who was pitching for the Indians: Former Met closer Jesse Orosco. Perhaps not as bad as that night in 1994 when the Yankees were playing Texas in April, and a hockey Playoff score went up on the scoreboard, and the home fans chanted, "Let’s go Rangers!" But bad enough.

But there was nothing wrong with cheering for Jesse Barfield. Well, maybe in 1985, when he helped the Toronto Blue Jays reach the postseason for the first time, beating the Yankees out for the AL East title as the teams battled in Toronto on the final weekend. In 1986 he had 108 RBIs, led the AL with 40 homers and made the All-Star Team.

In 1986 and '87, he won Gold Gloves. He had one of the best right field arms of his time, along with Winfield and Dwight Evans. George Bell in left, Lloyd Moseby in center and Barfield in right was a fantastic outfield. When the Yankees sent Al Leiter to the Jays for him on April 30, 1989, Barfield was arguably the greatest player the Jays’ franchise (then in its 13th season) had yet had.

Unfortunately, as so often happened to the Yankees in the Eighties, injuries prevented a guy who was great elsewhere from being great in The Bronx. Barfield hit 60 homers in what amounted to 3 full seasons in Pinstripes, but by 1992 he was broken-down. Still, despite playing in unfriendly ballparks (Exhibition Stadium was a wind tunnel and Yankee Stadium is bad for righthanded hitters), he managed to hit 241 home runs.

He became a broadcaster for the Blue Jays, and now runs a baseball school in Houston. He is the father of 2 professional ballplayers: Josh played 2nd base for the Indians, and Jeremy got as far as Single-A ball.

8. Hank Bauer, 1948-59. Mel Allen, the Voice of the Yankees, gave him a nickname that rhymed with his name: The Man of the Hour. He sure was: From a catch sliding on his knees to make the final out of the 1951 World Series to homering in 1958 to extend his World Series hitting streak to 17 games – still a record – Hank always seemed to be coming through.

He was pretty good in the regular season, too: A 113 OPS+, 2 .300+ seasons, 164 homers despite being a righthanded hitter in the pre-renovation Yankee Stadium, a 3-time All-Star, led the AL in triples in 1957.

And nobody messed with this Marine Corps veteran of the battles of Guadalcanal and Okinawa – 2 Bronze Stars and 2 Purple Hearts to go with his 7 World Series rings. In 1966, he managed the Baltimore Orioles to their 1st-ever Pennant and World Series win.

7. George Selkirk, 1934-42. It wasn't going to be easy for the man who would replace Babe Ruth as the Yankees' right fielder. It was harder still because he was given Ruth’s Number 3, which was not retired until right before Ruth' death in 1948. But it was worse for Selkirk: His nickname was Twinkletoes. No, he wasn't gay (that I know of): The nickname was because he seemed to be dancing across the outfield to make great plays.

He could hit, too. A 2-time All-Star, he batted .300 5 times, and twice had 100 RBIs. His career OPS+ was 127, so he wasn't just padding stats in the hitting-friendly 1930s. He helped the Yankees win 6 Pennants (1936, ’37, ’38, ’39, ’41 and ’42) and 5 World Series (all but the last). But he was already in decline by 1940, and after World War II never returned to the majors as a player.

He did serve as a major-league and minor-league manager, and a major-league scout (with the Yankees) and general manager (with the “new” Washington Senators, getting him on the Washington Wall of Stars at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium and now Nationals Park). Probably the greatest Canadian native in Yankee history, he is a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

6. Willie Keeler, 1903-09. The 1st man to play for all 3 of the classic New York City teams, the Brooklyn native actually began his career in 1892 with the New York Giants. A a year later he went to his hometown team – and, yes, until January 1, 1898, the day the consolidation of "Greater New York" took effect, Brooklyn was a separate city. But Wee Willie’s sojourn in Brooklyn didn’t last long, and in 1894 he went to the original Baltimore Orioles, winning the next 3 NL Pennants.

Unfortunately for him, his best year was the next, 1897, when the Orioles lost to the Boston Beaneaters (forerunners of the Braves) in what author Bill Keller, in his book A Game of Brawl, called the 1st truly great Pennant race. (If you love baseball and you do not have this book, find it. You’ll thank me later.) Keeler batted .424, had 239 hits (an National League record for years to come), and 74 RBIs (a good total in the Dead Ball Era). He hit no home runs, but had 27 doubles and 19 triples.

Also that season, he had a 44-game hitting streak, the longest in baseball history for 44 years (Joe DiMaggio), and while it was matched after 81 years (Pete Rose), it has never been topped in the NL (114 years). And yet, according to Keller’s book, the streak was barely even mentioned at the time – hence lots of people’s surprise when it was mentioned that Keeler, not George Sisler with 41, had the real record that DiMaggio was going for.

In 1899, he was brought back to Brooklyn, and led the Dodgers (the name was used off and on from 1883 to 1931, but at this time they were officially called the Superbas) to back-to-back Pennants. Since there was no postseason series in either year, the 1899 and 1900 Pennants marked the last World Championship for a Brooklyn sports team until the 1955 Dodgers.

In 1903, Keeler was lured across the City to Manhattan and the brand-new New York Highlanders, who changed their name to the New York Yankees in 1913, after the nickname had been unofficial almost the whole time. In 1904, he batted .343, and he, pitching superstar Jack Chesbro, and pitcher-manager Clark Griffith nearly led them to the Pennant. It was not to be, nor was it in 1906 when the team again finished 2nd. In 1910, he played one last season for the Giants and hung 'em up.

His lifetime batting average was .341, his OPS+ 126, and he fell just 68 hits short of 3,000. At 5-foot-4 and 140 pounds, he was not only one of the smallest players in major league history, but the smallest in the Hall of Fame. In 1999 – 89 years after his last game, and 76 years after he died – The Sporting News put him at Number 75 on its list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, the smallest, and aside from Cy Young the earliest-debuting.

If Wee Willie Keeler is remembered at all today, it is for his nickname, and thus his lack of height, his hitting streak, and his advice to hitters, meaning to not drink so much and to keep the ball away from opposing fielders: "Keep your eye clear, and hit ‘em where they ain't."

5. Roger Maris, 1960-66. A lack of longevity and physical health prevents the man from Fargo, North Dakota from being higher on this list, but make no mistake, he was a great all-around player. He was named AL MVP in 1960 – and deserved it, too, hitting 39 home runs with 112 RBIs. True, Mickey beat him in both categories, but Roger was the difference between the Yanks’ mediocre 3rd-place finish the season before and their Pennant that season.

Everyone talks about the homers the Rajah hit, but he took a few away, too. He was probably the best-fielding right fielder the Yankees ever had, and might have been the best-fielding outfielder in team history except for DiMaggio.

Of course, he will always be remembered – usually fondly, but there are some still alive who choose not to – for "61 in '61," the single-season home run record he set on October 1, 1961, and, if we’re being honest, still stands.

Some said he wasn’t good enough to break the record of Babe Ruth, and that the 8 extra games that season gave him an unfair advantage. Well, Roger batted against black and Hispanic pitchers, which the Babe didn’t have to do – which also counters the argument that, "In 1961, the pitching was watered down by expansion." The Babe also never batted against the forkball (predecessor of the split-fingered fastball) like Roger did, and faced very few sliders, knuckleballs and screwballs, unlike Roger who batted in a time when those pitches were well-known. (Then again, Roger faced very few of the pitches that fall into the category of “spitballs,” while the Babe faced plenty.)

And Roger had 698 plate appearances in the 161 games he played in 1961, while the Babe had 691 in his 151 games in 1927 – in other words, those extra 8 (or 10) games gave Roger an average of one extra trip to the plate per extra game. Or, to put it another way: In 1927, Babe Ruth hit a home run every 11.52 plate appearances; in 1961, Roger Maris, every 11.33. Slightly better.

Roger won 7 Pennants in his career (1960, '61, '62, '63, '64, '67 and '68) and 3 World Series (1961, '62 and '67). He, Johnny Hopp and Enos Slaughter are the only players to win World Series with each of the top 2 teams in terms of most Series won: The Yankees (27) and the St. Louis Cardinals (10).

Injuries limited Roger to what amounted to 10 full seasons, and 275 home runs. But this 4-time All-Star had a 127 career OPS+. To give you an idea, there were 4 right fielders in Roger’s generation who made the Hall of Fame. Hank Aaron's was 155. Frank Robinson's was 154. But Al Kaline's was 134, and Roberto Clemente's was 130 – theirs wasn't substantially higher than Roger's, and no one questions whether they belong in the Hall of Fame.

But does Roger belong? Baseball-Reference.com’s Hall of Fame Monitor has him at 89 out of 100 (a bit short), and their HOF Standards have him at 22 out of 50 (well short). Their 10 Most Similar Batters include some interesting names, including ex-Yankees Barfield, Curtis Granderson and Jay Buhner (and also Hank Sauer, not to be confused with Hank Bauer), but not HOFers. In all honesty, I can’t say that Roger Maris belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

But he is in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park, his Number 9 is retired, and he has a museum in his memory in his hometown of Fargo, North Dakota, at the West Acres Shopping Center. I should say, "In his honor," because it opened in 1984, while he was still alive. When asked by the man running it if he could, Roger asked 2 conditions: That it be where people could easily get to it (a mall would have parking lots and bus service) and that admission be free. Both requests were granted.

4. Paul O'Neill, 1993-2001. In spite of his recent endorsement of Donald Trump, My Man O'Neill remains 1 of my 2 favorite athletes of all time. (You’ll see the other in a moment.) Why?Because he played the game the way I would have: With desire, with intensity, with a drive to win that would make the fans say, "This is the guy for us." The difference is, Paulie Pinstripes had something I don't have. It's called "talent."

His intensity reminded me a lot of Lou Piniella, who was his manager on the 1990 World Champion Cincinnati Reds. When the Yankees got him for Roberto Kelly in the 1992-93 offseason, I was thrilled. His lefty stroke was perfect for Yankee Stadium, and he could field, too.

What I didn't know was that he was also a great opposite-field hitter (in fact, nearly all the 1996-2001 Yankee stars were), that he would win a batting title in 1994, that he would play through pain, that he would hit one of my favorite home runs of all time (the Mel Rojas Game, June 26, 1998), and that he would have the most important plate appearance in Yankee history (his 9th-inning walk that led to him scoring the tying run, saving Game 1 of the 2000 World Series and making possible the most important of Yankee World Series wins, the one over The Other Team).

You know how much this guy is loved, right? Knowing that he had talked about retiring, and that it was probably his last game at Yankee Stadium, the fans chanted his name late in Game 5 of the 2001 World Series – a game the Yankees were losing at the moment. For once, Yankee Fans decided something was more important than winning. They did not, however, give such a salute to Tino Martinez, even though the rumor was already floating that Yankee brass would not re-sign him, but rather would go after Jason Giambi. I wonder what the fans would have done if they'd known Scott Brosius was also retiring. Or if it would be the last home game in The Bronx for Chuck Knoblauch. But O’Neill got the kind of reaction that Don Mattingly might have gotten – if he'd gotten that far even once.

Lifetime batting average .288 (.303 with the Yankees), OPS+ 120 (125), 451 doubles (304), 281 homers (185). Won 6 Pennants (1990, '96, '98, '99, 2000 & '01, all but the 1st with the Yankees) and 5 World Championships (all but the last). His Number 21 was briefly given out to pitcher LaTroy Hawkins in 2008, which was received rather poorly at The Stadium. Hawkins, who had not previously worn it (usually wearing 32) and had no attachment to it, wisely gave it up. Paulie got his Monument Park Plaque, but it is time to retire his number.

3. Tommy Henrich, 1937-50. Probably the best of the many nicknames Mel Allen thought up was "Ol' Reliable" for the man from Massillon, Ohio – which was already renowned as a football factory, but he is still the greatest baseball player to come from the town.

How reliable was Henrich? In 1941, when DiMaggio’s bat was stolen in between games of a doubleheader, right after Joe had tied Sisler's AL record of a 41-game hitting streak, he remembered that the bat that Joe was using was his own model – Louisville Slugger then made them to each player’s specifications – and offered Joe another of his own. Joe took it and broke Sisler's record, and the previous Henrich/DiMaggio bat was recovered in time for Joe to break the Keeler record.

Later that season, seeing that Mickey Owen of the Brooklyn Dodgers had dropped the ball, Henrich was reliable enough (and alert enough) to turn a game-ending strikeout into the start of a rally, and the Yankees won Game 4 of the World Series.

On October 5, 1949, in Game 1 of that year's World Series, Henrich broke up a scoreless pitching duel between Allie Reynolds and the Dodgers' Don Newcombe by taking Newk deep, and hitting the 1st walkoff home run (as we would now call it) in the history of postseason baseball.

Henrich missed the 1942 and '43 Series due to serving in the Coast Guard in World War II, but was with the Yankees in their World Championship seasons of 1937, '38, '39, '41, '47, '49 and '50 – and the Yankees won all 7 of those.

When he died in 2009, he was 96 years old, the oldest living Yankee, the last one to have played for Lou Gehrig, and the last player to have won a World Series in the 1930s. As late as 1994, he was still coming to Old-Timers’ Day. He wore Number 7 before The War, and Number 15 after it; both are retired, but neither for him. Still, I can’t help thinking that Ol' Reliable deserves a Plaque in Monument Park.

2. Reggie Jackson, 1977-81. Did I say a lack of longevity hurts Maris? Yeah, well, this is my list, and this is my favorite athlete of all time. Henrich or Jackson? Old Reliable or Mister October? The difference in the nicknames is negligible, if you think about it.

Reggie was probably a better all-around player when he was younger, with the Oakland Athletics dynasty of the 1970s. Supposedly, when George Steinbrenner was trying to sign him in the 1976-77 offseason, Billy Martin objected, saying he’s a bad fielder, strikes out too much, and would "mess up my running game." Billy, you already had Thurman Munson, Graig Nettles, Chris Chambliss and Lou Piniella. You didn't need a damn running game! And, as Reggie proved (and as another Philly-area native who starred in New York, Mike Piazza, would later say), if you hit the ball far enough, you don’t have to run.

Reggie’s lifetime batting average is .262, one of the lowest of any nonpitcher in the Hall of Fame. And his 2,597 strikeouts are an all-time record. But his BA rises to .281 if you count only his Yankee seasons, his career OPS+ is a hefty 139 (148 in Pinstripes), he had 2,584 hits, including 463 doubles and 563 homers – among non-cheaters, the only ones with more are Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Ken Griffey Jr., Jim Thome, Frank Robinson and Harmon Killebrew. He hit 18 homers in postseason play, including 5 in the 1977 World Series (only Chase Utley in 2009 has matched that in a Series), including 3 in Game 6 (a one-game performance preceded only by Ruth, in ’26 and again in ’28, and not done since).

He was the American League regular-season and World Series MVP in 1973, and was the Series MVP again in 1977. In 21 seasons, with the A’s, Yanks and California Angels (he also had 1 with the Baltimore Orioles, but they didn't make the postseason), he reached the postseason 11 times (1971, '72, '73, '74, '75, '77, '78, '80, '81, '82 and '86). He won 6 Pennants (1972, '73, '74, '77, '78 and '81) and 5 World Series (all but the last of those). He was one of those guys about whom it was said, "It's funny how these winning teams keep following him around." He says he never said it, but if he did, he wasn't lying: He really was "the straw that stirs the drink."

As I said, he’s in the Hall of Fame. His Number 9 was retired by the A’s, his Number 44 by the Yankees (on August 14, 1993 – I was there), who also gave him a Plaque in Monument Park (July 6, 2002 – I wasn't gonna miss that day, either). The Angels haven't retired his Number 44 yet, nor have they elected him to their team Hall of Fame – what are they waiting for?

But for the Yankees, Reggie is the symbol of a generation of stars that amazed, shocked, sometimes appalled, and so often thrilled. He helped to bring the excitement back to The Bronx – and away from Flushing Meadow. He was the 1st black man to be a star for the Yankees (in a way that the quiet, good but not spectacular Elston Howard or even the Pennant-clinching Chris Chambliss could never be), thus helping local black fans to see that the Yankees could bring in their people as well.

He was the right man in the right place at the right time: The man who was the biggest star of the team that meant the most to me when I was first seeing what sports was. For that reason, whatever his flaws, Mr. Reginald Martinez Jackson will always be my guy.

In spite of his massive ego, he understands what matters most: In an interview with Tom Seaver shown on WPIX-Channel 11 prior to his number retirement ceremony (which came a few days after his Hall of Fame induction), he said, "It's not important that I did it; what's important is that it was done."

And nobody ever did more for baseball than this last man – not even Jackie Robinson, because, if you think about it, if this guy hadn't done what he did, baseball wouldn't have been big enough of a stage upon which to try an experiment like the one Jackie and Branch Rickey tried.

1. Babe Ruth, 1920-34. What can I say about the Big Guy that hasn't already been rehashed a thousand times? Not much. But there is much to say about The Great Bambino that needs to be said.

He’s not only in the Hall of Fame, but he was one of the 1st 5 inductees when they began voting in 1936, along with Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner and Walter Johnson. A life-size wooden carving, meticulously shaped and painted (right down to the fold of his shirt and the cracks on the leather of his belt), of the Babe, and another of Ted Williams by the same artist, greets you when you walk into the Hall in Cooperstown, New York.

He was elected to the All-Century Team in 1999, 64 years after his last game, by fans whose parents were too young to have ever seen him play. The Yankees retired his Number 3, and put a Monument on the field at Yankee Stadium on Opening Day 1949, a few months after his death, before moving it to the new Monument Park in 1976, and to the new Stadium's Monument Park in 2009.

Is he The Greatest Baseball Player Who Ever Lived? Let me put it this way. From 1915 to 1918, 4 years, he was a lefthanded pitcher as good as Randy Johnson. Then, from 1919 to 1934, 16 years, he was a lefthanded hitter better than Barry Bonds, and he didn't use steroids, either -- they weren't available. Book editor and baseball writer Daniel Okrent said, "It's like Beethoven and Cezanne were the same man, doing the same things." No, it wasn't: Beethoven composed music, Cezanne painted. Pitching and hitting are different sides of the same game, so it's more like if he were a great film actor and a great film director. Like Orson Welles, who also got fat midway through his career. Except Welles' window of greatness turned out to be very brief; the Babe was one of the best players in the game over a 20-season stretch.

And if you think Willie Mays was the greatest all-around baseball player who ever lived, you're wrong: Willie  was not in the Babe's league as a hitter (figuratively or literally), Willie never threw a pitch in a major league game, and there's no way Willie, even as good an outfielder as he was, was as good at preventing runs as even the best pitchers of his time, which the Babe was one of in his own time.

And don't tell me the Babe never faced black or Latin pitchers: He faced them on postseason "barnstorming tours," and the surviving accounts of those at-bats show that they weren't any more successful at getting him out than white pitchers were in regular-season and postseason games.

The new Yankee Stadium is not "The House That Ruth Built." But the Babe Ruth Plaza outside the right-field stands, across 161st Street from the site of the ballpark whose construction his home runs, and the money they made for Colonel Jacob Ruppert, made possible, testifies to his life, his performance, and his legacy.

He played in 10 World Series (1915, '16 and '18 with the Boston Red Sox; 1921, '22, '23, '26, '27, '28 and '32 with the Yankees), winning 7 (1915, '16, '18, '23, '27, '28 and '32). As much as Ruppert’s money and Ed Barrow's trades and purchases, Ruth’s hitting made the Yankees, and made baseball, more popular than ever before, aided by the development of radio and motion pictures, and doing it in the media center of North America, New York City. Had he put up the same numbers in Boston, playing there for his entire career instead of just the first 6 seasons (5 full), it would simply not have been the same.

"A big, badly flawed, swashbuckling palooka who strides with great spirit -- not just talent, but with a spirit of possibility and an enjoyment of life -- across the American stage. That's an American... You give me Babe Ruth over any king who's ever sat on the throne, and I'll be happy with that trade."– Bob Costas.

Except he was a king. The King of Crash. The Sultan of Swat. The Rajah of Rap. The Majarajah of Mash. The High Mandarin of Maul. The Wizier of Wham. The Czar of Clout. (Sometimes it’s "the Colossus of Clout," and you can add "the Behemoth of Bust," although neither the Colossus of Rhodes nor the mythological Behemoth was a monarch.)

Some people compare baseball to religion. Well, as with Christianity, in baseball, a babe shall lead them. Then again, Babe Ruth tended to lie in places other than a manger. And he certainly did a lot that required repentance and forgiveness. But has any American ever been loved by more people in his own time? Don't forget, even Washington, Lincoln and FDR had their haters during their public service.

The Babe was one of a kind, and my generation hasn't seen another – and, if the rise and fall of Mark McGwire is any indication, we never will, and neither will any other generation. More than any other player, he was the right man, in the right place, at the right time.

Like Art LaFleur said while playing the Babe in The Sandlot: "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die."

May 30, 1932: Monument dedicated to Miller Huggins. Beat the Boston Red Sox 7-5. Herb Pennock went the distance for the win. No home runs.

July 4, 1939: Number 4 retired for Lou Gehrig. Doubleheader with the Washington Senators. Lost the 1st game 3-2. Monte Pearson got the loss. Won the 2nd game 11-1. Steve Sundra went the distance for the win. George Selkirk hit a home run in each game, the only Yankee to homer in either.

April 19, 1940: Plaque dedicated to Jacob Ruppert. Beat the Senators 5-3. Lefty Gomez was the winning pitcher. Joe Gordon homered.

July 6, 1941: Monument dedicated to Gehrig -- postponed from a rainout on July 4. Beat the Philadelphia Athletics 8-4. Atley Donald started, but got knocked out in the 4th inning, relieved by Ernie "Tiny" Bonham, who got the win. Bill Dickey and Red Rolfe homered.

June 13, 1948: Number 3 retired for Babe Ruth. Beat the Cleveland Indians 5-3. Eddie Lopat was the winning pitcher. Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto homered.

April 19, 1949: Monument dedicated to Ruth. Beat the Senators 3-2. Eddie Lopat went the distance for the win. Tommy Henrich homered.

April 18, 1952: Number 5 retired for Joe DiMaggio. Lost to the Senators 3-1. Allie Reynolds got the loss.

April 15, 1954: Plaque dedicated to Ed Barrow. Beat the A's 3-0. Tom Morgan went the distance for the shutout. Hank Bauer and Bill "Moose" Skowron homered. It was the first for Moose, who had made his major league debut 2 days earlier.

October 4, 1965: Plaque donated by the New York City chapter of the Knights of Columbus in honor of that day's Mass delivered by Pope Paul VI. Obviously, the Yankees were not playing that day, as the season had ended.

June 8, 1969: Plaque dedicated to Mickey Mantle, Number 7 retired for him. Plaque dedicated to DiMaggio. Doubleheader with the Chicago White Sox. Won the 1st game 3-1. Mel Stottlemyre went the distance for the win. Joe Pepitone homered. Won the 2nd game 11-2. Bill Burbach went the distance for the win. No homers.

April 12, 1970: Plaques installed for DiMaggio and Mantle. Doubleheader with the Indians. Lost the 1st game 2-1. Stottlemyre was the losing pitcher. No homers. Won the 2nd game 5-4. Mike Kekich started. Jack Aker blew the save, but became the winning pitcher when Mike Paul walked Ron Hansen with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th.

August 8, 1970: Number 37 retired for Casey Stengel. Lost to Baltimore Orioles 4-2. Mike Kekich was the losing pitcher. Bobby Murcer homered.

April 18, 1972: Number 8 retired for Bill Dickey and Yogi Berra. Beat the Milwaukee Brewers 2-0. Steve Kline went the distance for the shutout. No homers.

All of the preceding were at the original Yankee Stadium.

April 6, 1974: Number 16 retired for Whitey Ford. Beat the Indians 6-1. Stottlemyre went the distance for the win. Graig Nettles homered. This is the only Monument Park-connected day to be held at a building not named Yankee Stadium.

April 21, 1976: Plaque dedicated to Joe McCarthy. Beat the White Sox 10-7. Rudy May was the winning pitcher. Chris Chambliss homered. This was the 1st Monument Park day to be held at the original Yankee Stadium after its renovation.

July 30, 1976: Plaque dedicated to Stengel. At least, that's what the date says on the Plaque. But according to Baseball-Reference.com, the Yankees were on the road that day -- at Fenway Park, no less. As Casey himself would have said, "And you could look it up." Well, I did. The Yankees beat the Red Sox 6-4. Ed Figueroa went the distance for the win. Mickey Rivers and Carlos May homered.

August 2, 1979: Number 15 retired for Thurman Munson, who died that day in a plane crash. George Steinbrenner made the announcement of the number retirement at the same time as that of Thurman's death. He was practicing takeoffs and landings at the Akron-Canton Regional Airport near his hometown of Canton, Ohio. He could do this since it was an off-day for the Yankees.

October 2, 1979: Plaque donated by the Knights of Columbus in honor of that day's Mass delivered by Pope John Paul II. Again, the Yankees were not playing that day, as the season had ended. This is the source of the now-outdated trick question: "Who are the two former Cardinals honored in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park?" This joke ignored the fact that, since 1984, if you're talking about former St. Louis Cardinals, the answer is, "Miller Huggins and Roger Maris." Pope Benedict XVI made it three -- but so has Tino Martinez, and when Joe Torre gets his Plaque, well, Pope Francis, you're on the clock!

September 20, 1980: Plaque dedicated to Munson. Lost to the Red Sox 4-1. Gaylord Perry, briefly a Yankee, started and got shelled, not getting out of the 2nd inning. No homers.

July 21, 1984: Plaques dedicated to Elston Howard and Roger Maris. Number 32 retired for Howard, Number 9 retired for Maris. Lost to the Minnesota Twins 5-2. Ray Fontenot started and lost. Steve Kemp homered.

August 4, 1985: Plaque dedicated to Phil Rizzuto, Number 10 retired for him. Lost to the White Sox 4-1. Joe Cowley started and lost. No homers. Tom Seaver, the legendary Met, started for the White Sox, went the distance, and got his 300th win. (The same day, across the country in Anaheim, Rod Carew got his 3,000th hit.) I was there for this one, and with thousands of Met fans infecting Yankee Stadium, it made for a turbulent afternoon.

August 10, 1986: Plaque dedicated to Billy Martin, Number 1 retired for him. Lost to the Kansas City Royals 13-3. Dennis Rasmussen took the loss. No homers.

August 2, 1987: Plaques dedicated to Ford and Lefty Gomez. Beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5. Rick Rhoden was the winning pitcher. Mike Pagliarulo homered.

August 21, 1988: Plaques dedicated to Dickey and Berra. Lost to the Seattle Mariners 4-2. Rhoden was the losing pitcher. No homers.

August 27, 1989: Plaque dedicated to Allie Reynolds. Lost to the Orioles 8-5. Greg Cadaret started and lost. Bob Geren and Don Mattingly homered.

August 14, 1993: Number 44 retired for Reggie Jackson. Beat the Orioles 4-2. Domingo Jean started, Paul Assenmacher won in relief. No homers -- kind of ironic for a day honoring Reggie.

August 25, 1996: Monument dedicated to Mantle, replacing his Plaque. Lost to the Oakland Athletics 6-4. Andy Pettitte started, but Jeff Nelson lost in relief. Darryl Strawberry and Tino Martinez homered.

August 31, 1997: Plaque dedicated to Don Mattingly, Number 23 retired for him. Beat the Montreal Expos 3-2. This was the first Monument Park day with an Interleague opponent. Pettitte was the winning pitcher. Bernie Williams homered.

July 25, 1998: Plaque dedicated to Mel Allen. Lost to the White Sox 6-2. Hideki Irabu was the losing pitcher. No homers.

April 25, 1999: Monument dedicated to DiMaggio, replacing his Plaque. Beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3. David Cone started, Mariano Rivera actually blew a save, but Jason Grimsley won in relief. No homers.

May 7, 2000: Plaque dedicated to Bob Sheppard. Lost to the Orioles 7-6. Ramiro Mendoza started, but Rivera blew the save and was the losing pitcher. Scott Brosius homered.

July 6, 2002: Reggie finally gets his Plaque. Lost to the Blue Jays 8-3. Pettitte was the losing pitcher. No homers.

September 11, 2002: Monument dedicated to the September 11, 2001 victims and rescue workers. Beat the Orioles 5-4. Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez started, Steve Karsay won it in relief. Robin Ventura and Alfonso Soriano homered.

August 23, 2003: Plaque dedicated to Ron Guidry, Number 49 retired for him. Lost to the Orioles 7-2. Former Oriole Mike Mussina was the starting and losing pitcher. Jorge Posada homered.

July 10, 2004: Plaque dedicated to Red Ruffing. Beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 6-3. Jon Lieber was the starter and winner. Alex Rodriguez homered. This made Ruffing the last player so honored at the old Yankee Stadium.

April 20, 2008: Plaque donated by the Knights of Columbus in honor of that day's Mass delivered by Pope Benedict XVI. Obviously, the Yankees were playing on the road, at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Beat the Orioles 7-1. Pettitte was the winning pitcher. Johnny Damon homered. This was the last dedication at the old Yankee Stadium.

September 20, 2010: Monument dedicated to George Steinbrenner. Beat the Rays 8-6. Ivan Nova started, Chad Gaudin blew a save but became the winning pitcher anyway. Curtis Granderson hit 2 homers. This was the first Monument Park dedication at the new Yankee Stadium.

September 22, 2013: Number 42 retired for Mariano Rivera. No Plaque yet. Lost to the San Francisco Giants 2-1. Andy Pettitte pitched well, but lost. Mark Reynolds homered. This made Mo the first player honored at the new Stadium, although Damon and Hideki Matsui had gotten "days" without a number retirement or a Plaque.

April 16, 2014: Monument dedicated to Nelson Mandela, who spoke at a rally at the old Stadium in 1990. The date on the Plaque says April 15, because it was supposed to be part of the celebrations of Jackie Robinson Day, to be followed by a game against the Chicago Cubs. But it rained, and the ceremony was pushed back a day. The rain-forced doubleheader saw the Yankees win the 1st game 3-0, with Masahiro Tanaka winning with the aid of a Carlos Beltran home run; and the Yankees win the 2nd game 2-0, with Michael Pineda winning without the benefit of a Yankee home run.

June 21, 2014: Plaque dedicated for Tino Martinez. Lost to the Orioles 6-1. Vidal Nuno was the losing pitcher. Mark Teixeira homered. This made Tino the first player given a Plaque at the new Stadium.

June 22, 2014: Plaque dedicated for Rich "Goose" Gossage. Lost to the Orioles 8-0. Tanaka lost. No homers.

August 9, 2014: Plaque dedicated for Paul O'Neill. Oddly, Number 21 not retired for him. Lost to the Indians 3-0. Brandon McCarthy pitched well, but took the loss. No homers.

August 23, 2014: Plaque dedicated for Joe Torre, Number 6 retired for him. Beat the White Sox 5-3. Hiroki Kuroda was the starter and winner. Carlos Beltran homered.

September 7, 2014: Ceremony for Derek Jeter. With his final career statistics not yet set, he didn't get a Plaque, but neither was his Number 2 formally retired. Lost to the Royals 2-0. Shane Greene pitched well, but took the loss. No homers.

May 24, 2015: Plaque dedicated for Bernie Williams. Number 51 retired for him. Lost to Texas Rangers 5-2. Chris Capuano didn't make it out of the 5th inning.

June 20, 2015: Plaques dedicated for Willie Randolph and Mel Stottlemyre. Beat Tigers 14-3. Nathan Eovaldi is backed by 2 home runs by Carlos Beltran, and 1 each by Didi Gregorius, Alex Rodriguez and Chris Young.

August 22, 2015: Plaque dedicated for Jorge Posada. Number 20 retired for him. Beat Indians 6-2. Homers by Brett Gardner and Brian McCann gave Luis Severino his 1st major league win.

August 23, 2015 Plaque dedicated for Andy Pettitte. Number 46 retired for him. Lost to Indians 4-3. On a day that celebrated a great Yankee starting pitcher, Joe Girardi used 6 pitchers, none of whom went at least 3 innings, and blew it.

12-3 up to 1975, 15-18 since, 27-21 overall.

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

Yogi Berra said that about a restaurant he liked. Which restaurant it was, is in dispute. Some have said it was Charley's in Minneapolis. Once source said it was a pizza place near Yankee Stadium.

Most likely, it was Ruggieri's, a restaurant not far from the house where he grew up, on Elizabeth Avenue in St. Louis. He and his across-the-street neighbor worked there, as waiters.

The neighbor's name was Joe Garagiola. As he put it, "Not only was I not the best catcher in the major leagues, I wasn't even the best catcher on my street."

*

Joseph Henry Garagiola was born on February 12, 1926 in St. Louis. He grew up across the street from Lawrence Peter Berra, known as Lawdie because his mother's Italian accent couldn't quite say, "Larry."

Another friend, Bobby Hofman, later played as a utility man with the New York Giants, was a member of their 1954 World Series-winning team, and won another ring when his Giant teammate Alvin Dark named him as one of his coaches on the 1974 Oakland Athletics. He was mainly an infielder, but was also used as a backup catcher to Wes Westrum -- making him the 3rd-best catcher in his own neighborhood.

It was Hofman, who died in 1994, who saw Lawdie Berra sitting on the ground in lieu of dugouts, arms and legs folded, and, remembering a movie about India they'd recently seen, said, "You look like a yogi." And a nickname was born.

Joe graduated from to St. Mary's High School. Yogi dropped out of it. (Once, asked how he liked school, he said, "Closed.")Hofman, being Jewish, went to a public school, Beaumont High School, which was built on the site of Robison Field, which was home to the St. Louis Cardinals from 1892 to 1920.

When they were teenagers, major league scouts seemed to think Joe was the best of the bunch. In 1942, at age 16, he was signed by the hometown Cardinals. In 1943, at 17, he became the youngest player ever to play for the Class AAA team in Columbus, Ohio, then known as the Red Birds since they were a Cardinal farm team, and now known as the Clippers.

In 1944, turning 18, Joe was drafted by the U.S. Army, and sent to Fort Riley in Kansas. He was assigned to the baseball team there, which included Brooklyn Dodger stars Pete Reiser and Rex Barney. Also there, but not on the baseball team, and not yet a Dodger, was Jackie Robinson. (Fort Riley was also where future Yankee Johnny Damon was born, as his father was stationed there in 1973.) Fort Riley was also where Joe met Audrie, his wife of 66 years.

He was sent to the Philippines, which saw some of the fiercest fighting of World War II. He was discharged in time for the 1946 season.

*

Joe Garagiola made his major league debut on May 26, 1946. Wearing Number 17, catching and batting 7th, he flew out to right field against Nate Andrews in the 2nd inning, popped up to the catcher against reliever Johnny Hetki in the 4th, flew out to center against Hetki in the 6th, and singled to center for his 1st big-league hit off Hetki in the 9th. The Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-3 at Crosley Field.

The Cardinals won the National League Pennant in 1946, and then beat the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. Joe batted .316 in the Series, going 6-for-19 with 2 doubles and 4 RBIs. It was the highlight of his career: He ended up peaking at 20.

He remained with the Cardinals through 1951, and was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates were then run by Branch Rickey, who had scouted him for the Cardinals and later for the Dodgers. Switching to Number 2, Joe had his best season at the plate in 1951, hitting 11 home runs with 44 RBIs, but batted only .239. In 1952, he had career highs in games played with 118 and plate appearances with 396. But the Pirates lost 112 games, the most of any NL team between 1935 and 1962, and no non-expansion team has lost that many in NL play since. (In 2003, the American League's Detroit Tigers lost 119.)

In 1953, he was traded to the Chicago Cubs, and on September 8, 1954, the Giants claimed him off waivers, and he was reunited with Bobby Hofman. However, he arrived too late to be included on the World Series roster, and didn't get a ring. He made his last big-league appearance in the season finale on September 26, wearing Number 36. His lifetime batting average was .257 -- like his overall career, not particularly bad, but not especially good, and not even all that interesting.

"It's not a record," he later said, "but being traded 4 times when there are only 8 teams in the league tells you something. I thought I was modeling uniforms for the National League."

*

If playing baseball were all we knew Joe for, he'd have been forgotten, a footnote in the Yogi Berra story. But, like many other mediocre catchers -- Bob Uecker, Tim McCarver, Fran Healy, Bob Brenly, John Flaherty -- he forged a 2nd career as a broadcaster.

Why do so many ex-catchers become broadcasters? Because, being a catcher, you have to pay a lot of attention. Even if you don't get into a lot of games, you have to know the game. Joe figured this out, after a lot of games waiting to warm up relief pitchers: "I used to sit in the bullpen and say, 'Why the hell doesnt he throw the curveball?' Well, all I had to do to become an announcer was take out the 'hell.'"

In his last season, 1954, Senator Edwin Johnson of Colorado held hearings on making corporate ownership of baseball teams illegal, spurred by Anheuser-Busch's purchase of the Cardinals the year before. Joe was already looking to the future, for a possible broadcasting job, and his agent was also working for an advertising agency that represented Anheuser-Busch. Johnson called Joe to Washington to testify, and said that the Cardinals were tampering with his contract by trying to lure him from the Cubs.

Joe wasn't having it: "Senator, how can you tamper with a .250 hitter?" The spectators in the hearing room laughed, and Joe became a TV star for the 1st time.

Joe also famously testified in favor of the reserve clause in the Curt Flood case in 1970 -- probably on the request of his former Cardinal boss, Gussie Busch. Joe later admitted that this was a mistake. So did Busch, later telling Flood he was right, and the owners were wrong.

The year after his Senate testimony, 1955, he got his wish, and went back to St. Louis, and worked Cardinal games on KMOX with Harry Caray and Jack Buck. This was well before Harry became forever identified with Chicago and actually hated in St. Louis for his shilling for the Cubs, and before the much-beloved Jack Buck became better known as the father of the much-despised Joe Buck.

"Each year I don’t play, I get better," he once observed. "The first year on the banquet trail, I was a former ballplayer. The second year, I was great. The third year, one of baseball’s stars. And, just last year, I was introduced as one of baseball’s immortals. The older I get, the more I realize that the worst break I had was playing."

In 1961, hot on the heels of his best-selling (but ghostwritten by Martin Quigley) book Baseball Is a Funny Game, Joe was hired by NBC to do their Game of the Week. In 1965, after the Yankees fired Mel Allen, they hired Joe to broadcast along with Red Barber, Phil Rizzuto and Jerry Coleman -- even though the Yankees had recently been bought by CBS, then NBC's top competitor. He continued to broadcast the World Series on NBC.

Red hated working with Joe. Despite his Catholic school education, Joe struck Red as being dumb and rude. Joe would frequently cut in on Red's stories, and, finally, Red had to tell him so -- in private, off the air. Joe had no idea that he was doing something wrong, and stopped.

But the working relationship got no better. Joe's whole life, outside of his family, seemed to be baseball. Red had no patience for anyone like that. During a night game, he mentioned that, during the afternoon, he had visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In a rare display of a lack of professionalism, Red baited Joe, asking him if he'd ever visited the Met, ever heard of some of the great painters whose works were inside. Joe admitted that he hadn't.

Red quit -- or was fired, or goaded his superiors into firing him, depending on whose version you want to believe -- at the end of the 1966 season. Joe hung on for one more season, 1967, and, while Coleman did so on TV, called Mickey Mantle's 500th home run on radio.

In 1968, Joe returned to NBC, and hosted the network's pregame show, The Baseball World of Joe Garagiola. (This was before This Week In Baseball.) In 1974, he was promoted to play-by-play announcer, alternating with Curt Gowdy, and still doing the pregame show. He announced the famed Game 6 of the 1975 World Series with former Yankee shortstop Tony Kubek.

Joe's announcing, particularly his pregame show, was particularly boosted by 3 things: Stories about Branch Rickey; stories about the horrible '52 Pirates; and stories about Yogi Berra. It's believed that many of what became the familiar "Yogi-isms" were actually created by Joe. No one doubts that Yogi actually said of the restaurant where they both worked, "Nobody ever goes there anymore, it's too crowded." But the line about directions to his house, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it," was first publicized by Joe. Nobody doubts the authenticity of that one, either; or of, "It ain't over 'til it's over," which was witnessed by several reporters.

But a few of them were almost certainly made up by Joe. "Pair up in threes.""A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore.""It's deja vu all over again."

In 1983, NBC hired Vin Scully of the Los Angeles Dodgers as their main play-by-play guy, and Joe was shifted over to color commentary, which played to strength. NBC placed Kubek with Bob Costas as their Number 2 team. (Necessary for regional differences or in case of a rainout.)
Joe left after the 1988 seasons, knowing that NBC's contract to broadcast MLB games was running out the next year, and he didn't want to negotiate a new long-term contract without knowing if the Peacock Network would be keeping baseball. (It didn't: Although they got some postseason games and the All-Star Game back from 1995 to 1999, they haven't done regular-season baseball since.)

Certain networks should do certain sports. Baseball should be on NBC, because they know how to do it better than anybody else. In this country, they've also done hockey the best, which isn't saying much. In football, NBC should do the AFC, and CBS should do the NFC, and ABC should do Monday Night Football. Fox does a great pregame show, but that's it. CBS should do the NBA. ABC should do horse racing and the Olympics. NBC should do tennis. And nobody should do golf or auto racing.

*

Outside of baseball, NBC made Joe a correspondent on The Today Show from 1967 to 1973, and again from 1990 to 1992. He was frequently allowed to guest-host The Tonight Show in Johnny Carson's absence. One such appearance was in May 1968, when John Lennon and Paul McCartney appeared, the only time any of the Beatles appeared on The Tonight Show while the group was still together. (Paul and Ringo Starr have appeared since. John never did so again, and George Harrison never did so.) They were there to introduce Apple Corps, and were very disappointed that Johnny wasn't hosting that night.

Joe was also a panelist on the game show To Tell the Truth. On a 1973 installment, there were 3 guests dressed like homeless men. One had actually become fabulously wealthy doing something or other, and the panelists were unable to guess which one it was. When one of the other two was revealed as Chris Hart, the son of fellow panelist Kitty Carlisle Hart, Joe ribbed her for not knowing her own son. The other guest was then revealed as Joe Garagiola Jr., then a law student at Georgetown University.

In 1976, Joe appeared in campaign ads for President Gerald Ford. Staged as interviews, Joe asked the President what he thought on various issues. "The Joe and Jerry Show" was seen as not helping the Ford campaign, and Ford lost a very close election to Jimmy Carter. Ford invited Joe to come to the White House and watch the returns with him. This led to a famous picture, reflecting what both men later said in their memoirs was true: Joe took the defeat harder than Jerry did.
In 1975, the financially troubled Chrysler Corporation hired Joe to do a series of commercials for them. In 1979, in even more trouble, they got Joe to do ads saying that if you buy a 1980 model Chrysler, Plymouth or Dodge car before December 31, participating Chrysler Corporation dealers will give you a $400 check. In other words, they were willing to go above and beyond the trade-in value: They'd put money in your pocket just before you drive the car off the lot: "Get a Chrysler New Yorker, get a check!"

This was the best version of the commercial that I could find: Apparently, in the market in question, the check was for $300. It was definitely $400 in the New York market. In today's money, 1979's $300 would be about $980, while $400 would be $1,300, so we're not exactly talking pocket change.

A federal bailout and the 1981 "K Cars" saved Chrysler. The $400 checks did not. And Johnny Carson worked Chrysler jokes into his monologue. NBC had also been struggling for a few years, and was then was running turkeys like the McLean Stevenson sitcom Hello, Larry, the Animal House ripoff Brothers & Sisters, and the Love Boat ripoff Supertrain -- shows they were so desperate to get viewers for, they actually ran promos for them on "independent stations" like New York's WNEW-Channel 5 then was. Johnny wondered if Joe could do the same thing for the network that he did for Chrysler: "Watch Hello, Larry, get a check!"

*

In his later years, Joe was a founder of the Baseball Assistance Team (BAT), which helps out destitute former MLB and Negro League players, and continually raised money for it. He also advocated against chewing tobacco, bringing players whose use of it led to cancer to meet current players and show them the dangers.

The Baseball Hall of Fame gave him the Ford Frick Award, their award for broadcasters. He was elected to the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame and the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
He moved to Phoenix, where his son Joe Jr., who had been general counsel for the Yankees -- it was his idea during the 1973-76 Yankee Stadium renovation to built the smokestack decorated like a giant bat -- was the original general manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and his daughter Gina was a longtime reporter for KTVK-Channel 3. Joe Jr. hired Joe Sr. to broadcast for the D-backs, which he did from their inaugural season in 1998, through their World Championship season of 2001 (at the Yankees' expense in the World Series), until he retired after the 2012 season.)

Joe died in Phoenix yesterday, at the age of 90, just a few months after Yogi died. He is survived by his wife Audrie, and 3 children. Joe Garagiola Jr. is now an official in the Major League Baseball office. Gina Garagiola is now a freelance writer. And Steve Garagiola is a newscaster, the anchorman for the NBC affiliate in Detroit, WDIV-Channel 4. Joe lived to see 8 grandchildren.

His death leaves Hall of Fame 2nd baseman Red Schoendienst as the last surviving member of the Cardinals' 1946 World Champions. Red also managed the Cards to the title in 1967.

Joe defined his approach in his 1980 book, It’s Anybody’s Ballgame, writing: "I want the broadcast to sound like two guys sitting at the ballpark, talking about the game, with the viewer eavesdropping. It’s not High Mass, and it’s not a seminar. It’s a ballgame."

The following is fanfiction, based on the 1978-81 CBS drama The White Shadow.

*

Ken Reeves, former UCLA basketball coach and ESPN pundit, died yesterday at his home in Los Angeles. He was just short of his 72nd birthday.

Kenneth Howard Reeves was born on March 28, 1944, in the Bayside section of Queens, New York City. He was the only white player on the basketball team at Andrew Jackson High School, and his black teammates nicknamed him "The White Shadow." While there, he became friends with the 2 pairs of sisters who would make up the music group The Shangri-Las, singers of such hits as "Leader of the Pack."

He traveled across the country to Boston College, then coached by NBA legend Bob Cousy. Graduating in 1966, he was drafted by the Chicago Bulls, who were about to begin their 1st season of play.

He lasted 12 seasons with them, making 3 NBA All-Star Games, reaching the Conference Finals in 1975 and 1976, and resisting lucrative offers from the American Basketball Association to stay in the NBA. A knee injury ended his career in 1978.

He returned to Los Angeles, and was hired as the head basketball coach at George Washington Carver High School, where his former BC teammate Jim Willis was now the principal. Reeves' own background in multiracial, multiethnic basketball helped him relate to his players, who came to hold him in very high regard.

He frequently stepped in to help his players out with the many personal problems that developed in inner cities. He helped budding superstar Warren Coolidge avoid the temptation of agents, Curtis Jackson quit drinking, Milton Reese through a relationship with a lying girlfriend and a transfer issue, Ricardo "Go-Go" Gomez with bad grades and his father's physical abuse, Gomez and James "Hollywood" Hayward with avoiding gang violence, Morris Thorpe in dealing with an STD, and Mario "Salami" Pettrino with the results of an on-court fight.

At one point, during the 1979-80 season, the players got cocky during a winning streak, thinking no one could beat them. So Reeves used his connections to get some old friends to scrimmage against them. In the 1st half, those players totally schooled the Carver players, who promised Reeves in the halftime team talk that they would take the opposition more seriously. In the 2nd half, the opposition wore their regular uniforms: They were the Harlem Globetrotters. The Globies still won, but the Carver players had learned their lesson.
Carver advanced to the City Championship in 1980, to be played at the Forum in Inglewood. But Jackson was shot the night before, the victim of a store robbery gone bad. His teammates dedicated the game to his memory, and became City Champions for the 1st time. Carver would win the City Championship again in 1982 and 1987.

In 1988, still desperate to find a head coach that would restore the school to the greatness it enjoyed under coach John Wooden, UCLA (the University of California at Los Angeles) hired Reeves, the most respected high school coach in California.

He turned the program around, winning the National Championship in 1992 (defeating Duke in an epic Final), 1995 (dethroning defending National Champion Arkansas) and 2001 (defeating Duke in the Final again).

The 2002-03 season was his 1st losing season as a head coach anywhere, and, approaching his 60th birthday, he decided that enough was enough. Working for ESPN, he could travel to the games he wanted to see, and wouldn't have to recruit anyone to do an interview, much less play for him. He became friends with former coaches turned pundits as disparate as Bob Knight and Dick Vitale, who both admired his basketball acumen and his dedication to making college basketball as clean as possible.

Shortly after leaving UCLA, Reeves wrote Natural Coach: How to Relate to Athletes at Any Level. He was married to Maxene Jordan, who in 1982 became the 1st head coach of the women's team at Carver High, leading them to City Championships in 1985 and 1989. He is survived by Max, and their daughter, Dr. Jill Reeves, a medical examiner who studied under famous L.A. coroners Thomas Noguchi and Roger Quincy.
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Ken Reeves was played by Kenneth Joseph Howard Jr. The date (but not place) of birth, and the story behind the nickname, were true for the actor as well as for the character. Since the series was canceled in 1981, I made up details for the coach and the team thereafter.

The woman shown in the photo is his real-life 3rd and last wife, Linda. While Reeves was shown dating on the show, there was no mention that he had ever been married. So I created a wife and a child for him, based on the 2000s NBC crime drama Crossing Jordan. Max was the name of Howard's character, a Boston cop turned bar owner; Jordan that of his daughter, the title character, a medical examiner, who was played by Jill Hennessy. The Jack Klugman character on Quincy, M.E. never had his first name revealed, only his initial; he was based on Noguchi, although was not Japanese -- that ethnicity was given to his assistant, Dr. Sam Fujiyama, played by Robert Ito.

Jim Harrick was actually the coach who led UCLA to the 1995 National Championship -- in real life, the only one they've won since John Wooden retired in 1975.

The title of Reeves' book is based on one that Ken Howard published at the same time: Act Natural: How to Speak to Any Audience. Like his most famous characters, Ken Reeves and Thomas Jefferson (he appeared as the Declaration of Independence author and future 3rd President in the 1972 film version of the musical 1776), he was devoted to education, and taught acting at Harvard University. He was also, for a time, the President of the Screen Actors Guild.

Ken Howard died yesterday, leaving behind quite a legacy.

Note: While his name was usually written as "Cruyff" for the English-speaking world, I'm going to spell it "Cruijff" throughout this post, since that's how he spelled it, except where, when quoted by others, it's spelled "Cruyff."

In his book Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football, David Winner quoted Xander van der Drift, a Dutch poet, writing for a fan magazine in 1999: "Question of the 21st Century: Where were you when Johan Cruyff died?"

Hendrik Johannes Cruijff (pronounced "croyf") was born on April 25, 1947, on the east side of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He grew up in a house on Akkerstraat, just a 5-minute walk from De Meer Stadion, then the home ground of Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (pronounced "EYE-ax," and named for the mythical Greek hero), the leading club in the largest Dutch city and the nation's capital.

In 1959, his father, Hermanus, a great Ajax fan, died of a heart attack. His mother, Petronella, would leave the store she and her husband ran, and became part of the staff at Ajax. She would remarry, to Henk Angel, a field hand at Ajax. With his mother, his stepfather, and the memory of his father in mind, the soccer influence stayed in the Cruijff home, and Johan was more determined than ever to become a great player.

Had he been born in America, he could have been a great baseball player. He joined Ajax's youth system at age 10, and was both a pitcher and a catcher. But it was obvious that his true talent was in soccer, and so, at age 15, he concentrated exclusively on that.

On November 15, 1964, just 17 years old, his made his senior debut for Ajax, in an Eredivisie (Dutch top league) game against GVAV (the club now named FC Groningen), scoring the club's only goal in a 3-1 loss. In 1965-66, he scored 25 goals, leading Ajax back from an awful finish the season before, their worst ever, to the league title, the 1st of 8 he would win with the club.

In 1967, Ajax again won the league, and also won the Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond Beker -- the Royal Dutch Football Association Cup, usually written as the KNVB Cup. This was the 1st time Ajax had won the Dutch equivalent of "The Double," the 1st of 4 times they would do so with Cruijff.

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In 1969, Ajax advanced to the European Cup Final, losing to AC Milan, led by perhaps the greatest Italian player of them all, Gianni Rivera. This may have had an effect on Cruijff and Ajax manager Rinus Michels, who began to devise what became known as "totaalvoetball" -- "Total Football."

The idea is that any outfield player -- anyone from the goalkeeper on forward -- can move to another part of the field, and another player can move to slip into the space vacated by the preceding player. This had been previously been attempted by the great Real Madrid and Hungary teams of the 1950s, the Burnley side in England that won the 1960 Football League title,

In his book, Winner described what they made Dutch soccer into as being like Dutch art: "Cruyff became the greatest exponent and teacher of totaalvoetball. His vision of perfect movement and harmony on the field was rooted in the same sublime ordering of space that one sees in the pictures of Vermeer or church painter Pieter Jansz Saenredam. It was the music of the spheres on grass."

In 1970, Ajax's arch-rivals, Rotterdam-based Feyenoord, having won the previous season's Eredivisie title, became the 1st Dutch team to win the European Cup. But Ajax again won The Double, and launched the most stunning run of soccer play Europe has ever seen.

Cruijff hurt his groin at the start of the 1970-71 season. On October 30, 1970, he returned, and a legend was born. Previously, he had worn Number 9, usually the number of a centre-forward. But he began wearing Number 14. By this point, numbers higher than 11 were only worn on national teams (1 to 23), except by substitutes (and then, it would be 12, 14 or 15, as 13 was usually seen as bad luck).

Crujiff nearly always wore 14 from this point forward, and with the exception of Pelé and Diego Maradona with 10, no single athlete in the history of sports on this planet has become more identified with a single number -- not even Jackie Robinson with 42, Mickey Mantle with 7, Michael Jordan with 23 or Wayne Gretzky with 99.
In 1971, Ajax progressed all the way to the Final of the European Cup again (at that time, only a defending national league champion could appear in it, unless they were the previous season's European Cup winners), and were set to play Panathinaikos of Athens, Greece.

The Final was always set for a neutral site (although it hasn't always worked out that way), and, this time, the site chosen was the original Wembley Stadium in London. This factor cannot be underemphasized: The European Cup Final was the only non-English soccer game broadcast live on British television at the time, and the BBC promoted the heck out of this game.

Ajax had already played Arsenal, the North London side that won the League and FA Cup Double in that 1970-71 season, in the Semifinal of the 1969-70 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, with Arsenal winning and then beating Belgium's Anderlecht in the Final. The similarity between Ajax and Arsenal was mainly visual: Arsenal's famous red shirts with white sleeves seemed to be copied, but not quite, by Ajax's red fronts and backs with white sides.

The British interest wasn't just about fans' recent familiarity with Ajax, and how good they already believed Ajax to be. There was also intense interest in their Greek opponents. Pana had modeled themselves after a great British side, Glasgow-based Celtic, down to wearing green uniforms and having a shamrock as their logo; and were managed by Ferenc Puskás, who not only starred for the aforementioned Real Madrid side, but whose masterclass for Hungary at Wembley in 1953 resulted in the England national team's 1st defeat on home soil to a non-British team.

In those days, teams generally didn't seek out foreign players or managers. Puskás wasn't Greek, but all of his players were. Sweeper Velibor Vasović, a Serb from Yugoslavia, and substitute defender Horst Blankenburg of Germany, were the only non-Dutch players to get into this game for Ajax. The others: Goalkeeper Heinz Stuy; defenders Wim Suurbier and Barry Hulshoff; midfielders Cruijff, Nico Rijnders, Johan Neeskens, Gerrie Mühren and substitute Arie Haan; and forwards Sjaak Swart, Piet Keizer and Dick van Dijk -- yes, his name was pronounced like "Dick Van Dyke."

van Dijk scored in only the 5th minute, and Pana desperately held on, looking for an equalizer, and not finding it, before Haan put the game away with a goal in the 87th. Ajax won, 2-0, and had become Champions of Europe for the 1st time.

Despite Michels being lured away by the money of Spanish club Barcelona, Ajax repeated in 1972 under Romanian manager Stefan Kovacs, winning the Netherlands' 1st European Treble: League, Cup and European title. They lost only 1 game all season long, including knocking Arsenal out in the European Cup Quarterfinal.

The 1972 European Cup Final proved to be Total Football's finest hour. They faced Internazionale of Milan, a team which had won the European Cup in 1964 and 1965, and lost to Celtic in the 1967 Final, with a system called catenaccio (a word meaning "padlock"): Defense above all. "Il Grande Inter" had been so successful with the system, in contrast to the free-flowing format of their groundsharing rivals AC Milan, that they were considered the hallmark of soccer defense. Italian sportswriter Gianni Brera, a man often thought of as an Inter fan (he denied it), reflected the dominant thought of the Italian game at this point, writing that the perfect game of "calcio" (what the Italians call soccer) would end 0-0.

No such luck for Inter on this night: Despite having the great Sandro Mazzola and world-class defenders Giacinto Facchetti and Tarcisio Burgnich, Cruijff controlled the game from first whistle to last, scoring in the 47th and 78th minute to provide the 2-0 margin of victory.

"The Death of Catenaccio" was reported all over Europe. The Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad wrote, "The Inter system undermined. Defensive football is destroyed." To make the moment all the sweeter, the venue was Stadion Feijenoord in Rotterdam, home ground of arch-rival Feyenoord.

Ajax did it again in 1973, as Johnny Rep scored in the 5th minute for the only tally in the 1973 European Cup Final, defeating another Italian side, Turin-based Juventus, 1-0 at the Red Star Stadium in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (Serbia). Three straight European Cups would be done again by Bayern Munich in the next 3 years, but it hasn't been done in the 40 years since. Indeed, 2 straight hasn't been done since AC Milan in 1989 and '90.

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But all good things must come to an end. In August 1973, due to infighting at Ajax, Cruijff wanted out, and he got it: His former manager Michels brought him to FC Barcelona, for what was then a world record transfer fee, worth about $2 million at the time. Barça fans, known as cules, were ecstatic, getting the man then generally regarded as the best player in the world, something their arch-rivals, Real Madrid, had previously had with Puskás and Alfredo Di Stéfano. Now, it was La Blaugrana who had this advantage over Los Merengues.

Crujiff married a woman named Danny Coster. They had daughters Chantal in 1970 and Susila in 1972. They maintained a home in Barcelona from 1973 onward. On February 9, 1974, their son was born. He gave his son a Catalan name: Johan Jordi Cruijff. Naming his son after Jordi, Catalonia's patron saint, further endeared him to the Catalan people, especially since Spanish dictator Francisco Franco (who would be dead within 2 years), said to have fixed titles in favor of Real Madrid, had banned all use of Catalan national symbols. (Jordi Cruyff, as his name has usually been written, went on to have a decent career as a player, but people always expected more from the son of Cruijff.)

But what the cules (Barcelona fans) really loved about him came just 8 days later: On February 17, 1974, Barcelona went to Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid's mighty 100,000-seat home stadium, and beat them 5-0. If Crujiff had never played another game for La Blaugrana, they would have loved him forever for that alone.
Barcelona won La Liga in 1974. It all seemed to be setting Cruijff up for the greatest prize of all: The World Cup. The tournament was being held in West Germany, and the Dutch team seemed to have the best of all Dutch worlds. From Ajax (currently or formerly) came Cruijff, Neekskens, Haan, Kiezer, Suurbier, Rep and defender Ruud Krol. From Feyenoord came goalkeeper Eddy Treijtel; defenders Wim Rijsbergen, Wim Jansen, Rinus Israel and Harry Vos; and midfielders Willem van Hanegem and Theo de Jong. From PSV Eindhoven came defender Pleun Strik and twin brother midfielders René and Willy van de Kerkhof. From Twente Enschede came goalkeeper Piet Schrijvers and defender Kees van Ierssel. From FC Amsterdam came starting goalkeeper Jan Jongbloed. From Belgian club Anderlecht came forward Rob Rensenbrink. And from Anderlecht's arch-rivals, Club Brugge, came midfielder Ruud Giels.

The Netherlands -- often incorrectly called "Holland," but that name only refers to 2 provinces of the kingdom, albeit those containing Amsterdam and Rotterdam -- defeated Uruguay 2-0, drew 0-0 with Sweden, and demolished Bulgaria 4-1 to advance to the 2nd Group Stage. There, they beat Argentina 4-0, East Germany 2-0 and defending champions Brazil 2-0. It was beginning to look easy. They had played 6 games, and had an aggregate advantage of 14-1. With their flowing football, flowing hair and bright orange uniforms, they had captivated the entire world -- especially since this was, for many countries, still the early days of color television.

On July 7, 1974, at the Olympiastadion in Munich, the dream seemed to be coming true. The Dutch lined up for the Final against a West Germany dominated by players from Bundesliga winners Bayern Munich, including defender Franz Beckenbauer, goalie Sepp Meier and forward Gerd Müller. In only the 1st minute of the game, Crujiff advanced into the penalty area, and Bayern's Uli Hoeness brought him down. A penalty was awarded, the 1st ever awarded in a World Cup Final, and Neeskens converted before 2 minutes had passed.

But the Dutch may have scored too soon, and rested on their laurels. The Germans fought back, and got a legitimate penalty of their own in the 25th minute. Müller scored in the 43rd to give West Germany the lead. The half soon came, and Cruijff argued with the referee, Englishman Jack Taylor, and was booked for this. The Dutch came a little unglued, and although they fell no further behind, neither did they get any closer. West Germany won, 2-1. It was not a home soil victory: Indeed, in the 2nd half, they had a goal waved off for offside, and were denied what looked like a legit penalty.

Despite the defeat in the Final, Cruijff was awarded the Ballon d'Or (Golden Ball), as World Player of the Year, for the 3rd time in the last 4 years. There was no doubt that he was now the best player in the world, even if he couldn't quite get his country to the greatest prize of all.

In 1977, Cruijff announced his retirement from international soccer, refusing to play in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. For 30 years, it was believed that he was protesting the military dictatorship that took over Argentina in 1976, after the country was awarded the tournament. But in 2008, he revealed the truth: There was a threat against his family, and it got into his head, and he didn't think he would be at his best for the tournament.

Again, the Netherlands reached the Final, even without Cruijff; but, this time, it was a home soil victory, as the Argentines' mere qualification for the Final under the system then in place was dubious, and they scored 2 dubious goals in extra time to win 3-1. There were some Dutch players who were quoted as saying they didn't know if they would leave the stadium alive if they won.

Cruijff has been called the greatest player that Europe has ever produced. However, the lack of a World Cup sticks out on his resume, as it does for players like Puskás, Argentina's Di Stéfano and (so far) Lionel Messi, France's Raymond Kopa, Wales' John Charles, Northern Ireland's George Best, Italy's Paolo Maldini, and Portugal's Eusébio and (so far) Cristiano Ronaldo.

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In 1979, the North American Soccer League was desperate to have a legendary player come into their league, with Pelé having retired. They set their sights on Cruijff, hoping to get him for Pelé's former team, the team in the biggest market, the New York Cosmos -- putting him and Beckenbauer on the same team at last. He did play in 2 exhibition games for the Cosmos, wearing the very unfamiliar number of 30.
But a deal to play for them regularly fell through, and, instead, he played for the Los Angeles Aztecs, co-owned by rocker Elton John. Just as the Cosmos made their away jerseys green with yellow tri to match Pelé's Brazil, so, too, did the Aztecs alter their away jerseys to be Dutch orange for Cruijff. Although they did not win the league title, Cruijff won Player of the Year.
In 1980, he moved to the nation's capital to play for the Washington Diplomats, and this is how most Americans will remember him. He didn't help them win a title, either (as this cover of Soccer Digest suggests), but, as much as anybody other than Pelé, Cruijff made the old NASL, however briefly, cool.
In 1981, he returned to Ajax, and led them to league titles in 1982 and 1983 (a Double season). But after that Double season, Ajax didn't offer him a new contract. Offended, he came up with the ultimate revenge: Signing with rivals Feyenoord, and leading them to the Double in the 1984 season. At the end of that season, he retired at age 37.

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If playing were the extent of Johan Cruijff's impact on the sport of soccer, he would still be one of its all-time legends. But he was just getting warmed up.

In 1985, he and Ajax straightened things out, and he was named their manager. He immediately led them to the KNVB Cup. In 1987, he led them to that trophy again, and to the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

In 1988, he moved back to Barcelona. As manager, he brought in some of the greatest players of the era into a "Dream Team": Brazil's Romário, Denmark's Michael Laudrup, Romania's Gheorghe Hagi, Bulgaria's Hristo Stoichkov, his countryman Ronald Koeman, and Catalan Josep "Pep" Guardiola.

In his 1st season, 1988-89, they won the Cup Winners' Cup, beating Sampdoria of Genoa, Italy. The next year, they won the Copa del Ray (King's Cup, Spain's version of the FA or KNVB Cup). The year after that, they won La Liga for the 1st of 4 straight times.

In 1991, Cruijff had heart bypass surgery, and quit smoking. Like Telly Savalas on Kojak, he took to sucking on lollipops to curb his oral fixation. (Also like Kojak, he frequently wore a raincoat. But unlike Savalas, who was famously bald, he mostly kept his hair.)

He was rewarded for quitting smoking in the 1991-92 season with another La Liga title, and Barcelona's 1st European Cup win -- the last time the tournament was called that, before being rebranded by the Union of European Football Associations as the UEFA Champions League. (The trophy for winning it is still called the European Cup, or "Ol' Big Ears.") Again, they beat Sampdoria in the Final, with Koeman's goal in extra time, in the 112th minute, making the difference. It remains the most famous goal in Barça's history.

Cruijff's greatest contribution to Barça may have come earlier, in 1979, but he certainly cultivated it more as manager. He wanted to copy the Ajax Academy that had produced himself and so many other great players. It was established on land owned by the club, outside a 1702 house known as La Masia ("The Farmhouse"), and La Masia has remained the academy's name ever since. It has kept the talent flowing, well into the age of Lionel Messi.

He was offered the chance to manage the Netherlands at the 1994 World Cup, but a deal fell through. He never managed his national side. After winning nothing in the 1995 and 1996 seasons, Cruijff was sacked as Barça manager. He never managed again, unless you count the unofficial Catalonia national team from 2009 to 2013. In 2008, he was offered the post of technical director at Ajax, but that deal also fell through, due to a renewal of his feud with Marco van Basten, the greatest Ajax and Netherlands player since Cruijff himself.

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Cruijff's legacy is on multiple levels. He practically made one club into a European giant, Ajax; restored another to such a place, Barcelona; made his homeland a worldwide soccer power; and helped boost the game in 3 countries: The Netherlands, Spain and America. Between playing and manager, he won 14 League titles, 10 national cups, 4 European Cups and 2 Cup Winners' Cups.

And he revolutionized the way the game is played and the way the game is taught. To put it in a North American perspective: Imagine that Babe Ruth and Casey Stengel were the same man, with both men's achievements. Or Sammy Baugh and Vince Lombardi. Or Maurice Richard and Scotty Bowman. Or that Bill Russell had been as good a coach without himself as a player as he was with himself as one.

The Dutch Footballer Talent of the Year award is the Johan Cruijff Prijs -- the Johan Cruyff Prize. The trophy given to the winner of the preseason match between the winners of the previous season's league title and cup, their version of England's Community Shield, is the Johan Cruijff Schaal -- the Johan Cruyff Shield.

Like Stengel, and English manager Brian Clough, Cruijff became known for one-liners, which have been called Cruyffisms. "Every advantage has its disadvantage." "In Spain, all 22 players make the Sign of the Cross before a game. If it worked, every game would be a tie.""Italians cannot beat you, but you can certainly lose to them.""I don't want to be a thief of my own wallet.""Speed is often confused with insight. When I start running earlier than the others, I appear faster."Perhaps most quoted of all: "Football is simple, but the hardest thing there is, is to play simple football."

Sometimes, his Cruyffisms sounded like Yogi Berra lines. "Before I make a mistake, I don't make that mistake." And "Sometimes, something's got to happen before something is going to happen.""If I wanted you to understand, I would have explained it better."

It was also Cruijff who gave Barcelona its motto: "Barcelona is more than a club." Or, in Catalan, "Mes que un club."

In 1999, he was named European Player of the Century. In 2003, he was named the Netherlands' greatest player ever.

In 2006, when Arsenal opened the Emirates Stadium with a testimonial to Dennis Bergkamp, who had started at Ajax, Ajax were invited to be the opponent. Cruijff played the last 10 minutes, at the age of 59.

On April 18, 2007, in anticipation of his 60th birthday, Ajax retired the Number 14 that he made so famous.
Eventually, his smoking habit, though long abandoned, came back to haunt him. In October 2015, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died this morning, at the age of 68.

King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands released an official statement: "He has enriched and personified our football. He was an icon of the Netherlands. Johan Cruijff belonged to all of us."

On those great Ajax teams, he was preceded in death by Nico Rijnders (who had a heart attack during a 1972 game and never recovered, dying in 1976, only 28 years old), Dick van Dijk (a heart infection killing him at 51 in 1997), Velibor Vasović (2002), Gerrie Mühren (2013); and on the 1974 Dutch World Cup squad by Mühren and Harry Vos (2010).

Johan Cruijff prided himself on being a teacher. This may be his greatest lesson: Don't smoke.
His shadow will long outlive him.

Here, let me save you twelve bucks: Batman uses Kryptonite to beat Superman. Before Batman can finish the job, Superman says, "Save Martha." It turns out, Superman's mother has been kidnapped by Lex Luthor, and she has the same name as Batman's mother. They join Wonder Woman to fight Luthor's creation, Doomsday. Superman kills Doomsday, and vice versa. Luthor goes to prison. Turns out, Superman's not really dead: Like Batman at the end of The Dark Knight Returns, there's heartbeat starting in his grave.

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice has been released on Good Friday. Because it wouldn't be a bad Superman movie without a Jesus reference.

And it wouldn't be a bad Batman movie without somebody having a stupid voice. In this case, as in the 1966 film version of the TV show, it's Batman himself.

Having Ben Affleck play a superhero is like having Mike Piazza play any position. And having Zack Snyder direct a movie is like having Axl Rose sing lead for your band: It's going to be loud, and it could end with a riot.

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Having Zack Snyder direct was a mistake. Casting Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batmanwas another. I don't blame Henry Cavill: He didn't mess up Clark Kent/Superman. Like the actors in J.J. Abrams' bastard version of Star Trek, he does all right with the character as he was written.

Another mistake was giving Batman top billing over Superman. Who's kidding who?

They're pandering to Batman's fans. They're louder. They are not more numerous.

And let's get something straight: Batman can't beat Superman. There is no way in hell that it could ever happen.

Batfans who want their guy to beat Superman always cite the fight scene in The Dark Knight Returns. And, I have to admit, the Superman in that story (not the one we know, as things have changed tremendously from canon -- and that story is not canon) is a bit of a jerk, who deserved to be taught a lesson.

But here's how that scene would have played out, if Frank Miller understood Superman:

Batman fires a laser cannon at Superman. Superman is knocked back, but gets up, and says, "Bruce, is that the best you can do?"

Batman zaps Superman with millions of volts of electricity. (Ripped off from an early Fantastic Four story where The Thing did it to The Hulk, after The Hulk shoved him down a manhole.) Superman is surprised, but says, "Seriously? I just survived a nuke, Bruce."

Green Arrow launches his arrow containing Kryptonite dust. Superman's super-hearing picks up the sound. His telescopic vision sees the arrow, and his X-ray vision sees what's inside. He gets out of the way, the arrow lands harmlessly, and he blows the Kryptonite dust out of the way.

Batman is screwed. His ace in the hole is completely wasted, and he has no weapons left except his mind and his hand-to-hand combat abilities. Both of which are completely wasted on a Kryptonian.

Batfans believe "Batman" always wins. Why?

Top 5 Reasons Batman's Fans Think He Would Beat Superman:

5. He's smarter.

4. He's smarter.

3. He's smarter.

2. He's smarter.

1. Because he's "the goddamned Batman," that's why.

Except Batman isn't smarter than Superman. The yellow sun of the Earth, compared with the red sun of Krypton, makes Superman's brain a supercomputer, the likes of which no Batman or Batcomputer can match.

You want to know what would happen if they tried to solve the same crime? Batman would sit on a rooftop, waiting for the bad guys to show up. Except they wouldn't, because Superman has uses his super-senses to track them down and already put them in jail.

You want to know what would happen if they played each other in chess? Batman would be ready to pull all kinds of maneuvers, except in the time it took Batman to set up the board, Superman read a dozen books on chess strategy, and knows every move Batman can make.

It's no contest. And even if Batman were smarter than Superman, which he isn't, he still wouldn't win.

Top 5 Reasons Batman Can't Beat Superman

5. No Element of Surprise. A big part of Batman's schtick is sneaking up on his opponents. You can't sneak up on someone with super speed.

4. Speed. Batman's martial arts expertise is useless against Superman.

3. Strength. Another reason Batman's martial arts expertise is useless against Superman.

2. Attack From a Distance. Batarang? Heat vision, super breath, flying in at super speed.

1. No Ace in the Hole. Superman faces a guy named Kryptonite Man, plus he has Metallo to fight, and he still finds a way to win, so it's pretty safe to say Batman's Kryptonite ring only has the power that the writers give it, so it's not a guaranteed KO.

People give Batman so much credit for being smart or crafty -- as if he has a choice otherwise. If he had Superman's powers, he wouldn't even need to be crafty. Which is why Superman isn't shown as being as crafty or smart as Batman. It's not that he isn't, it's just he hardly ever needs to be.

Batman's fans also say he's more relatable than Superman. As Stephen King put it, "Batman was just a guy. A rich guy, sure. A strong guy, yeah. A smart guy, you bet. But he couldn't fly. He couldn't see through walls. If you shoot him, he could die."

Who's really more relatable? The billionaire who buys all that equipment and training to be the ultimate fighter? Or... the guy who grew up on a farm without gobs of money, who has to make do on a reporter's salary, and fights crime not out of a pathological need to avenge his parents, but because his parents told him that helping people was the right thing to do?

Lots of comic book characters, with considerably less ability than Superman, and considerably less money and stuff than Batman, fight crime, because they believe it's the right thing to do.

Who's more relatable? The guy whose closest relationships are with an old man who's his surrogate father, and a teenage boy to whom he is a surrogate father, and who sabotages every relationship he has with women? Or the guy who, in spite of his immense power, tries to live as normal a life as possible when he's not doing super stuff, and has a decent relationship with Lois Lane?

In recent rewrites, the S on Superman's chest doesn't represent the letter S, it's his Kryptonian family crest, his language's symbol for hope.

There's the difference. Batman represents our chance to overcome fear -- which is a pretty good thing to represent. But Superman represents hope.

*

But Batman's movies are more popular. True... but the character isn't. His fans are just louder. So, trying to appeal to teenage boys, and to college boys that refuse to become men, they've made Superman dark and disturbed, more like Batman.

And I'm not happy that they Xena-ed up Wonder Woman's costume and messed with her origin story, either. Gal Gadot might be worthy to take the torch from Lynda Carter, but this movie does Princess Diana of Themiscyra no favors.

If I want to see a Batman story, I'll read or watch a Batman story. When I see Superman, I want to see a man acting in the name of hope. We watch Batman to watch him kick ass; we watch Superman to watching him "fight a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way."

It's why football is called more popular in this country than baseball... except football fills a stadium with 60,000 people once a week, while baseball does 30,000 people six times a week.

That's right: To borrow George Carlin's descritpions, baseball, the "19th Century pastoral game," really is still, always has been, and probably always will be, more popular than football, the "20th Century technological struggle."

As I said in my post about Top 10 Myths About the 1960s, the Jets' win in Super Bowl III was a great moment, but it was a specific moment in time; the Mets' run to the World Series later that year was a great moment for all time.

People still remember where they were when, depending on their age, Willie Mays made The Catch, the Dodgers finally won the World Series, Don Larsen pitched the perfect game, Roger Maris hit Number 61, the Mets pulled off the Miracle, Hank Aaron hit Number 715, Reggie Jackson hit 3 home runs, Bill Buckner made his error, Mark McGwire hit Number 62, Roger Clemens and Mike Piazza had their incident, Barry Bonds hit Number 71 and Number 756, Hideki Matsui took Pedro Martinez deep, and legendary home runs were hit by Bobby Thomson, Bill Mazeroski, Carlton Fisk, Chris Chambliss, Bucky Dent, Kirk Gibson, Joe Carter, Jim Leyritz and Aaron Boone.

Are you old enough to remember the 1950s? Do you remember where you were when Johnny Unitas handed off to Alan Ameche? Are you old enough to remember the 1960s? Do you remember where you were when Bart Starr's sneak won the Ice Bowl and Joe Namath walked off the field waving the We're Number 1 finger? Are you old enough to remember the 1970s? Do you remember where you were when Franco Harris made the Immaculate Reception? Are you old enough to remember the 1980s? Do you remember where you were when Dwight Clark made The Catch?

You can debate whether Aaron or Bonds for a career, or Maris or Bonds for a season, is "The Home Run King." But you know the numbers: 61 and 73; 755 and 762. Peyton Manning just retired as the all-time leader in passing yards and touchdown passes. Do you know those numbers by heart? Who scored the most touchdowns in NFL history? Whose record did he break?

The fact that you have to think about it shows that football doesn't have the same kind of hold on us that baseball does.

Football fans prefer their sport because it's loud and dangerous. These are the same people who prefer motorcycles to minivans. Sure, motorcycles can be fun, and who was cooler than The Fonz? But you can't take a family on a motorcycle. And while you can enjoy the scenery, you can't hear yourself think about it.

Baseball fans prefer their sport because it's communal. Football is tribal, but baseball is communal. How many times do Giant fans compare the Super Bowl XLII winners with the Super Bowl XXI winners, and them with the NFL Champions of 1956 and 1934? But come baseball season, they're Yankee Fans, and they're not only willing, but able to properly debate 1927, 1936, 1941, 1956, 1961, 1978, 1998 and 2009.

You tell a football fan that Sam Huff was a better linebacker for the Giants than Lawrence Taylor before L.T. was even born, and you'll wonder what you're smoking. (Not what L.T. is smoking.) But you ask a Yankee Fan whether Whitey Ford or Mariano Rivera is the greatest pitcher in the team's history, and he not only has to think about it, but he enjoys the thought.

Batman fanboys prefer him because he kicks butt. But Superman saves and inspires the world without breaking a sweat.

Heck, in the Tobey Maguire movies, even Spider-Man inspired ordinary New Yorkers to stand up for themselves in the face of evil. When has Batman ever done that?

The Dark Knight, with its Batman wannabes taking on bad guys and suffering for it, showed what happened when guys who only saw the surface tried to "be Batman." But you don't need powers or a costume to fulfill Superman's ideals.

After all, at the end of The Dark Knight Rises, Christian Bale's Batman says, "A hero can be anyone."

He's right.

And, in so doing, that Batman makes Superman's point for him.

Batman can beat all kinds of bad guys.

But Batman can't beat Superman.

And these new guys aren't going to beat Chris Reeve, Michael Keaton and Lynda Carter. Or even George Reeves, Adam West and Cathy Lee Crosby.

This coming Thursday, the New Jersey Devils travel to play the Florida Panthers, who are now the only Miami-area team without a World Championship -- and, with the Islanders settled in Brooklyn and the Arizona Coyotes having their ownership situation settled, the Panthers now seem like the NHL most likely to be the next to move, since few people seem to care about them.

This may be the only NHL arena that Devils fans can "take over," have more fans than the locals. If you'd like to be one of them, take heed.

Before You Go. It's South Florida, but in late March -- and it just so happens to be in spring break: While it may not be hot, presume that it will be humid and possibly rainy. Check the Miami Herald and Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel websites for their local forecast before you go.

Currently, they're saying that Thursday will have rain, and that the temperatures will be in the mid-80s during the day, the low 70s at night. That won't delay or postpone the game, since (except for an annual New Year's Day and a few other occasions) hockey is played indoors. But you still want to be comfortable. This will likely be your first time wearing summer clothes since early October.

Florida is a former Confederate State, and parts of Miami sure seem like a foreign country. But you won't need to bring your passport or change your money. And it's in the Eastern Time Zone, so you won't have to fool with your timepieces.
Tickets. Last season, the Panthers averaged 11,265 fans per game -- not just last in the National Hockey League, but last in all 5 North American major sports leagues, including Major League Soccer. This season, they have significantly improved, but they're still only getting 15,042 per game, 25th out of 30 NHL teams, ahead of only Carolina, Arizona, Columbus, the Islanders and... the Devils (who are 26th, with 14,969). Their 88.3 percent of capacity filled ranks 26th, ahead of the Islanders, Arizona, Columbus and Carolina. (The Devils are 25th, at 90.6.)

Beyond the Panthers' big improvement this season after years of struggling on the ice, their improvement at the gate, but not by much, might also have something to do with the fact that the BB&T Center -- the 5th name the building has had in its 186 years of existence, mirroring the Philadelphia Flyers in a way that does not suggest success -- is 20 miles west of downtown Fort Lauderdale, and 35 miles northwest of downtown Miami.

Apparently, the Panthers' organization did not learn the lesson of the Richfield Coliseum. The Cleveland Cavaliers thought that people would no longer go into the city to watch their awful team, so they should move it to the suburbs, where their fan base (read: White people who would pay to watch basketball played by black men, as long as they didn't have huge Afros or bad attitudes but did have some white teammates) lived. So the Coliseum was built in the middle of farmland, 20 miles south of downtown Cleveland and 20 miles northwest of downtown Akron, and their attendance sucked for 20 years until they moved to downtown Cleveland. The Panthers made the same mistake.

At any rate, tickets should be easy to get. You can probably show up 5 minutes before puck drop and buy any ticket you can afford.

The normal prices: Center Ice Seating, $80; Goalzone Area Seating, $60; Lower Bowl Side Seating, $25; and Lower Bowl Endzone Seating, $15.

Getting There. It’s 1,253 miles from the Prudential Center in Newark to the BB&T Center in Sunrise. Knowing this distance, your first reaction is going to be to fly down there. This is not a horrible idea, as the flight is just 3 hours.

Fort Lauderdale does have an international airport, and, this week, a round-trip ticket could cost you under $700. But you'd have to change planes in Charlotte. You'll have the same circumstances flying into Miami's airport.

The train is not a very good idea, because you’ll have to leave Newark's Penn Station on Amtrak’s Silver Star at 11:22 AM and arrive in Fort Lauderdale at 5:17 the next day’s afternoon, a 30-hour ride. The return trip will leave at 8:50 AM and return to Newark at 10:46 AM, “only” 26 hours – no, as I said earlier, there’s no time-zone change involved. Round-trip, it’ll cost $509. And the station isn’t all that close, at 200 SW 21st Terrace. Fortunately, the Number 22 bus will take you to a short walk from the arena. Unfortunately, that sounds a lot like trying to get a bus to and from the Nassau Coliseum, which is not fun.

How about Greyhound? There are 7 buses leaving Port Authority every day with connections to Miami, only one of them nonstop, the 10:30 PM to 3:30 AM (2 days later) version. The rest require you to change buses in Richmond and Orlando. (I don't know about changing buses in Orlando, but I have changed buses in Richmond, and I can tell you: It is not fun.) The ride, including the changeovers, takes about 30 hours. Round-trip fare is $260, but you can get it for $184 on advanced-purchase. The station is at 515 NE 3rd Street. You'll need to take the Number 50 bus to the Number 72 bus to get to the arena.

If you want to drive, it'll help to get someone to go down with you, and take turns driving. You’ll be going down Interstate 95 (or its New Jersey equivalent, the Turnpike) almost the whole way. It’ll be about 2 hours from the Lincoln Tunnel to the Delaware Memorial Bridge, 20 minutes in Delaware, and an hour and a half in Maryland, before crossing the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, at the southern tip of the District of Columbia, into Virginia. Then it will be 3 hours or so in Virginia, another 3 hours in North Carolina, about 3 hours and 15 minutes in South Carolina, a little under 2 hours in Georgia, and about 5 hours and 45 minutes in Florida before you reach Fort Lauderdale.

Given rest stops, preferably in one in each State from Maryland to Georgia, and 2 in Florida, you’re talking about a 28-hour trip.

Once In the City. Naming a Florida town "Sunrise" makes some sense. The U.S. Army established a stockade named Fort Lauderdale in 1836, named for the commander of the detachment of soldiers who built the first fort, Major William Lauderdale. The town was incorporated in 1911, at the beginning of the first building boom in Florida. The Miami-Fort Lauderdale metropolitan area is a big market, with about 6.4 million people. But while Miami has about 420,000 people within the city limits, Fort Lauderdale has just 171,000.

Because Florida is so hot, and air-conditioning didn't become common until the mid-20th Century, Miami was founded rather late by the standards of the East coast, in 1825, and wasn't incorporated as a city until 1896. The name is derived from the Mayaimi tribe of Native Americans. Miami Avenue is the east-west divider, Flagler Street the north-south.

The Miami Herald, Fort Lauderdale's Sun-Sentinel, and the Palm Beach Post are the major newspapers in the area. And, considering how many ex-New Yorkers are around, you might also be able to get the Times, the Daily News, or, if you're really desperate (or really conservative), the Post.

Numbered Streets go east-west in Fort Lauderdale, while numbered Avenues and Terraces go north-south. The east-west divider is Andrews Avenue, and the north-south divider is Broward Blvd. The sales tax in Florida is 6 percent, and it doesn't rise further in Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale and Sunrise. But it's 7 percent within Miami-Dade County.

Since 1984, South Florida has had a rapid-transit rail service, Metrorail. However, the arena can't be reached from it. You will need to take the Number 7 bus from downtown. The fare for the Metrorail and the Metrobus is $2.00.

Going In. The BB&T Center, named for a bank, has been the home of the NHL’s Florida Panthers since 1998, and there’s a reason the team is called “Florida” instead of “Miami”: The arena is 34 miles northwest of downtown Miami, and 14 miles west of downtown Fort Lauderdale, in a town called Sunrise. It's 22 miles from Sun Life Stadium, home of the Dolphins; 34 miles northwest of downtown Miami, and 35 miles each from the homes of the Marlins and the Heat.

The official address is 1 Panther Parkway, at NW 136th. If you don’t have a car, you’d have to take the 195 Bus to Fort Lauderdale, and then the 22 Bus out to the arena.
The arena's official address is 1 Panther Parkway, Sunrise, FL 33323. As near a I can tell, "Panther Parkway" is NW 136th Street. To get there from I-95 South, take Exit 129 onto Florida Route 70/Okeechobee Road. Take that to Florida's Turnpike South. Get off at Exit 71, for FL-869 S/Sawgrass Expressway. Take Exit 3 for FL-816/Oakland Park Blvd. Turn right from Oakland Park Blvd. onto N. Flamingo Road. The 2nd right is NW 136th Street.
To get there from downtown Fort Lauderdale, take U.S. Route 1/Federal Highway South to Interstate 595/Port Everglades Expressway West, to the Sawgrass Expressway. Take Exit 1B to Pat Salerno Drive, and the arena and its parking lot will be on your right.

To get there from downtown Miami, take I-95 North to Exit 12A onto Florida's Turnpike. Take Exit 54 to the Port Everglades Expressway, and then follow the directions from Fort Lauderdale.

For general parking, enter through Gate 1, 2, 3 or 7. Parking costs $20.

The rink runs east-to-west -- well, northeast-to-southwest. The Panthers attack twice toward the west (southwest) end of the arena.
Food. With a great Hispanic, and especially Cuban, heritage, and also being in Southeastern Conference country (hello, tailgating), you would expect the hockey team in South Florida to have great food at their arena. But it looks like food is just about an afterthought at the BB&T Center.

It has restaurants accessible through their premium seating, such as the Penalty Box, the BB&T Chairman's Club and the Legends Lounge. There are also several bars that any fan at least age 21 and with money can use.

There are 3 food courts on each of the Plaza and Mezzanine Levels that include a wide selection of items on the menu. Guests also have an opportunity to enjoy dining on the two Party City Patios outside the Plaza Level food courts.

Team History Displays. Not much. The Panthers won the Eastern Conference in 1996 and the Southeast Division in 2012, and hang banners for those titles. But they have only 1 retired number: 93, for the year of their founding, for Bill Torrey, the former Islander boss who was their 1st general manager and built their conference title.
There are 8 individuals with a Panther connection who are in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but only 1, Pavel Bure, played more than 2 seasons for them (in his case, 3: 1999-2002). The other players are Dino Ciccarelli, Igor Larionov, Joe Nieuwendyk and Ed Belfour. In the "Builders" category, there's Torrey and 1st head coach Roger Neilson, for whom their press box is named.

They don't have a team Hall of Fame, but they do have a "Den Of Honor," located on the Plaza Level between Sections 115 and 121. It's a museum, featuring photos, jersey and other equipment, and other items connected to the franchise's 23-year history. According to their website, "It also honors the people and organizations that continue to help South Florida grow as a hotbed for youth and high school hockey." (Hockey hotbed? South Florida? I think someone's been out in the sun for too long.)

Stuff. The Panthers have Pantherland, a team store, on the south (southeast) side of the building; and both a CCM Heritage Store at Section 122 and an Old Time Hockey Store at Section 112, paying tribute to early hockey (which, by this point, means anything prior to the team's establishment in 1993). There's also a Panthers IceDen in the nearby town of Coral Springs.

Since the Panthers don't have much history -- in those 22 years, they've made the Playoffs exactly 4 times -- don't expect to find too many books and DVDs about them. After their 1996 Conference Championship, Dave Rosenbaum wrote Miami Ice: Winning the NHL Rat Race With the Florida Panthers. (I'll explain the "rat" reference shortly.)

When the team began in 1993, they released a Florida Panthers Video Hockey Guide. The next year, an Inaugural Year tape, Heart & Soul. That's right, tape. Videotape. Amazingly, these 2 VHS releases and Miami Ice are available on Amazon.com. But that's about it.

During the Game. Safety should not be an issue. The arena is an island in a sea of parking, and is nowhere near the ghettos of Miami.

South Florida is loaded with people who came from elsewhere, including ex-New Yorkers. The stereotype is that, when a New Yorker gets old, if he has enough money to do so, he moves to Miami. Especially if he’s Jewish. Or Italian. As a result, you may see a lot of people who used to go to Ranger or Islander games, some of whom maintain their old allegiances, get the MSG Network on their cable system, and have adopted the Panthers as their “second team.”

Be advised that, this past January, the arena had a problem with the plumbing. The toilets clogged up and overflowed. You'd expect this at the Meadowlands or the Nassau Coliseum. But this is not an old arena. I'm not saying it will happen again, just that it has happened within the last few weeks, and that it could happen again.

The Panthers' mascot is Stanley C. Panther, obviously named for the Stanley Cup (which, of course, hasn't yet been won by the team). He used to wear Number 93, in honor of the team's founding, until the number was retired for Torrey. Now, like so many other sports mascots, including our own N.J. Devil, he wears Number 00. Information about Stanley can be found at Stanley’s Den.

Ghaleb Emachah, a Venezuelan-born tenor of Arab descent who came to the U.S. at age 21 and settled in Fort Lauderdale, is the Panthers' regular national anthem singer. Their goal song is "Out of Our Heads" by the Dropkick Murphys, adding a panther growl sound effect. But their biggest chant is the generic, "Let's go, Panthers!"

During the 1996 season, the Panthers' Scott Mellanby saw a rat in the locker room, and whacked it with his stick. He then used the same stick to score 2 goals in that night's game. John Vanbiesbrouck, the former Ranger goalie by then with the Panthers, called it not a hat trick, but a "rat trick." Thereafter, instead of fans throwing hats onto the ice when a players scored 3 goals in a game, they threw plastic or rubber rats when a player scored 2.

By the time they reached the Conference Finals, and knocked off the Philadelphia Flyers to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals, they were throwing the rats after every goal. Even when Uwe Krupp scored the triple-overtime winner to give the Colorado Avalanche the Cup in Game 4 of the Finals, the fans used that last opportunity of the season to throw all their rats onto the ice, making it difficult to award the Cup. This resulted in an off-season rule change by the NHL that allowed for referees to penalize the home team if fans disrupt the game by throwing objects onto the ice. Nevertheless, on occasion, the fans still throw the plastic and rubber rats onto the ice, after 18 years.

After the Game. As I said, the arena isn't in a neighborhood. There's a mall with chain restaurants across 136th Avenue, but if that's not your cup of tea (or mug of beer), you may have to head back to Fort Lauderdale or Miami.

I checked for area bars where New Yorkers gather, and found one for each of the city’s NFL teams. The South Florida Jets Fan Club meets at Hammerjack’s, at 5325 S. University Drive in Davie, 11 miles southeast of the arena. American Social is the home of the local Giants fan club, and also caters to fans of the Yankees and Knicks, at 721 East Las Olas Blvd., 18 miles east in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Bokamper's, a bar chain run by former Miami Dolphin linebacker Kim Bokamper, has several outlets nearby.

Don't bother looking for Dan Marino's restaurants: They've all closed. He's had financial setbacks, partly due to paying his extramarital baby mama millions of dollars in hush money.

Sidelights. The Miami-Fort Lauderdale area’s sports history is long, but aside from football, it's not all that involved. I'll get the Fort Lauderdale ones out of the way first.

* Fort Lauderdale Stadium and Lockhart Stadium. Built in 1962, the Yankees moved their spring training headquarters to the 8,340-seat Fort Lauderdale Stadium after being assured that, unlike their spring home of St. Petersburg at the time, their black players could stay in the same hotel as their white players. The Yankees remained there until 1995, by which point Tampa was not only long since integrated, but was willing to do pretty much anything city resident George Steinbrenner wanted, including build him a new spring home for the Yankees.

The Yankees' Class A team in the Florida State League also used it as a home field. After the Yankees left, the Orioles used it from 1996 to 2009. Although it no longer has a permanent tenant, or even a spring training tenant, it still stands, and the Fort Lauderdale Strikers use it as a practice facility. 1401 NW 55th Street.

Built in 1959, Lockhart is a 20,450-seat high school football stadium, across 55th Street from Fort Lauderdale Stadium, along 12th Avenue. It's been home to 4 different teams called the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, including the original NASL's version from 1977 to 1983, and the new NASL's version since 2011. It's hosted 3 games of the U.S. national soccer team, and also hosted Florida Atlantic University's football team from 2003 to 2010, after which their on-campus stadium opened. 5201 NW 12th Avenue.

For both stadiums, take Bus 14 from downtown Fort Lauderdale to Powerline Road & 56th Street, then walk 2 blocks west.

* Site of Orange Bowl/Marlins Park. The home of the team that became known as the Miami Marlins when they moved in for the 2012 season was built at the site of the stadium known as the Miami Orange Bowl. It will be a long time before it builds up anything of  history, but it will never match the history of the classic horseshoe with the palm trees at the open east end.
* Sun Life Stadium. Probably best known under its original name, Joe Robbie Stadium, the Dolphins' home was named for their longtime owner, who had it built for them and for a hypothetical MLB team that became the Marlins. It’s 15 miles north of downtown Miami, in a location that’s been called, at various times, Miami, Miami Lakes, Miami Gardens, Carol City and Opa-Locka. Sounds like a bad variety show sketch.

The Stadium is between 199th and 203rd, and between the Turnpike and 27th Avenue, across 203rd and Snake Creek from Calder Race Course. The exact address is 347 Don Shula Drive, for the coach who won the Dolphins' 2 titles and the record number of NFL coaching wins he has.

Public transportation there is a bit tricky. You'd have to take Metrorail from downtown to M.L. King Rail Station, then transfer to the Number 27 bus, riding that to NW 199th Street & NW 27th Court. And then you'd have to walk down 199th for about 15 minutes and turn into the parking lot. Not exactly ideal. (Somehow, I don't think a situation like this, especially with a transit station with his name on it, was part of Martin Luther King's dream. But he certainly would have approved of a racially mixed crowd watching racially mixed teams playing each other.)

The stadium has been home to the Dolphins since 1987; the Orange Bowl game in 1996, 1997, 1998 and since 2000; the University of Miami football team since 2008 (their games were the last thing the Orange Bowl stadium hosted before its demolition to make way for Marlins Park); the Marlins from 1993 to 2011; and the Champs Sports Bowl from 1990 to 2000.

It's hosted 5 Super Bowls: XXIII (1989, San Francisco over Cincinnati), XXIX (1995, San Francisco over San Diego), XXXIII (1999, Denver over Atlanta), XLI (2007, Indianapolis over Chicago, and the only Super Bowl that's yet been rained on) and XLIV (2011, Green Bay over Pittsburgh). Sites for Super Bowls LIII and LIV (2019 and 2020) have not yet been selected, but Sun Life Stadium (or whatever it would be named by that point) will likely be awarded one of them.

It's also hosted 2 World Series: 1997, Marlins over Cleveland; and 2003, Marlins over, uh, let's move on. It hosted 4 BCS National Championship Games: 2001 (Oklahoma over Florida State), 2005 (USC over Oklahoma), 2009 (Florida over Oklahoma) and 2013 (Alabama over Notre Dame).

The stadium is also a premier U.S. soccer venue. On August 4, 1989, London's Arsenal played Argentine club Independiente, each team coming off winning its national league title. Arsenal won, 2-1, but only 2,100 fans came out to see it in the oppressive August Florida heat. (Perhaps this is why Arsenal did not play in North America again for 25 years, coming to Red Bull Arena in 2014.) Other major club teams to play there include Mexico's Chivas of Guadalajara; England's Chelsea of London, Everton of Liverpool and Manchester United; Spain's Real Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia; and Italy's AC Milan, Internazionale and Juventus.

The U.S. national team has played there 4 times: A 1-0 loss to Colombia on April 22, 1990; a 1-1 draw with Bolivia on February 18, 1994; a 3-1 loss to Sweden on February 20, 1994; and a 1-0 win over Honduras on October 8, 2011.
* Comfort Inn. This hotel, across 36th Street from the airport, was the site of the Playhouse, once considered one of South Florida’s finest banquet halls. It was here, on January 9, 3 days before the Super Bowl, at a dinner organized by the Miami Touchdown Club, that Joe Namath of the Jets was speaking, and some drunken Colts fan yelled out, “Hey, Namath! We’re gonna kick your ass on Sunday!” And Joe said, “Let me tell you something: We got a good team. And we’re gonna win. I guarantee it!” He was right.

NW 36th Street between Curtiss Parkway and Deer Run. MetroRail toward Palmetto, to Allapattah Station, then transfer to the 36 Bus.

* Site of Miami Stadium. Also known as Bobby Maduro Stadium, this was the home of the original Miami Marlins, of the Florida State League. Seating 13,000, it was known for its Art Deco entrance and a roof that shielded nearly the entire seating area, to protect fans from the intense Miami weather.

The FSL team that played here was known as the Sun Sox from 1949 to 1954, the Marlins from 1956 to 1960, the Marlins again 1962 to 1970, the Miami Orioles 1971 to 1981, and the Marlins again from 1982 to 1988. These teams won FSL Pennants in 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1978 -- giving Miami 7 Pennants, counting those won by the NL Marlins.

Miami Stadium was the spring training home of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1950 to 1957, the Dodgers in their first season in Los Angeles in 1958 (it can be said that “the Los Angeles Dodgers” played their 1st game here, not in California), and the Baltimore Orioles from 1959 to 1990.

It was demolished in 2001, and The Miami Stadium Apartments were built on the site. 2301 NW 10th Avenue, off 23rd Street. It’s just off I-95, and 8 blocks north and east from the Santa Clara MetroRail station.

* American Airlines Arena. The "Triple-A" has been the home of the NBA’s Miami Heat since 2000, including their 2006, 2012 and 2013 NBA Championship seasons. 601 Biscayne Blvd. (U.S. Routes 1 & 41), between NE 6th and 8th Streets, across Port Blvd. from the Bayside Marketplace shopping center (not exactly their version of the South Street Seaport) and the Miami outlets of Hooters, the Hard Rock Café and Bubba Gump Shrimp. The closest rapid-rail station is Overtown – ironically, the same stop for the previous sports arena…

* Site of Miami Arena. This was the home of the Heat from 1988 to 1999, the NHL’s Florida Panthers from 1993 to 1998, and the University of Miami basketball team from 1988 to 2003. When the Overtown race riot happened in January 16 to 18, 1989, in the week before Super Bowl XXIII, area residents took great pains to protect this arena from damage, and succeeded.

This building was demolished in 2008. Only 20 years? Apparently, like the multipurpose stadiums of the 1960s and ‘70s, and the Meadowlands Arena and the Nassau Coliseum, it served its purpose – getting teams to come in – and then quickly became inadequate. Grand Central Park, a public park, was built on the site. 701 Arena Blvd., between Miami Avenue, NW 1st Avenue, and 6th and 8th Streets. Overtown/Arena rail station.
* Sports Immortals Museum. This museum is in Boca Raton, at 6830 N. Federal Highway (Route 1), 50 miles north of downtown Miami. It's got a statue of Babe Ruth, and some memorabilia on display.  However, some people have reported that much of the memorabilia they sell has been judged to be fake by authenticators, so buyer beware. Theoretically, it's reachable by public transportation from Miami, but you'd need to take a bus to a train to a bus to a bus (32 to Tri-Rail to 70 to 1), and it would take about 3 hours. If you don't have the time to make for this, by car or otherwise, skip it.

* Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital. For the last 30 or so years of his life, the Yankee Clipper lived in South Florida, and while he pretty much ignored his one and only child, son Joe Jr., he adored his grandchildren and children in general. He was a heavy donor to local hospitals, and the Children's Hospital named for him was established in 1992. There is now a statue of him there. 1005 Joe DiMaggio Drive, Hollywood. about 20 miles north of downtown Miami. 22 bus to Hollywood Tri-Rail station, then a mile's walk.

* Miami Beach Convention Center. Opened in 1957, it seats 15,000 people. The American Basketball Association’s Miami Floridians played here from 1968 to 1972. The 1968 Republican Convention, and both major parties’ Conventions in 1972, were held here. (The Republicans nominated Richard Nixon each time, and the Democrats nominated George McGovern.) Why? Simple: They wanted to be away from any city's downtown, putting water between themselves and wherever the hippies and another antiwar demonstrators were staying.

This building hosted the heavyweight title fights of 1961 (Floyd Patterson-Ingemar Johansson III, Floyd won) and 1964 (Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston I, Clay winning and then changing his name to Muhammad Ali). Just 9 days before Ali forced his “total eclipse of the Sonny,” on February 16, 1964, the Beatles played their 2nd full-length U.S. concert here. They visited Ali at his Miami training center, and a famous photo was taken. Elvis Presley gave a pair of concerts here on September 12, 1970.
Convention Center Drive between 17th Street and Dade Blvd. The Jackie Gleason Theater, where “The Great One” taped his 1960s version of The Jackie Gleason Show (including a now rarely-seen revival of The Honeymooners) is next-door. This, and any other Miami Beach location, can be reached via the 103, 113 or 119 Bus, or a car, over the MacArthur Causeway.

* Site of Coconut Grove Convention Center. This former Pan Am hangar, attached to the Dinner Key Marina in 1930, was used as a Naval Air Station, a convention center, a concert hall, a 6,900-seat sports arena (the Floridians played a few home games here), and as the indoor-scenes studio for the USA Network show Burn Notice.

It’s also been known as the Dinner Key Auditorium. Under that name, on March 1, 1969, The Doors gave a concert here, and lead singer Jim Morrison supposedly committed an indecent act there. (Yeah, he told the crowd, “I’m from Florida! I went to Florida State! Then I got smart and moved to California!”)

It was demolished in 2013, and a park is being built on the site. 2700 S. Bayshore Drive, at Pan American Drive & 27th Avenue, in the Coconut Grove section of town. Number 102 Bus to Number 48.

* Gusman Center for the Performing Arts. Formerly the Olympic Theater, Elvis sang here on August 3 and 4, 1956. 174 E. Flagler Street, downtown.
* Museums. Miami isn't a big museum city. There's the Miami Science Museum, at 3280 S. Miami Avenue (Vizcaya Station on Tri-Rail); the Miami Art Museum, at 101 W. Flagler Street (downtown); the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), at 1103 Biscayne Blvd., Museum Park station on Metromover; and the Patricia and Philip Frost Museum of Science, at 3280 S. Miami Avenue, Vizcaya station on Metrorail.

* Colleges. The largest college in the area is, as you might have guessed, the University of Miami. Its new Donna E. Shalala Student Center, named for the former University President and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton, is at 1330 Miller Drive, about 7 miles southwest of downtown. University Station on Metrorail.
The Kennedy family had a compound in Palm Beach, but sold it in 1995. It's still in private hands, and not open to the public. There was a "Little White House" in Key West (111 Front Street), used by Harry Truman (and, to a lesser extent, his immediate successors Dwight D. Eisenhower and Kennedy), and it's open to tours. But that's a long way from Miami: 160 miles, with no public transportation between the 2 cities, and Greyhound charges $110 round-trip for a 4 1/2-hour ride.

* Movies & TV. Several TV shows have been set in Miami. A restaurant called Jimbo’s Place was used to film scenes from Flipper and Miami Vice, and more recently CSI: Miami and Burn Notice. It’s at 4201 Rickenbacker Causeway in Key Biscayne, accessible by the Causeway (by car) and the 102 Bus (by public transportation).

Greenwich Studios has been used to film Miami Vice, True Lies, There’s Something About Mary and The Birdcage. It’s at 16th Avenue between 121st and 123rd Streets, in North Miami, and often stands in for Miami Beach for the TV shows and movies for which it’s used. 93 Bus.

If you’re a fan of The Golden Girls, you won’t find the house used for the exterior shots. It’s actually in Los Angeles. The address mentioned on the show was 6151 Richmond Street, but that address doesn't exist in Miami. If you're a fan of those not-quite-golden girls, the Kardashian sisters, the penthouse they use to tape the Miami edition of their "reality show" is on Ocean Drive between 1st and 2nd Streets in Miami Beach. But I don’t think they use it anymore, especially since Kourtney and Kim have now “taken New York.”
At 789 feet, the tallest building in the State of Florida since 2003 has been the Four Seasons Hotel Miami, at 1435 Brickell Avenue downtown. Financial District station on Metromover. Indeed, Miami has seen a building boom, with the waterfront becoming home to a series of skyscrapers known as the Biscayne Wall.

The tallest of Miami's older buildings is the Freedom Tower, built in 1925 as the home of the now-defunct Miami News. It now houses Miami-Dade College and a Museum. 600 Biscayne Blvd., downtown, across from the American Airlines Arena. Freedom Tower station on Metromover.

Next Friday and Saturday, April 1 and 2, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox, currently the 2 closest Major League Baseball teams to Montréal, will finish their spring training schedules by playing each other at the Olympic Stadium in Montréal.

This will be the 3rd straight season that the Jays, Canada's only remaining MLB team, will wrap up their exhibition warmups in Montréal.

Ordinarily, Toronto teams are about as popular in Montréal as a Stephen Harper budget cut, which is one reason why the Calgarian Harper is no longer the Prime Minister of Canada, and the Montrealer and son of a former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is.

But these games have sold out, about 50,000 strong. Montrealers are proving that they were never a bad baseball city, they just had a bad situation with the Expos, screwed over by the MLB establishment, first with the Strike of '81, then with the Strike of '94, then with the Loria Switcheroo at the turn of the 21st Century, resulting in Loria's new team, the Florida Marlins, winning the World Series in 2003, while the Expos were taken away from them a year later and moved to Washington.

Montréal is the only city in North America that doesn't have an MLB team, but does have a big enough market to support one, and, more importantly, an MLB-ready stadium. The Olympic Stadium
would most likely be only a stopgap facility until a real ballpark can be built, but, if, God forbid, disaster were to strike, and a team needed an emergency home stadium, Le Stade Olympique could be used for it.

So, in case the Tampa Bay Rays, or the now-Miami Marlins, figure out that Florida is great for producing baseball players but lousy for bringing fans to the ballpark, or MLB decides to expand again, Montréal could be ready.

*

The Montréal Canadiens are still the most successful team in hockey history, winning 24 Stanley Cups -- but none since 1993. The Montréal Alouettes have won Canada's Super Bowl, the Grey Cup, 7 times, including back-to-back Canadian Football League titles in 2009 and '10. The Montréal Impact have made an impact on Major League Soccer.

The Montréal Expos, however, no longer exist. They played from 1969 to 2004, before moving to Washington to become the Nationals. Their only 1st-place finishes were in strike-shortened seasons, 1981 and 1994. The first time, they lost a deciding game to the Los Angeles Dodgers, whose owners Walter and then Peter O'Malley owned Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, lock, stock and bad suit. Then the Expos had the best record in baseball when the Strike of '94 hit, and Commissioner Bud Selig, himself a team owner (the Milwaukee Brewers), canceled the rest of the season, including the postseason. Conspiracy, anyone?

What was it like to see an Expos game? I reached into my archives, and found this post, from April 7, 2004, just as a new season was about to begin, with the Mets heading up there the following weekend.

(Not really, I didn't start this blog until 2007. Humor me. My updates are given in italics.)

*

Being in a foreign country has its particular challenges -- and, yes, for all its similarities to America, Canada is still a foreign country. The French influence will make it more foreign even than Toronto, the only city and metropolitan area in Canada with more people.  But, with 1.6 million people, Montréal has more people than any American city except New York, Los Angeles and Houston.

There are 3.8 million people in the metro area, so, despite the large population within the city limits, it's a smaller market than every Major League Baseball city except the following: Seattle, Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Baltimore, Denver, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Kansas City.

And then there's the exchange rate, which largely favors the U.S.  Then there's the taxes, which these now-rich ballplayers don't want to pay. And if the Expos should ever overcome their current doldrums and make the Playoffs again, that will hammer the U.S. TV ratings. No wonder Commissioner Bud Selig doesn't want a team in Montréal, and has been trying to get them moved to Washington.

Before You Go. Make sure you call your bank and tell them you’re going. After all, Canada may be an English-speaking country (at least co-officially, with French, although Quebec is French-first), and a democracy (if a parliamentary one), and a country with Major League Baseball, but it is still a foreign country. If your bank gets a record of your ATM card making a withdrawal from any country other than the U.S., it may freeze the card, and any other accounts you may have with them. So be sure to let them know that you will, in fact, be in Canada for a little while.

You should have a valid, up-to-date passport, but it is not required. If you don't have a valid passport, you will need a valid photo ID and a copy of your birth certificate. This is not something you want to mess with. Canadian Customs officials do not fuck around: They care about their national security, too.

As of June 1, 2009, you DO need a passport to cross the U.S.-Canadian border.

Do yourself another big favor: Change your money before you go. There are plenty of currency exchanges in New York City, including one on 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenue.

Leave yourself $50 in U.S. cash, especially if you’re going other than by plane, so you’ll have cash on your side of the border.  I was actually in Montréal on the day when it most favored the U.S.: January 18, 2002, 1.60 to 1.00 in our favor. However, now, in 2004, while the rate does still favor us, it's not nearly as much to our advantage as it was.

The exchange rate between the two countries did heavily favor the U.S. in 2004, but after a 2nd term of George W. Bush, the dollar lost a lot of value. After 2 terms of Barack Obama, the U.S. dollar is back, and, as of March 25, 2016, is worth C$1.33, and C$1.00 is about US 75 cents.

The multi-colored bill were confusing on my first visit, although we have those now, too. The $5 is blue, and features Wilfrid Laurier (Prime Minister 1896-1911). The $10 is purple, and features John A. Macdonald (the 1st Prime Minister, 1867-1873 and again 1878-1891, essentially he’s their George Washington without having fought a war for independence). The $20 is green, and features the nation’s head of state, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. The $50 is red, and features William Lyon Mackenzie King (the longest-serving Prime Minister, 1921-1926, 1926-1930, 1935-1948, including World War II). And the $100 is yellow, and features Robert Borden (Prime Minister 1911-1920, including World War I).

The tricky part is going to be the coins – and you’ll thank me for telling you this, but keep your U.S. coins and your Canadian coins separate, for the simple reason that their penny, nickel, dime and quarter are all the same colors and just about the same size as our respective coins. (To make matters more confusing, as we recently did with our States, they had a Provincial quarter series.)

All coins have Queen Elizabeth’s portrait on the front, but she’s been Queen since 1952, and depending on how old the coin is, you might get a young woman, or her current 78-year-old self, or anything in between. You might even get a penny or a nickel old enough to feature her father, King George VI. Such a coin is still legal tender, however.

The Queen is about to turn 90, still on the throne, and still on British Commonwealth money, including Canada's.

They have a $1 coin, copper-colored, bigger than a quarter, and 11-sided, with a bird on the back. This bird is a loon – not to be confused with the people lunatic enough to buy Maple Leafs season tickets. The coin is thus called the “loonie,” although they don’t say “ten loonies”: They use “buck” for “dollar” the way we would.  In fact, the term is connected to Canada: Their first English settlers were the Hudson’s Bay Company, and they set the value of a dollar to the price of the pelt of a male beaver, the male of the species being called, as are those of a deer and a rabbit, a buck. (And the female, a doe.) The nation’s French-speakers (Francophones) use the French word for loon, and call it a “huard,” but since the Montréal Expos are gone, you probably won’t hear that term unless you’re a hockey fan and go to see the Rangers, Devils or Islanders in Montréal – or maybe Ottawa, which is on the Ontario-Quebec border and has a lot of French-first-speakers.

Then there’s the $2 coin, or “toonie.” It’s not just two dollars, it’s two-toned, and even two-piece. It’s got a copper center, with the Queen on the front and a polar bear on the back, and a nickel ring around it. This coin is about the size of the Eisenhower silver dollars we used to have. This is the coin that drives me bonkers when I’m up there.

My suggestion is that, when you first get your money changed before you begin your trip, ask for $1 coins but no $2 coins. It’s just simpler. I like Canada a lot, but their money, yikes, eh?

This is Canada, the Great White North, so if you're going in April, it may still feel like winter, especially if the wind is blasting off Lake Ontario. So even though the Olympic Stadium roof is closed, you should pack a winter jacket. If you're going from May onward, even in late September, it will probably be warm enough to not bring any jacket, but bring a light one just in case.

If you're going for these Toronto vs. Boston games, The days are expected to be in the mid-40s, the nights in the low 30s. Bundle up.

Tickets.  Contrary to what you've been hearing, Montréal hasn't always been a bad baseball city.  In 1979, '80, '82 and '83, the Expos drew over 2 million fans to their home games.  In '83, they peaked at an average of 28,650.  Even as late as 1994, the Year of What Might Have Been, they were averaging 22,390.  But the disillusionment kicked in, and while they still averaged 18,489 in 1997, the all-but-lame-duck status of the franchise reduced them to 7,935 in 2001.  In 2003, even with the games played in San Juan, Puerto Rico, "home" attendance rose to only 12,662.

Therefore, with a baseball seating capacity of 43,739 (66,308 for football), you can pretty much get any seat you can afford. Remember, these prices are in Canadian dollars. VIP Boxes are $36, Box Seats $26, Terrace seating (upper deck) $16, and General Admission $8.

Most remaining tickets for this weekend's games are C$55.

Getting There. The best way is by plane. Air Canada runs flights out of Newark Liberty, John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia International Airport, and the flight takes about an hour and a half.  Book on Air Canada today, and you can get a round-trip flight for around US$565.  On an American carrier (including, but not necessarily, American Airlines), it will be closer to double that.

(Update: Round-trip, non-stop fare to Montréal on Air Canada will now run you over $1,200.)

Greyhound runs 5 buses a day from Port Authority Bus Terminal to Autobus Greyhound, at 1717 Rue Berri at Boulevard de Maisonneuve.  (Countries in the British Commonwealth, including Canada, call a local bus a bus and an inter-city bus a “coach.”) The ride averages about 8 hours, and is $162 round-trip -- although an advance purchase can drop it to under $100.  The terminal is big and clean, and you shouldn’t have any difficulties with it. It's got a stairway leading to the Berri-UQAM (University of Quebec at Montréal) Metro station.

(Update: It's now $108, but advance purchase can drop it to $100.)

Amtrak, however, runs just 1 train, the Adirondack, in each direction each day between New York and Montréal, in cooperation with Canada’s equivalent, VIA Rail. This train leaves Pennsylvania Station at 8:15 AM and arrives at Gare Centrale (Central Station) at 7:11 PM, a trip of 10 hours and 56 minutes. The return trip leaves Montréal at 10:20 AM and gets back to Penn Station at 8:50 PM.

So, while Gare Centrale, bounded by Rue de la Gauchetiere, Rue University, Rue Belmont and Rue Mansfield, is in the heart of the city, taking Amtrak/VIA to Montréal is not particularly convenient. Especially since the Adirondack, with its views of the Hudson River and Lake Champlain, is one of Amtrak’s most popular routes, and it could sell out. If you still want to try it, it’s US$146 round-trip.

If you’re driving, it’s 367 miles from Times Square to downtown Montréal. Get into New Jersey to State Route 17, and take it all the way across the State Line to the New York State Thruway, Interstate 87. Remain on I-87 through Albany, after which it becomes the Adirondack Northway, all the way up to the border.

When you get to the border, you'll be asked your citizenship, and you'll have to show your passport and your photo ID. You'll be asked why you're visiting Canada. Seeing a Mets vs. Expos game, or even a hockey game between your favorite team and the Canadiens, probably won't (but might) get you a smart-aleck remark about how the Expos/Habs are going to win, but they won't keep you out of their country based on that alone.

If you're bringing a computer with you (counting a laptop, but probably not counting a smartphone), you don't have to mention it, but you probably should. Chances are, you won't be carrying a large amount of food or plants; if you were, depending on how much, you might have to declare them.

Chances are, you won't be bringing alcohol into the country, but you can bring in one of the following items duty-free, and anything above or in addition to this must have duty paid on it: 1.5 litres (53 ounces) of wine, or 8.5 litres (300 ounces or 9.375 quarts) of beer or ale, or 1.14 litres (40 ounces) of hard liquor.  If you have the slightest suspicion that I'm getting any of these numbers wrong, check the Canada Customs website.  Better yet, don't bring booze in. Or out.

As for tobacco, well, you shouldn't use it. But, either way over the border, you can bring up to 200 cigarettes, 50 cigars, and 200 grams (7 ounces) of manufactured tobacco. What you cannot bring from Canada back into the U.S. is Cuban-made cigars. They are still illegal to even possess in the U.S. So you need to note that President Obama hasn't had that law changed, or dropped the embargo against Cuba; if he is a Communist or a Socialist, that's yet another reason why he's not very good at it.

He has since changed the rules. You may not bring US$100 or less of Cuban tobacco products back into America. The average price for a Cuban cigar in Canada is around US$11, so we're not talking a lot of stogies. But it is now legally possible.

If you've got anything in your car (or, if going by bus or train) that could be considered a weapon, even if it's a disposable razor or nail clippers, tell them. And while Canada does have laws that allow you to bring in firearms if you're a licensed hunter (you'd have to apply for a license to the Province where you plan to hunt), the country has the proper attitude concerning guns: They hate them. They go absolutely batshit insane if you try to bring a firearm into their country. Which, if you're sane, is actually the sane way to treat the issue.

You think I'm being ridiculous? How about this: Seven of the 43 U.S. Presidents -- 9 counting the Roosevelts, Theodore after he was President and Franklin right before -- have faced assassins with guns, 6 got hit and 4 died; but none of the 21 people (including 1 woman) to serve as Prime Minister of Canada has ever faced an assassination attempt. John Lennon recorded "Give Peace a Chance" in Montréal and gave his first "solo concert" in Toronto, but he got shot and killed in New York. In fact, the next time I visit, I half-expect to see a bumper sticker that says, "GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE, AMERICANS WITH GUNS KILL PEOPLE."

(Update: It's now 44 Presidents, and 23 Prime Ministers.)

(Another note about weapons: I’m a fan of the TV show NCIS, which airs in Canada on Global Network TV. If you are also a fan of this show, and you usually observe Gibbs Rule Number 9, "Never go anywhere without a knife," this time, forget it, and leave it at home. If you really think you're going to need it -- as a tool -- mention the knife to the border guard, and show it to him, and tell him you have it to use as a tool in case of emergency, and that you do not plan to use it as a weapon. Do not mention the words "Rule Number 9" or quote said rule, or else he'll observe his Rule Number 1: Do not let this jackass into your country, eh?)

And if you can speak French, don't try to impress the Customs officials with it. The locals might appreciate that you're trying to speak to them in their primary language, but they won't be especially impressed by any ability to speak it, and any such ability won't make it any easier for you to get through Customs.

When crossing back into the U.S., in addition to what you would have to declare on the way in (if you still have any of it), you would have to declare items you purchased and are carrying with you upon return, items you bought in duty-free shops or (if you flew) on the plane, and items you intend to sell or use in your business, including business merchandise that you took out of the United States on your trip. There are other things, but, since you're just going for baseball, they probably won't apply to you. Just in case, check the Canadian Customs website I linked to above.

After going through Customs, I-87 will become Autoroute 15, which will take you right into the Montréal area.  If you're going to a downtown hotel, take Exit 53 to Pont Champlain (the Champlain Bridge), which will take you to Autoroute 10, the Bonaventre Expressway, across the St. Lawrence River and right into downtown -- or, as they say, Centre-ville.  If you're going only for the game, and going directly to the stadium, do not take the exit for the Champlain Bridge, but keep going, which will have you on Autoroute 20, and take Exit 8 for Pont Jacques-Cartier, across the river to Avenue de Lorimier.  Turn right on Rue Sherbrooke, which will get you right to the stadium.

If you make 2 rest stops – I would recommend at or near Albany, and count Customs, where they will have a restroom and vending machines – and if you don’t do anything stupid at Customs, such as fail to produce your passport, or flash a weapon, or say you watch South Park (a show with a vendetta against Canada for some reason), or say anything unkind about the late Maurice "Rocket" Richard, the trip should take about 8 hours.

Though that could become 9, because Montréal traffic is pretty bad, though not as bad as Toronto, which is every bit as bad as traffic in New York, Boston and Washington. As Canada native (Regina, Saskatchewan) Leslie Nielsen would say, I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley: Toronto traffic is awful.

Once In the City. Montréal is one of the oldest cities in North America, founded by France in 1642.  Seeing a big hill in the middle of the island will tell you where the name came from: "Mont Real,""Royal Mountain." In some instances, things in the city are spelled as "Mont Royal."

Since Canada is in the British Commonwealth, there are certain subtle differences with the way we do things in our country. Every measurement will be in the metric system. Dates are written not as Month/Day/Year, as we do it, but as Day/Month/Year as in Britain and in Europe. So the series begins for us on "April 9, 2004" but for them on "9 April 2004." Not on 4/9, but on 9/4. They also follow British custom in writing time: A game starting at 7:05 PM would be listed as 1905. (Those of you who have served in the military, you will recognize this as, in the words of M*A*S*H's Lt. Col. Henry Blake, "all that hundred-hours stuff.")

And every word we would end with -or, they will end wit -our; and some (but not all) words that we would end with -er, they end with -re, as in "Rogers Centre." Every measurement will be in the metric system: Temperatures will be in Celsius, not Fahrenheit; distances will be in "kilometres" (including speed limits), and gas prices will be per "litre," not per gallon.

When you arrive, I would recommend buying The Gazette and The Globe and Mail. The former newspaper is the city's predominant English-language paper, the latter is national, and both are liberal enough to suit my sensibilities (or, should I say, sensible enough to suit my liberalism). And The Gazette has a very good sports section, and should do a good job covering the Expos, although, being a hockey city in a hockey Province in a hockey country, you’ll see a lot of stuff about the Canadiens and nearby minor-league, collegiate and “junior” hockey teams no matter what time of year it is.

I would advise against buying French-language papers like La Presse, Le Journal de Montréal and Le Devoir -- The Press, The Journal, and The Duty -- unless you really know French cold. Especially since Le Devoir is the paper of Quebec nationalism and even separatism. If The Gazette and The Globe and Mail are too liberal for you, The National Post may be more to your liking. Either the bus or the train terminal will have out-of-town papers, including The New York Times, and possibly also the Daily News or the Post.

Like New York, Montréal is a city of islands, with a a main island in the center -- except, unlike Manhattan, you can't cross a State Line (or, in this case, a Province Line) by going over a bridge or through a tunnel. Like New York, Montréal is international and multiethnic: In spite of French being the largest ethnic group, there are significant Irish, Italian and Jewish communities, and, for linguistic reasons, a large and growing community of immigrants from France's former African colonies.

Montréal doesn't really have a centerpoint -- centrepoint? pointe du centre? To make matters even more confusing, while they have East and West (Est et Ouest) on street names, like Manhattan, the main island is not perfectly north-south. Indeed, it's actually more than a 45-degree angle, so what's east is more north, and what's west is more south. Boulevard St-Laurent, known as The Main in English and Le Main (pronounced "leh man" in French), is the official east-west divider, where the address numbers on each side start at 1, while the river is the starting point for north-south-running streets.

The further west you go in the city, the more likely you are to hear English; the further east, the more likely you will be to hear only French. In fact, in Montréal's East End, you might see several buildings flying only the Provincial flag, the Fleurdelisé, the blue flag with the white cross and the white lilies in the cantons. These people who fly only the Provincial flag, not the red-white-red tricolor with the red Maple Leaf in the center, are separatists, who consider Quebec a separate nation and want Anglophone Canada to "Let my people go." The separatist tide has faded since the nearly successful referendum of October 30, 1995, but there is still strong separatist sentiment in the East End, and this increases the closer you get to the Provincial capital, Quebec City.

Roger Doucet, an opera singer who sang the National Anthem at Expos and Canadiens games in the 1970s before his death from cancer in 1981, would acknowledge this divide: He would begin the anthem in French, and face the east side of of Parc Jarry, Stade Olympique or the Forum; then, in mid-song, turn and face the west side of the structure, and conclude in English.

Montréal has a subway, opened in 1966 and known as “Le Metro,” just like that of Paris. But they don't use tokens or farecards.  They use actual tickets.  Very small tickets, an inch by an inch and a half.  The Societe de transport de Montréal charges $3.00 for 1 trip, $5.50 for 2, $24.50 for 10, $9.00 for a one-day card, $12.00 for an "Unlimited Week-end" running from 6 PM Friday to 5 AM Monday. This makes it more expensive than the New York Subway, even with the exchange rate.  A ride to Trudeau International Airport is $9.00.  
(Update: I didn't look up the 2004 prices, and they now have a farecard, called an Opus Card.  I guess they got tired of complaints about those little tickets. A single fare is C$3.25, and a 10-trip is C$26.50. With the exchange rate, it's cheaper than New York's Subway.)

Reading the Metro map shouldn't be too much trouble, even if you don't know French. Getting to Stade Olympique, the Olympic Stadium, by public transportation is easy. It's 5 miles east of downtown, and you take Line 1, the Green Line, or any train that transfers to Line 1, to Pie-IX station. That's named after late 19th Century Pope Pius IX, and is pronounced "Pee-nuff." Don't laugh.

Going In. Because of Montréal's cold weather, Pie-IX station opens right into the stadium. In other words, you can go from downtown to the stadium, see an Expos game, and get back downtown, without even seeing the stadium from the outside. (This is actually unlikely, as the stadium can be seen from across the river, complete with the Olympic Tower standing over it, supporting the roof.)

If you are driving to the stadium, take Rue Sherbrooke to Pie-IX Boulevard. The stadium will look much like a flying saucer, with the Tower standing over it. The official address of the Olympic Stadium is 4141 Rue Pierre De Coubertin, named for the French Baron who restarted the Olympic Games in 1976.
The stadium faces east, with the Tower hanging over center field, although you won't be able to see that from the inside. Gates are along Avenue Pierre-de-Coubertin, at home plate at Avenue Letourneux, and in right field at Avenue Aird. Parking is C$20.

There are no statues, inside or outside the stadium, dedicated to Expos or Alouettes greats. But they do have a statue outside, devoted to the most famous of the Montréal Royals' players, Jackie Robinson; and a plaque honoring him inside, inscribed in both English and French.

The field points north, although "east" as far as the city is concerned, but that doesn't make a difference, since you can't see outside the place anyway. The "flying saucer" effect is retained on the inside, with a a convex shape, and about 20,000 seats in center field are cut off by a huge scoreboard.
The field is artificial and symmetrical: Outfield distances are 325 to the poles, 375 to the alleys and 404 to "centre." The seats add to the weirdness: They are hard plastic, and they have armrests only on the right side. Willie Stargell of the Pittsburgh Pirates hit the Big O's longest home run, 535 feet, in 1978.

The Stadium, was, of course, built for the 1976 Olympics. In the past, it has been home to the CFL's Montréal Alouettes, but they now use it only for Playoff games, whose ticket demand would far outstrip Molson Stadium. Major League Soccer's Montréal Impact uses it for Playoff games as well, and for early-season games where the cold might be an issue.

Food. Montréal is a great food city, but there are 2 things of which you should beware. One is Montréal-style hot dogs. This is a problem since hot dogs are a staple of sporting events. They call their hot dogs steamé, stimé or Steamies, and top them with mustard, chopped onion or sauerkraut. Sounds like New York-style, right? But they also put this weird relish on it, and that ruins it. Do yourself a favor, and order your Steamie without relish. (Incidentally, in spite of my suggestions of similarities between Montréal and New York, don't expect to see hot dog carts on the streets: The city banned street food carts in 1947.)


The other food you will want to avoid is poutine. It's French fries topped with brown gravy. Sounds great, right? Not so fast: They also top it with curd cheese. As they would say in the city's Jewish neighborhood, "Feh!" Poutine, along with French fries (they call them patates frites, "fried potatoes," as they know that the item originated in Belgium, not France), is available at McDonald's, but stay away from it. Trust me.

If you're a fan of the film Pulp Fiction, you should be aware that, regardless of what it's called in Paris, in Montréal, a Quarter Pounder with Cheese is called"un quarte de livre avec fromage" Literally, "a quarter of a pound with cheese." Not "a royale with cheese."

Neverthless, the Olympic Stadium has standard stadium food, and, although none of it is great, most of it upsets Canadian stomachs far less than does Bud Selig. One staple of Montréal food that is definitely worth it is viande fumée -- smoked meat sandwiches. Think New York's Carnegie Deli, only cheaper and better. Yum, yum.

Team History Displays. The Expos have 25 years of history, but those years haven't been very successful. They've only finished 1st twice, and both finishes are asterisk-worthy, as they came in the strike-shortened seasons of 1981 and 1994.

They beat the Philadelphia Phillies in a strike-forced Division Series in '81, and in the National League Championship Series they took the Los Angeles Dodgers to the 9th inning of a deciding Game 5.  But in the top of the 9th, Rick Monday homered to center field to give the Dodgers the Pennant.  Because of his name, the actual day of the week, and the color of the Dodgers' uniforms, the game, it became known as "Blue Monday." While the Expos do have a notation for the 1981 National League Eastern Division Title on the right field fence, there is no mention of the 1994 title, since, unlike that of '81, Major League Baseball does not officially recognized it.

(As the Washington Nationals, they finally finished 1st in a full 162-game season in 2012, and again in 2014. They still haven't won a Pennant, though, and have a whole new identity as chokers in D.C. That October 11, 1981 win over the Phillies, with Steve Rogers -- not Captain America -- outpitching Steve Carlton remains the only postseason series the Expos/Nationals franchise has ever won. Unfortunately for Rogers, despite holding the Dodgers to 1 run over the first 8 innings, he also gave up Monday's homer.)

The Expos have retired 4 numbers, for 5 people: 8, Gary Carter, catcher, 1974-84 with a brief return in 1992; 10, Rusty Staub, right field, 1969-71 with a brief return in 1979; 10 again, Andre Dawson, center field, 1977-86; 30, Tim Raines, left field, 1979-90 with a brief return in 2001 that also led to his son Tim Jr. playing for the Expos at that time; and 83, Charles Bronfman, founder-owner, 1969-91. Bronfman used to wear a uniform with that number while attending spring training at West Palm Beach, Florida. Robinson's universally-retired Number 42 is also on the right-field wall with the Expos' retired numbers, although he wore 20 with the Montréal Royals.

(The film 42 shows Robinson wearing 9 with the Royals, but there are surviving photographs showing him wearing 20 with them. Maybe he wore both.)

Daniel Joseph Staub is a Cajun, which is a mongrelization of "Acadian": He, like many other natives of New Orleans and (like his contemporary, former Yankee pitcher Ron Guidry) elsewhere in Louisiana, is descended from eastern Canada, what had been known as "New France." He was nicknamed Rusty because of his red hair, and when he was taken in the 1969 expansion draft, the Quebecois people thoroughly embraced their long-lost countryman, calling him "Le Grand Orange." In spite of only playing 4 seasons there, he may still be the most popular player in Expo history.

Staub is not in the Hall of Fame. The only former Expo in the Hall, and he just got in last year, is Carter.  Current manager Frank Robinson is in the Hall, although that was for his playing, mainly with the Cincinnati Reds and the Baltimore Orioles. The Expos do not have a team Hall of Fame. No player mainly identified with the Expos was named to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Baseball Players in 1999 -- or even partly identified, as in the cases of Carter, Dawson, Raines or Staub.

As of 2016, there are 5 figures associated with the Expos in the Baseball Hall of Fame: Carter, Dawson, Robinson, Tony Perez and Dick Williams. Carter and Dawson are the only figures in the Hall with Expo caps on their plaques. Perez played 1st base for the Expos from 1977 to '79, and Williams managed the Expos from 1977 to '81. Ironically, they fired him in '81 in favor of team executive Jim Fanning -- with a name like that, you could certainly have thought he'd have been a good pitching coach -- and he managed them to the Division Title. The '94 title was led by Felipe Alou, but he is not in the Hall, nor did the Expos retire his Number 18.

All notations for the Expos' history have been removed from the Big O. A banner showing the Expos' retired numbers 8, 10, 10 and 30 now hangs from the rafters of the Bell Centre, home of the Canadiens.

There is no mention at the Olympic Stadium of the 7 International League Pennants won by the Expos’ minor-league predecessor, the Montréal Royals, a farm team of the Brooklyn Dodgers: 1941, 1946, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1953 and 1958.

Nor is there any mention of Royals' greats, including future Hall-of-Famers Robinson, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider (who later broadcast for the Expos), Don Drysdale (who also broadcast for the Expos), Tommy Lasorda (who was a very good pitcher in Triple-A but not major league quality until he became a manager), Walter Alston (managed the Royals), Sparky Anderson (not much of a player), and Roberto Clemente, whom the Dodgers let get away to the Pittsburgh Pirates. (Lasorda, Alston and Anderson are all in the Hall for what they did as managers.)

Ross Grimsley Sr. pitched for the Royals''51 Pennant winners, and Ross Grimsley Jr. pitched for the Expos''81 Division winners. Walter O'Malley ended the Dodgers' affiliation with the Royals in 1960, and then the Minnesota Twins bought them and moved them to Central New York State, where they have played as the Syracuse Chiefs ever since -- ironically, as a Toronto Blue Jays farm club since 1978.

Stuff. The usual memorabilia is sold, including jerseys with the names of current Expos players on them. For those of former Expos stars, sorry, but you’ll have to go to Mitchell & Ness in Philadelphia (or their website) to get them.

There aren't many good books about the team. Alan Usereau wrote The Expos in Their Prime: The Short-Lived Glory of Montreal's Team, 1977-1984.  eff Stuart wrote Blue Mondays: The Long Goodbye of the Montreal Expos. And Claude Brochu, the owner whom many locals blame for the decline of the team, decided not to let them have the last word, and wrote his own version of history: My Turn At Bat: The Sad Saga of the Expos. I doubt that Jeffrey Loria, who (along with Commissioner Bud Selig) has really been killing the team, will write an apologia.

The Expos are also weak on video, but that's to be expected, since they haven't reached a World Series, and there are no official World Series highlight films for them.  Since the team's 25th Anniversary is likely to be its last major one -- the idea of the Expos making it to a 30th Anniversary in 2009 is getting more and more ridiculous -- there's no Silver Anniversary video.

Last year, Jeff Katz published Split Season: 1981: Fernandomania, the Bronx Zoo, and the Strike that Saved Baseball. In addition to those subjects, it tells of the Expos/Nationals franchise's closest call yet to a Pennant.

During the Game. You do not need to fear wearing your Met gear to the Olympic Stadium. You wouldn't even need to fear wearing Ranger, Islander or Devil gear to the Bell Centre.  But at the Big O, they'll just be glad you showed up.

Since you’re in Canada, there will be two National Anthems sung. “The Star-Spangled Banner” will probably be sung by about half of the few thousand Met fans who show up, but “O Canada” will be sung by the home fans with considerable gusto. When I’m at a sporting event where the opposing team is Canadian, I like to sing “O Canada” in French. Montréal Canadiens fans like this when I do it at the Meadowlands. Fans of the other Canadian NHL teams just think it’s weird. But then, they root for the Blue Jays, and I root for the Yankees, so I’d rather have their opinion of me than my opinion of them.

The Expos’ mascot is a big furry orange thing named "Youppi!" Apparently, that's French-accented Canadian English for "Yippie!" And his uniform number is an exclamation point! He, more than Rusty Staub or Andre Dawson ever was, is the face of the franchise. The ball carries well indoors, better than it did in the years before the roof was finished (1977-91). 

Update: After the Expos left, Youppi! was adopted by the Expos, and remains beloved in Montréal.

Announcements are made in English and French. "Play ball!" becomes "Au jeu!" (Game on! -- which is what they usually say for hockey in Canada.) "Let's go, Expos!" becomes "Allons-yi, Expos!" The team's nickname is Nos Amours -- Our Loved Ones. During the 7th inning stretch, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" is sung in English and French.

After the Game. Expo fans will not rub it in on those occasions when they win. Montréal is an international city, every bit as much as New York is, and some of these people may have cut their teeth as sports fans in European soccer. But we’re not talking about hooligans here.  Maybe if you were coming out of a hotly-contested hockey game against the Maple Leafs, but not once between "Original Six" rivals the Rangers, and not a baseball game.

If you want to go out for a postgame meal, or even just a pint, your best bet is to get back on the Metro, and head downtown. The Rue Crescent neighborhood, centered around that west-of-downtown street and roughly bordered by Rue Sherbrooke, Rue Peel, Boulevard Rene-Levesque and Rue Guy (that's "gee" with a hard G, not "guy"), is, more or less, Montréal's "Greenwich Village." You should be able to find a place that will serve you even if you order in English. Be advised, though, that you must remove your hat when you walk into a Montréal pub. They insist.

If all you need is a snack and coffee, your best bet may be Tim Hortons. (Note that there is no apostrophe: It’s “Hortons,” not “Horton’s,” because Bill 101, Quebec's ridiculous protect-the-French-language law, prohibits apostrophes and the company wanted to keep the same national identity.) They have a 62 percent share of the Canadian coffee market (Starbucks has just 7 percent) and 76 percent of the Canadian baked goods market. They also sell sandwiches, soup, chili, and even (some of you will perk up faster than if you’d drunk their coffee) New York-style cheesecake. It’s fast food, but good food. I rate them behind Dunkin Donuts, but ahead of Starbucks.

"Timmy's" (in the diminutive, people do use the apostrophe) has Montréal outlets even though namesake Tim Horton, a hockey defenceman (that’s how they spell it up there), played most of his career for the hated Maple Leafs.  He and businessman Ron Joyce started the doughnut/coffee shop chain in 1964, while in the middle of the Maple Leafs’ 1960s dynasty. He played a couple of years for the Rangers, then went to the Buffalo Sabres and opened a few outlets in the Buffalo area. He was still playing at age 44, and the only thing that stopped him was death. Specifically, a 100-MPH, not-wearing-a-seat-belt crash on the Queen Elizabeth Way over Twelve Mile Creek in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Madisons New York Grill & Bar is at 11590 Boulevard de Salaberry Ouest, and is renowned for its chicken tenders. However, there is no evidence that this is a particular place that New Yorkers visiting, or ex-New Yorkers living in, Montréal tend to go to. Besides, it's way out in Pointe-Claire, on the western part of Montreal Island. If you don't have a car, you'd need the Metro and a bus just to get within 3 blocks. Plus, I've been told it's more of a "restaurant" than a "bar," and that it's "kind of like a nicer TGI Friday's" -- so expect mediocre food at too-high prices and lousy service.

Sidelights. Montréal is much cleaner than most American cities, mainly because Canada believes in using government for, you know, essential services, including proper sanitation, rather than in giving kickbacks to corporations that claim to create jobs but don't. But the city does have some bad neighborhoods. Still, you should be okay if you stay out of the East End -- or, if you really must go, are willing to speak French there and give lip service to the separatist cause. In the meantime, check out these locations:

* Parc Olympique. The legacy of the 1976 Olympics was one of debt -- still not paid off. This got "The Big O" the additional nickname "The Big Owe." But much of it is still open. It includes an arena named for Canadiens great Maurice Richard, with a statue of him outside; the Velodrome cycling center, now a nature museum called the Biodome; the Montréal Botanical Garden and the Montréal Insectarium.  But you don't want to see a museum devoted to bugs.

The Olympic Park debt was finally paid off in 2008. The park now includes Saputo Stadium, the 20,000-seat home of Major League Soccer's Montréal Impact, although L'Impact -- nicknamed Limp Act by their rivals in Toronto and Vancouver -- use the Olympic Stadium for their bigger matches. And you still don't want to see a museum devoted to bugs. 

* Parc Jarry. Jarry Park Stadium was the original home of the Expos, from April 14, 1969 to September 26, 1976. It was meant as a temporary facility, seated only 28,456, and had a pool beyond right field that was the resting place for a few home runs. Expos pitcher Bill Stoneman pitched the 2nd of his no-hitters there, and in the park's last MLB game, the Phillies clinched their first 1st-place finish in 26 years.
Now known as Stade Uniprix, in 1995 it was converted into a tennis stadium, with one end still recognizable as the home-plate seating area from Jarry Park. 285 Rue Faillon Ouest at Rue Gary-Carter. Parc Metro.
* Site of Delorimier Stadium. Home of the Royals from 1928 to 1960, and the CFL's Alouettes from 1946 to 1953, this 20,000-seat stadium was one of the best facilities in the minor leagues, and was Jackie Robinson's first home field in "organized ball."

It was demolished in 1971 and replaced by a school, with a plaque honoring Robinson and the Royals. 2101 Rue Ontario Est & Avenue de Lorimier. Bus 125.
* Victoria Rink. Opened on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1862, and named for Queen Victoria, it was described at the down of the 20th Century as "one of the finest covered rinks in the world." On March 3, 1875, it hosted what is believed to be the very first indoor hockey game, anywhere in the world, complete with 9 men on a side, goaltenders (not a first but still unusual at that point), a referee, a puck rather than any kind of stone (as could be found in curling, then as now a popular sport in Canada), and both rules and time predetermined -- 60 minutes, as with today's hockey, although no separation into periods.

The Victoria Skating Club played a team made up of students of nearby McGill University -- often considered Canada's answer to Harvard, and the year before it had played Harvard in a game that was vital to the development of football in North America -- and the Victorias won, 2-1.

The Montreal Hockey Club -- often listed as "Montreal Amateur Athletic Association" or "Montreal AAA" -- which was awarded the first Stanley Cup in 1893, and it hosted the first Cup playoff games in 1894. The Victoria Hockey Club won the Cup while playing there in 1895, 1897, 1898 and 1899. The Montreal Shamrocks defeated them for the Cup in 1899 (more than one "challenge series" could be held per year in those days), and won it again in 1900. The rink also hosted some of North America's first figure skating competitions.

It was torn down in 1925, and a parking garage was built on the site. Rue Drummond & Blvd. Rene-Levesque Ouest, adjacent to a Sheraton hotel. Metro Lucien-L'Allier.

* Jubilee Arena. This building didn't last too long, built in 1909 and burning down in 1919, a year after the fire that destroyed Westmount Arena, forcing the Canadiens, who started here, move to Mount Royal Arena. This arena's construction led to the founding of both the Canadiens and the National Hockey Association, the precursor to the National Hockey League. 3100 Rue St-Catherine Est at Rue Moreau.  Bus 34.

* Mount Royal Arena. Home to the Canadiens from 1920 to 1926, the Habs won the 1924 Stanley Cup while playing there. It only seated 6,000, so when they were offered the chance to move into the larger Forum, they jumped at it. Mount Royal Arena was converted into a concert hall and then a commercial building, before burning down in 2000. A supermarket is now on the site. 50 Avenue du Mont-Royal Ouest & Rue Saint-Urbain. Bus 55.

* Montréal Forum and Westmount Arena. The Yankee Stadium of hockey, the Forum opened in 1924, and the Canadiens played there from 1926 until 1996, winning 22 of their 24 Stanley Cups in that span. (They won 2 before moving in, in 1916 and 1924.) The Montreal Maroons, who played from 1924 to 1938, also played there, winning the Stanley Cup in 1926 and 1935.

The Canadiens clinched on home ice in 1930, 1931, 1944, 1946, 1953, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1965, 1968, 1979 and 1993; and on the road in 1958, 1960, 1966, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1986. Famously, the Canadiens never had an opponent clinch the Cup on Forum ice until 1989, when the Calgary Flames did it, the reverse of 1986 when the Habs clinched in Calgary. The Rangers clinched the 1928 Cup on Forum ice against the Maroons, who hung on through the Great Depression for as long as they could but finally went out of business.

In 1937, the Forum hosted the funeral of Howie Morenz. the Canadiens star known as "The Babe Ruth of Hockey," and later that year hosted the Howie Morenz Memorial Game as a benefit for his family, between a combined Canadiens-Maroons team and players from the other 6 teams then in the NHL, including New York's Rangers and Americans.

Elvis Presley never performed in Montréal -- or anywhere in Canada except shows in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver early in his career, in 1957 -- but The Beatles played at the Forum on September 8, 1964. In 1976, it hosted the Olympic gymnastic events, and it was there that Nadia Comaneci performed the first perfect 10 routine in Olympic history, having already gotten the first perfect 10 anywhere earlier in the year at  "the new Madison Square Garden."

In 1972, the Forum hosted Game 1 of the "Summit Series" between Canada and the Soviet Union, and the Soviets' shocking 7-3 win turned the hockey world upside-down before Canada won Games 6, 7 and 8 in Moscow to take the series. On New Year's Eve, December 31, 1975, CSKA Moscow, a.k.a. the Central Red Army team, with many of the players from the Summit Series, began a North American tour at the Forum, and what were then the 2 best club hockey teams on the planet played to a stirring 3-3 tie. This game effectively launched the Habs on a streak of 4 straight Cups, 1976-79, which stand alongside their 5 straight of 1956-60 -- not as many consecutive Cups, but 16 consecutive series won as opposed to 10.

The original seating capacity was 9,300 -- which was considered huge for an indoor stadium in the 1920s, before the building boom that the Forum helped start, leading to that era's incarnations of Madison Square Garden and the Boston Garden, Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Chicago Stadium and the Olympia in Detroit. Capacity became 13,551 in 1949, and a 1968 renovation expanded it to a capacity of 16,259, pushed to 17,959 with 1,700 standees, with the tradition of the standees being let in first and rushing for position.

After an emotional closing ceremony on March 11, 1996, the Forum was converted into a mall, complete with restaurants, a bowling alley and a movie theater. Roughly where the rink was, hockey markings have been painted onto the floor of the main walkway, and there's a small bleacher with sculptures of fans and a bench with a statue of Maurice Richard, waiting to take the ice one more time. 2313 Rue St-Catherine Ouest, at Avenue Atwater.

Atwater used to be the city line between Montréal and Westmount, before mostly-Anglophone Westmount was incorporated into the "megacity" of Montréal in 2002. The Westmount Arena, right across from the Forum but in a separate city, was sometimes known as the Montreal Arena for prestige purposes, and was designed specifically for hockey, a rarity at the time, and was perhaps the first ice rink in the world to have the rounded corners we have come to expect from hockey. It opened on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1898, and was the home of several teams.

The Montreal AAA team won the Stanley Cup there in 1902 and 1903, making it 4 Cups, and by 1906 it was an amateur team that lasted until 1961. The Montreal Wanderers played there, winning the Stanley Cup in 1906, 1907, 1908 and 1910. The Canadiens started playing there in 1911, and won the Cup there in 1916.

On January 2, 1918, 19 years to the week after it opened, a fire started in, ironically, the arena's ice-making plant, and burned it to the ground.  No one died, but the Canadiens had to move back to Jubilee Arena, and the Wanderers went out of business. A shopping center, Place Alexis-Nihon, is now on the site.  Both that shopping center and the Forum can be accessed by Atwater Metro.

* Centre Bell. The new home of the Canadiens, originally Centre Molson, is adjacent to downtown Windsor Station, which is now a commuter line only (VIA Rail Canada, the country's version of Amtrak, operates out of Gare Centrale, 2 blocks away), on Rue de la Gauchtiere, although the address has been officially changed to 1909 Avenue des Canadiens-de-Montréal, to match the team and the year of its founding.

The Habs haven't done too well since moving in, not even making the Conference Finals. But the sight of those 24 Stanley Cup banners, all those retired number banners, and the noise and passion generated by Montrealers watching their game is still enough to intimidate opposing players and fans. Metro to either Lucien-L'Allier or Bonaventure.

The Yankees have now won a World Series at the new Yankee Stadium. The Boston Celtics have now won an NBA Championship at the TD Garden.  And while Lambeau Field wasn't torn down and replaced with a new stadium, and wouldn't host a Super Bowl anyway, it has been significantly renovated, and the Packers have since had a Super Bowl-winning season. Canadiens, you still haven't reached the Stanley Cup Finals since moving into the Bell Centre. You're on the clock!

* Percival Molson Memorial Stadium. Built in 1919, this stadium has been the home field for McGill University athletic teams, and was used by the CFL's Montreal Alouettes from 1947 to 1967, and again since 1998, although with only 25,012 seats, they still need to move into the Olympic Stadium for their Playoff games.  t was named for Captain Percival Molson, a former McGill sports star and member of the Molson brewing family (which, for a time, owned the Canadiens), who was killed in action in World War I. Avenue des Pins at Rue University. Metro McGill.

If MLB returned to Montréal, the city's metropolitan area would rank 20th among MLB markets. In the incredibly unlikely event it ever got an NBA team, it would rank 17th.

* Windsor Hotel.  Often called Canada's first grand hotel and billing itself as "the best in all the Dominion," it stood from 1875 to 1981. The National Hockey League was founded here on November 26, 1917, with 5 teams: The Montréal Canadiens and Wanderers, the Toronto Arenas (forerunners of the Maple Leafs), the Ottawa Senators (not the team that uses the name today), and the Quebec Bulldogs. By 1934, all but the Habs and the Leafs would be out of business.

Following a fire in 1957, the hotel went into decline, and the North Annex is all that remains, now an office building and banquet complex called Le Windsor. 1170 Rue Peel at Rue Cypress. Metro Peel or Bonaventure.

* Queen Elizabeth Hotel. Opened in 1958, its namesake -- and her namesake, the widow of King George VI that our generation knew as the Queen Mother -- stayed here, as have other monarchs, presidents, prime ministers and legendary entertainers. From May 26 to June 2, 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged their "Bed-In For Peace" at Room 1742, and recorded "Give Peace a Chance" there. 900 Blvd. Rene-Levesque Ouest at Rue University.  Metro Bonaventure.

* Historic sites. Being outside the U.S., there are no Presidential Libraries in Canada. The nation's Prime Ministers usually don't have that kind of equivalent building.  Of Canada's 15 deceased Prime Ministers, 2 are buried in or near Montréal. John Abbott was PM for only a year and a half in 1891 and 1892, and is buried at Mount Royal Cemetery.

In contrast, Pierre Trudeau was PM for all but 9 months between April 1968 and June 1984, and is, depending on your stance on the role of government and the status of Quebec, either the most-loved or the most-hated head of government in Canada's history. He is buried at Saint-Remi Cemetery, about 20 miles southwest of the city in Saint-Remi.

His son, Justin Trudeau, is now Prime Minister.

George-Etienne Cartier was Premier of "Canada East" prior to Confederation (their first step toward independence) in 1867, and along with the Anglophone Sir John A. Macdonald of "Canada West" was essentially the Francophone "Founding Father" of Canada. (They call their Founding Fathers "the Fathers of Confederation.") Essentially, the Fathers were afraid that, with America's Civil War over, their country would be next -- an understandable belief, since attempts to take Canada from Britain by force had been made during the American Revolution and the War of 1812, and had also been threatened in the 1840s. Cartier's home is a National Historic Site, at 458 Rue Notre-Dame Est at Rue Berri. Metro Champ-de-Mars.

Also accessible by Champ-de-Mars station is Place Jacques-Cartier, where the French explorer of that name -- no relation to George-Etienne -- discovered the islands that became the city. It is the gateway to Old Montreal (Vieux-Montréal), and unlike New York, which is actually older (founded 1624 as opposed to 1642), a lot of 17th and 18th Century Montréal buildings remain.

* Museums. The city's version of the Museum of Natural History, Pointe-a-Calliere, is at 350 Place Royale at Rue de la Commune Ouest.  Metro Place-d'Armes.  heir equivalent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, is at 1380 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest at Rue Crescent, just off the Concordia University campus. Metro Peel or Guy-Concordia. The McCord Museum of Canadian History is at 690 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest at Rue University. Metro McGill, although its relative proximity to the Museum of Fine Arts allows you to do one right after the other.
*

The Expos are now gone. But Montréal is still a great North American and world city. So if you feel like taking in Playoff hockey at its most passionate -- or a preseason Major League Baseball game -- make sure your passport is in order, see if you can scrounge up a ticket, and head on up.

And so, I complete my trip guides for all 30 NHL teams for this season, with the Tampa Bay Lightning, whom the Devils visit this coming Saturday night.

In 2014, I saw a blog post (I don't remember who wrote it) by someone who called San Diego "the Tampa of California." I think he owes San Diego an apology.

Before You Go. While the game will be indoors, you'll still have to get around, so you should know about the weather.

For this weekend, the Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times) and the Tampa Tribune are both predicting rain, including thunderstorms, for Saturday. Temperatures should be in the low 80s in the afternoon, and the mid-60s at night. Florida must be where the cliche, "It's not the heat that's so bad, it's the humidity" began. So even if you manage to avoid the rain, be prepared to sweat when you're outside the arena.

The Tampa Bay region is in the Eastern Time Zone, so you don't have to change your watch, or the clock on your smartphone. And while Florida was a Confederate State, you don't need to bring a passport or change your money.

Tickets. The Lightning are averaging 19,092 fans per game last season, a sellout. This means that, proportionally, they're doing better at the box office than any other Florida team, including the Miami Heat and the Orlando Magic. It also means that, if only 1 team is likely to still be in Tampa Bay in 10 years, surprise, it's the hockey team.

Lightning tickets are among the cheapest in the NHL. In the Lower Level (100 sections), seats between the goals will run you $98, behind the goals $73. In the Club Level (200s), $83 and $66. In the Upper Level (300s), $52 and $25.

Getting There. It is 1,136 road miles from Times Square in Manhattan to downtown Tampa, and 1,126 miles from the Prudential Center in Newark to the Amalie Arena (formerly named the Ice Palace, the St. Pete Times Forum and the Tampa Bay Times Forum). Sounds like you’re gonna be flying.

If you don't mind changing planes in Philadelphia, Charlotte, or even overshooting Tampa and changing in Miami, you can get a round-trip ticket for under $600.

If you want to take a side-trip to Disney World, you could fly to Orlando (which is 92 miles from Tampa) and rent a car, but I suspect that hotels will be cheaper in the Tampa Bay area, and get more expensive the closer you get to Disney.

Amtrak is longer, but a bit cheaper: $366 round-trip from Newark Penn Station.  Amtrak’s Silver Meteor train leaves Penn Station at 3:35 every afternoon, and arrives in Tampa at 12:49 the following afternoon. That’s right, 21½ hours. It leaves Tampa at 5:27 PM the next day, arriving in Newark at 6:54 the following night).

You can get a Greyhound bus out of New York's Port Authority at 11:00 Tuesday morning and be in St. Petersburg by 3:20 Wednesday afternoon. That's a little over 28 hours. Round-trip fare can be as high as $284, but advanced purchase can bring it down to as little as $192. The catch is that you'd have to change buses twice, in Richmond and Orlando. And the layover in Richmond is 3 hours and 15 minutes. And I don't like the Richmond Greyhound station, and I doubt that you will, either. There's also hourlong layovers in Fayetteville, North Carolina and Jacksonville. The Tampa Greyhound station is at 610 E. Polk Street, 4 blocks from the Amtrak station.

If you do prefer to drive, see if you can get someone to split the duties with you. Essentially, you’ll be taking Interstate 95 almost all the way down, turning onto Interstate 10 West at Jacksonville and then, after a few minutes, onto Interstate 75 South. Just outside of Tampa, you’ll switch to Interstate 4, and take that to the end, before its merge with Interstate 275, onto Nebraska Avenue South, riding that into downtown Tampa.

It should take about 2 hours to get through New Jersey, 20 minutes in Delaware, an hour and a half in Maryland, 3 hours in Virginia, 3 hours in North Carolina, 3 hours in South Carolina, 2 hours in Georgia, and a little over 5 hours between crossing into Florida and reaching downtown Tampa.

Given proper 45-minute rest stops – I recommend doing one in Delaware, and then, once you’re through the Washington, D.C. area, doing one when you enter each new State, and then another around Orlando, for a total of 7 – and taking into account city traffic at each end, your entire trip should take about 26 hours. Maybe you can do it in 24 if you speed and limit your rest stops to half an hour each, especially if one of you drives while the other sleeps, but I wouldn’t recommend this.

Once In the City. "Tampa" is believed to be a Native American name meaning "sticks of fire," while St. Petersburg, like the city of the same name in Russia that was known as Leningrad in the Soviet era, is named after the first Pope, the Apostle Peter. Tampa, founded in 1849, is home to 350,000 people; St. Petersburg, founded in 1888, is home to 250,000; and the metro area as a whole, 2.8 million. So, while neither city is big, it's a decent-sized market (and thus should be drawing more people for baseball and football games).

In Tampa, Whiting Street divides the city's streets into North and South, and the Hillsborough River into East and West. In St. Petersburg, Central Avenue divides the city into North and South, and while there appears to be no East-West divider, 1st Street seems to set off a section with Northeast addresses.

HART, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit, runs buses, $2.00 Local and $3.00 Express. PSTA runs $2.00 buses around St. Petersburg. There is no subway or commuter rail. So, if you want to go into St. Pete, taking the 100X bus from downtown Tampa ($3.00) and transferring to a bus in St. Pete ($2.00) will be $5.00 each way.

The sales tax in Florida is 6 percent.

Going In. The arena is downtown, has an official address of 401 Channelside Drive, and is also bounded by Morgan Street and Old Water Street. Depending on which lot you enter, parking will be either $15 or $20. Since the arena is on the waterfront, bounded by the Ybor Channel on the south, you'll probably be entering on the north side. There is an elevated walkway connecting the arena area with the adjacent Embassy Suites hotel complex.
The Tampa Bay Storm of the Arena Football League have played at the arena since 1997. The arena hosted the 2012 Republican Convention, at which Mitt Romney was nominated for President.
The rink runs north-to-south. The Lightning attack twice toward the north end of the arena.

Food. The Tampa Bay region is known for its Spanish and Hispanic heritage. Cuban sandwiches, featuring freshly sliced ham, pork, and Genoa salami on toasted Cuban bread with Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard, are sold throughout the stadium.

Local chain PDQ, a fast, casual dining restaurant that specializes in fresh hand-battered chicken tenders, sells chicken tenders, sandwiches, fresh salads, fries and other favorites off their restaurant menu, outside Section 102. Mr. Empanada, Tacos Trueno, Anthony’s Italian Sandwich, Deli and Stir Fry and a carving station will be new offerings around the arena. Additionally, a new portable concession stand on the 100 Level will feature fresh, hand-rolled sushi for fans attending Lightning games and Amalie Arena events. A gourmet grilled cheese portable concession stand will also be available on the 100 Level concourse.

Holy Hog has a new location on the 100 level. The local BBQ restaurant opened their first location on the Bud Light Party Deck at the beginning of the 2014-15. Items available at Holy Hog include award winning barbeque, mac n’ cheese, beef brisket sandwiches and other favorites from their restaurant menu.

The Lightning will be offering fans the option to purchase value meal items at select locations around Amalie Arena. Value items at Lightning home games will include $4 Kayem hot dog, $4 garden salad, $4 chicken nuggets, $5 Lynchburg nuggets and fries and $8.75 super slice of pizza and a 12 oz. soda.

The premium menus at Amalie Arena have also been updated for the upcoming season. Firestick Grill will now offer fresh rolled sushi, grilled veal rack chop, hydroponic green salads and fresh stone crab claws. Fans enjoying events and Lightning games from the suite level will now have the option to order World of Beer pretzels with beer cheese dipping sauces and the famous Columbia Restaurants 1905 salad.

Team History Displays. The Lightning hang their 2004 Stanley Cup banner, 2004 and 2015 Eastern Conference title banners, and 2003 and 2004 Southeast Division banners from the rafters. True, the Devils also have banners for Division and Conference title seasons in which we also won the Cup, but with as many banners as we have, and with the 3 Cup banners at the opposite end of the arena, it doesn't look like we have a brief history of success all clumped together. Even the Islanders and Flyers, who had dynasties and haven't won the Cup since, have enough banners to make it look worth their while. The Bolts, as yet, don't.
The Lightning have no retired numbers yet. Only 2 of their players have been elected to the Hall of Fame, each playing only 2 seasons for them and better known for playing elsewhere: Dino Ciccarelli and Denis Savard.

Dave Andreychuk played the last 3 seasons of a 640-goal career for the Lightning, and is eligible for the Hall, but isn't yet in. Vincent Lecavalier is still active (with the Los Angeles Kings), and Martin St. Louis is only recently retired, so neither is eligible yet. Lecavalier's Number 4 and St. Louis' 26 are not currently being worn, suggesting a future retirement for each of those numbers; however, Matt Carle is wearing Andreychuk's 25.

The Lightning do not yet have a team Hall of Fame. Perhaps next season, they will name a 25th Anniversary All-Time Team.

Stuff. The Tampa Bay Sports store is located to the right of the main staircase, inside the McDonald's Ticket Office on the west side of the arena.

Whether the Store sells team books and DVDs, I don't know. Most likely, the only DVD they would sell would be the official 2004 Stanley Cup highlight video. As for books about the team, you may be out of luck, at least until 2017 when they'll celebrate their 25th Anniversary. Steve Yerrid published Tampa Bay Lightning Winning Ways: The Making of a Championship Heart, but that was back in 2005, during the yearlong lockout, and is now well out of date, with no mention of current star Steven Stamkos.

During the Game. Although the locals -- the ones who are not transplanted New Yorkers or New Jerseyans, anyway -- really, really hate the Yankees and Yankee Fans for repeatedly "taking over their ballpark" (as if it were much of a task, or much of a prize), their hockey fans don't have the same kind of rivalry with any of the New York Tri-State Area hockey teams -- not even the Rangers, whom they beat in last year's Eastern Conference Finals. They will not fight you. Aside from the occasional brawl between football players in the "hate triangle" between the University of Florida, Florida State University and the University of Miami, there is rarely violence at sporting events in Florida.

Sonya Bryson, a retired Air Force sergeant, is the Lightning's regular National Anthem singer. Their goal song is "Fluxland," by the group of the same name. The big chant is, "Let's go, Bolts!"

The team's mascot is ThunderBug -- actually, a lightning bug. (Get it?) He wears a Lightning jersey with Number 00 on it. The team also has the Lightning Girls dancers.
On occasion, the Lightning will wear a 3rd jersey with "BOLTS" in diagonal script, a la the Rangers. Since the team did not exist before 1992, this is not a "throwback," jersey, it's a "fauxback."

After the Game. Despite some crime issues -- Tampa natives Dwight Gooden and his nephew Gary Sheffield both dealt with gang violence growing up in the 1970s and '80s -- Downtown Tampa is not an especially high-crime area. And, as I said, Bolts fans do not get violent. You might get a little bit of verbal if you're wearing opposing team gear, but it won't get any worse than that.

If you're looking for a place to relax with a postgame snack and drink, a mall named Channelside Bay Plaza is across Beneficial Driver from the arena. It has a Hooters, a Japanese restaurant named Oishi, a "fusion" restaurant called Flambe', and a ColdStone Creamery.

Malio's, in downtown Tampa at 400 N. Ashley Drive at Kennedy Blvd., is a locally famous restaurant, known around there as George Steinbrenner's favorite. He had a private room there, as does the still-living Tampa native and Yankee Legend Lou Piniella.
If you're looking to spend time with others from the Tri-State Area, "Legends Sports Bar, Billiard, Hookah and Grill" is the home of the New York Giants Fan Club of Tampa Bay. But it's at 1339 E. Fletcher Avenue, on the north side of Tampa, about 9 miles due north of the arena. The home of the New York Jets Fan Club of Tampa Bay, Peabody's Bar & Grill, is similarly far away, at 15333 Amberly Drive on the north side of Tampa, 14 miles northeast.

Sidelights. The Yankees' spring training home, George M. Steinbrenner Field (formerly Legends Field), is at Dale Mabry Highway and Tampa Bay Blvd., across from the home of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Raymond James Stadium. (Raymond James is a financial holding company, not a person native to Tampa who deserved the naming rights.) The University of South Florida (USF) also plays football at Raymond James, and the U.S. national soccer team has played 4 games there, and has never lost, winning 3 and drawing 1. They also played 3 games at Tampa Stadium.

North of Raymond James was Al Lopez Field. (Lopez, a Hall of Fame catcher and manager, was a person native to Tampa who deserved the naming rights.) North of that was the Buccaneers' first home, Tampa Stadium, known as The Big Sombrero because of its weird shape. It was built in 1967 with 46,000 seats, and expanded to 74,000 when the Bucs were expanded into existence in 1976. The Giants won Super Bowl XXV there. It was demolished in 1999. The entire group of current and former stadium sites is north of downtown Tampa, near the airport. Take the Number 30 bus from downtown to the Number 36 bus to the complex.

One of the legendary homes of spring training baseball, Al Lang Field (now Progress Energy Park), named for the Mayor who promoted St. Pete as a spring training site, is at 1st Street SE & 2nd Avenue S., 2 miles east of the Trop, in downtown St. Pete on the shore of Tampa Bay.

The spring home of the Yankees from 1947 to 1961, the Mets from 1962 to 1987, and the St. Louis Cardinals from 1947 to 1997, it is no longer used as a major league spring training or Florida State League regular season facility. In fact, the new Rays ballpark was supposed to be built on the site, but they haven't been able to get the funding, so Al Lang Field remains standing. It is the home of the new version the Tampa Bay Rowdies, in the new version of the North American Soccer League, the second division of North American soccer. Bus 100X to Bus 4.

Tampa-based teams have won Florida State League Pennants in 1920, '25 (Tampa Smokers), '57, '61 (Tampa Tarpons), '94, 2001, '04, '09 and '10 (Tampa Yankees). St. Petersburg teams have done it in 1975, '86 (St. Petersburg Cardinals) and '97 (St. Petersburg Devil Rays, who won a Pennant before their parent club had even played a game). The Clearwater Phillies won a Pennant in the same year as their parent club in Philadelphia, 1993, and won another under their current name, the Clearwater Threshers, in 2007, presaging their parent club's success.

To get to Tropicana Field, home of the Rays, you'll have to go onto Interstate 275, and cross the Howard Frankland Bridge – a bridge so traffic-ridden it's known locally as “Frankenstein” and “the Car-Strangled Spanner” – over Tampa Bay itself and into St. Pete.

Opened in 1990 as the Florida Suncoast Dome, and nicknamed the White Elephant because of its exterior color and lack of a tenant for the sport for which it was intended, the name was changed in 1993 when the NHL's Lightning came in, making the stadium the ThunderDome. But they were only there for 3 seasons, until the building now known as the Tampa Bay Times Forum opened.

In their home opener, October 10, 1993, the Bolts set what was then an NHL record of 27,227 fans in the quirky seating configuration the place had at the time. So an expansion hockey team -- in Florida, mind you -- in the era before you could buy game tickets online, managed to outdraw a winning, Internet-era baseball team.
Anyway, when the Devil Rays (as they were known from 1998 to 2007) arrived, the stadium's name was changed to Tropicana Field -- but, make no mistake, this blasted thing (or thing that should be blasted) is a dome. In 1999, it became the only building in Florida (so far) to host an NCAA Final Four; Connecticut beat Duke in the Final.

The official current seating capacity is 31,042, but that's with several sections of seats tarped over. The actual number of seats is 42,735, but that doesn't give the Trop an "intimate setting." Like the hardly-mourned Kingdome in Seattle, the high, gray roof gives the stadium the look of a bad mall. Those "catwalks" around the rim don't help. And that awful field -- one of the few ever, and the only one now, to have a dirt infield with the rest of the field being artificial turf, instead of just dirt cutouts around the bases -- may make you nostalgic for Giants Stadium's awful experiments with real grass. But the seating design itself may look familiar to you, in shape if not in color: It was copied from Kauffman Stadium (formerly Royals Stadium) in Kansas City. Don't look for fountains in the outfield, though: That would be too classy for this joint.

The Lightning played their 1st season, 1992-93, at Expo Hall, part of the Florida State Fairgrounds. It seats only 10,425 people, so it was never going to be more than a temporary home, but they outgrew it immediately, because, unlike the new Ottawa Senators, who came into the NHL at the same time, they weren't horrible; indeed, they were rather respectable from the off. 4800 U.S. Route 301, about 8 miles northeast of downtown. It would take 3 buses to get there.

Tampa Bay does not have an NBA team, nor is it likely to try for one in the near future. The Orlando Magic play 93 miles from downtown Tampa, while the Miami Heat are 279 miles away. Yet, mainly due to LeBron James (but also due to Shaquille O'Neal being much more recently in Miami than in Orlando), the Heat are more popular in the Tampa Bay region than the Magic are -- and the Los Angeles Lakers are nearly as popular as the Magic, probably because of Shaq and Kobe.

The Tampa Bay History Center is across from the arena at 801 Old Water Street. The Florida Aquarium is at 701 Channelside Drive, east of the mall. And Busch Gardens, with its African theme (for political correctness reasons, they can't call it "The Dark Continent" anymore), is at 10165 N. Malcolm McKinley Drive, 10 miles northeast of downtown. Take the Number 8 bus to 7th Avenue & 15th Street, then walk up 15th Street to 11th Avenue and catch the Number 18 bus, and take that to Busch Blvd.

This should provide you with some non-sports things to do in the Tampa Bay region. And, if you want to go there, Walt Disney World is 70 miles up Interstate 4, an hour and 15 minutes by car from downtown Tampa.

The Tampa Bay region doesn't have a lot of tall buildings. The tallest, at 579 feet, is 100 North Tampa, named for its address at Whiting Street downtown, formerly named the Regions Building.

Oh, and, get this: As New York is known as the Big Apple, Tampa likes to call itself the Big Guava. In the words of the immortal Jack Paar, I kid you not.

As far as I know, the only major-network TV show set in the Tampa Bay region  has been Second Noah, ABC's 1996-97 series starring Daniel Hugh Kelly as a veterinarian at Busch Gardens. Quite a few films have been set there, though, including Cocoon, Edward Scissorhands and A Time to Kill.

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So, if you can afford it, go on down and join your fellow Devils fans in a little Florida hockey. You'd probably have more fun there than in the Panthers' out-of-the-way arena. Winning, well, that's another matter.

This past Saturday night, New York City FC choked away a 1-0 at Yankee Stadium, and escaped with a 1-1 draw.

If you're an NYCFC fan, and also a Yankee, Jet, Knick or Ranger fan, this would be bad enough, if it weren't also against the league's New England team. And at home, no less.

This coming Friday night, the original New York Tri-State Area team in Major League Soccer, the New York Red Bulls, travel to Foxboro, Massachusetts to take on the New England Revolution, MLS's team in the Boston area.

Red Bulls fans view D.C. United, not the league's Boston team, as their arch-rivals. Revs fans don't see it that way: They're also Red Sox fans -- and Patriots, Celtics, and Bruins fans -- and they hate all New York Tri-State Area teams, even the ones that play in New Jersey like the Giants, the Jets, the Devils and the Red Bulls.

So I urge a great deal of caution for anyone going up for this games. Be mindful of what you do, say and wear, and where you go. If you follow these instructions, the worst you should get is a bit of verbal abuse.

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Before You Go. Boston weather is a little different from ours, being a little bit further north. Mark Twain, who lived the last few years of his life in nearby Hartford, said, “If you don’t like the weather in New England, wait a minute.”

You should check the websites of the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald before you leave. For the moment, they're predicting temperatures in the low 60s for daylight and the low 40s for the evening. You may need a winter jacket for the game. However, the predictions do not include a signficiant chance of rain, which is good, because Gillette Stadium has no protection for the fans, no roof at all.

Wind is sometimes an issue inside Fenway Park and outside the TD Garden, but it shouldn't be a big issue in Foxboro, which isn't close to the Charles River like the former or Boston Harbor like the latter.

Packing your Jets jersey, cap, jacket, whatever else you've got if you're staying overnight, or simply wearing it in the car if you're driving up and back, shouldn't be an issue. I don't think anyone will try to fight you just for wearing your Gang Green Gear.

What you do not want to wear is the kind of T-shirt you see sold at the souvenir stands on River Avenue across from Yankee Stadium, with messages like “BAHSTON SAWKS CACK” or “There never was a curse, the Sox just sucked for 86 years!” If you have one (or more) of these, leave them at home. The Chowdaheads are already antagonized by our mere presence in their city, and there's no reason to make it that much worse. Besides, this isn't even a baseball game.

Massachusetts is in the Eastern Time Zone, so you won't have to change your timepieces. And, of course, despite the silliness of the concept of "Red Sox Nation," you do not need a passport to cross the New Haven City Line, or to change your money.
Tickets. The Revs averaged 19,627 fans per home game last season. That doesn't sound like much when you consider that Gillette Stadium can hold about 68,000 people. But their soccer capacity is listed as 20,000, so that's close to a sellout. They can open the upper deck, and they have done so for Revs' playoff games, U.S. National Team games, international tournaments and friendlies involving visiting European clubs.

Visiting fans are put in the southeast corner, in Sections 214 through 218. Tickets are $27. This will put you all the way across the stadium from "The Fort," the Revs' supporters' section in the north end.

Getting There. Boston, like Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, is too close to fly from New York, and once you factor in fooling around with everything you gotta do at each airport, it doesn’t really save you much time compared to driving, the bus or the train. It certainly won't save you any money.

It's important to remember that the Revs do not play in Boston, but in Foxboro, about halfway between Boston and Providence, Rhode Island. (In fact, it's a little bit closer to Providence's Kennedy Plaza than to Boston's Downtown Crossing.) Unlike in Boston proper, where I would never
recommend driving, when going to Foxboro, driving is almost mandatory.

It's 217 miles from Red Bull Arena to Gillette Stadium. Unlike Boston proper, where the best way to go is to take Interstate 95 to New Haven, switch to I-91 until Hartford, switch to I-84 to I-90/Massachusetts Turnpike, if you're going to Foxboro, it's best to take I-95 almost all the way up, along Long Island Sound in Connecticut, across Rhode Island including through Providence, into Massachusetts.

Once in Massachusetts, take Exit 6B onto I-495 (Boston's "beltway") North toward Worcester. Take Exit 14A onto U.S. Route 1 North. (Yes, the same Route 1 that goes through New Jersey, including the George Washington Bridge you'll be using early on, but it's not nearly as fast to take 1 all the way up as it is 95.) The stadium will be about 4 miles ahead on your right, as will the Patriot Place mall.

I don't know where you're starting from, in New York or New Jersey. But if you do it right, once you get over the GW Bridge, the drive should take about 3 hours and 45 minutes: Half an hour in New York State, 2 hours in Connecticut, 45 minutes in Rhode Island, and half an hour in Massachusetts before reaching the stadium parking lot. How long it takes you to get from wherever you are to the GW Bridge, or to the Cross Bronx Expressway if you're already in The City, through a rest stop (New London is about the halfway point of the journey), and then off Route 1 into the stadium parking lot, remains to be seen.

If you are spending more than one day in Boston (and Friday night is the start of the weekend, so it might be an option), and you're driving in from there (if you are that nuts), take I-93 South to Exit 1B, then I-95 North to Exit 9, then Route 1 South.

For any of the other Boston teams, the train is a very good option. New York's Penn Station to Boston's South Station is currently $152 round-trip, and it will take roughly 4½ hours each way.

South Station also has a bus terminal attached, and it may be the best bus station in the country – even better than New York’s Port Authority. If you take Greyhound, you’ll leave from Port Authority’s Gate 84, and it will take about 4½ hours, most likely making one stop, at Hartford’s Union Station complex, or in the Boston suburbs of Framingham, Worcester or Newton. New York to Boston and back is tremendously cheaper on the bus than on the train, just $50 round-trip for this coming weekend (it could drop to just $30, with advanced purchase, making it even cheaper than BoltBus and Megabus), and is probably Greyhound’s best run.

Boston’s South Station is at 700 Atlantic Avenue, corner of Summer Street, at Dewey Square. It was named for Admiral George Dewey, naval hero of the Spanish-American War, not New York Governor and 1944 & '48 Presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey, and not for former Red Sox right fielder Dwight "Dewey" Evans, either.

Sounds great, right? Well, in the immortal words of ESPN's Lee Corso, "Not so fast, my friend!" You would still have to get from South Station to Gillette Stadium. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) runs gameday service from South Station to Foxboro (the station is right outside the stadium), $15 round-trip -- on Patriots gamedays. Not on Revs gamedays!
I found this out the hard way on May 29, 2010, when I saw the Red Bulls play the Revs in Foxboro. I had to take the MBTA commuter-rail service to the closest stop to Foxboro, in Walpole, Massachusetts, and then had to take a taxi the remaining 4 miles -- there and back, $18 each way. That $36 cost me almost as much as my Boston-to-Walpole round-trip train ticket and my game ticket combined. (MLS tickets are considerably cheaper than the 4 big North American sports.) The service also doesn't run on gamedays for the University of Massachusetts (a.k.a. UMass), which plays home games at Foxboro.

So if you're willing to go through that nonsense, you should look up the names of local taxi companies now, make sure they're willing to take you from Walpole to the stadium and back. A train leaves Walpole for South Station at 9:09 PM, but, unless you leave early, there's no way you're getting out of the stadium and to the station in time. Better to wait for the end of the game, and head over to one of the restaurants at the adjacent mall, and call a cab at 9:30, so that it will get there by 10:00, and you can get to Walpole in time to catch the 10:33 train back to South Station, which will arrive at 11:06.

Bottom line: If you can drive, this is a good Red Bulls roadtrip; if you can't, it can still be done, but you've been warned.

Once In the City. Named for the town of the same name (a shortened version of "St. Botolph's Stone") in Lincolnshire, in England's East Midlands, Boston is home to about 650,000 people, with a metropolitan area (including the areas of Hartford, Providence, and Manchester, New Hampshire) of about 8 million, making it the largest metro area in the country with only one MLB team in each sport (trailing the 2-baseball-teams areas of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area).
Boston is easily the largest city not just in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but in all of New England. The next-largest are Worcester, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island, each with around 180,000. The largest in Connecticut is Bridgeport with 145,000; New Hampshire's largest is Manchester with 110,000; Maine's is Portland with 66,000, and Vermont's is Burlington with a mere 42,000. Of New England's 100 largest cities and towns, 53 are in Massachusetts, 30 in Connecticut, 9 in Rhode Island, 4 in New Hampshire, 3 in Maine and 1, Burlington, in Vermont; only 2 of the top 17 are outside Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Counting New England as a whole -- except for the southwestern part of Connecticut, which tilts toward New York -- there are about 13.5 million people in the Red Sox-Patriots-Celtics-Bruins-Revolution market. This isn't even close to the top, when "markets" are viewed this liberally -- the Yankees have close to 20 million in theirs, and Atlanta leads with over 36 million -- but it does rank 4th out of 32 NFL markets, behind each "half" of the New York market and Chicago.

Boston is also one of the oldest cities in America, founded in 1630, and the earliest to have been truly developed. (New York is actually older, 1626, but until City Hall was built and the grid laid out in 1811 it was pretty much limited to the 20 or so blocks from the Battery to Chambers Street.) It's got the history: The colonial era, the Revolutionary period its citizens did so much to make possible, the abolitionist movement prior to the Civil War, Massachusetts' role in that conflict, the Industrial Revolution. Aside from New York, it was the only city on the Eastern Seaboard to have grasped the concept of the skyscraper until the 1980s.

It also has America's 1st college, Harvard University, across the Charles River in Cambridge, and a few other institutions of higher learning of some renown in or near the city: Boston College, Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Northeastern University, Tufts University, College of the Holy Cross, and so on. The particular instance of Harvard, funded by Boston's founding families, resulted in Boston and the surrounding area having a lot of "old money." And then there's all those Massachusetts-based writers.

All this gives Boston an importance, and a self-importance, well beyond its interior population. One of those aforementioned writers, Oliver Wendell Holmes (grandfather of the great Supreme Court Justice of the same name), named the city "the Hub of the Solar System"; somehow, this became "the Hub of the Universe" or just "The Hub."

Early 19th Century journalist William Tudor called Boston "the Athens of America" -- but, as a Harvard man, he would have studied ancient Greece and realized that, while contributing greatly to the political and literary arts, Athens could be pretty dictatorial, warmongering, and slavery-tolerating at times. Later sportswriters have called the Sox-Yanks (in that order) rivalry "Athens and Sparta." Remember, if not for Sparta, all of Greece would have fallen to the Persian Empire at the beginning of the 5th Century BC, and, at the end of that Century, Sparta kicked Athens' ass in the Peloponnesian War -- with Athens having pissed off so many people that the Persians actually allied with Sparta to teach Athens a lesson.

Ah, but today, the Spartans are remembered as crazy warriors with no regard for anything except their own honor, while the Athenians are held up as an ideal society -- which they had been, but allowed themselves to become corrupted. It should be noted, though, that Sparta's allies demanded that Athens be burned to the ground and its people enslaved -- and Sparta refused. They only wanted to end Athens as a threat to them, not punish them.

Boston, "The Hub of the Universe"? To hell with that: We are New Yorkers. (I'm counting people from North and Central Jersey in as "New Yorkers," especially where sports is concerned.) New York is the greatest city in the world, and we don't even have to capitalize that, the way Bostonians do with "The Hub of the Universe."

Foxboro? (Or "Foxborough"? The former name is usually affiliated with the stadium, but the latter name is actually the official spelling.) According to the 2010 Census, it's home to 16,865 people, making it nearly twice the size of East Rutherford, New Jersey, home of the Meadowlands Sports Complex. It was founded in 1778, and named for Charles James Fox, a prominent British politician of the era who had stood up for the rights of British America before independence. It's the hometown of singer Joanna "JoJo" Levesque. It was where South Vietnam's President Nguyen Van Thieu and his family lived after they had to flee after the fall of Saigon.

Oddly (for our purposes), it was the hometown of Seth Boyden, who moved to Newark and became New Jersey's leading industrialist in the mid-19th Century. A housing project named the Seth Boyden Houses was built -- and is currently targeted for demolition and replacement -- at 130 Dayton Street, across from Weequahic Park. This was the site of Dreamland Park, where the NFL Giants played their 1st game on September 25, 1925. (They beat a non-NFL team called the New York Red Jackets, 3-0. It was counted in the NFL standings.)

The sales tax in Massachusetts is 6.25 percent, less than New Jersey’s 7 percent and New York City’s 8.875 percent. However, aside from that, pretty much everything in Boston and neighboring cities like Cambridge, Brookline and Quincy costs about as much as it does in New York City, and more than in the NYC suburbs. In other words, a bundle. So don't get sticker-shock.

If you're going to the Boston area for more than just the game, instead of going up to Foxboro, seeing the game, and going back down, without spending time in Boston proper (and I do recommend spending a day or two in Boston, if you can spare the time)...

When you get to South Station, if you haven't already read The Boston Globe on your laptop or smartphone, pick it up. It's a great paper with one of the country’s best sports sections. There’s probably no paper that covers its local baseball team better, although the columns of Dan Shaughnessy (who did not coin but certainly popularized the phrase “The Curse of the Bambino” and wrote a book with the title) and Tony Massarotti (who started at the rival Herald and whose style is more in line with theirs) can be a bit acerbic.

You will also be able to pick up the New York papers at South Station, if you want any of them. If you must, you can also buy the Boston Herald, but it’s a tabloid, previously owned by William Randolph Hearst and Rupert Murdoch. Although neither’s man's company still owns it, it carries all the hallmarks of the papers that they have owned (Murdoch still owns the New York Post, the Hearst Corporation owned the New York Journal and its successor, the New York Journal-American, which went out of business in 1966). In other words, the Herald is a right-wing pack of sensationalism, frequently sloppy journalism, and sometimes outright lies, but at least it does sports well (sometimes).

Boston had the nation’s first subway service, in 1897, along Boston Common on what’s now named the Green Line. Formerly known as the Metropolitan Transit Authority, leading to the folk song “MTA,” in 1965 it became the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), or “the T,” symbolized by the big T signs where many cities, including New York, would have M’s instead.

(Here's a link to the most familiar version of the song, done by the Kingston Trio in 1959. Keep in mind that Scollay Square station is now named Government Center, and that the reason Mrs. Charlie doesn't give him the extra nickel along with the sandwich isn't that she keeps forgetting, but that they're acting on principle, protesting the 5-cent exit fare -- my, how times have changed.)

Boston was one of the last cities to turn from subway tokens to farecards, in 2006, a decade after New York's switch was in progress. A ride costs $2.65 with cash, slightly cheaper than New York's Subway. If you're going to Boston, not just to Foxboro, and sightseeing in the city, it may be cheaper to get a 7-day pass for $18. (The MBTA 1-day pass is $11, so the 7-day pass is a better option.)

There are 4 lines: Red, Green, Orange and Blue. Chances are, you won’t be using the Blue Line at all on your trip, and the Orange Line might not be used, either. Don't worry about the Silver Line: That's basically an underground bus service designed to get people to Logan International Airport. General Edward L. Logan was a South Bostonian who became a hero of World War I and then the commander of the Massachusetts National Guard. Boston kept the name on their airport in spite of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, leaving New York to name an airport after that great Bostonian.

It's important to remember that Boston doesn't have an "Uptown" and "Downtown" like Manhattan, or a "North Side,""East Side,""South Side" or "West Side" like many other cities. It does have a North End and a South End (which should not be confused with the neighborhood of South Boston); and it has an East Boston, although the West End was mostly torn down in the late 1950s to make way for the sprawling complex of the new Massachusetts General Hospital. Note also that Boston doesn't have a "centerpoint," where all the street addresses start at 1 and move out in 100-segments for each block. It doesn't even remotely have a north-south, east-west street grid like New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, and so on.

So for subway directions, remember this: Any train heading toward Downtown Crossing (where the Red and Orange Lines intersect), Park Street (Red and Green Lines), State Street (Blue and Orange Lines) or Government Center (Blue and Green Lines), is "Inbound." Any train going away from those 4 downtown stations is "Outbound." This led to a joke that certain Red Sox pitchers who give up a lot of home runs have "been taken downtown more than the Inbound Red Line."

I should point out that Government Center station just reopened after a 2-year renovation, removing a major pain since it's a key interchange. It has reopened in time for the Red Sox' and Revs' seasons, and the Celtics' and Bruins' presumed Playoff runs. For anything that could be reached by that station, such as City Hall or Faneuil Hall, use State station.

Going In. Gillette Stadium is 21 miles southwest of Downtown Crossing. It's actually closer, 20 miles, to downtown Providence, Rhode Island. This difference becomes greater in Providence's favor if you drove on the recommended road routes: 24 to 27.

The official address is 1 Patriot Place. (The old stadium was 60 Washington Street -- Washington Street being U.S. Route 1.) Also, don't be confused by the spelling: While New Englanders may spell the town's name "Foxborough," and that is the official spelling of the town, it's the same place as "Foxboro."

Parking for Patriots games is a whopping $38.50 -- but for Revs games, it's free! Tailgating is allowed, starting 2 hours before kickoff, and in designated areas only. So if you want to tailgate, do not do so in the Patriot Place mall parking lot: Get as close to the stadium as you can. If you get routed into the mall lot, you're out of luck for tailgating purposes. As New England is known for seafood, tailgating in Foxboro is known for serving things like shrimp, clams, scallops, and, of course, clam chowder. If you're rich, lobster rolls.
At the northeast corner of the stadium is a structure with the Patriots Pro Shop (more on that in "Stuff") on the ground floor. On the 2nd floor is The Hall at Patriots Place, a hall of fame and museum for the team. Admission is free with your game ticket, and on non-game days, and admission is $10.

The stadium, like most NFL and MLS stadiums, is laid out (roughly) north-to-south. You're most likely to enter at either the northeast corner (the Patriot Place Ramp) or the northwest corner (the Bank of America Ramp).

At the north end zone, to the right of the scoreboard, is a structure designed to look like an old New England lighthouse. The end zone seats below it become "The Fort," the leading supporters' section for the New England Revolution soccer team, filled by their biggest supporters' group, the Midnight Riders (named for Paul Revere and his April 19, 1775 compatriots). The Pats are now 1 of only 2 NFL teams that still shares its stadium with a pro soccer team, the other being Seattle's Seahawks and Sounders at CenturyLink Field.

A statue of a soccer player stands by the lighthouse, which won't seem as odd to you if soccer is more your type of "football." Eusébio da Silva Ferreira -- usually just known by his first name -- was born in Mozambique, then a colony of Portugal, and starred for the Portuguese national team and the capital city's team Sport Lisboa e Benfica in the 1960s, making Benfica one of the most popular clubs in the world. He also turned heads in the 1966 World Cup, leading Portugal to the Semifinals, its best performance ever (matched in 2006).

In 1975 (the year of Mozambique's independence), past his prime, "the Black Panther" came to America and played for the Boston Minutemen of the North American Soccer League, who played some (but not all) of their home games at the old Foxboro Stadium. He played for some other American teams, and closed his career in 1979 with the New Jersey Americans of the American Soccer League -- playing home games at Memorial Stadium in New Brunswick, just 8 miles from where I grew up. I could have seen him play, but I never heard of him until 2008, and never knew he played in New Brunswick until 2011. That's how poorly soccer was covered in America until the 1990s.

The statue of Eusébio is identical to the one outside Benfica's Estadio da Luz (Stadium of Light). So why a statue for a man who played just 1 season in Boston, in the area's 5th-most-popular sport? Because there is a large Portuguese community in New England, especially in the strip from New Haven through eastern Connecticut, Rhode Island, and the Boston-to-Providence corridor in which Foxboro sits. Most people in "Greater Boston," including Portuguese-Americans, never saw him play, but it's a tribute to them and their sporting spirit as much as to him. And, of course, having a statue of the greatest soccer player Africa has ever produced hasn't exactly hurt race relations in the area. He died last year, but he lived long enough to see the statue's dedication, and it was already there in 2010 when I first visited.


Gillette Stadium was built next-door to the facility known as Schaefer Stadium, Sullivan Stadium and Foxboro Stadium, which was torn down and replaced by the Patriot Place mall. The Pats played at the old stadium from 1971 to 2001 (their last game, a Playoff in January 2002, being the Snow Bowl or Tuck Game against the Oakland Raiders). In addition to the Minutemen, it was home to the New England Tea Men of the North American Soccer League and, from 1996 to 2001, of MLS’ Revs. The 1st MLS Cup Final was held at the old stadium on October 20, 1996, and D.C. United beat the Los Angeles Galaxy. The old stadium hosted it again in 1999, with the same result: D.C. over L.A. Gillette Stadium hosted it in 2002, and this time, L.A. won, beating New England at their place in extra time.

The U.S. national soccer team played 10 games at Foxboro Stadium, winning 7. They've now played 12 at Gillette as well, winning 7, most recently losing to Brazil this past September 8. The MLS Cup Final was played at Gillette in 2002, and the Revs qualified for it, but lost it to the L.A. Galaxy.

Boston College played a couple of football games at the old stadium in the early 1980s, thanks to the popularity of quarterback Doug Flutie. The old stadium was basically an oversized version of a high school stadium, complete with aluminum benches for fans, and it was terrible. The new stadium is so much better.

Food. Gillette Stadium is one of the few NFL stadiums I've actually been to, although it was for an MLS game. And yet, I don't remember much about the food options -- and the Patriots' website is woefully inadequate to explaining the options.

I was only at the north end and on the east sideline of the lower level. But I do remember that they had McDonald's stands at both. There was also a Dunkin Donuts stand, a Premio Italian Sausage stand, and a stand selling that New England standby, clam chowder.

Team History Displays. The Revs won the U.S. Open Cup, America's answer to England's FA Cup, in 2007. But that's it. They've reached 5 U.S. Open Cup Finals, and lost them all: 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2014. Even with a typical New England team's cheating (their players dive for penalties and are notoriously dirty tacklers), they can't win an MLS Cup, or even a Supporters' Shield (even the Red Bulls have done that -- twice). So the only title displays you're going to see belong to the Patriots, at the sound end of the stadium.
Stuff. As I said, the Patriots Pro Shop is at the northeast corner of the stadium, on the ground floor, below the Hall. But they don't sell Revs stuff. You'll have to go to an ordinary souvenir stand for one of those. And there are no good books or videos about the team.

During the Game. Red Sox fans, well, if you're a Yankee Fan, you know how they can be. Bruin fans can be nasty. Celtic fans can be arrogant. As a recent Thrillist article points out, Patriots fans might be the most obnoxious in the NFL.

Revs fans? Well, not having won anything except that 1 Open Cup (and that, 9 years ago), they don't have reason to be arrogant about this team. For the most part, though, safety will probably not be an issue. I've worn Red Bulls gear on the grounds and inside the stadium, and faced no problem because of that. Most Revs fans will accept visiting fans as fans of the sport, and a natural brotherhood will develop. So if you don't start anything, neither will they.

The Revs' mascot is Slyde the Fox. They have cheerleaders called the Rev Girls. As I said, their supporters' area is The Fort, in the north end. Revs fan groups include the Midnight Riders, the Rev Army, and The Rebellion.
The Midnight Riders, named for Paul Revere and his April 18, 1775 compatriots, were an original MLS supporters' group, founded in 1995, thus predating MLS play itself. They occupy Section 143.

Their songs include "Glory, Glory, Revolution" (to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic") and "When the Revs Go Marching In" -- less a tribute to the New Orleans Saints as it is to Liverpool ("Oh when the Reds... "), which had a heavy support in the Boston area well before the Fenway Sports Group bought them.
After the Game. Since Foxboro is suburban, you're not likely to face a crime issue. Both you and your car should be safe. However, since this is still the New York-Boston sports rivalry, even without it being a baseball game, don't get caught napping.

If you're looking for a postgame meal, snack, or just a pint, the mall next-door has several places to eat, including a Five Guys (yum), a Red Robin (eh), an Olive Garden (boo hiss), and that great New England-born, New York-loved institution Dunkin Donuts.

While you won't be as familiar with them, Capriotti's Sandwich Shop is a New England institution, and they have a Patriot Place outlet. D'Angelo's subs doesn't, but they're also a New England treasure. And, while one normally doesn't think of country singers in New England, the mall also has Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill.

Dunkin Donuts, founded in 1950 in Quincy, is all  over the place -- including inside the stadium. While Dunkin doesn't serve booze of any kind, it does serve snacks, and coffee, which you may need if you're driving back.

Just as the Riviera Café off Sheridan Square in the West Village and Professor Thom’s on 2nd Avenue in the East Village are Sox-friendly bars in New York, there are places in Boston that welcome Yankee Fans. The following establishments were mentioned in a Boston Globe profile during the 2009 World Series:

* Champions, at the Marriott Copley Place hotel at 110 Huntington Avenue (Green Line to Copley).

* The Sports Grille, at 132 Canal Street, across from North Station and the Garden (Green Line to North Station).

* Right across from Fenway itself, Game On! at 82 Lansdowne Street (Green Line to Kenmore).

* I’ve also heard that Jillian’s, across from Fenway at 145 Ipswich Street, takes in Yankee Fans, but I’ve only seen it rammed with Chowdaheads, so I would advise against it.

The local Giants fan club meets at The Greatest Bar, 262 Friend Street off Canal, a block from the Garden. M.J. O'Connor's, at 27 Columbus Avenue next to the Boston Park Plaza Hotel, is the local home of Jets fans. (Green Line to Arlington.) The Kinsale, at 2 Government Center, is also said to be a Jet haven.

Sidelights. Foxborough itself isn't especially historic, no matter what its municipal website says. But Boston is probably America’s best sports city, per-capita, and the number of sports-themed sites you might want to check out is large:

* Fenway Park. I realize there are a lot more Met fans than Yankee Fans within Jetdom, but Fenway is still one of the most historic sports sites in America, and the Mets did win 2 World Series games there in 1986. Although, when there's a Sox home game going on, as Alec Guinness put it in Star Wars, "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

In addition to the Red Sox, it was home to the Boston Braves' home games in the 1914 World Series (as they'd abandoned the antiquated South End Grounds and Braves Field wasn't ready yet), and football games were played there by Boston College, Boston University, and the Boston Redskins before they moved to Washington in 1937. It's hosted college hockey and, on New Year's Day 2010, the NHL Winter Classic, with the Bruins beating the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 in overtime. (This remains, through 2014, the only Winter Classic to be won by the home team.)

Tours are available year-round, and depart at the top of every hour from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Admission is $17 for the regular tour, and $25 for the Premium Tour that includes allowing children to take pictures with their mascot, Wally the Green Monster. You can also go on the warning track (but not the actual field), see the left field Wall -- the original Green Monster -- up close, and even touch it, and they'll take you to the seats on top of it, where they used to have netting to protect the buildings across the street from being hit by home run balls. That netting, which was the only thing that caught Bucky Dent's October 2, 1978 home run, is now gone. (I wonder where the ball is today. Hopefully, in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.)

I took the regular tour in 2002, before the Sox ended The Curse of the Bambino, kept my Yankee fandom to myself, and enjoyed it a lot. A tip: Stick a dollar bill in one of the Jimmy Fund boxes, as it's a charity raising money to fight pediatric cancer, with which the Red Sox have been involved since 1953 (and the Boston Braves before that since 1948).

4 Yawkey Way -- the address used to be 24 Jersey Street, and a Number 24 can still be seen on the big oak door that used to be the park's main entrance. Green Line B, C or D train to Kenmore Station. (Don't take the E, and, for some weird reason, there is no A.) When you come out of the station, hang a left onto Brookline Avenue, cross over the Mass Pike, and then the 2nd left onto Yawkey Way. (The 1st left is Ted Williams Way, formerly Lansdowne Street, which is fronted by the Monster, although you'll never recognize it from that angle. The field is below street level, so the Wall won't look its famous 37 feet, 2 inches of height.)

* Solomon Court at Cabot Center. This is part of Northeastern University’s athletic complex, and was the site of the Huntington Avenue Grounds, the only other home the Boston Red Sox have ever known, from their founding in 1901 to 1911. When the Sox won the first World Series in 1903, it was clinched here. At roughly the spot where the pitcher’s mound was, there is a statue of Cy Young, who pitched for the Sox in their 1903 and 1904 World Championship seasons. Huntington Avenue at Forsyth Street. Green Line E train to Northeastern.

* South End Grounds. This is still the most successful baseball location in Boston history. It was home to 3 ballparks, all named the Sound End Grounds. In 1871, the first such park was built there, and was home to the Boston Red Stockings of the first professional baseball league, the National Association. This team featured half the members of the first openly professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings (hence the name), and also had a young pitcher named Al Spalding, who would later co-found the team now known as the Chicago Cubs and the sporting-goods empire that still bears his name. Those Boston Red Stockings team won Pennants in 1872, ’73, ’74 and ’75, and its strength (domination, really) was one of the reasons the NA collapsed.

When the National League was founded in 1876, the Red Stockings were a charter member. They won Pennants in 1877 and ’78, and by the time they won the 1883 Pennant, they were popularly known as the “Boston Beaneaters.” No, I'm not making that name up. Building a new park on the site in 1888, they won Pennants in 1891, ’92 and ’93. But on May 15, 1894, in a game against the NL version of the Baltimore Orioles, a fight broke out, and no one noticed that some kids had started a fire in the right-field seats. (Or maybe it was the ashes of a grown man’s cigar. Both have been suggested, probably nobody knew for sure.) It became known as the Great Roxbury Fire, and the story goes that the park and 117 (or 170, or 200) buildings burned to the ground, and 1,900 people were left homeless – but nobody died. (I don’t buy that last part at all.)

A new park was hastily built on the site, while the Beaneaters temporarily played at the home of the city’s team in the 1890 Players’ League. This last South End Grounds hosted the Braves' 1897 and '98 Pennant winners, and lasted until 1914, when, with the team now called the Braves (owner James Gaffney had been a “Brave,” or officer, in New York’s Tammany Hall political organization), decided it was too small for the crowds the team was now attracting. So he moved the team to Fenway, and played their 1914 World Series games there, and opened Braves Field the next season. Overall, 12 Pennants were won here, in a 44-year span -- one more than the Red Sox have won at Fenway Park in 102 seasons.

Parking for Northeastern University is now on the site -- and save your Joni Mitchell jokes. Columbus Avenue at Hammond Street. Orange Line to Ruggles.

* Third Base Saloon. There’s some question as to what was the first “sports bar”: St. Louis Brown Stockings (the team now known as the Cardinals) owner Chris von der Ahe’s place on the grounds of Sportsman’s Park, or Michael T. McGreevy’s establishment that opened just outside the South End Grounds, both in the 1880s. “I call it Third Base because it’s the last place you go before home,” McGreevy would tell people. “Enough said.” McGreevy used that phrase to settle any and all arguments to the point where not only did “Nuf Ced” become his nickname, but he had it (spelled that way) laid in mosaic tile on the bar’s floor.

Third Base Saloon became the headquarters of the Royal Rooters, a Beaneaters’ booster club, founded in 1897. In 1901, when the American League and the team that became the Red Sox was formed, Beaneaters founder-owner Arthur Soden made one of the dumbest mistakes in sports history: Despite competition practically next-door to his team, he raised ticket prices. This infuriated the working-class Irish fan base of the NL club, and they immediately accepted Nuf Ced’s suggestion of switching to the AL outfit. (I wonder if they built their park near Nuf Ced's place for just that reason, to get his customers?)

Nuf Ced and the Rooters stayed with the Sox after their 1912 move to Fenway, until 1920 when Prohibition closed him down. He died in 1930, and to this day, no Boston baseball team has ever won a World Series without him being present at all home games. (Not legitimately, anyway.) A park with a bike trail is now on the site, so the address, 940 Columbus Avenue, is no longer in use. As with the site of South End Grounds, take the Orange Line to Ruggles.

A new version, named McGreevy’s 3rd Base Saloon, was founded by Dropkick Murphys member Ken Casey, with “an exact replica of McGreevy’s original barroom.” 911 Boylston Street. Green Line B, C or D train to Hynes-Convention Center.

* Matthews Arena. Built in 1910 as the Boston Arena, this is believed to be the oldest currently-used multi-purpose athletic building in use in the world. Northeastern still uses it, while BC, BU, Harvard, MIT and Tufts all once played home games here. It was the Bruins' first home, from 1924 to 1928, and the Celtics played the occasional home game here from 1946 to 1955, on occasions when there was a scheduling conflict with the Garden. In 1985, the Celtics played an alumni game here, with the opposing teams coached by Red Auerbach (his players wearing the white home jerseys) and Bill Russell (who didn't play, his players wearing the road green).

A gift from NU alumnus George J. Matthews led the school to rename the arena for him. In spite of its age, the building is fronted by a modern archway. Massachusetts Avenue at St. Botolph Street. Green Line E train to Symphony. Symphony Hall, Boston's answer to Carnegie Hall, is a block away at Massachusetts and Huntington Avenues.

* Site of Braves Field/Nickerson Field. Although Boston University no longer has a football team, it still plays other sports at Nickerson Field, which opened in 1957. Its home stand is the surviving right field pavilion of Braves Field, where the Braves played from 1915 until they left town. In return for being allowed to play their 1914 World Series games at Fenway, the Braves invited the Sox to play their Series games at Braves Field, which seated 40,000, a record until the first Yankee Stadium was built. The Sox played their home Series games there in 1915, ’16 and ’18. The Braves themselves only played one World Series here, in 1948, losing to the Indians, who had just beaten the Sox in a one-game Playoff for the AL Pennant at Fenway, negating the closest call there ever was for an all-Boston World Series.

The Braves’ top farm team was the Triple-A version of the Milwaukee Brewers, and, with their team in decline after the ’48 Pennant and the Sox having the far larger attendance, they gave up the ghost and moved just before the start of the 1953 season, and then in 1966 to Atlanta.

But they already had Warren Spahn and Eddie Mathews, and, ironically, if they’d just hung on a little longer, they would have had Hank Aaron (they’d already integrated with Sam Jethroe in 1948, 11 years before the Sox finally caved in to the post-1865 world and added Pumpsie Green). They could have played the 1957 and '58 World Series in Boston instead of Milwaukee.

If this had happened, once Ted Williams retired in 1960, interest in the declining Sox would have faded to the point that Tom Yawkey, not a New Englander, could have gotten frustrated, and the Red Sox could have moved with the Braves staying. If so, while the 1967, ’75, ’86, 2004, ’07 and '13 World Series would have been played somewhere else, Boston would have gained the 1957, ’58, ’91, ’92, ’95, ’96 and ’99 World Series, and, because of the proximity, there would be a big New York-Boston rivalry in baseball, but it would be Mets-Braves. (Of course, this would have meant the Yankees' main rivals would be the Baltimore Orioles -- who are, after all, the closest AL team to them, closer than the Red Sox.)

Instead, the Braves moved, and BU bought the grounds and converted it into Nickerson Field. The NFL’s Boston Redskins (named for the Braves) played their first season, 1932, at Braves Field, before playing 1933-36 at Fenway and then moving to Washington. The AFL’s Boston Patriots played at Nickerson 1960-62, and then at Fenway 1963-68. The former Braves Field ticket office still stands, converted into the BU Police headquarters. Unfortunately, the field is now artificial.

Commonwealth Avenue at Babcock Street and Harry Agganis Way. (Agganis was a BU quarterback who briefly played for the Red Sox before getting sick and dying at age 24 in 1955.) Green Line B train at Pleasant Street.

* TD Garden and site of Boston Garden. The TD Garden, formerly the Shawmut Center, the FleetCenter and the TD Banknorth Garden (TD stands for Toronto-Dominion Bank), opened in 1995, atop Boston’s North Station, as a replacement for the original Boston Garden, home to the NHL’s Bruins starting in 1928 and the NBA’s Celtics starting in 1946. The old “Gahden” (which stood on the site of the parking lot in front of the new one) and the new one have also, since 1953, hosted the Beanpot hockey tournament, contested by BC, BU, Northeastern and Harvard.

The Celtics finally ended their drought in 2008, winning their 17th NBA Championship 22 years after winning their 16th in the old Garden, and the Bruins ended a drought in 2011, winning their 6th Stanley Cup 39 years after winning their 5th. (However, they still haven’t clinched at home since Bobby Orr’s “Flying Goal” in 1970, 2 days after Willis Reed limped onto the court and gave the Knicks their 1st title).

The Beatles played the old Garden on September 12, 1964. Elvis Presley played it on November 10, 1971. The new Garden is also home to the Sports Museum of New England. It hosted the Democratic Convention in 2004, nominating home-State Senator John Kerry for President. 150 Causeway Street. Green (outbound, so no letter necessary) or Orange Line to North Station.

NCAA basketball tournament games have been held at the TD Garden, the Hartford Civic Center (now the XL Center), the Providence Civic Center (now the Dunkin Donuts Center), the Worcester Centrum (now the DCU Center), and the University of Rhode Island's Keaney Gymnasium in Kingston. But no New England building has ever hosted a Final Four, and none ever will, due to attendance requirements, unless the Patriots put a dome on Gillette Stadium.

No school within the city limits of Boston has ever reached the Final Four. One Massachusetts school has, at least according to current NCAA records: Holy Cross, in Worcester, winning the National Championship in 1947 with George Kaftan, "the Golden Greek," and reaching the Final Four again in '48 with Bob Cousy (a freshman in '47 and ineligible under the rules of the time).

The University of Massachusetts, with its main campus in Amherst, 93 miles west of Downtown Crossing, made the Final Four in 1996, under coach John Calipari, but had to vacate the appearance when later Knick Marcus Camby admitted he'd accepted money and gifts from agents.

The University of Connecticut (UConn, in Storrs, 83 miles southwest, closer to Boston than to Manhattan) has made it 5 times, winning it all in 1999, 2004, 2011 and 2014, and losing in the Semifinal in 2009. The only New Hampshire school to make it is Dartmouth, in Hanover, 126 miles northwest, in 1942 and 1944, losing in the Final both times. The only Rhode Island school to make it is Providence, in 1973 and 1987 (coached by future Big East Commissioner Dave Gavitt and future preening schmo Rick Pitino, respectively). No school from Maine or Vermont has ever reached the Final Four.

* Garden Bars. Several noted drinking emporiums are near TD Garden. Perhaps the most famous, and once rated the best sports bar in America by Sports Illustrated, is The Fours, at 166 Canal Street. It’s named for “the Miracle of the Fours”: 1970 Stanley Cup Finals, Game 4, overtime (therefore the 4th period), winning goal scored by Number 4, Bobby Orr, while tripped up by Noel Picard, Number 4 of the St. Louis Blues, to clinch the Bruins’ 4th Stanley Cup. (Some people like to point out that it was Orr's 4th goal of the Finals, but in fact it was his 1st.)

As mentioned, the Sports Grille Boston is at 132 Canal Street. McGann’s is at 197 Portland Street; while The Greatest Bar – a name, if not an apt description – is at 262 Friend Street.

* Alumni Stadium. Boston College has played football here since 1957, and the Patriots played their 1969 home games here. Prior to 1957, BC played at several sites, including Fenway and Braves Field. Beacon Street at Chestnut Hill Drive. Green Line B train to Boston College.

* Harvard Stadium. The oldest continually-used football stadium in America -- the University of Pennsylvania’s Franklin Field is on the oldest continually-used football site -- this stadium was built in 1903, and renovations (funded by those wealthy Harvard alums) have kept it in tip-top condition, if not turned it into a modern sports palace.

This stadium is responsible for the legalization of the forward pass in football. When the organization that became the NCAA was founded in 1906, rules changes were demanded to make the game safer. One suggestion was widening the field, but Harvard – at the time, having as much pull as Notre Dame, Michigan and Alabama now do, all rolled into one – insisted that they’d just spent all this money on a new stadium, and didn’t want to alter it to suit a rule change. Much as Notre Dame has sometimes been a tail wagging college football’s dog, the Crimson were accommodated, and someone suggested the alternative of legalizing the forward pass, which had occasionally been illegally done.

Today, the stadium is best known as the site of the 1968 Harvard-Yale game, where the two ancient rivals both came into the game undefeated, and a furious late comeback from 29-13 down led to the famous Harvard Crimson (school newspaper) headline “HARVARD BEATS YALE 29-29” and a tie for the Ivy League Championship. (Actor Tommy Lee Jones, then listed as "Tom Jones," started at guard for Harvard in that game. His roommate at Harvard was future Vice President Al Gore.) The Patriots played 1970, their first season in the NFL and last under the name “Boston Patriots,” at Harvard Stadium.

Although its mailing address is 65 North Harvard Street in “Allston, MA,” and the University is in Cambridge, the stadium is actually on the south, Boston side of the Charles River. Harvard Street at Soldiers Field Road. Unfortunately, it’s not that close to public transportation: Your best bet is to take the Red Line to Harvard Square, and walk across the Anderson Memorial Bridge.

* Suffolk Downs. Opened in 1935, this is New England's premier horse-racing track. On their last tour, on August 18, 1966, the Beatles played here. However, as horse racing has declined, so has the track, to the point that New England's best known race, the Massachusetts Handicap (or the Mass Cap) hasn't been run since 2008. Previously, it had been won by such legendary horses as Seabiscuit, Whirlaway, Riva Ridge and Cigar.

So, unless you really loved the film Seabiscuit or are a huge Beatlemaniac, I'd say that if you don't have the time to see everything on this list, this is the first item you should cross off. 525 McClellan Highway, at Waldemar Avenue, in the East Boston neighborhood, near Logan Airport. Blue Line to Suffolk Downs station.

* Museum of Fine Arts. This is Boston’s equivalent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I’m not saying you have to visit, but you should see one major Boston tourist site that doesn’t involve sports, and it’s a 10-minute walk from Fenway and a 5-minute walk from the sites of the Huntington Avenue and South End Grounds. 465 Huntington Avenue at Parker Street. Green Line E train to Museum of Fine Arts station.

* Freedom Trail. Boston’s most familiar tourist trap is actually several, marked by a red brick sidewalk and red paint on streets. Historic sites include Boston’s old and new City Halls, Massachusetts’ old and new State Houses (old: Built 1711, with the State Street subway station somehow built into it; “new”: 1798), the Old North Church (where Paul Revere saw the two lanterns hung) and the Old South Meeting House (where Samuel Adams started the Boston Tea Party and would be horrified at the right-wing bastards using the “Tea Party” name today), Revere’s house (said to be the oldest standing house in Boston), the Boston Tea Party Ship, the U.S.S. Constitution, and the Bunker Hill Monument.

The Trail starts at Boston Common, at Park and Tremont Streets. Green or Red Line to Park Street.

* Cambridge. Home to Harvard and MIT, it is not so much “Boston’s Brooklyn” (that wouldn’t be Brookline, either, but would be South Boston or “Southie” and neighboring Dorchester) as “Boston’s Greenwich Village,” particularly since Harvard Square was the center of Boston’s alternative music scene in the Fifties and Sixties, where performers like Joan Baez and the aforementioned Kingston Trio became stars. Later, it would be rock acts like Aerosmith, the J. Geils Band and the Dropkick Murphys that would make their names in Cambridge.

The city is also home to the Longfellow House, home of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. And while it is worth a visit, no, you cannot, as the old saying demonstrating the Boston accent goes, “Pahk yuh cah in Hahvuhd Yahd.” Harvard Yard does not allow motorized vehicles. Centered around Harvard Square at 1400 Massachusetts Avenue. Red Line to Harvard Square.

* John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Unlike the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, which is a 2-hour drive north of Midtown Manhattan in Hyde Park, closer to Albany, the JFK Library is much more accessible – not just to drivers and non-drivers alike, but to anyone. Maybe it’s because it’s more interactive, but maybe it’s also because FDR is a figure of black-and-white film and scratchy radio recordings, while JFK is someone whose television images and color films make him more familiar to us, even though he’s been dead for over 50 years now. (Incredibly, he’s now been dead longer than he was alive.)

Sometimes it seems as though his Library is less about his time than it is about our time, and the time beyond. While I love the FDR Library, there’s no doubt in my mind that this is the best Presidential Library or Museum there is. Columbia Point, on the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts. Red Line to JFK/UMass, plus a shuttle bus.

Also on the UMass-Boston campus is the Clark Athletic Center, which hosted one of the 2000 Presidential Election's debates between Al Gore and George W. Bush. 100 Morrissey Blvd., 4 blocks from the JFK Library.

Other Massachusetts Presidential sites include the JFK Tour at Harvard, JFK’s birthplace at 83 Beals Street in Brookline (Green Line B train to Babcock Street), those involving John and John Quincy Adams in Quincy (Red Line to Quincy Center – not to “Quincy Adams”), the house at 173 Adams Street in Milton where George H.W. Bush was born (Red Line to Milton, now has a historical marker, although the house itself is privately owned and not available for tours), and the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum, in Northampton where he was Mayor before becoming the State’s Governor and then President (20 West Street, 100 miles west of Boston, although Greyhound goes there). Closer than Northampton are sites relating to Franklin Pierce in Concord and Hillsboro, New Hampshire.

Salem, home to the witch trials, is to the north: MBTA Commuter Rail Newburyport/Rockport Line out of North Station to Salem. Plymouth, where the Pilgrims landed and set up the Massachusetts Bay Colony, is to the south: MBTA Kingston/Plymouth Line out of South Station to Kingston, then switch to FreedomLink bus.

Lexington & Concord? Lexington: Red Line north to its terminal at Alewife, then switch to the 62 or 76 bus. Concord: MBTA Fitchburg/South Acton Line out of North Station to Concord. Bunker Hill? 93 bus on Washington Street, downtown, to Bunker Hill & Monument Streets, across the river in the Charlestown neighborhood, then 2 blocks down Monument.

The Bull & Finch Pub, which was used for the exterior shot and the basis for the interior shot of Cheers, was at 84 Beacon Street at Brimmer Street, across from Boston Common and near the State House. It's since been bought and turned into an official Cheers, with the upstairs Hampshire House (the basis for the show's rarely-seen seafood restaurant Melville's) also part of the establishment. Green Line to Arlington. A version designed to look more like the one on the show, complete with an "island bar" instead of a "wall bar," is at Faneuil Hall. Congress & Market Streets. Orange or Blue Line to State, since Government Center is closed for renovations.

The Suffolk County Court House, recognizable from David E. Kelley's legal dramas Ally McBeal, The Practice and Boston Legal, is at the Scollay Square/Government Center complex. The official address is 3 Pemberton Street, at Somerset Street. Again, use State, due to the closure of Government Center.

The Prudential Tower, a.k.a. the Prudential Center (not to be confused with the Devils' arena in Newark), at 749 feet the tallest building in the world outside New York when it opened in 1964, contains a major mall. 800 Boylston Street. The finish line of the Boston Marathon, and the site of the 2013 bombing, is at 755 Boylston at Ring Road. Green Line B, C or D to Copley, or E to Prudential.

There are two John Hancock Buildings in Boston, although neither officially has the name on it anymore. The older one, at 197 Clarendon Street at St. James Avenue, went up in 1947 and is better known as the Berkeley Building. It is 495 feet high counting a spire that lights up, and is a weather beacon, complete with poem:

Steady blue, clear view.
Flashing blue, clouds due.
Steady red, rain ahead.
Flashing red, snow instead.

If it's flashing red during baseball season, when snow is not expected (except maybe in April), that means that day's Red Sox game has been postponed. When the Sox won the Series * in 2004, '07 and '13, it flashed red and blue.

The glass-facaded newer building, at 200 Clarendon across from the old one, was completed in 1976 and is 790 feet tall, making it not just the tallest in Boston, in Massachusetts, or in New England, but the tallest in North America east of Manhattan. Green Line to Copley.

*

I know lots of people in New York and New Jersey hate New England. This is unfair: The region is a terrific place, even if you don't like their sports teams.

American soccer fans have -- with the notorious except of NYCFC last year, the idiots -- gone out of their way to not be hooligans in the English style. Keep it clean, and Revs fans will welcome you as honorable opponents.

Just don't be surprised if the Revs players play dirty. The fans won't.

Good luck, but, just in case, remember: Safety first. Despite Boston's reputation of having several fine medical centers, if given a choice, it's better to be an uninjured coward than a hospitalized tough guy.

Every year, I do a series: "How to Be a Yankee Fan in (city name goes here)." For National League cities that the Mets go to, but not the Yankees, it becomes "How to Be a Met Fan in... " For NL cities in which the Yankees play Interleague games, meaning both teams will go there in the season, it becomes "How to Be a New York Fan in... "

Included in this series is "How to Be a Yankee Fan at Citi Field" for the intracity series (it's not a "Subway Series" unless it's a World Series), and "How to Be a Red Sox Fan in New York." Last year, due to reasons beyond my control, I was unable to do it for most teams, although I did it for all 30 teams in 2014.

This time, I'm starting with the most familiar. This guide is for all visiting fans, designed to make the trip to Yankee Stadium as enjoyable as possible, and to keep you from getting hurt.

I will put aside my usual insults for various opposing teams, and I will watch my language as well. This post will be rated PG. For those of you who watch ESPN, no, that doesn't stand for Peter Gammons.

Before You Go. This is the time to buy your tickets, before the season starts, and do it online. If you don't have tickets already, you're probably out of luck. But try StubHub or a similar site anyway. You’ll have better luck, price-wise, with them than with the scalpers.

The weather is, of course, a factor. It can be chilly in New York in April, and starting in May and running through the rest of the regular season, it can be hot. The stands are not covered, so you'll have to go under the stands to avoid rain if it comes. Once you know when you're going, wait until the day before you leave, and check the online weather reports.

Tickets. More than any other team, the Yankees are hard to get tickets for. So right after you next get paid, order 'em. The Yankees averaged 39,922 fans per game last season, more than any except the Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants -- and that was in a down year for the club.

The only seats that tend to stay empty are the Field MVP seats, which only get filled for Red Sox, Mets and postseason games, and those are basically celebrities who could afford them – some thanks to the Fox Network.

Do not trust the scalpers, and there will be loads of them. Back in the 1980s, I bought a ticket "right over the dugout." Yeah, way over the dugout in the upper deck. The next night, I bought one "right on the left-field foul line." Yeah, right behind the left-field foul pole. To make matters worse, the Yanks lost both games!

If you order from the club through Ticketmaster, you may be able to snag tickets in the first level of the outfield, which could run you as low as $53. You might get Main Level (second deck) seats for $95. Terrace seats (third deck, equivalent to the upper deck box seats at the old Stadium) go for $50. Grandstand (upper deck) seats could be had for a much cheaper $32 or $21. Believe it or not, those figures are cheaper than last year's.

Of course, Ticketmaster adds a surcharge. But then, if you root for the Red Sox, Giants, Philadelphia Phillies or Chicago Cubs, being used to high prices, you’re probably not surprised at any of the inconveniences, from the prices to the surcharges to the jumping-through-hoops to get them.

Do not buy a ticket for the Bleachers. If someone offers you a free ticket in the Bleachers, do not take it. Face value is $22, but even free, it will not be worth it. Ignoring this warning may be the biggest mistake of your life, especially if you are a Red Sox fan. The "Bleacher Creatures," those are hard-core people out there. If you are familiar with what happens at European soccer games, note that this is one of the few places in North American sports that can get like that. Of course, as I well know, Fenway, particularly its bleachers, is another.

And remember, those of you who are Red Sox fans: After the rise of your team during the Nomar-Pedro era, into the Papi-Schilling-Youkilis-Papelbon years, and now into the Pedroia years, these people now hate you almost as much as you hate them. And, like Sox fans, they like to drink. They really, really like to drink. Do not say I did not warn you.

If you root for the Mets and you want to see an interleague game at Yankee Stadium, the same thing applies. If you root for another American League Eastern Division team -- the Baltimore Orioles, the Tampa Bay Rays or the Toronto Blue Jays -- you'll be better off, but still don't go for the Bleachers. And if you root for anyone, else, still: Think of the Bleachers as the barn, or the basement, in a horror movie: Don't go in.

Getting There. Getting to New York is fairly easy. However, I do not recommend driving, especially if you are a Red Sox fan and have Sox or other New England sports paraphernalia on it (bumper sticker, license-plate holder, decals, etc.). Chances are, it won’t get vandalized, but you never know.

For those of you who are not Red Sox fans: If you are coming from Baltimore or other points south, take Interstate 95 North up through New Jersey (this includes the New Jersey Turnpike), over the George Washington Bridge, and then Interstate 87, the Major Deegan Expressway, south to Exit 5 for The Stadium. (William F. Deegan was one of the founders of the American Legion, and a Democratic politician in New York.)

If you are coming from Cleveland, Toronto, or other points west, find your way to Interstate 80, which will also flow into the GW Bridge. Be warned, though: That bridge is notorious for traffic delays.

In fact, it would be a shame if you came to New York only for one baseball game -- especially if it is your first visit. My recommendation, then, is to make it a weekend visit, and get a hotel outside New York City, preferably in New Jersey, where it will be a lot cheaper, and you can leave your car in a safe parking lot. Most cities and towns in New Jersey have bus or train service, with New Jersey Transit as the main (but not only) carrier, into Manhattan, and from there, you can take the Subway up to The Stadium. Yes, the bus and the train will cost a bit, but the money you'll save with an outside-the-City hotel will more than make up for it.

And you really shouldn't drive in The City. I've heard it said that Boston drivers come in 2 classes, depending on how big their car is: Homicidal and suicidal. New York drivers are the same way, and traffic is every bit as bad as what you're used to. If you're coming from New England, approaching New York from the north, you can probably find something affordable in Westchester County or Connecticut, and then take the Metro-North Commuter Railroad in.

If you are coming from New England, and you feel that you must drive, it's 208 miles by road from Downtown Crossing in Boston to Yankee Stadium II, 206 miles from Fenway to the House That Steinbrenner Built.

If you're going from Boston, or anywhere else in Massachusetts, take the Massachusetts Turnpike, Interstate 90, to Exit 9 for Interstate 84 South, into Connecticut. At Hartford, take Exit 86 to Interstate 91 South, taking it all the way to the end, switching to I-95 South at New Haven.

If you're starting out in Rhode Island, simply get on I-95. If you're starting out anywhere in Connecticut, take any highway that leads to I-95, whether it’s I-91, I-395, U.S. Route 7 or Connecticut State Route 8.

If you're starting out in New Hampshire, take I-93 to I-495 to the Mass Pike (so you don't have to go through Boston itself) and then follow the directions for starting from Massachusetts as listed above. If you're starting out in Maine, take I-95 across New Hampshire and into Massachusetts, then take I-495 and follow the directions from Massachusetts. If you're starting out in Vermont, I'll get to that in a moment, because the directions are a bit different.

If you're only going to one game, and not "doing the city," then, once you're in New York, follow signs for Interstate 278, the Bruckner Expressway. (Henry Bruckner was a Bronx Borough President.) Take that to Interstate 87 North, the Deegan. Do not be confused by signs for the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge: It's the new name for the Triboro Bridge, and we know Bobby Kennedy was connected more to Massachusetts, even though he represented New York State in the U.S. Senate from January 4, 1965 to June 6, 1968.

Anyway, you don’t want the RFK Bridge, you want the Deegan, taking Exit 5 for Yankee Stadium. The "classic address" is 161st Street & River Avenue, and that hasn'’t changed with the new Stadium, it's just on the other side of 161st. The official mailing address is 1 East 161st Street, Bronx, NY 10451.

The one New England State that's an exception to the above sets of directions is Vermont. If you're starting out there, take US-4 into New York State, across the Hudson River, and take I-87 South, known first as the Northway and then, once you get through Albany, as the New York State Thruway, on down, until you cross the City Line into The Bronx and it becomes the Deegan. You'll still take Exit 5 to get to the Stadium, unless you get a hotel and head there first.

Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington are too close to fly to New York, and once you factor in fooling around with everything you gotta do at each airport, it doesn't really save you much time compared to driving, the bus or the train.

Anyone coming in from outside the Northeast Corridor, if you can afford to fly, that is probably your best option. Even though Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey isn't very good. John F. Kennedy International Airport in southern Queens is good only for international travel, if that. And LaGuardia International Airport (named for the 1934-45 Mayor) in northern Queens is a joke – and not just because it's close to Rikers Island (site of the City's prison) and the Mets' ballpark. (I know, I know: "What's the difference?" When you're a Met fan, the sentence never ends, and nobody tries to escape to Yankeedom.)

If you can afford Amtrak, the train is a good option -- if you're coming from the Northeast Corridor or Chicago. If it's the Corridor, you can come to New York and it will take less than 5 hours. If it's Chicago or the South, the ride will be overnight, and you can get a decent night's sleep. But anything farther than that, and it will require more than one night. If you're coming from Cleveland or Detroit, you're talking about boarding a train in the middle of the night, which is no good. And if you're coming from Toronto, there's only one train per day in each direction: You'll be leaving in the morning and arriving too late to catch that night's game, and reversing the trip, too early to attend the next day's game.

Bus schedules are better, with far more runs to New York from most cities. But riding the bus is no picnic, especially from outside the Northeast Corridor. I've ridden buses from New York to Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago, and back. If you can't afford to fly and don't want to drive that far, the bus is better than the train. But if you can afford to fly, do it.

Once In the City. Pennsylvania Station, a.k.a. Penn Station, is between 31st and 33rd Streets, between 7th and 8th Avenues. Port Authority Bus Terminal is between 40th and 42nd Streets, between 8th and 9th Avenues. They are one stop apart on the Subway's A, C and E trains. Outside Port Authority, there is a statue of Jackie Gleason dressed as bus driver Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, one of a series of statues commissioned by cable network TV Land.

When you get to your hotel, Penn Station or Port Authority, go to a Hudson News stand and pick up copies of The New York Times and the Daily News. Don’t read the New York Post. Like anything owned by Rupert Murdoch, it’s a bunch of right-wing lies with an occasionally good sports section added. The Times and the Daily News, however, are not only manned by responsible journalists, but have great sports sections. The Times is the face New York City likes to show the rest of the world. The Daily News is the face the City prefers to show itself. The Post is a face only a mother could love. Not my mother, though. Nor hers.

To get from either Penn Station or Port Authority to Yankee Stadium, you need to take the Subway. Trust me, it's cheaper than a cab, and, despite horror stories from recent period-piece TV productions like Life On Mars and The Bronx Is Burning, it's not the scary place it was in the 1970. If you can handle the Boston T's Green Line, or Chicago's El, you can handle the New York Subway.

The first thing you need to do when you get into a Subway station is buy a MetroCard. No more tokens: They were used from 1953 to 1995, but they were phased out, just like they were in most cities. (As far as I know, the only cities in North America that still use tokens are Philadelphia and Toronto.)

If you get a hotel in the City, and it’s on the West Side, simply follow the above directions for the Subway. If your hotel is on the East Side, then take the Number 4 train up to 161st Street. (You may have to take the Number 6 to a transfer point to get the 4.) Unlike the D, this one will be above ground as you approach The Stadium.
The city of New Amsterdam, and the colony of New Netherland, was founded by the Dutch in 1624. In 1664, the English took over, and named both city and colony New York, for the Duke of York, brother of King Charles II. As none of Charles' many children were legitimate, when he died in 1685, that brother became King James II -- and his reign did not end well, and let's leave it at that.

New York County, a.k.a. the Borough of Manhattan, was also named for James. "Manahatta" was an Indian word meaning "island of many hills." Kings County was named for King Charles, but the Dutch name Breuckelen stuck, and it became the City, and after 1898 the Borough, of Brooklyn. Queens County, or the Borough of Queens, was named for King Charles' Portuguese wife, Catherine of Braganza. Richmond County was named for one of Charles' sons, Charles Lennox, Earl of Richmond, but the Dutch name Staaten Eylandt stuck, and it became the Borough of Staten Island. And Jonas Bronck settled the land north of Manhattan, which became known as Bronck's Land, which somehow morphed into "The Bronx." Apparently, the "The" became attached because of the Bronx River that passes through it, as rivers are still frequently called that: The Hudson is, although never "The Harlem" or "The East." Anyway, it's the Borough of The Bronx and Bronx County.

New York has been the most populous city in America since surpassing Philadelphia in the post-Revolutionary period, and now has about 8.4 million people living in the Five Boroughs. About 23 million live in the New York Metropolitan Area, a.k.a. the New York Tri-State Area, which includes The City, Long Island, and the Lower Hudson Valley in the State of New York; Northern and Central New Jersey; and the Connecticut Counties of Fairfield, Litchfield and New Haven.

Despite having a street grid, Manhattan doesn't quite follow a centerpoint system. For the east-west numbered Streets, below Washington Square Park, Broadway is the divider between the East Side and the West Side; above Washington Square to the Harlem River, it's 5th Avenue; in The Bronx, it's Jerome Avenue, which borders the 3rd-base stands of the new Stadium.

On the East Side, the Avenues go 5th, Madison, Park (which takes the place of 4th Avenue above Union Square), Lexington, 3rd, 2nd, 1st, York, East End. Numbered Streets will reach an address of 1 at 5th, 100 at Park, 200 at 3rd, 300 at 2nd, 400 at 1st. On the Lower East Side, this extends to 500 at Avenue A, 600 at Avenue B, 700 at Avenue C and 800 at Avenue D. (A, B, C and D, hence the nickname for this neighborhood: "Alphabet City.") The Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive (FDR Drive), formerly the East River Drive and once so dangerous it was called the Falling Down Roadway, separates the island from the East River.

On the West Side, the Avenues go 6th, a.k.a. Avenue of the Americas, Lenox Avenue or Malcolm X Blvd. above Central Park; 7th, a.k.a. Fashion Avenue, or Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. above Central Park; 8th, Central Park West above 59th Street, or Frederick Douglass Blvd. above Central Park; 9th, Columbus Avenue above 59th, or Morningside Drive above 110th; 10th, Amsterdam Avenue above 59th; 11th, West End Avenue above 59th, merging with Broadway at 108th; and Riverside Drive. The West Side Highway, a.k.a. the Joe DiMaggio Highway, separates the island from the Hudson River.

Broadway, The Battery at the island's southern tip; 1st and 2nd, Houston Street (roughly, Zero Street -- and that's pronounced HOW-stin, not HEW-stin like the Texas city); 3rd, 9th Street; Lexington, 21st Street; Park, 32nd Street (Park Avenue South extends to 17th Street); Madison, 23rd Street (at Madison Square); 5th, Washington Square North (roughly, 6th Street); 6th, Franklin Street (the only numbered Avenue below Houston, so it's about -12th Street); 7th, 11th Street (7th Avenue South extends to Carmine Street, roughly at Houston); 8th, Bleecker Street (roughly 10th Street at that point); 9th, Gansevoort Street (roughly 12th Street); 10th and 11th, 13th Street; 12th, 22nd Street.

Going In. Parking decks are on River Avenue at 157th Street (the old deck, across from where the old Stadium was, by the Big Bat) and at 165th Street (north of the new Stadium). I wouldn't recommend driving to the Stadium, though, and don't even ask how much parking is. Take the Subway.
The Big Bat was the idea of Joe Garagiola Jr., son of the late broadcaster, and then a young lawyer working for the Yankees while The Stadium was being renovated in the mid-1970s. He saw plans for a smokestack, and thought it might be a good idea to have it look like a bat. George Steinbrenner agreed, and a deal was cut with Louisville Slugger, to make it look like the model of bat that Babe Ruth used. It became the focal point for Yankee Fans meeting at the game: They'd say, "Meet me at The Bat." Although the old Stadium is gone, the Bat remains, and no new Bat was built for the new Stadium.

There are 4 gates. Gate 2 is at the left field corner, Gate 4 behind home plate, Gate 6 at the right field corner, and Gate 8 in straightaway center field. Your ticket will suggest which gate at which you should enter.
If you can, try to enter at Gate 4 or 6. They are connected by a "Great Hall," containing large banners featuring past Yankee greats, from Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in the 1920s to the since-retired stars of the Joe Torre era.

Entering by Gate 2 will give you your best shot at seeing Monument Park, but there will already be a long line there, and it closes 45 minutes before first pitch, so you may be out of luck unless you have time to take the Stadium Tour before one of the other games in the series. However, no matter which gate you enter by, you will be able to get to the Yankee Museum, which is open all game long.

About the Stadium Tour: Classic Individual Tours may be purchased for 14 people or less and commence every 20 minutes primarily from 11:00 AM to 1:40 PM. When these tours sell out, other time slots may become available, from as early as 9:00 AM to as late as 4:40 PM. Buying a ticket online is $20; at the Stadium ticket window or at a Yankees Clubhouse Shop, $25.

The Stadium, like its predecessor, points due east, although it will look like it points northeast on some maps, including the Subway system map, as Manhattan Island is not quite a north-south pointer. The view of the City beyond isn't much, mostly high-rise apartments, many of them housing projects, some of them still classifiable as "tenements" or "slums." The best part of the City is behind the 1st base stands. And, on a number of occasions, Phil Rizzuto would announce that a home run had been hit "all the way to Jersey." Despite living in New Jersey most of his adult life, the Scooter got mixed up sometimes: New Jersey would be in foul territory.
Distances are 318 down the left field line, 399 to left-center, 408 to center, 385 to right-center, and 314 down the right-field line. These are the same distances the old Yankee Stadium had from 1988, when Monument Park was expanded, until it closed in 2008.

Comparing the distances at the various Stadium configurations, listed as follows: 1923-36, 1937-73, 1976-84, 1985-87, 1988-present:

LF line: 285, 301, 312, 312, 318.
LF straightaway: 395, 402, 387, 379, 379.
LC: 460, 457, 430, 411, 399.
CF straightaway: 520, 461, 417, 410, 408.
RC: 425, 407, 385, 385, 385.
RF straightaway: 350, 344, 353, 353, 353.
RF line: 295, 296, 310, 310, 314.

The longest home run at the current Stadium was hit by Raul Ibanez -- but not while he was a Yankee. Rather, he hit it as a Phillie in an Interleague game on May 22, 2009, off Chien-Ming Wang: 477 feet. The longest by a Yankee is 460, by Alex Rodriguez on June 10, 2011, off Fausto Carmona (who now uses the name Roberto Hernandez) of Cleveland.

The longest homer at the old Stadium, unless someone can prove Babe Ruth hit one longer (and he might have), was by Mickey Mantle, off Ray Herbert of the Chicago White Sox, on August 12, 1964 -- helping to make a winner of Mel Stottlemyre in his major league debut. The length of this homer is in dispute: I've seen it listed as 502 feet and 540. Regardless, it was batting lefthanded, and to straightaway center -- which would have been in the blacked-out hitters' background in the 1976-2008 configuration.

Speaking of configurations, the new Stadium has been used for college football games, including the Pinstripe Bowl since 2010, with the field laid out from home plate to center field. (In the old Stadium, which had a lot more field space, it was from 1st base to left field.) In 2014, the NHL's Stadium Series gave both the Devils and the Islanders home games at The Stadium against the Rangers, but the Rangers won them both. It's hosted soccer games, and is now in its 2nd season as the (hopefully temporary) home of New York City Football Club (NYCFC).

Use the bathrooms before the game. They’re big and clean, a big difference from the old Stadium, and this is something the late Yankee owner George Steinbrenner always talked about when he said he wanted a new Stadium. That and more concession stands. Speaking of which...

Food. At the old Yankee Stadium, back in the good old days, the food wasn’t great, but at least it was overpriced. This concept should also be familiar to some of you from your home parks. As the team moved into the Nineties and got better, to his credit, George Steinbrenner demanded that the fans get a better food experience. A few specialty stands went up, including a little bakery stand behind home plate on the Main Level.

Sadly, that stand didn’t make the trip across the street. But chain restaurant stands are there, including Nathan’s Hot Dogs, Johnny Rockets, Brother Jimmy’s Barbecue, Famiglia Pizzeria, Carvel Ice Cream, and others. There’s a Hard Rock Café, and a restaurant called NYY Steak. (If you want to eat there, assuming you can afford it, you don’t have to wear a jacket and tie, but forget about wearing a T-shirt and jeans, and definitely don’t wear a team jersey – even a Yankee jersey will be denied entry.)

Pretty much anything you get will be expensive, but it’ll be good. Think of it this way: It would cost the same as movie theater food, but it’s better, there’s more variety, and the show is better than most movies, and longer, too. Both the show on the field and the show in the stands will be better.
One more thing: If you're using food as a reason why the Mets' gameday experience is better than the Yankees', think again: Although the Mets' food may be tastier on the average, it's every bit as expensive, and the lines are a lot longer. When the Yankees moved for their old Stadium to their new one in 2009, they eliminated long lines; when the Mets did the same, at the same time (meaning they had plenty of time to fix this in the design process), they didn't account for it, and you can still miss an entire inning on line for a milkshake so expensive, even John Travolta wouldn't go for it.

Team History Displays. No team in all of sports does this better than the Yankees -- as they've told us time and time again. I was at The Stadium for a 2012 preseason match between soccer giants Real Madrid and AC Milan (the Spanish club won, 5-1), and even they don't go on and on about their histories as much as the Yankees do. Then again, Real Madrid have won 10 European Cups, Milan 7, and no other club yet has 6 -- put them together, and you still don't have as many "World Championships" as the Yankees.

161st Street outside the Stadium is known as Babe Ruth Plaza, and there are notations on light poles telling the Babe’s story. 161st Street east of River Avenue, extending to the Grand Concourse past the Bronx County Courthouse (that big white building that you used to see beyond right field at the old Stadium), is Lou Gehrig Plaza. The West Side Highway in Manhattan has been renamed the Joe DiMaggio Highway, but nobody calls it that.
As I mentioned, inside the Stadium on the 161st Street side is the Great Hall, and on this same side, the Yankee Museum has various artifacts, including seats from the old Stadium (both pre- and post-1973 renovation), old uniforms, game programs, World Series rings and press pins, and the 7 World Championship trophies. (Strangely, there never was such a trophy until 1967. So the Yankees only have them for 1977, '78, '96, '98, '99, 2000 and '09. So far.)

They also have Thurman Munson's locker from the old Stadium, which was kept empty and waiting for him, as if it were Elijah’s cup at a Passover seder. (In the new clubhouse, there’s a new empty locker for the 1976-79 Captain.)

One of the club's goals for the Museum is to have baseballs with the autographs of every player who ever played for the Yankees. This might be difficult, considering some of them have been dead for decades, particularly those who played from 1903 to 1920, before the first dynasty, and real interest in the Yankees, began. If balls with autographs for the missing players are still in existence, they'll be hard to find.
But from 1921 onward, they've got just about everybody. They're arranged in the middle of the museum, between statues of Don Larsen and Yogi Berra, representing Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series, the statues being life-size and 60 feet, 6 inches apart. (Oddly, Larsen’s statue is not raised 15 inches, the height of the pitcher’s mound in prior to 1969.)
Coming into Gate 4, there is a statue of George Steinbrenner -- the only figure besides Berra and Larsen so honored at The Stadium. Unlike his Monument, it was unveiled when The Stadium opened, before he died. Also unlike his Monument, it's life-size.

Behind home plate on the main level is a display honoring the Yankee players who've won AL Most Valuable Player Awards: Babe Ruth (1923, under a format when a player was allowed to win it only once), Lou Gehrig (1927 and, after a 1931 format change allowed multiple winners, 1936), Joe DiMaggio (1939, '41 and '47), Joe Gordon (1942), Spurgeon "Spud" Chandler (1943), Phil Rizzuto (1950), Yogi Berra (1951, '54 and '55), Mickey Mantle (1956, '57 and '62), Roger Maris (1960 and '61), Elston Howard (1963), Thurman Munson (1976), Don Mattingly (1985) and Alex Rodriguez (2005 and '07).

The retired numbers and the World Championships are noted on the walls at the back of the outfield seating -- and the Yankees only mention the 27 World Championships, not Pennants, Division titles or Wild Card berths, like some other teams we could mention.

In Monument Park, there are additional notations for the retired numbers, and the Monuments and Plaques. It's not as visible from the rest of the Stadium, leading some to call it Monument Cave. But, unlike the old Stadium in its last few years, there is room to add more Plaques.

"Monuments" are meant only for the greatest of the great, and then only after they die. It started in 1932 for Miller Huggins, who won the club's 1st 6 Pennants and its 1st 3 World Series, and died while still Yankee manager in 1929 -- the only Yankee manager to die in office. It was placed on the field, in front of the center field flagpole.

This was not a new innovation, as the New York Giants had already done it at the Polo Grounds for ex-player Eddie Grant, who had been killed in World War I; the monument was lost after they moved to San Francisco. The Pittsburgh Pirates had also placed a monument in center field of Forbes Field for owner Barney Dreyfuss, and moved it to Three Rivers Stadium and now to PNC Park.

Huggins' Monument was joined by Gehrig's in 1941 and Ruth's in 1949. Legend has it that a ball was hit out there one time, and Mantle couldn't catch it, and manager Casey Stengel yelled, "Ruth, Gehrig, Huggins, somebody throw that ball in!" (Most likely, there was a profanity mixed in there.) While this play does not survive on film, there is a surviving 1970 clip of Bobby Murcer letting a ball go off his glove, and it rolled to the wall, and he squeezed between the Huggins and Ruth Monuments to get it.

Plaques for owner Jacob Ruppert and general manager Ed Barrow were placed on the wall of the old Stadium, as were Plaques for DiMaggio, Mantle, and one donated by the local Knights of Columbus to commemorate the 1965 Mass delivered by Pope Paul VI, the 1st Papal Mass ever delivered in the Western Hemisphere. Barrow's Plaque was to the left of the Monuments, the others to the right.

When the old Stadium was renovated from 1973 to 1976, the Monuments and Plaques were placed away from the field in the 1st "Monument Park." When Mantle died in 1995, his Plaque was removed the next year and replaced with a Monument; the same was done for DiMaggio early in the 1999 season, shortly after his death. A Monument to the 9/11 victims and rescuers was added on the 1st anniversary of the attacks, and the one to Steinbrenner was added in 2010 after his death.  (And, yes, I know, it's too big. Nothing we can do about it now.)
The figures with Plaques rather than Monuments are: Owners Ruppert and Steinbrenner, and GM Barrow; catchers Bill Dickey, Yogi Berra, Elston Howard, Thurman Munson and Jorge Posada; 1st basemen Don Mattingly and Tino Martinez; 2nd baseman and manager Billy Martin; 2nd baseman Willie Randolph; shortstop and broadcaster Phil Rizzuto; center fielder Bernie Williams; right fielders Roger Maris, Reggie Jackson and Paul O'Neill; pitchers Lefty Gomez, Red Ruffing, Allie Reynolds, Whitey Ford, Mel Stottlemyre, Ron Guidry, Goose Gossage and Andy Pettitte; managers Joe McCarthy and Casey Stengel; broadcaster Mel Allen, and public-address announcer Bob Sheppard.
Oddly, while pitcher Mariano Rivera's number has been retired (42,as it now has been universally retired for Jackie Robinson), he hasn't yet gotten a Plaque. Nor has shortstop Derek Jeter. Mattingly is the only one of the honored players never to have won a Pennant -- in fact, aside from "Donnie Baseball," all of these have won at least 2 Pennants and at least 1 World Series as Yankees.

There are also Plaques honoring the civil rights rally held at the old Stadium by Nelson Mandela in 1990; the Masses delivered by Popes Paul VI in 1965, John Paul II in 1979, and Benedict XVI in 2008. The 1st 2 led to a dumb joke: "Who are the two Cardinals honored in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park?" The answer is "Miller Huggins and Roger Maris." They both played for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Now, there are 3 former Catholic Cardinals in the Park, but with Torre and Martinez having been honored, that's 4 ex-St. Louis Cardinals. Pope Francis visited New York last year, but only went to Madison Square Garden, not Yankee Stadium. So the joke will have to wait a while to make sense again.

The retired numbers are: Martin 1, Ruth 3, Gehrig 4, DiMaggio 5, Torre 6, Mantle 7, 8 for both Dickey and Berra, Maris 9, Rizzuto 10, Munson 15, Ford 16, Posada 20, Mattingly 23, Howard 32, Stengel 37, Rivera 42, Jackson 44, Pettitte 46, Guidry 49 and Williams 51.

Not every player with a Plaque has had his number retired. Gomez wore 11, Ruffing 15 (retired for Munson), Reynolds 22, Stottlemyre and Randolph both 30, and Gossage 54. Huggins died just as uniform numbers were first used, in 1929, and he did not wear a number. Nor did McCarthy, even though he was managing in the major leagues as late as 1950.

We're still waiting on Jeter 2 and Rivera 42, and if Posada, Pettitte and Williams got their numbers retired, why not O'Neill 21? For that matter, considering his worldwide influence, why not Hideki Matsui 55?

With performance-enhancing drug controversy having swirled around him again, followed by a new round of "redemption" stories, the question of whether Alex Rodriguez (13) will get his number retired or receive a Plaque appears to be unsettled again -- but Roger Clemens (22) appears to be out of luck.

Strangely, there are Yankees in the Hall of Fame who have not been honored with either a Plaque or a retired number: Pitchers Waite Hoyt, Herb Pennock (both pitched mostly before numbers were worn and did not have a regular number thereafter) and Jim "Catfish" Hunter (29, although the Oakland Athletics retired his 27); 2nd basemen Tony Lazzeri and Joe Gordon (both 6); 3rd baseman Wade Boggs (12, the Tampa Bay Rays retired it for him, and the Red Sox are about to retire 26 for him), and outfielders Earle Combs (1) and Dave Winfield (31).

Outfielder Enos Slaughter (17) is in the Hall, but is better remembered as a Cardinal (they retired his 9, after Maris and Torre had worn it with them). 1st baseman Johnny Mize (36) is better remembered as a Cardinal (they didn't retire his 10) and a Giant (they didn't retire his 15). Jerry Coleman (42 long before Rivera) played 2nd base for the Yankees and then broadcast for them, but is in the Hall for his broadcasting for the San Diego Padres. And outfielder Rickey Henderson is in the Hall, but since he was probably more hindrance than help in Pinstripes, I don’t consider him a "True Yankee"; he gets invited to Old-Timers' Day, but he'll never get a Plaque or his Number 24 retired.

Mantle is honored with statues, but in his native Oklahoma rather than New York: Outside a field named for him in his hometown of Commerce, and outside Bricktown Ballpark, home of the Triple-A Oklahoma City Redhawks. That park also has statues of Johnny Bench (the next-greatest ballplayer from Oklahoma) and Warren Spahn (a Buffalo native who married an Oklahoma woman and settled on a farm in the State).

The Yankees' spring training complex in Tampa is named for Steinbrenner, and there's a statue of him outside it. Stengel is honored with 2 statues in the Tri-State Area, but neither is at Yankee Stadium, and I'll get to those later; he's also honored with one at the National Art Museum of Sport in Indianapolis. Ruth is honored with statues at Camden Yards in his hometown of Baltimore and at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown; DiMaggio at the National Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame in Chicago; Slaughter at Busch Stadium in St. Louis; Coleman at Petco Park in San Diego; and Cory Lidle, who was a Yankee when he was killed in a plane crash, has a statue at Big League Dreams Sports Park in his hometown of West Covina, California.

In 1933, the 1st All-Star Game was held. Ruth, Gehrig, Lazzeri, Dickey, Gomez and Ben Chapman (we don't like to talk about him, due to how he treated Jackie Robinson as Philadelphia Phillies manager in 1947) were the Yankees named to the American League team.

In 1969, in commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of professional baseball, an All-Time Team was selected. Ruth was selected as the Greatest Player Ever, DiMaggio as the Greatest Living Player (a conceit he insisted upon being introduced as for the rest of his life), and Gehrig was named the team's 1st baseman.

They, Mantle and Berra were named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999, as was the still-active and newly-acquired Clemens. That same year, they, Dickey, Gomez, Ford, Jackson, Winfield and Boggs were named to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Baseball Players.

Stuff. There are souvenir stands all over the place, and large souvenir stores on both the first-base and third-base sides of the Stadium's lower level. Essentially, if you want it, and if you can afford it, you can get it. It’s fun to look at, and to watch other people go nuts over it.

There are 4 Yankees Clubhouse Shops, all in Midtown Manhattan: 245 West 42nd Street (between Port Authority and Times Square), 123 West 49th Street (off 7th Avenue, just north of Times Square), 393 5th Avenue (at 37th Street, between the main Public Library and the Empire State Building), and 110 East 59th Street (east of Central Park). There was one at the South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan, but that complex is currently being rebuilt, and it is unknown if the Yankees will be trying there again. Now only do these Clubhouse Shops sell Yankee gear, but you can buy Yankee tickets there.

Regardless of where you shop, I don't mind if you get one of those floppy, fake-fur, star-spangled top hats that resemble the one in the Yankee logo. But, please, if you're going to buy a Yankee cap, make it a real Yankee cap: Navy blue with a white interlocking N-Y. Wearing the patriotic-holiday caps with the Stars & Stripes N-Y is fine. But the Yankees do not wear red caps, green caps, yellow caps, or, God forbid, pink caps. If you're a woman who loves the Yankees, respect them enough to get the real thing, not a pink one.

There have been more books written about the Yankees than any other team. The best single-volume history of the team is Pinstripe Empire by Marty Appel, once the team's publicity director, and he didn't avoid controversy when writing it.

Good books about individual Yankee seasons include The House That Ruth Built by Robert Weintraub (1923, the building of the old Stadium and the 1st title), Five O'Clock Lightning by travel expert and Yankee Fan Harvey Frommer (1927, Murderers' Row), A Legend in the Making: The New York Yankees in 1939 by Richard Tofel, Baseball in '41 by Robert Creamer (about more than just DiMaggio's streak), Summer of '49 and October 1964 by David Halberstam, 1961*: The Inside Story of the Maris-Mantle Home Run Chase by Phil Pepe, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning by Jonathan Mahler (telling the story of New York City as a whole, including the Yankees, in 1975, '76 and '77), October Men by Roger Kahn (1977 and '78), and Birth of a Dynasty by Joel Sherman (1996).

Peter Golenbock's Dynasty is about the entire era bracketed by Halberstam's books, and Dog Days by Philip Bashe tells of the dark age between 1964 and 1976 (with those seasons included).

Memoirs by Yankees, especially those written prior to Jim Bouton's 1970 Ball Four, should be taken with a grain of salt, some of them with an entire salt mine. But there are many good recent biographies of individual Yankees: Leigh Montville's The Big Bam (Ruth -- Montville's books about Boston sports legends Ted Williams and Bobby Orr are also excellent), Ray Robinson's Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig in His Time, Tom Clavin and Danny Peary's Roger Maris: Reluctant Hero, and local sportswriter Ian O'Connor's The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter..

Books about DiMaggio were nearly all laudatory during his life, but since his death, without him able to sic his lawyers on authors, some rough ones have come out. Richard Ben Cramer's Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life is a warts-and-all story. You soon wonder why a guy like that was ever treated as a hero, but Cramer answers that question, and his answer says as much about America from Joe D's rookie year of 1936 until his death in 1999 as it does about him. As one reviewer put it, the answer to Paul Simon's muscial question, "Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?  A nation turns its lonely eyes to you" was, "The guy you turned your lonely eyes to wasn't really there: He was a fake, the lie spread by Joe himself as much as by the media." It's unquestionably the best-researched book on the Yankee Clipper.

The best bio of Mantle is probably the dual story Mickey and Willie, which Allen Barra wrote about Mantle and Mays. Barra also wrote the best bio of Berra (no relation): Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee.

Marty Appel's Munson: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain is terrific, but difficult, especially if you're old enough to have watched and revered Thurman: He devoted entire chapters to the day of the crash and the day of the funeral (including the epic game the Yankees played that night).

Golenbock wrote Number 1 with Billy Martin, but also Wild, High and Tight: The Life and Death of Billy Martin, which, with some fairness, made Billy look like a monster rather than, as Bill Pennington put it in his recent bio, Billy Martin: Baseball's Flawed Genius. Golenbock also ghost-wrote The Bronx Zoo with Sparky Lyle and Balls with Graig Nettles, but went too far with 7: The Mickey Mantle Novel. (His oral histories of the Mets, Red Sox, Cubs, Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers are all excellent.)

Dayn Perry wrote Reggie Jackson: The Life and Thunderous Career of Baseball's Mr. October, and while it does a good job of explaining him, it doesn't make him look good. (In response to that book and the ESPN miniseries version of The Bronx Is Burning, Reggie wrote Becoming Mr. October.) And completing the tangled triumverate of George-Billy-Reggie, Bill Madden wrote Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball -- which came out right before George died, and had to have an afterword for when it came out in paperback.

In addition to all the books about the Yankees, there's lots and lots of DVDs, including the World Series highlight film collection (starting in 1943 when official Series highlight films began, and running through 2000, with 2009 having been released after that), the 1996-2001 Fall Classic Collectors Edition, YES Network Yankeeography collections, and The Essential Games of Yankee Stadium.

The last of these was released as the old Stadium closed, and, with the video library seriously limited due to TV stations taping over a lot of broadcasts to save money on videotape, there's nothing from the pre-renovation Stadium. The 6 games included are: 1976 ALCS Game 5 (the Chris Chambliss Game), 1977 World Series Game 6 (Reggie becomes Mr. October), 1995 ALDS Game 2 (Jim Leyritz's walkoff homer in the 15th inning), 1996 World Series Game 6 (ending an 18-year drought), 2001 World Series Game 4 (Jeter's walkoff), and 2003 ALCS Game 7 (the Aaron Boone Game).

During the Game. If you plan to wear opposing team gear into Yankee Stadium -- especially Red Sox or Mets -- I strongly recommend before starting out, including before ordering the tickets online or over the phone, that you find friends to go with you, so that you can go in numbers. At least 4. That’ll make it less likely that Yankee Fans will give you anything more than verbal abuse. Chances are, nobody will take a swing at you or push you, but the ones who might will be far less likely to go after more than one Sox or Met fan.

And the further you get from the Bleachers, the likelier it will be that you will avoid violence. The security force, including actual NYPD officers, will eject anyone who fights. If they catch them in the act, that is. The fans know this, and most will not be so drunk that they won't care about getting tossed, arrested, jailed for a night, and forced to show up in court, where they will inevitably lose their case, and get fined and publicly humiliated. The vast majority who will remain completely (or mostly) sober will care about such treatment, and will not do anything that will invite that risk. New Yorkers (and New Jerseyans) can be nasty, but most of us are not that stupid.

(Be advised, though, that most of the cast of the TV show Jersey Shore was actually from New York City or New York State - and, yes, they are that stupid.)

From 1969 until 2003, Brooklyn-born opera singer Robert Merrill sang the National Anthem at Yankee games. Occasionally, they still use his recording of it. But they no longer have a regular anthem singer. Like Merrill, Eddie Layton, organist from 1967, when he invented "DUM dum dum dum DUM dum dum dum... " (but he was not, as many believe, the inventor of "Da da da DAT da DA... CHARGE!") -- also served through 2003, and, like Merrill, died in 2004.

Bob Sheppard became public-address announcer for the Yankees in 1951 and, when they moved to Yankee Stadium, the football Giants in 1956, and remained with the Giants through 1996 and the Yankees through 2007. The man played quarterback, and later taught speech, at St. John's University in Queens. "Your attention please, ladies and gentlemen... " would ring out through The Stadium many times a game. For a player's first at-bat, he would announce the uniform number, the name, the position, and the number again: "Number 44... Reggie Jackson... right field... Number 44." Reggie called him "the Voice of God."

Jeter liked his introduction so much that he asked him to record one for him -- taking into account the possibility, never realized, that Jeter would one day play a position other than shortstop: "Now batting for the Yankees, Number 2, Derek Jeter, Number 2." It introduced Jeter until his retirement in 2014, 4 years after Sheppard's death, a few weeks short of turning 100. Former Yankees and Cleveland Indians broadcaster Paul Olden is now the P.A. announcer.

The Yankees have a theme song, "Here Come the Yankees," introduced in 1967 as a counterpoint to "Meet the Mets." This is one area (along with food and parking) where the Mets have a clear advantage. It's still played before and after every Yankee radio broadcast. It sounds a lot better without the lyrics.

In the top of the 1st inning, out in the Bleachers, the Bleacher Creatures will begin their "Roll Call." They will chant each starting player's name or nickname until the player waves back to them. They always start with the center fielder: "CAR-los BEL-tran! (Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap!)" They will also salute broadcasters John Sterling and Michael Kay, who used to do the games together on WABC 770 AM radio. Now Sterling is on WFAN 660 AM with Suzyn Waldman, and Kay is on YES Network TV with various partners, including (depending on the night) Yankee legends David Cone and Paul O’Neill, and former Baltimore Orioles star Ken Singleton, a New York native.


When the Yankees score -- any run, not just on a home run -- just after the runner crosses the plate, a very loud version of the Westminster Chimes are played. "DING-dong-DING-dong... Bomp-BOMP-bomp-BOMMMMP!" This is one of those things that Yankee Haters do, or should, find very annoying about the team.

On clips of old Yankee games (such as on YES'Yankees Classics), you might hear somebody banging a spoon on a metal pan. This was Freddy Schuman. An elderly Bronx native, who lost an eye decades ago, he walked through the stands banging a spoon on a metal pan, and carrying a sign attached to the pan, with a message-of-the-day, always beginning with the words “FREDDY SEZ.” Yankee Fans were very loyal to him and protective of him. He was such a beloved figure that he was invited to ride on a float in each of the Yankees' last 5 World Championship victory parades. Sadly, you won’t see him now: Like Steinbrenner and Sheppard, Freddy died in 2010. He was 85.
At some point, usually between halves of the 3rd or 4th inning, the video board will do "The Great City Subway Race." This is a variation on the Milwaukee Brewers'"Sausage Race," except it's totally on the board, no people in costumes on the field. Choose which train will get to The Stadium first: B, D or 4. You don't get anything if you pick the right train, though. (The B only goes to Yankee Stadium during evening rush hours, and away from it, into Midtown Manhattan, during the morning rush, which is why I recommend taking the A to the D to get to The Stadium, or taking the 4 if you have an East Side hotel.)

After the 5th inning, the grounds crew will drag the infield. The song "YMCA" by the Village People will come in over the loudspeakers. And thousands of people, including kids, will sing along, most of them not realizing that the song is narrated by a gay man cruising for easy bait. The grounds crew will drop their rakes and drag-cages to spell out Y-M-C-A with the fans.
It’s stupid -- as Chicago White Sox fans taught us, disco sucks -- and it’s not even a particularly old "Yankee Tradition," having been started in 1996. But the Yanks won the Series that year, for the 1st time in 18 years (I know, doesn't seem like a long time to most of you), since the song was new (1978), and, well, you know how superstitious baseball people can get.

It used to get worse -- much worse, in terms of both physical pressure and style. If you needed any more reasons to not wear opposing team gear in the Yankee Stadium Bleachers, at this stage of the game, the Bleacher Creatures would have already found someone wearing "enemy colors," and as "YMCA" began to be played, a few of them would surround him, insuring that he couldn’t get away, while the rest clapped along. They didn't touch him, so they couldn't be charged with assault, but this was true harassment, and the cops in the section didn't seem to give a damn. The Creatures made up their own words to this song, and instead of "YMCA," they sang "Why Are You Gay?"

The words are too vile to be printed here: Even though this blog occasionally includes some nasty profanities, this entry is for guests of our City and our team, and in the interest of courtesy I won’t go that far on this occasion. They can be found on YouTube, if you dare, but I won't post a clip.

After a series of events in October 2010, before and during the Playoffs, Yankee Stadium security announced the "Why are you gay?" song would no longer be tolerated. As far as I know, it has stopped. Sure, it was funny -- until you imagine what might have happened if the "victim" tried to fight back. And, I’m sure, a few of the fans who got this treatment might actually have been gay, and this must have been horrible for them, especially if they were still closeted. But then, if they were stupid enough to wear an opposing team's gear into that Stadium, into that section, then it's hard to sympathize with them for getting some kind of poor treatment, regardless of their orientation. (Most of the Bleacher Creatures are Irish, Italian and Hispanic, and thus Catholic, and have had it drilled into their minds from the time of puberty that being gay is a mortal sin.)

During the 7th inning stretch, a moment of silence for American troops will be, uh, requested. Then "God Bless America" will be played, usually Kate Smith's legendary 1938 recording, although sometimes there will be a live singer. Compared to that, the follow-up of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" will be relatively muted.

During the middle of the 8th inning, the Yankees do something worse than the Orioles, in their own tough, gritty, Northeastern city, do when they play John Denver’s "Thank God I’m a Country Boy." They play "Cotton Eye Joe" by Rednexx, and from the control room behind home plate, a yutz in overalls and a straw hat named Cotton Eye Joey will be shown on the video board doing a stupid dance. (Like Milwaukee's original Bernie Brewer, the original Cotton Eye Joe portrayer was fired for showing up drunk, so they got "Joey" to replace him.) They periodically break away to show fans dancing along.
Why this stupid song is played in New York City, of all places, I don’t know. Suddenly, "Sweet Caroline" doesn't sound nearly so cheesy, does it?

In 1978, Ron Guidry set a Yankee record that still stands (and a former AL record for lefthanded pitchers) with 18 strikeouts in a game, against the California Angels. That game began the tradition of fans standing up and clapping on a two-strike pitch. It gets especially intense when it's the potential last out of the game. Met fans claim they started this tradition with Dwight Gooden in 1984, but we have the video evidence showing that, as usual, Met fans are full of baloney.

Met fans did, however, at that time, invent the "K-Korner," although Yankee Fans took it to a new level in the 1990s; but such cutesy stuff as traffic cones or ice cream cones for David Cone, beer mugs for David Wells, rockets for Roger Clemens, pictures of John "the Duke" Wayne for Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez and Bullwinkles for Mike "Moose" Mussina have long since gone by the boards.

When Mariano Rivera was pitching, if the Yankees were winning in the 9th inning, and it was a save situation, he would come out of the bullpen, and the loudspeakers would blast "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. Translation: "Game over." Closers since haven't had the same treatment.

If the Yankees win, they will play a recording of broadcaster John Sterling giving his signature radio call: "Ballgame over! Yankees win! The-e-e-e-e-e-e… Yankees win!" If you look in the press box – you may need binoculars for this – you can see Sterling in the WFAN radio booth, doing "the Sterling Shake" when he actually says it. (At the time of that clip, the Yankees were on WCBS, 880 AM.)
At least, if you don’t bring a radio, you won’t have to hear his home run call: "It is high! It is far! It is... GONE!" Which, all too often, ends up as, "It is... a foul ball!" Or "It is... caught at the wall!" I hate it when he does that. Like Mel Allen in the Yankees’ most glorious era, Sterling tends to watch the ball. Red Barber, who broadcast for the Brooklyn Dodgers at that time, and later switched to the Yankees, taught people to watch the outfielder, to see if he thinks he can catch it, so you’ll have a better idea if he can catch it. Sterling doesn’t do this.

Sterling also makes up some really whacked-out calls for individual players. Most notably, "It's an A-bomb from A-Rod!" (I always wondered what Japanese Yankee Hideki Matsui thought about that one.)

Between Sterling, Waldman ("Oh my good, goodness gracious!" for Clemens' ill-fated 2007 comeback), and Kay (infamous for "The Curse of Kay," citing an overwhelming stat which gets reversed in that very at-bat), I don't think there's any fans in all of sports who dislike their own broadcasters as much as Yankee Fans do. They're all decent people, but they're damn near impossible to listen to.

It used to be that, if the Yankees won, Frank Sinatra's version of "Theme From New York, New York" would play over the P.A. system; when they lost, they would play Liza Minnelli's version – which, everybody forgets, is the original version, coming from the movie in which Liza plays a 1940s Big Band singer and Robert DeNiro her saxophonist husband. Liza found out about being linked with losing games and objected, and the Yankee brass did something they almost never do: They caved in. After all, Liza, like the Yankees, is a New York icon, just as Sinatra was. Now, Frank's version plays, win or lose.
Oddly, the Mets sometimes play Liza's version at Citi Field, especially since she sang it live at Shea Stadium in 2001, when the Mets played the first sporting event in the City after the 9/11 attacks. But their game-closing song is "New York State of Mind" by Billy Joel, who played the last concert at Shea, even though he's a Yankee Fan who was the first soloist to play the old Stadium other than as a postgame show. (The Isley Brothers and the Newport Jazz Festival preceded him, and the Beach Boys had played a couple of postgame concerts.).

Now that pitcher A.J. Burnett is gone, there is no more "walkoff pie." In 2009, when he arrived, and the Yankees got a walkoff hit, the player who got it was almost immediately corralled by Kim Jones of the YES Network, and, in mid-interview, he got hit in the face with a cream pie by pitcher A.J. Burnett. If the Yanks went to the bottom of the 9th tied or trailing by a run, a fan brought out a banner reading, "WE WANT PIE." But with Burnett gone, no one took up the, uh, mantle, and this relatively new "Yankee Tradition" went the way of multipurpose concrete oval stadiums.

After the Game. Win or lose, I would advise against going to one of the bars across River Avenue from The Stadium. Forget Billy's, Stan's, the Yankee Tavern, the Yankee Eatery and the rest. Regardless of whether they won or lost, the people there do not want to see opposing fans. The best thing you can do is head for your car or the Subway (depending on how you got there), and get out as quickly and as quietly as you safely can.

If you’re staying for more than just the one day, there will be plenty of time to take in a famous New York restaurant other than after the game. I would suggest staying away from really big names like the major steakhouses (Smith & Wollensky's, Gallagher's, Peter Luger's, Delmonico's, Del Frisco's, Morton's), because of the insane prices and the need for reservations.

Don’t bother with the 21 Club, despite its featuring in The Bronx Is Burning: Reggie was right, it's no big deal, except when you get the check. Also stay away from the Russian Tea Room, next-door to Carnegie Hall: I'’s not only really expensive, but the food is rather ordinary.

But the legendary Carnegie Deli, so named as it's near Carnegie Hall (on 7th Avenue at 55th Street, B, D or E Train to 53rd Street) is terrific -- if you don’t mind paying 20 bucks for a sandwich.  (They are big sandwiches. The nearly as famous Stage Deli, one block further down 7th Avenue, closed in 2012 after 75 years.) And New York pushcart hot dogs and pretzels? Believe it or not, they are cheap (usually $2.50), far more sanitary than legend would suggest, and occasionally tasty. A big bargain.

Sports Sidelights. If you have time to look around New York, and are interested in other baseball-related sites, read on. If not, skip to the end of this article. I won't mind, but you may be sorry you missed these:
* The original Yankee Stadium. Across 161st Street from the new one, the Yankees played there from 1923 to 1973 and again from 1976 to 2008, winning 37 Pennants (the 1st 2, in 1921 and '22, were won at the Polo Grounds) and 26 World Championships.
The NFL’s Giants played there from 1956 to 1973, winning the NFL Championship Game (they didn’t call them “Super Bowls” back then) there in 1956 (it was said the "De-FENSE!" chant was invented there in that season with Sam Huff and Andy Robustelli defending while Charley Conerly and Frank Gifford ran the offense), and losing title games there in 1958 (to Johnny Unitas and the Baltimore Colts in "the Greatest Game Ever Played") and 1962 (to Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers).
It also hosted several Army-Notre Dame games, including 1928 (Knute Rockne giving his "Win One for the Gipper" speech) and 1946 (they came in ranked Number 1 and Number 2 and played "the Game of the Century" to a 0-0 tie). The Army-Navy Game was played there in 1930 and 1931.

Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano and Muhammad Ali all defended the heavyweight title there, most notably Louis knocking out Max Schmeling in 1938 to strike a blow against prejudice – at home as well as abroad. Jack Dempsey also fought and won there, but that was after he lost the title, knocking out future champ Jack Sharkey (who grew up in Boston) in 1927, between his 2 losses to Gene Tunney.

The Mets played there from 1964 to 2008; the Yankees in 1974 and '75 while the old Yankee Stadium was being renovated; the AFL/NFL's Jets from 1964 to 1983; the NFL's Giants in 1975; and the Beatles on August 15, 1965 and August 23, 1966.

The home plate entrance to Citi Field includes the original Home Run Apple from Shea (replaced on the inside), and the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, acting as a sort of "Presidential Library" for the man who reintegrated baseball. Ironically, I can find no evidence that Jackie ever even visited Shea Stadium. To the right of the entrance is the Mets Hall of Fame, with their own "Monument Park" type setup, their 1969 and 1986 World Series trophies, seats from the Polo Grounds and Shea, and a statue of Casey Stengel.

126th Street & Roosevelt Avenue, in the Flushing Meadow section of Queens. Take the Number 7 train to "Mets-Willets Point" station.

* The Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. It’s across Roosevelt Avenue from Citi Field, in Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, site of the 1939-40 and 1964-65 New York World’s Fairs. A few things remain from the '64 Fair, including the Unisphere globe (which you might remember being destroyed in the film Men In Black), but the only thing that remains from the 1939 fair is the Queens Museum of Art, which contains exhibits about both fairs, including "The Panorama of New York City," a scale model of the City that was updated until 1992 – in other words, it doesn't show the newer skyscrapers, and it still shows the old World Trade Center. This building was also the first home of the United Nations, from 1946 to 1950.

The U.S. Open has been held at Flushing Meadow every late August and early September since 1978, with the opening of Louis Armstrong Stadium. (The legendary jazzman lived in nearby Corona, and his house is now a museum. He was a Yankee season-ticket holder and, surprisingly for a black man of his time, a big tennis fan.) Prior to that, the Open was held from 1915 to 1977 at the 14,000-seat Forest Hills Stadium (which also hosted the Beatles on August 28 & 29, 1964 – 69th Avenue & Burns Street, E, F, M or R Train to 71st Avenue-Continental Avenue). Since 1997, with the opening of the Arthur Ashe Stadium, Armstrong Stadium has been the tournament’s secondary facility.

* Site of the Polo Grounds. Definitely not a place to visit at night, but definitely a place to visit in daylight if you're a baseball fan. There were 2 stadiums built on the site, the first in 1890 and burned down in 1911, the second built immediately afterward and torn down in 1964. The baseball Giants played here from 1890 to 1957, the football Giants from 1925 to 1955, the Yankees from 1913 to 1922, the Mets in 1962 and '63, and the AFL’s Titans (forerunners of the Jets) from 1960 to 1963.

It also hosted some legendary college football games, including the 1924 Army-Notre Dame game where sportswriter Grantland Rice named the Notre Dame backfield "the Four Horsemen," and the 1937 duel between Number 1 Pittsburgh and Number 2 Fordham (with Vince Lombardi playing) that ended scoreless. The Polo Grounds hosted the Army-Navy Game in 1913, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1923, 1925 and 1927.

In 1923, Luis Firpo knocked heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey out of the ring there, before Dempsey got back in and knocked Firpo out. In 1960, after Ingemar Johansson knocked Floyd Patterson out to win the title the year before at Yankee Stadium, Floyd got his revenge, knocking Ingo out to become the first man ever to regain the heavyweight title.

Of course, with very few living people who remember seeing John McGraw manage the Giants there, and possibly no one who saw Christy Mathewson pitch there, the Polo Grounds site is now best known for the 1951 Bobby Thomson home run where "The Giants win the Pennant! The Giants win the Pennant!" and the 1954 World Series catch by Willie Mays.

Now home to a housing project called Polo Grounds Towers, a plaque commemorating the ballpark is at the entrance to one of the buildings, roughly where home plate was. (If you see the plaque, you’ll notice that it calls the Giants "1904 World Champions"– and Red Sox fans may feel free to laugh, as the Giants were too chicken to play the Boston Pilgrims in that year's World Series; while the Sox don't recognize themselves as 1904 World Champions, they should.) Part of the complex is a playground named Willie Mays Field, though it's not really a "field."

157th Street & 8th Avenue (Frederick Douglass Blvd.). Take the D train to 155th Street. Right across 155th Street is Rucker Park, home of a legendary local basketball tournament.

The original Polo Grounds, where polo actually had been played, was at 110th Street and 5th Avenue, at the northeast corner of Central Park, from 1876 to 1889, until the City ordered 111th Street built through it, forcing the Giants out. Number 2 or 3 train to 110th Street.

* Site of Ebbets Field. Home of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1913 to 1957. Where the Dodgers, in their “Daffiness Boys” days of the 1930s, ended up with 3 men on base. "Yeah? Which base?" Where Jackie Robinson reintegrated the game in 1947. Where Leo Durocher argued with umpires, where Hilda Chester rang her cowbell, and where the Dodger Sym-Phony Band played their instruments, but not well.

And where Brooklynites – really, people from all over the Tri-State Area – of all races, religions and ethnicities learned about baseball and life itself, and got a million thrills, and a few heartbreaks, none worse than when the team was taken from them in the days before the launch of Sputnik. (The very night of the last game, September 24, 1957, was the night President Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne to integrate Little Rock Central High School. Ten years after Jackie, some people still didn't learn. Over half a century after that, some still haven’t learned.) There was also a Brooklyn Dodgers football team that played there from 1931 to 1944.

Now home to a housing project called Ebbets Field Apartments, it is safe to visit during daylight. Bedford Avenue & Sullivan Place, where the neighborhoods of Flatbush, Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant come together.

Take the B or Q train to Prospect Park. Walk up Flatbush Avenue, with Prospect Park on your left, turn right on Empire Boulevard, then walk 3 blocks to McKeever Place, and one more block to Sullivan Place. To your right will be the project. To your left will be a school named after Robinson. At the corner of Bedford & Sullivan will be the complex’s cornerstone, revealing it as the site of Ebbets Field.

* MCU Park, formerly known as KeySpan Park. Home to the Brooklyn Cyclones, a Mets farm team in the Class A New York-Penn League, since 2001. (It used to be known as the Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York League, or the PONY League.) The NYPL league is "Short-Season A-ball," meaning that they don't start until mid-June -- so if you want to see the Cyclones, the Staten Island Yankees, or any other team in the league, you'll have to wait until summer.

The team takes its name from Coney Island’s iconic rollercoaster. A statue honoring Dodger legends Jackie Robinson and Harold "Pee Wee" Reese is outside. The Parachute Jump, an icon of Coney Island that had stood at the 1939-40 World's Fair and was a model for similar rides at Six Flags' parks, is outside the right field corner; although restored so that it won't collapse, it's no longer a functioning ride.

With 7,500 seats, and not a lot of history, MCU Park is not Ebbets Field, but it's a lot more convenient, and it’s a nice place to see a professional game. The Cyclones are not the old Dodger "Boys of Summer," but they win more often than not – unlike their parent club! They've won 5 Division Titles, and, since the 2001 NYPL finals were underway when the World Trade Center was attacked, the series was called off, and the Cyclones were declared Co-Champions, so they have won a Pennant.

1904 Surf Avenue, at 19th Street. Take the D, F, N or Q train to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue. The Cyclone, still in operation, is at 8th & Surf, and the original Nathan's Famous hot dog stand is at Stillwell & Surf.

* Richmond County Bank Ballpark. Home to the Staten Island Yankees since 2001. Like the Cyclones, who are their arch-rivals, the "Baby Bombers" have had a bit of success since their arrival, winning 6 NYPL Pennants, most recently in 2011. The park has a magnificent view of Lower Manhattan, across the harbor (though it had a better view for its first 2 months, before 9/11), and it's been remarked that it looks like the Statue of Liberty is playing a distant center field.

75 Richmond Terrace at Hamilton Avenue. Take the R train to Whitehall Street -- Hurricane Sandy damaged the South Ferry station on the Number 1 line in 2012 and is now expected to reopen sometime in 2017 -- then cross the street to the Whitehall Terminal. The Staten Island Ferry is free, it takes 22 minutes in each direction, and you get a pretty good view of Lady Liberty. (You’re probably better off skipping a visit to Liberty Island, considering the lines and security measures. As an icon, the Statue is priceless; as a tourist attraction, it's overrated.) Then it’s a 5-minute walk from the St. George Terminal.

* Madison Square Park. This is where the game of baseball was invented. Seriously. No, it wasn't in Cooperstown, New York; and General Abner Doubleday, Civil War hero though he was, had nothing to do with it. The Knickerbocker Base Ball Club used it as their home ground, and it was here that they tested the rules they wrote.

Surveyor (which job led him to conclude that 90 feet between the bases was best) and fireman Alexander Cartwright has generally gotten credit, but Club members Daniel "Doc" Adams and William R. Wheaton were also heavily involved in writing the rules, and getting them approved at 1857 and '58 conventions that standardized the various regional versions of what was then spelled as 2 words as "base ball," that became the difference between baseball and all baseball-like games that came before it.

The Square and Park were named for James Madison, Father of the Constitution and the nation's 4th President. At the intersection of 23rd Street, 5th Avenue and Broadway. At the southern end is the Flatiron Building, which was the tallest in New York from its 1903 opening until 1909 and remains a City icon. At the northeast corner, at 26th Street and Madison Avenue, is the New York Life Building, built on the site of the first two buildings to have the name Madison Square Garden, 1879-1890 and 1891-1925. And now you know how the building got the name when its current isn't (and last previous version wasn't, either) at Madison Square.

In addition to boxing, the earlier Gardens hosted all kinds of shows, from the Westminster Kennel Club show to Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show to the 1924 Democratic Convention, taking 103 ballots -- a 2/3rds majority was needed to nominate under the rules of the time -- to nominate John W. Davis as a sacrificial lamb to Calvin Coolidge. 51 Madison Avenue at 26th Street. Take the N or R train to 23rd Street.

* Worldwide Plaza. This skyscraper, built in 1989, marks the site of the 3rd Madison Square Garden, still known as "the Old Garden" to old-timers. From 1925 to 1942, it was home to the NHL’s New York Americans; from 1926 to 1968, the NHL’s New York Rangers (sort-of named for the building’s fundraiser and owner, boxing promoter George "Tex" Rickard – "Tex’s Rangers," get it?); and from 1946 to 1968, the NBA’s New York Knickerbockers (named for Washington Irving's character Diedrich Knickerbocker, in whose voice he wrote his story collection A History of New York), or "Knicks."

It also hosted the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and a few of the early NCAA basketball tournaments, until the 1951 point-shaving scandal knocked it, the NIT, and the schools that used the Garden as a second home court (NYU, CCNY, St. John's and Long Island University) off the national radar. Rickard made it the Mecca of Boxing, and Ned Irish, who promoted the legendary collegiate and pro doubleheaders and was one of the Knicks' owners, made it the Mecca of Basketball, although Red Sox fans, who are probably also Celtic fans, may disagree with that latter distinction. Neither Elvis Presley nor the Beatles ever played the old Garden.

50th Street & 8th Avenue. Take the C train to 50th Street, and on the downtown side of the station, you’ll see a marble mural depicting the old Garden.

* Madison Square Garden. This "New Garden," which opened on February 11, 1968 and has been home to the Knicks, the Rangers, the NIT and (secondarily) Jamaica, Queens-based St. John's University's basketball team ever since, became the longest-lasting building with the name in May 2010. It was also home to the WNBA's New York Liberty from 1997 until 2010, and has been again since 2013, after a renovation, most of which took place in the NBA and NHL’s off-seasons, led the Libs to take up residence at the Prudential Center in Newark. Tours of The Garden are available, at $18 and $27, depending on the level of access.

Elvis played a few shows at the Garden from June 7 to 10, 1972, and the Beatles did so on their individual solo tours, most notably George Harrison for his August 1, 1971 Concert for Bangladesh (which had fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr, plus Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton) and John Lennon for his August 30, 1972 One-to-One Concert (with wife Yoko Ono, Stevie Wonder and Roberta Flack).

Other notable shows include the July 27-29, 1973 Led Zeppelin shows filmed for The Song Remains the Same; the Bob Dylan tribute on October 16, 1992; the Concert for New York City on October 20, 2001 in the wake of the 9/11 attacks; the Big Apple to Big Easy show after Hurricane Katrina on September 20, 2005; and the "12-12-12" concert for Hurricane Sandy relief on December 12, 2012.

Elton John and Billy Joel have played the place more than any other performers, and thus have "retired numbers" in the Garden rafters, along with Knick and Ranger legends such as Walt Frazier and Mark Messier. Indeed, there have been years when Elton and the Grateful Dead sold the Garden out more than the Knicks did.

The Democratic Convention was held here in 1976 and 1980, both times nominating Jimmy Carter; and in 1992, nominating Bill Clinton. The Republican Convention was held here in 2004, renominating George W. Bush.

At 32nd Street & 7th Avenue, on top of Penn Station (much as the Boston Garden and its successor were built on top of North Station). Because it’s between 7th and 8th Avenues, just about every Subway line on the West Side comes within a block of the place.

* Barclays Center. The first new indoor sports arena in New York City since the "New Garden" in 1968, it opened in September 2012, and is the home of the NBA's recently-moved-and-renamed Brooklyn Nets. In October 2015, it became the home of the NHL's New York Islanders.

It actually has a smaller seating capacity than The Garden: Basketball, 17,732 to 19,763; hockey, 14,500 to 18,200. In fact, unless some other team has an unexpected move soon, the Barclays will have the smallest capacity in the NHL, less than the Nassau Coliseum's 16,297. But it will be incredibly more convenient and comfortable than the "Mausoleum," especially for Ranger and Devil fans wanting to see their team play away to the Isles.

Barclays is a banking and financial services company based in London, and has long been a sponsor of English's soccer's top division, the Premier League. (BPL stands for "Barclays Premier League," not "British Premier League.") It seems kind of odd that an arena in Brooklyn would have this sponsor, but then, the new Boston Garden is named for TD Bank -- the TD stands for Toronto Dominion. Besides, what Brooklyn-based company could they have gone to? Nathan's? Dr. Brown's? (The soda, not the Back to the Future scientist.) With all the Brooklyn pride the arena has tried to generate (and has begun to succeed in doing), it would have been rather awkward to call it the Manhattan Special Arena, even though beverage company Manhattan Special is headquartered in Brooklyn.

620 Atlantic Avenue, at Flatbush Avenue, across Atlantic from the Brooklyn Terminal of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), on the site that Walter O'Malley originally wanted for the site of the replacement for Ebbets Field, but they wouldn't let him build there. D or 4 Train to Atlantic Avenue.

* College football. Although NYU (New York University) and CCNY (City College of New York) once had strong football teams, only 2 Division I college football programs are left in New York City: Columbia in Manhattan, and Fordham in The Bronx. Both are in the FCS, the Football Championship Subdivision -- what used to be known as "Division I-AA," the 2nd tier of American college football.

While Columbia won win the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day 1934 (back when Ivy League teams were allowed to play postseason games), and their 1947 win over mighty Army is known as "The Miracle of Morningside Heights," the program is now best known for their 44-game losing streak from 1983 to 1988, a Division I record since broken.

While the broken window scene from The Pride of the Yankees, the film with Gary Cooper playing Lou Gehrig, did actually happen, at South Field, on College Walk (116th Street) between Broadway and Amsterdam (10th) Avenue, across from the stately Low Library, Columbia moved even further uptown shortly after Gehrig reached the Yankees. They played at Baker Field from 1923 to 1983, and the first televised baseball game ever was broadcast from there in 1939, between Columbia and Princeton. (The Dodgers would host the first televised major league game later in the year.)

In 1984, Baker Field was replaced on the same site with Lawrence A. Wien Stadium, named for a real estate tycoon who left the university a lot of money. The field within the stadium has recently been named for another Columbia graduate and major donor, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. So, yes, a notable New York City sports facility is named after a New England sports legend.

Later in 1939, Fordham played in the 1st televised football game, beating Waynesburg 34-7. That game was played at Triborough Stadium on Randall's Island in the East River, later to be renamed Downing Stadium (home to the Cosmos in 1974 and '75 and the World Football League's New York Stars in '75) and replaced by the current Icahn Stadium. Fordham's best days were already winding down by '39 (they had memorable battles with the University of Pittsburgh the preceding 2 years, '37 at the Polo Grounds and '38 at Pitt Stadium), and they could no longer command big crowds at the Polo Grounds or Yankee Stadium.

Baker Field/Wien Stadium/Kraft Field is at 218th Street & Broadway, at the northern tip of Manhattan Island. (1 train to 215th Street.) Fordham plays at Jack Coffey Field, opened in 1930 and renovated in 2004, at 441 East Fordham Road at Kazimiroff Blvd. Metro-North to Fordham, or D train to Fordham Road, and then walk down Fordham Road. While both schools are noted for their toniness and good security forces, neither of these locations is to be visited at night.

* Site of St. Nicholas Arena. From 1896 to 1962, this arena was used for ice skating, hockey and boxing. It was also used as a TV studio for ABC from 1953 onward. After its demolition, ABC built a new studio on the site, and the local Eyewitness News, Live (formerly with Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford, now with Kelly Ripa and former Giant Michael Strahan), Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (formerly hosted by Philbin, now by Meredith Vieira) and The View are taped there.

69 W. 66th Street at Columbus Avenue, across from the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. 1 train to 66th Street-Lincoln Square.

NBC's studios are at the GE Buildng on Avenue of the Americas, which everybody still calls the RCA Building on 6th Avenue. 30 Rockefeller Plaza, or 30 Rock for short, between 49th and 50th Streets. A walkway leads from it to 5th Avenue, across from St. Patrick's Cathedral. B or D train to 47th-50th Streets-Rockefeller Center.

CBS' studios are at the CBS Building, fronted by black marble and thus known as Black Rock. 51 W. 52nd Street at 6th Avenue. Reached by the same station as NBC.

* Soccer.  If you're a soccer fan, and you're visiting during the European "football" season (mid-August to mid-May), Nevada Smith's, opened in 2002 and the City's 1st institutional soccer bar, recently closed for the 2nd and probably final time.

But Legends: The Football Factory is at 6 West 33rd Street, across from the Empire State Building. It hosts the local supporters' clubs of the 2 most popular English clubs in America and in New York City as a whole, Manchester United and Chelsea, and current Premier League leaders Leicester City; the 2 most popular Italian clubs, AC Milan and Juventus; French champions Paris Saint-Germain; and German clubs Hamburg and Borussia Dortmund. B, D, F, N or R train to 34th Street-Herald Square, then walk a block east to 33rd & 5th.

Fans of Spanish giants Barcelona, German titans Bayern Munich, and Italian legends Internazionale (a.k.a. Inter Milan) meet at Smithfield, at 138 West 25th Street, off 7th Avenue. 1 train to 23rd Street, then walk 2 blocks north and turn right.

Liverpool fans gather at many places, including the 11th Street Bar at 510 East 11th off Avenue A (L train to 1st Avenue), the Irish American Pub at 17 John Street off Broadway (4 or 5 to Fulton Street), Carragher's Pub (named for former Liverpool star Jamie) at 228 West 39th Street off 7th Avenue (1, 2, 3, N or R to Times Square), and The Starting Gate at 59-10 Woodside Avenue in Queens (7 to 61st Street-Woodside). Everton -- don't call them "the other Merseyside club" -- meet at Mr. Dennehy's, at 63 Carmine Street at Bedford (1 train to Houston St).

North London powerhouse Arsenal meets at several places, including 2 on East 14th Street in the East Village: The Blind Pig at 233, off 2nd (L to 3rd Avenue); and O'Hanlon's at 349 (L to 1st Avenue). The other North London team, Tottenham Hotspur, meets at Flannery's, at 205 West 14th Street, at 7th Avenue (1, 2 or 3 to 14th Street). Manchester City meets at The Mad Hatter, 360 3rd Avenue off 26th (6 to 28th Street).

Real Madrid meets at Quinn's, 356 West 44th Street at 9th Avenue, while crosstown Atletico Madrid meets at Tir Na Nog (as with Real, the bar's name is Irish rather than Spanish), at 315 West 39th Street at 8th Avenue. (Both can be reached via the A, C or E to 42nd Street-Port Authority.) And Glasgow legends Celtic meet at Jack Demsey's (note the lack of a P) at 36 West 33rd Street (a few doors down from Legends), and at The Parlour, at 250 West 86th Street (1 train to 86th Street).

New York City FC, founded by Manchester City, begins play at Yankee Stadium last year, but hasn't finalized a home field yet. One plan was at the site of the 157th Street parking deck that was south of the old Yankee Stadium; Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, near Citi Field and the National Tennis Center, has also been suggested. They may end up playing at Yankee Stadium for a while. As for the Red Bulls and the new version of the Cosmos, I'll get to them shortly.

* New Jersey. You can take New Jersey Transit's 320 bus from Port Authority to the Meadowlands Sports Complex, just off the New Jersey Turnpike’s Exit 16W, at NJ-Routes 3 & 120. You can also take a train there from Penn Station, but only on Giants or Jets game days.

The Giants played at Giants Stadium from 1976 to 2009, the Jets from 1984 to 2009, the North American Soccer League's New York Cosmos from 1977 to 1985 (after a few years moving around to other sites, including the 1971 and 1976 seasons at Yankee Stadium), and Major League Soccer's local team – known as the New York-New Jersey MetroStars until 2005 when they became the New York Red Bulls – from 1996 to 2009. The Army-Navy Game was held there in 1989, 1993, 1997 and 2002.

Both NFL teams moved into MetLife Stadium. Like Giants Stadium, MetLife is also a major venue for big-act concerts and soccer. The U.S. team played 9 games at Giants Stadium, winning 4, losing 2 and drawing 3. They've now played 2 at MetLife, a loss to Brazil in 2010 and a draw vs. Argentina in 2011. (I was there, watching North Brunswick, New Jersey native Tim Howard stop Lionel Messi on all 5 shots he took.)

The Nets played at the Meadowlands arena, which has had a bunch of names and is currently known as the Izod Center, from 1981 to 2010, and the Devils played there from 1982 to 2007.

The Devils and the Seton Hall University basketball team (in games too big for their 3,200-seat on-campus gym in South Orange) play at the Prudential Center, at Broad & Lafayette Streets in downtown Newark. Take NJT's Northeast Corridor Line train from New York's Penn Station to Newark's station of the same name, or the PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) train from 33rd Street & 6th Avenue (Herald Square, 1 block from New York Penn Station) to Newark Penn. In spite of a bad reputation for the city in general, downtown Newark is safe.

Red Bull Arena, the new home of the soccer team, is in Harrison, a 5-minute walk from the Harrison station on the PATH line. This will also be safe, even if you root for D.C. United. (A new Harrison station is in the first stages of construction, because the old station is a major bottleneck.) It's hosted the Red Bulls, and some international matches, including the U.S. team's October 11, 2011 loss to Ecuador.

Less safe is the site of Ruppert Stadium, home of the International League's Newark Bears (farm team of the Yankees) starting in 1926 and the Negro Leagues' Newark Eagles starting in 1936. At 19,000 seats, it was one of the biggest ballparks in the minor leagues, and was home to, among others, future Hall-of-Famers Yogi Berra, Monte Irvin and Ray Dandridge. But the integration of the majors killed the Negro Leagues, and television nearly killed the minor leagues. Both teams were gone after the 1949 season, and Ruppert Stadium was torn down in 1967. If you simply don't have time to visit all these sites, and have to cut some, this should be the first one you cut. 258 Wilson Avenue at Avenue K. NJT 25 Bus.

The new team called the Newark Bears has been suspended due to financial difficulties. They played in the Atlantic League from 1998 to 2009, and in the Can-Am League from 2010 to 2013. Whether they will ever begin play again is anybody's guess. They played at Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium (honoring both of Ruppert's tenants), at 450 Broad Street at Division Street, across from NJT's Broad Street Station. You're better off taking NJT to Newark's Penn Station and then taking Newark Light Rail to Riverfront Stadium stop.

These Bears won Pennants in the Atlantic League in 2002 and 2007, and previously had a rivalry with the Somerset Patriots, who play at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, Somerset County, between Somerville and Bound Brook. The Pats have won 5 Atlantic League Pennants, with former Yankee reliever Sparky Lyle managing them until 2012. East Main Street & Cole Drive. Bridgewater station on NJT's Raritan Valley Line, although you'll need to change trains at Newark Penn Station.

Upon switching to the Can-Am League, the Bears' new rivals were the New Jersey Jackals, who play at Yogi Berra Stadium on the campus of Montclair State University in Little Falls. (The campus straddles the line between that town and Montclair.) The Jackals have won 4 Pennants, most recently in 2004.

Attached to the ballpark is the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center, honoring Yogi, the Yankees, and local baseball in general. The original Plaques that DiMaggio and Mantle got, before being replaced by Monuments, are there, as are a statue of Yogi, his 3 Most Valuable Player trophies, and some seats from the old Yankee Stadium. MSU stop on NJT's Montclair-Boonton Line, or NJT Number 28 bus.

Another site that hosted the "high minors" was Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City. Built by Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal agency, the Works Project Administration, and named for him by the city, it was at Danford Avenue and State Route 1 -- now State Route 440 because U.S. Route 1 cuts through the city -- and seated 24,000, making it home of the International League's Jersey City Giants from 1937 to 1950 (the Giants farm team was yet another minor-league club killed by TV), and a few other teams until its demolition in 1985.

The stadium also hosted 15 Brooklyn Dodger "home games" in 1956 and '57, as Walter O'Malley saw a stadium even smaller than Ebbets Field but with a hell of a lot more parking. It also hosted high school football games, including doubleheaders on Thanksgiving Day. This is another site to take in only if you have lots of time and can visit it in daylight.

Three New Jersey cities have statues honoring Baseball Hall-of-Famers: Jersey City, where Jackie Robinson played his first game in "organized ball" (Montreal Royals at Jersey City Giants), has a statue of him in Journal Square; Larry Doby, born in South Carolina but raised in Paterson, has one at a field named for him; and the now heavily-Hispanic Newark has one of Roberto Clemente in Branch Brook Park.

The Yankees' Double-A farm team is the Trenton Thunder, who play at Arm & Hammer Park (formerly Mercer County Waterfront Park), at Cass & Lamberton Streets in Trenton. Players working back into shape after injuries will often be sent here for rehab games. Although the Thunder have been enormously successful in attendance -- the high prices and lack of availability of Yankees and Phillies tickets has caused this -- they were not been all that successful as a Red Sox farm team. They blew sure Pennants in the 1996 and '99 Eastern League Playoffs, finally winning Pennants as a Yankee farm team in 2007, '08 and '13.

NJT Northeast Corridor Line to Trenton Transit Center, then RiverLine to Cass Street, and 8 blocks to the ballpark. Yeah, it's a long walk, and you'll pass the New Jersey State Prison; but the buses don't go there, and you'll pass a nice ballpark mural along the way.

The Phillies have a Class A team near the Jersey Shore, the Lakewood BlueClaws. They've won South Atlantic League (a.k.a. "Sally League") Pennants in 2006, '09 and '10. Cedar Bridge & New Hampshire Avenues. NJT to Newark, then 67 Bus to New Hampshire Avenue. Though you're more likely to want to go there if you're a Phillies fan, so: From Philly's Greyhound station, take NJT's 317 Bus to New Hampshire Avenue.

The Louis Brown Athletic Center, formerly the Rutgers Athletic Center and still nicknamed the RAC, home to the Nets from 1977 to 1981, is in Piscataway, as is Rutgers Stadium. Built in 1938 for 23,000 fans, totally reconstructed in 1994 for 41,500, and expanded in 2009 for 52,454, the location has hosted 4 U.S. soccer team matches, most recently a 1995 draw against Colombia.

To get to Rutgers, take New Jersey Transit’s Northeast Corridor Line to New Brunswick, and switch to a Rutgers "Campus Bus," the A to the Busch Campus to the stadium, the L to the Livingston Campus to the RAC, or the B between them.

Princeton, a much nicer college town, features Powers Field at Princeton University Stadium and Jadwin Gym. Powers Field was built on the site of Palmer Stadium (1914-1996), and Jadwin, long the home of the State high school wrestling championships (since moved to Atlantic City), is at the open, southern end of the horseshoe. In 1905, Palmer's predecessor, Osborne Field, hosted the Army-Navy Game. It's also worth noting that the University of Michigan's "winged" helmet design was brought there by coach Fritz Crisler, who originated it at his previous head coaching post, Princeton. A few years back, Princeton started wearing the design again, with black wings on an orange helmet.

The town can be reached via Coach USA bus from Port Authority. It can also be reached via NJ Transit's Northeast Corridor to Princeton Junction, and then transfer to a shuttle (known locally as "The Dinky") to Princeton proper.

* Long Island. The Nassau County Veterans Memorial Coliseum was home to the NHL’s Islanders from their 1972 inception until 2015, and the ABA edition of the New York Nets from 1971 to 1977. It is home to neither any longer, partly because it is a pain in several body parts to get to. Take the LIRR's Hempstead Branch all the way to the end. Across the street is a bus station. Take the N70, N71 or N72 bus (N for Nassau), and it’s a 10-minute ride down the Jericho Turnpike to Uniondale.

What will happen to the Coliseum has not yet been decided, but don't expect the building to last much beyond that in its current form.

Adjacent is Hofstra University, including its 15,000-seat James M. Shuart Stadium (they recently dropped their football program) and the former Jets offices and training complex, Weeb Ewbank Hall. The Hofstra baseball field has a statue of Casey Stengel.

While its football program has been dropped, Shuart Stadium still hosts decent soccer and lacrosse programs, was the home field of the NASL's New York Cosmos from 1972 to 1974, and has begun to host the reborn Cosmos until a new stadium can be built in, or at least closer to, New York City. The Cosmos are in the new NASL, which is technically the 2nd division of North American soccer; although they won the title last year, they are not yet eligible for promotion to MLS.

The Long Island Ducks, an Atlantic League baseball team named for a former minor-league hockey team, are the only professional sports team in The Island's Suffolk County. They play at Bethpage Ballpark, but it's not in the town of Bethpage. Rather, it's at Court House Drive & Carleton Avenue, on the campus of the New York Institute of Technology in Central Islip. (Try not to pronounce that as two words: "I slip.") LIRR Ronkonkoma Line to Central Islip station, then it's a 2-mile walk down Lowell & Eastview Avenues. (Taxis are available at the station.)

* Lower Hudson Valley. The Hudson Valley Renegades have won New York-Penn League Pennants in 1999 and 2012. They play at Dutchess Stadium in Wappingers Falls in Dutchess County. Although the ballpark is just a mile or so from the Hudson River, and the river-hugging Hudson Line of the Metro-North Commuter Railroad, Wappingers Falls does not have a Metro-North Station. You'd have to take the Hudson Line (formerly the centerpiece of the New York Central Railroad) to Beacon, and then either walk or take a cab over the remaining 2 miles up N.Y. State Route 9D.

That's on the east bank of the Hudson. On the west bank is the Tri-State Area's newest pro baseball team, the Rockland Boulders. They play at Provident Bank Park at 300 Pomona Road in Pomona, Rockland County. Don't bother trying to reach this one by public transportation, as it's over 4 miles from the nearest train line and there's no bus that goes there.

* Connecticut. The Bridgeport Bluefish play at The Ballpark at Harbor Yard, in Bridgeport, the most populous city in the State of Connecticut, and the seat of Fairfield County. Adjacent is Webster Bank Arena, formerly The Arena at Harbor Yard, which hosts the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, a farm team of the Islanders. This is made a lot easier by the fact that there's a ferry between Bridgeport and the Long Island town of Port Jefferson, across Long Island Sound.

The Fish have won just 1 Atlantic League Pennant, in 1999, but have been Division Champions as recently as 2010. A statue of Bridgeport native Jim "Orator" O'Rourke, a Hall-of-Famer, is outside. Metro-North New Haven Line to Bridgeport, then 5 blocks down Water Street, under I-95/Connecticut Turnpike.

(Most of the New York side of Connecticut remains Ranger fans, and even the Boston side has a lot of Ranger fans because their farm team, the Hartford Wolf Pack, is a Ranger farm team, standing in for the now-gone Hartford Whalers at the XL Center, formerly the Hartford Civic Center. So while there are a few Bruin fans on the Boston side of the Nutmeg State, Islander fans in and around Bridgeport, and a few people trying to bring the NHL back to Hartford in a renovated Civic Center or a new arena, the Rangers lead the State's hockey fandom.)

Yale Field in West Haven, just outside the New Haven City Line, was built in 1928, and is one of the oldest surviving ballparks. It hosted the New Haven Ravens of the Eastern League from 1994 to 2003, and the New Haven County Cutters of the Can-Am League from 2004 to 2007. It is still used by Yale University, but no pro team plays there now.

I saw the Ravens beat the Trenton Thunder there, 3-2 in 10 innings, on July 18, 1999, a brutally hot day. There's a little (maybe 10 seats) sports bar in the left field corner, with TVs. Late in the game I saw, it was announced that David Cone had a perfect game after 8 innings. There were maybe 3,000 people in the park, and about 2,900 of them rushes to that little bar to see if Coney could finish it off, even though there was a pretty good game going on below, for which they had already paid. (Cone did finish the perfect game.)

Yale University's athletic complex straddles Derby Avenue, with the Field on the south side. On the north side is the Yale Bowl, where the Bulldogs have played football since 1914. A recent renovation has cut the seating capacity from 71,000 to 61,446, but it's in much shape as it celebrates its centennial.

Due to Mayor John Lindsay's anger at the Giants for leaving the City for the Meadowlands, into whose stadium they wouldn't be able to move until 1976, he denied them use of Shea once Yankee Stadium closed for renovation. So they went to the Yale Bowl, even though it's 75 miles northeast of Midtown Manhattan, and played the rest of their 1973 home games and all their 1974 home games there, before new Mayor Abe Beame let them play at Shea in 1975.

The first Giants-Jets game ever was played at the Yale Bowl, in the 1969 preseason, and the Jets won that, solidifying themselves as champions of not just the world, as they'd shown in Super Bowl III 7 months earlier, but of New York City. The Yale Bowl has also hosted 2 U.S. soccer matches, a loss to Brazil in 1993 and a draw with Greece in 1994.

Derby & Yale Avenues. Metro-North New Haven Line to New Haven Union Station, walk to New Haven Green, and then Connecticut Transit B bus.

Oddly enough, from 1972 to 1979, when the Yankees had a Double-A farm team in "New Haven," they were the West Haven Yankees, but they did not play at Yale Field, which was then rather dilapidated. (I guess all those Yalies weren't donating money to fix the athletic facilities.) They played instead at Quigley Stadium, at 362 Front Avenue, which has a much smaller capacity and is also pretty old, dating to 1947. It now hosts only high school football.

In retirement, Jackie Robinson and his family left Brooklyn and settled in Stamford. Jackie Robinson Park of Fame, including a statue of him, is at 860 Canal Street at Henry Street. A 15-minute walk from the Stamford Station on Metro-North.

Legends Laid to Rest. The cemeteries at which Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig are buried are right next-door to each other, even though they're officially in separate towns.

Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, Westchester County, is the final resting place of Ruth, Billy Martin, umpire John McSherry, football Giants owners Tim and Wellington Mara, Los Angeles Rams founder-owner Dan Reeves (no relation to the former Giants, Denver and Atlanta coach), sportswriters Heywood Broun and Bob Considine, journalist & What's My Line panelist Dorothy Kilgallen, actor and Yankee Fan James Cagney, actor Sal Mineo, legendary comedian Fred Allen, 1920s New York Mayor Jimmy Walker, union leader Mike Quill, and mobster Dutch Schultz. 10 W. Stevens Avenue, Hawthorne. Metro-North to Mount Pleasant.

Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, of which Gate of Heaven is an offshoot, is the final resting place of Gehrig, Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert, infamous Red Sox owner Harry Frazee, actress Anne Bancroft (presumably, her husband, Mel Brooks, will join her there), comedian Danny Kaye, Big Band leader Tommy Dorsey (but not his brother Jimmy), composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, RCA (and therefore NBC) founder David Sarnoff, poet Gil Scott-Heron, Broadway producer Florenz Ziegfeld, author Paddy Chayefsky, 1930s New York Governor Herbert Lehman, and opera singers Robert Merrill (who frequently sang the National Anthem at Yankee games) and Beverly Sills. 273 Lakeview Avenue. Metro-North to Valhalla.

Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn is where you can find several early baseball legends, including "The Father of Baseball," Henry Chadwick, America's 1st great sportswriter. (But not, as was long believed, the inventor of the box score.) His gravemarker is one of the more elaborate you'll ever see. So is that of James Creighton, the early player who appears to have been the first pitcher to purposely throw hard, thus inventing the fastball. He was the 1st real baseball superstar, but no sooner had he achieved that status than he died of causes still debated -- at age 21, in 1862. Charles Ebbets, Brooklyn Dodger owner and ballpark builder, is also buried there.

Non-baseball personalities buried there include composer Leonard Bernstein, longtime New York Governor and Senator DeWitt Clinton, sewing machine inventor Elias Howe, Constitution signer and 1st New Jersey Governor William Livingston, legendarily corrupt New York political boss William Tweed, painter and telegraph inventor Samuel Morse, abolitionist preacher Henry Ward Beecher, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, both Nathaniel Currier and James Ives, Louis Comfort Tiffany, mobster Albert Anastasia, actor DeWolf Hoppper (whose onstage recitation, in those days before most people had record players, popularized "Casey at the Bat"), Wizard of Oz portrayer Frank Morgan, piano manufacturers Henry and William Steinway, and songwriter Fred Ebb, who wrote the lyrics to "Theme From New York, New York." (You know: "Start spreadin' the news... ") Also the parents, uncle and first wife of President Theodore Roosevelt. And the namesakes of 2 of the major components of New Jersey's Rutgers University: Revolutionary War hero and philanthropist Henry Rutgers, and educator Mabel Smith Douglass. 500 25th Street, Brooklyn. N train to 36th Street.

Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx is not the final resting place of any Yankee Legends, unless you count 1947-64 co-owner Dan Topping. And the only Baseball Hall-of-Famer buried there is Bronx native and Giants star Frankie Frisch. But its the burial place of 1970 Knick Dean Meminger, swimmer Gertude Edele, boxing promoter and "old Garden" builder Tex Rickard, and sportswriters Grantland Rice and Damon Runyon. Music legends buried there include Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan, Celia Cruz, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton and W.C. Handy. It's also where you can find Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, early 20th Century Republican political figure Charles Evans Hughes, New York's master builder (but also a big reason why the Dodgers moved) Robert Moses, diplomat Ralph Bunche, Civil War naval hero David Farragut, department store founders Rowland H. Macy and James Cash Penney, novelist Herman Melville, cartoonist Thomas Nast, newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, journalism pioneer Nellie Bly, and Wild West figure Bat Masterson. 517 East 233rd Street. 4 Train to the end of the line, Woodlawn station.

Cypress Hills Cemetery straddles the Brooklyn-Queens "border." It is the final resting place of Jackie Robinson. An earlier Brooklyn baseball star buried there is Bob Ferguson, who, by the standards of his time, was such a good fielder he was known as "Death to Flying Things." It's also where you can find late 19th Century heavyweight champion Gentleman Jim Corbett, jazz pianist Eubie Blake, and actress Mae West. In case you want to "Come up sometime and see me," it's at 833 Jamaica Avenue. J to Cypress Hills.

Non-Sports Sidelights. If you're looking for a good time to visit New York other than during baseball season, I would recommend the week before Christmas. Yes, it is likely to be cold, but the City never looks better than in the walk down 5th Avenue from 59th Street (Central Park, Plaza Hotel, and, until last year, the now-closed legendary toy store FAO Schwarz), past the Trump Tower (57th), St. Patrick's Cathedral (51st), Rockefeller Center (49th), the main library (42nd) on down to 34th (the Empire State Building). Along the way, you'll pass other legendary stores, including Tiffany and Lord & Taylor, although B. Altman's is long gone.

Do not visit Times Square on New Year's Eve. I cannot emphasize this enough. The Square will be packed before dark. If you don't get there before dark, you won't get anywhere near it. And if you do get there before dark, you'll be stuck there for hours, until the crowd finally thins out a few minutes after midnight. I was once there at about 2:00 in the afternoon on a December 31, and it was already a zoo. Don't do it!

Also, don't visit on March 17 to see the St. Patrick's Day Parade, unless you like very raucous behavior by people who aren't the least bit Irish and are using the holiday as an excuse to get as drunk as they think the stereotypical Irishman is.

I would advise against seeing a Broadway show: Tickets are expensive, hard to get, and most of the shows aren't really worth it.

The Ed Sullivan Theater, previously known as CBS Studio 50, was the site for The Ed Sullivan Show from 1948 to 1971. Elvis appeared there on September 9 and October 28, 1956, and, with the CBS cameras showing him from the waist up only, on January 6, 1957. The Beatles played there on February 9, 1964 -- where a since-broken U.S. TV record of 73 million people watched -- and September 12, 1965. CBS now broadcasts The Late Show with David Letterman from there. 1697 Broadway at 54th Street; B, D or E train to 7th Avenue.

Also well worth a visit: The Empire State Building (34th Street & 5th Avenue, D Train to 34th Street), Grand Central Terminal (42nd Street & Park Avenue, Number 4 Train to 42nd Street or Number 7 Train to Grand Central), the American Museum of Natural History (81st Street & Central Park West, C Train to 81st Street), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (82nd Street & 5th Avenue, Number 4 Train to 86th Street & walk 10 minutes), the Intrepid Museum (the World War II-era aircraft carrier is at Pier 86, 46th Street & 12th Avenue, and includes several aircraft, including the prototype space shuttle Enterprise), and the South Street Seaport (Fulton & Front Streets, A Train to Broadway-Nassau).

The site of the World Trade Center (Church & Vesey Streets, E Train to World Trade Center) is across Manhattan Island from the Seaport, but at that point the island is so narrow that the walk takes just 15 minutes. The new World Trade Center's observation deck, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, is now open. Fulton to Church to Vesey.

Presidential Sites. Theodore Roosevelt is the only President to have been born in New York City. The townhouse where he was born was demolished in 1916, while he was still alive. After his death in 1919, it was rebuilt, and serves as a museum in his honor. However, it is closed for renovations, with its website saying it will reopen in "late summer." 28 East 20th Street, between Park Avenue & Broadway.

His home on Long Island, Sagamore Hill, recently reopened after a 2-year renovation. There's also a visitors' center and museum on the site that, for all intents and purposes, serves as TR's "Presidential Library" (since most people who visit Presidential Libraries see only the museum and, if there is one there, the house, and don't actually go into the library to view documents). 20 Sagamore Hill Road, Oyster Bay. LIRR to Oyster Bay, and then take a taxi. I've walked the 3 miles from the station to the house, and I don't recommend it: The roads are narrow and twisty, and Cove Neck Road and Sagamore Hill Road have nasty hills.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, TR's cousin, and his wife Eleanor (TR's niece) had an apartment at 125 East 36th Street (6 to 33rd Street), and another at 49 East 65th Street off Park (F to Lexington Avenue/63rd Street). But their best-known home was FDR's birthplace in Hyde Park, in Dutchess County, where he put his Presidential Library.

4079 Albany Post Road, and if you're familiar with U.S. Route 9 in Jersey or as upper Broadway in Manhattan and The Bronx, or as the George Washington Bridge between them, it is very hard to believe it is (at least officially) the same road. It's 86 miles from Midtown Manhattan, and is actually closer to Albany. If you can't drive there, you'll have to take Metro-North from Grand Central to Poughkeepsie and then get a taxi for the last 4 miles. (It's not as hard a walk as from Oyster Bay to Sagamore Hill, but it is longer.)

As New York was the nation's 1st capital after ratification of the Constitution (but only very briefly before it moved back to Philadelphia and then to Washington), some of our early Presidents lived there, but none of their homes, or even the "Capitol," remain. Federal Hall, where George Washington was sworn in as the 1st President on April 30, 1789, was demolished in 1812 and rebuilt as a Customs House in 1842, and is now a National Park site. 26 Wall Street at Broad Street, on the opposite corner from the New York Stock Exchange. (4 or 5 to Wall Street.)

"The first White House," if you want to call it that, where Washington lived while New York was the capital, was at 3 Cherry Street, off Catherine Street, on what's now the Lower East Side, between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. There's a plaque on the building that's there now. F to East Broadway, then a 7-block walk down Rutgers and Cherry Streets.

I don't know where John Adams, James Madison and James Monroe were living at the time, but there's a plaque at the site of Thomas Jefferson's residence, at 57 Maiden Lane, between Nassau and William Streets, across from the Federal Reserve Bank. (Jefferson would have hated that irony.) A to Fulton Street.

Ulysses S. Grant and Grover Cleveland both had post-Presidency homes in Manhattan: Grant at 3 East 66th Street, off 5th Avenue; Cleveland (between his nonconsecutive terms) a short walk away at 816 Madison Avenue, off 69th Street. 6 to 68th Street-Hunter College.

Keep in mind: These addresses, and those of the filming locations for the TV shows I'm about to mention, are private residences. Do not attempt to enter; leave the people living there alone.

No one is "buried in Grant's Tomb": While the vault where the coffins of Ulysses & Julia Grant are held is underground, by definition, no one is buried in a tomb. What is officially called General Grant National Memorial is on Riverside Drive at 122nd Street. (1 to 125th Street.)

Cleveland, like Woodrow Wilson, lived in Princeton, New Jersey -- in Cleveland's case, after his 2nd term. However, Cleveland's house, at 15 Hodge Road off Bayard Lane; Wilson's houses, at 72 and 82 Library Place, off Stockton Street; and Albert Einstein's house, at 112 Mercer Street, off Edgehill Street, are all privately owned and not available for tours. Madison, like Wilson, was a Princeton graduate, but I don't know where he lived in town. NJ Transit Northeast Corridor Line to Princeton Junction, then transfer to a shuttle train to Princeton; or, from Port Authority Bus Terminal, take a Coach USA bus to the end of the line at Princeton's Palmer Square. The house where Cleveland was born, at 207 Bloomfield Avenue in Caldwell, is open for tours. NJ Transit 29 bus from Newark.

For the 3rd Presidential Debate in 1960, on October 13 -- a few hours after the Yankees lost the World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates on the Bill Mazeroski home run -- a one-time-only split-screen format was used: Richard Nixon was at the ABC studio in Los Angeles, and John F. Kennedy was at the ABC studio in New York. For the 4th and final debate -- the only time there's been 4 debates in the general election campaign -- on October 21, just 18 days before the election, both men were at the ABC studio in New York, the old one at the St. Nicholas Arena.

* TV Shows set in New York. As I'm sure you've noticed, there have been so many. On I Love Lucy, the Ricardos and the Mertzes lived at 623 East 68th Street, but this address does not exist in real life; New York Presbyterian Hospital occupies where the location would be, off York Avenue.

The Odd Couple building, home to Felix Unger and Oscar Madison, is not only a real address, but the building is still recognizable from the opening credits sequence over 40 years later: 1049 Park Avenue at 87th Street (4 train to 86th Street). Not far away, at 185 East 85th Street at 3rd Avenue, is the building that stood in, in the opening credits of The Jeffersons, for George and Weezy's "Dee-luxe apartment in the sky."

As characters introduced in All in the Family, the Jeffersons previously lived in Queens, next-door to the Bunkers, and Mike and Gloria moved into their house when they moved. Archie and Edith lived at 704 Hauser Street, which was supposedly in Flushing, but the house shown in the show's opening is in the Glendale section of the Borough, at 89-70 Cooper Avenue. All Queens addresses have that hyphenated format. If you live in a city with a 100-block system, where there is a "zero point" and the next block over is 100, the next 200, and so on, think of this address as 8970. But without a car, you'll need to take the E train to Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue, or the 7 train to 74th Street-Broadway (same station), and then take the Q53 bus.

Sesame Street is set in New York City, and while no specific location has ever been given, the brownstone's address is 123 Sesame Street. Show creator Joan Ganz Cooney said she originally wanted to call the show 123 Avenue B -- appropriate, since that part of the Lower East Side, because of Avenues A, B, C & D, is nicknamed "Alphabet City." But since the real Alphabet City was already descending into a crime-and-drug-ridden hellhole, from which it began to escape in the 1990s, giving that actual location might lead people to want to actually visit, which was considered a bad idea.

This was also a problem on The Honeymooners: Jackie Gleason had grown up at 358 Chauncey Street in Brooklyn, and gave the address for the building that housed the Kramdens and the Nortons as 328 Chauncey, which does exist, off Howard Avenue -- and not far from Ralph Avenue (C train to Ralph Avenue station), from which Gleason probably got Kramden's first name. I visited in 1991, at the depth of New York's crime wave, and the building -- in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, not in nearby Bensonhurst as was frequently claimed on the show -- was the only one on the block that wasn't a pathetic, graffiti-ridden mess. It was probably cleaned up by devoted Honeymoonies. These days, the area is probably safe in daylight, but please don't go there at night.

Welcome Back, Kotter, which aired on ABC in the late 1970s, was set at James Buchanan High School in Brooklyn. Head of the Class, an ABC show of the late 1980s, was also set in Brooklyn, at Millard Fillmore High School. While lots of New York public high schools are named after Presidents, Fillmore and Buchanan are not among them in real life. Gabe Kaplan, who played Gabe Kotter, had patterned his show after his own life: Before going into comedy, he had attended and taught at New Utrecht High School, whose exterior was used as an opening and closing credits stand-in for Buchanan. I can't prove it, but I think the same school stood in for Fillmore. 1601 80th Street in Dyker Heights (D to 79th Street).

On The Cosby Show, the Huxtables were said to live at 10 Stigwood Avenue in Brooklyn Heights, but this address is not real. The actual townhouse used for the exterior shots is in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, at 10 St. Luke's Place, off 7th Avenue South (1, Houston Street).

On Sex & the City, Carrie Bradshaw supposedly lived at 245 East 73rd Street, but the actual building shown is at 66 Perry Street, off West 4th in the Village. (1 to Christopher Street-Sheridan Square).

On Will & Grace, the titular characters and Jack lived at 155 Riverside Drive, off 88th Street. (1 to 86th Street.) McLaren's bar on How I Met Your Mother is based on McGee's, at 240 West 55th Street off Broadway (A to 59th Street-Columbus Circle); during the show's run, McGee's held viewing parties for it.

Don Draper lived down the block from Alex Russo? On Mad Men, Jon Hamm's character tells a cabdriver, "Sixth and Waverly." This could well be The Waverly, at 136 Waverly Place, off 6th Avenue. As far as I know, The Wizards of Waverly Place, on which Selena Gomez played Alex, never gave an exact address. But, like The Waverly, you could probably reach it by taking the A to West 4th Street.

On Seinfeld, Jerry and Kramer lived at 129 West 81st Street, off Columbus Avenue (what 9th Avenue is called north of 59th). Jerry actually did live in that building when he started out in comedy. C train to 81st Street. Paul Buchman of Mad About You said he also lived there before moving in with his eventual wife Jamie Stemple, to 51 5th Avenue off 12th Street. Any train that gets to Union Square (4, 5, 6, L, N, Q, R). Tom's Restaurant (or Tom's Diner, as Suzanne Vega would call it) stood in for Jerry & George's hangout Monk's Cafe, at 2880 Broadway at 112th Street, off the Columbia University campus. C to 110th Street.

The NYPD's 9th Precinct is housed at 321 East 5th Street, off 2nd Avenue. F to 2nd Avenue. (Don't bother the cops going in and out of this building. They wouldn't like it.) The exterior of this building has stood in for the 15th on NYPD Blue, the 12th on Castle, and the 2nd on The Mysteries of Laura. The 99th, of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, would be in Brooklyn, if it existed in real life. So would the 74th, from the film Frequency, a sort-of time travel movie that uses the 1969 Mets as a plot point. But none of these precincts does. Sorry. Or, should I say, as Debra Messing (Grace on Will & Grace and Laura on The Mysteries of Laura) would say, "Boom." (The Sullivan family of Frequency lived in Bayside, Queens, although the film's finale was filmed under the Triboro/RFK Bridge in Astoria.)

Like Castle, the 1975-82 sitcom Barney Miller was set at the 12th Precinct, and I suspect that ABC gave Castle's precinct the same number as a tribute to the funniest cops in TV history. Richard Castle's gift to the precinct, an espresso machine, has got to be an inside joke, a reference to the awful coffee made by Detective Nick Yemana on Barney Miller.)

The exterior of Castle's penthouse loft is at 425 Broome Street at Greene Street, in SoHo. E to Spring Street. Castle's New York State driver's license says 595 Broome, but this location would be inside the Holland Tunnel. Kate Beckett's apartment (the 2nd one, after the 1st one was blown up in Season 2) is said to be on 3rd Street on the Lower East Side, but the actual building is on the corner of Varick and Grand Streets in Tribeca, a 10-minute walk from the Castle loft building.

In contrast, Cagney & Lacey was set at the 14th Precinct, which, like NYPD Blue's, 15th, was said to be in Alphabet City. (While Manhattan only goes to an Avenue D, Brooklyn does the whole alphabet, Avenue A to Avenue Z.) But the 14th is real, albeit better known as Midtown South. That's at 357 West 35th Street, off 9th Avenue, in Hell's Kitchen. (Despite the name, this neighborhood, home to the notorious Irish gang The Westies, is a lot better off than it was.)

The building shown as the home of the Friends is at 90 Bedford Street at Grove Street. (Monica once gave the address as 425 Grove Street, but that address only exists in Brooklyn.) There's no Central Perk on the ground floor (or a similar coffee bar nearby), but there is a French restaurant called The Little Owl, which stood in for the restaurant that Catherine Zeta-Jones (who I love), Aaron Eckhardt and Abigail Breslin started at the end of the film No Reservations, so Monica would like that. 1 to Christopher Street-Sheridan Square.

Some other shows were set near but outside The City. While the workplace scenes on The Dick Van Dyke Show were set in Manhattan, Rob & Laura Petrie lived in New Rochelle in Westchester County. Also living in Westchester were Maude & Walter Findlay, in Tuckahoe; and Mrs. Garrett and the Eastland girls of The Facts of Life in Peekskill.

Bewitched, Who's the Boss and Gilmore Girls were set in Connecticut, although only Bewitched was specified, in Westport. Growing Pains and Everybody Loves Raymond were set on Long Island: The former, never specified, but the houses shown are in Merrick; the latter, Lynbrook.

As for New Jersey: Charles in Charge was set in New Brunswick (with the fictional Copeland College standing in for Rutgers), House in Plainsboro, and The Sopranos in various places in Essex, Hudson and Bergen Counties.

Tony and his moody brood lived in North Caldwell, Satriale's Pork Store was in Kearny (the actual building has been demolished), the Bada Bing was in Lodi (its real name is Satin Dolls, and it's still open), and the diner where the final scene was, uh, shot was at Holsten's, an ice cream parlor in my original home town of Bloomfield. (Oddly, I ate there 3 times before that scene was shot there, but, due to circumstances beyond my control, I have hardly been back to Bloomfield since.)

*

If you follow these directions, you should be able to attend a game at the new Yankee Stadium, and even do other things in New York City, and be able to go home without getting hurt.

Unlike Shea, Citi is not symmetrical. The left field pole is 335 feet from home plate (Shea was 341 until the Jets moved out in 1984, eliminating the need for the movable baseline stands, thus shortening it to 338), left-center is 358 (same as at Shea), deep left-center is 379 (371 at Shea), straightaway center is 408 (410), deep right-center is 375 (371), right-center curves back out to 383 (358), and the right-field pole is 330 (341/338).

Citi is definitely a pitcher's park, as Shea was, although this has been slightly reduced due to the outfield fence having been brought in a bit and lowered a bit, as the Mets have had a lot of trouble hitting there. Funny, but the Yankees never seem to have trouble hitting there on their visits.

The longest home run in the brief history of Citi Field was by Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins, 466 feet, on May 30 of last year. The longest by a Met was also hit last year, by Lucas Duda, 462, on July 28.

The longest home run at Shea Stadium, and the longest ever hit by a Met at home, appears to have been a 515-foot blast by Dave Kingman on August 14, 1981. (Darryl Strawberry's 1988 home run in Montreal is said to have gone 535 feet.) Shea didn't have much of its grandstand in fair territory, so it was very hard to hit a fair ball into the upper deck. The only player who ever did that was Met center fielder Tommie Agee on April 10, 1969. The spot where the Agee homer landed, about 480 feet from home plate, was painted with the date, his name, and his uniform Number 20. As far as I know, no effort was made to save this piece of concrete and put it in the team Hall of Fame at Citi Field.

No football games have yet been played at Citi, but it has hosted futbol. Four soccer games have been played there: 3 international games (Ecuador 1-1 Greece in 2011, Ecuador 3-0 Chile in 2012, and Israel 2-0 Honduras in 2013) and 1 club match (Italy's Juventus 1-0 Mexico's Club America).

Oddly, despite its smaller (and thus easier-to-reach) capacity, its better shape for the sport, and its good car and public transit access, New York City FC spurned Citi Field as a home ground for the new Yankee Stadium. It would have made much more sense, for those reasons, and for the reason that, like the Mets, NYCFC are doomed, at least for the time being, to be the Number 2 team in their sport in the New York Tri-State Area.

Just as the Beatles played the 1st concert at Shea in 1965, former Beatle Paul McCartney played the 1st concert at Citi Field in 2009. Billy Joel played the last concert at Shea in 2008, and, as one of the biggest Beatles fans alive, invited Paul onstage with him. At the 1st Citi Field concert, Sir Cute One returned the favor, and brought the Piano Man on.

Food. One area where the Mets always had the edge over the Yankees was in food. But that is no longer the case. Not because of taste (far from it) or price (Met food isn't much lower than Yankee food), but because of accessibility. They had years to get this right, and, instead, they have ended up with massive lines.

On my first visit to Citi Field, I was on line at Shake Shack for the entire 5th inning, and missed a home run that turned out to be the only run that was scored in regulation. (The Mets won in extra innings.) I stood on that line, deep behind the center field fence, looked back, and saw a stadium with maybe 10,000 people in it. Were the remaining 21,000 the average says the place has all on line at Shake Shack? Actually, if you've ever been on that line, you'll find that concept very believable.

Shake Shack is in center field, behind Section 139. A Blue Smoke barbecue stand is nearby at Section 140, and also upstairs at Section 414. On top of the building that houses both Shake Shake and the adjacent McFadden's is the stylized New York skyline that was on top of the old main scoreboard at Shea. A McFadden's restaurant is at the 126th Street entrance.

Keith's Grill, named after Hernandez, is at Sections 132 and 415. Unlike the Phillies with Greg Luzinski, the Orioles with Boog Powell, and a few others with barbecue stands named for players, Hernandez doesn't actually watch over it and control it. (As Elaine Benes, played by Julia-Louis Dreyfus on Seinfeld, would say, "Who does this guy think he is?" As Keith responded then, "I'm Keith Hernandez!") It's not his fault, really, since he's a Met broadcaster, and he has to work during the games. They really should have had a barbecue stand named after Rusty Staub, who was both a better hitter than Keith, and equally famous as a cook.

The Mets go around the world with Daruma of Tokyo at Section 105, El Verano Taqueria at 139, Two Boots (for the shapes of Italy and Louisiana) at 141, 317 and 512; and Kosher Grill at 114, 130, 401 and 528. They go around the block with Little Astoria and Mama's of Corona at 105, and across the City with Brooklyn Burger at 7 different stands. New York's legendary Nathan's hot dogs are all over Citi Field. And while Subway sandwich shops, in spite of their name, didn't start in New York (not that far away, though, in Bridgeport, Connecticut), there are 2 stands for it, at 125 and 413.

The Mets have a gluten-free stand and a Candy Cart at 105. They have Carvel ice cream stands all around, and Ittibitz (a variation on Dippin Dots) at 104, 118 and 424. Like the Yankees, they have lots of Premio Italian Sausage stands. And they do something for me that the Red Sox also do, but my beloved Yankees won't: They put a Dunkin Donuts in their ballpark, in Citi Field's case at Section 125. So I got that goin' for me when I visit, which is nice. And a Coolatta is still cheaper than a Black & White at Shake Shack.

Team History Displays. As I mentioned, the old Home Run Apple is outside, and the Mets Hall of Fame and Museum is on one side of the rotunda. It includes their 2 World Championship trophies, seats from the Polo Grounds and Shea, the original Mr. Met costume, and tributes to legendary Met broadcasters Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner.

The Mets Hall of Fame includes plaques for the following inductees:

* From the early days, 1962 to 1968: Owner Joan Payson; executives Bill Shea, George Weiss and Johnny Murphy; manager Casey Stengel, and 1st baseman/outfielder Ed Kranepool. Gil Hodges was a 1st baseman in the early days, but was hurt so often he couldn't make much of a contribution; he's in the MHOF as a manager.

* From the 1969 World Championship: Mrs. Payson, Weiss and Murphy (Shea was no longer officially involved); manager Hodges; pitchers Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and Frank "Tug" McGraw; shortstop Darrell "Bud" Harrelson; outfielders Tommie Agee and Cleon Jones; catcher Jerry Grote; and Kranepool. Although Nolan Ryan was on this team, and is in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, he is not in the MHOF, probably because the Mets don't want to remind everyone that they let him get away 295 wins, 5,221 strikeouts and 7 no-hitters too soon. In fact, since being traded away, he has been back to a Met game only once, in 2009, for the 40th Anniversary celebration of this team. Not honored from this team, but should be, is outfielder Ron Swoboda -- ironically, a native of Baltimore, whose Orioles the Mets beat in the World Series.

* From the 1973 Pennant: Mrs. Payson (Weiss and Murphy had died by then), Seaver, Koosman, McGraw, Kranepool, Harrelson, Jones, Grote, and outfielder Daniel "Rusty" Staub. Although Yogi Berra managed this team, is in the Cooperstown Hall, and accepted an invitation to the Shea closing ceremony in 2008 (and even wore a Number 8 Met jersey), he has not yet been elected to the MHOF. Nor has Willie Mays, also on this team and invited to the Shea closing, but he was a Met for less than 2 full seasons.

* From the 1974-83 interregnum: Nobody outside of the preceding and the following.

* From the 1984-90 glory days, including the 1986 World Championship and the 1988 NL East title: General manager Frank Cashen, manager Davey Johnson, pitcher Dwight Gooden, 1st baseman Keith Hernandez, catcher Gary Carter, and outfielders Darryl Strawberry and William "Mookie" Wilson. Although Koosman has been back to Citi Field since doing 6 months in prison for tax evasion, I don't think we'll be seeing Lenny Dykstra honored by election to the team Hall of Fame by the Mets (or the Phillies) anytime soon. But 3rd baseman Howard Johnson, and pitchers Ron Darling, Sid Fernandez, Bob Ojeda and Jesse Orosco are possibilities for future election.

* From the 1999 Wild Card berth and the 2000 Pennant: "Catcher" Mike Piazza and pitcher John Franco. Pitcher Al Leiter and 2nd baseman Edgardo Alfonzo are possibilities as well.

* From the 2006 NL East title and the 2007 & '08 close-but-no-cigar Mets: So far, nobody, although the only one retired and worthy of much consideration is 1st baseman Carlos Delgado. 3rd baseman David Wright and shortstop Jose Reyes are still active, but, of course, Reyes is no longer with the Mets. They could, I suppose, elect Baseball Hall-of-Famers Pedro Martinez and Tom Glavine, but do they really want to open those cans of worms?

* From the 2015 Pennant: Obviously, nobody yet.

* Crossing the eras: Broadcasters Nelson, Murphy and Kiner.
Aside from Casey (who, of course, won 10 of them as Yankee manager, 3 as a New York Giant player and 1 as a Brooklyn Dodger), all of these honorees was involved with at least 1 Met Pennant.

As the 3rd base coach in 1986, Harrelson is the only Met who has been on the field for 3 Pennants, while he and Davey are the only people who were in uniform for both of the Mets' World Series clinchers, albeit in Davey's case he was in uniform for the opposition in 1969, making the last out for the Orioles, a fly ball caught by Jones. As the 1st base coach in 2000, Mookie is the only Met since 1973 to have been in uniform for at least 2 Pennants.

Bob and Johnny Murphy were not related, although Bob's brother Jack Murphy was a sportswriter who heavily lobbied for major league sports to come to his adopted hometown of San Diego, and the stadium used by the Chargers and formerly by the Padres was named in his honor until Qualcomm bought the naming rights. Johnny Murphy was a Yankee reliever in the 1930s and Weiss was a Hall of Fame GM for the Yankees, but neither is honored in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park. Only Stengel is honored with plaques in both ballparks.

That's 27 people for 54 seasons of service, or 1 for every 2 seasons. In contrast, Yankee Stadium's Monument Park honors 36 people for 113 years, or 1 for every 3.14 seasons. (Pi. That doesn't count Jackie Robinson's Number 42, the 9/11 tribute, and the Plaques honoring the 3 Papal Masses and the speech by Nelson Mandela delivered at the old Stadium.) If the Mets honored people at the same rate the Yankees did, they'd have 17; if the Yankees did so at the same rate as the Mets, they'd have 56. (And if the Mets honor Kranepool, how low would the Yankees have to lower the bar? Possibly to Bucky Dent or Jim Leyritz.)

So while the Mets' Hall of Fame plaques were not on public display for a long time, it can no longer be argued that the Mets have failed to properly honor their history -- and, after more than half a century, they have some history to honor. Some of it is even honorable.

The Mets have retired 3 numbers: Stengel's 37, Hodges' 14 and Seaver's 41. Of course, Jackie Robinson's Number 42 was universally retired in a 1997 ceremony at Shea Stadium (I was there, having taken my Grandma there to honor her favorite athlete of all time), and when Shea entered its last season in 2008 they gave Bill Shea, the esteemed lawyer whose work got the Mets established in the early 1960s and got the stadium named after him, a stanchion with his name on it that stood in for a "retired number."

Those 5 stanchions are now on the left-field wall at Citi Field, as they were at Shea Stadium. On July 30 of this seasons, they will be joined by Piazza's 31.
Not officially retired, but rarely given out, are: 8, Gary Carter, catcher 1984-90; and 24, Willie Mays, center field 1972-73.

Seaver was the only player with a serious Met connection named to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Players in 1999.

On the facing of the upper deck down the left field line are the "pennants" honoring the Mets' 7 postseason berths: The 1969 and 1986 World Championships, the 1973 and 2000 National League Pennants, the 1988 and 2006 N.L. Eastern Division titles, and the 1999 Wild Card & N.L. Championship Series berth. An 8th, for the 2015 Pennant, will probably be unveiled at the home opener.
A walkway from the right-field stands to the center-field food court is named Shea Bridge.  And at the back of that area is the "skyline" that once crowned the Shea Stadium scoreboard, including the red-white-and-blue "ribbon" that covers the representation of the World Trade Center (as seen in my opening photo, above).
Stuff.  The Mets sell lots of team stuff, including the variations on the Mets caps and jerseys caused by their unfortunate experiments with using black, and orange, as base colors. You can always tell a real Mets fan (but you can't tell him much): He's got a blue cap with an orange NY, and/or, weather permitting, a blue jacket with an orange NY, not one of the later blue/black/orange combos. Mr. Met gets the souvenir highlight treatment, nearly as much as the Phillie Phanatic gets at Citizens Bank Park.

A DVD with the highlight films of the 1969 and 1986 World Series is available, as is a collection honoring the 1986 World Series (all 7 games, plus the clinching NLCS Game 6 in Houston), the stadium tribute Shea Goodbye, and The Essential Games of Shea Stadium.

This last DVD's "essential games" are: 1969 WS Game 4 (Swoboda's catch), 1986 NLCS Game 3 (Dykstra's walkoff), 1986 WS Game 6 (Bill Buckner), 1999 NLCS Game 5 (Robin Ventura's walkoff), September 21, 2001 (the 1st game back after 9/11, won by Piazza's home run), and May 19, 2006 (a walkoff hit by Wright beats the Yankees, for all the good that did).

The set also includes these highlights: The last inning of the '69 WS, Carter's Opening Day walkoff in '85, the last inning of the '86 NL East clincher, highlights of  '86 WS Game 7, Matt Franco's steroid-aided walkoff against Mariano Rivera in 1999, Todd Pratt's homer to clinch the '99 NL Division Series, the last inning of the 2000 Pennant clincher, 2006 highlights including the NL East clincher, the Endy Chavez catch from '06 NLCS Game 7 (for all the good that did), and an interview with Bill Shea.

Books about the Mets abound, especially now that they've passed their 50th Anniversary. Greg Prince, co-author of the blog Faith and Fear in Flushing, wrote a book with that title, and until someone writes a book that includes details of last year's Pennant, and perhaps well beyond that point, this will likely remain the definitive book about what it is like to be a Met fan. As Prince says, "Mostly, I love the Mets because I love the Mets." It doesn't make sense, but then, since when has baseball made sense? To paraphrase Bart Giamatti, baseball boggles your mind, it is designed to boggle your mind. And the Mets, even in their good times, boggle the mind more than most sports teams.

During the Game. A recent Thrillist article, ranking all 30 MLB teams' fans on "intolerability," listed Met fans 8th -- 4 places behind (i.e. not as bad as) the Yankees and 3 behind the Phillies.

"They get to stake out the claim as the hardscrabble, die-hard outsider fans," the article says, "just wallowing in the nether regions of Nassau County while the Yankees soak up all the attention. Mets fans would have you believe they have suffered in ways few fans can possibly understand."

Well, they got the geography right: Long Island (Lawn Giland), counting their home Borough of Queens, is pretty much the only place where Met fans outnumber Yankee Fans, even after a new Pennant. And their team has, much more often than not, made them suffer. If I'm being objective, then I should leave it to you do decide whether they deserve it. (Hint: A majority of Yankee Fans would say, "Hell, yeah, they do." So would a majority of fans of the other 14 teams in the National League.)

For the most part, Met fans do not abuse fans wearing opposing teams' gear. But I wouldn't wear an Atlanta Braves cap or shirt to Citi Field. I definitely wouldn't wear Philadelphia Phillies stuff.

As for Yankee gear... The simple act of wearing Pinstripes or the Yankee cap inside the Mets' ballpark is enough for their fans to consider it a provocative act. Like being a Red Sox fan, being a Met fan means you have to hate the Yankees nearly as much as you love your own team. It's in their blood: Giant and Dodger fans hated the Yankees as much as they hated each other, and, with the creation of the Mets serving as the burying of the hatchet between the Hatfields and McCoys of baseball, they were united in the twin causes of loving the Mets and hating the Yankees.

I seriously doubt that they will start a fight with you, simply because you show up in your teams' colors. Still, if even one Met fan out of a thousand is willing to start a fight, that means, somewhere in the joint, there are between 10 and 40 fans who will want to. So be aware of the possibility.

And if they do give you some verbal, do your best to ignore them. Don't respond with anything harsher than, "We'll see what happens in this game."

Do not bring up the 27 World Championships to 2, or the 30-year Met drought: They'll just say the Yankees "cheated" or "bought their titles." As if the '86 Mets didn't have the biggest payroll in the NL at the time, and the failed Mets of 1987 until the 2009 fire-sale era didn't have one of the top 3 payrolls in the NL all those years, and Mike Piazza wasn't also an apparent steroid user.

The Mets, since birth, have had a theme song, “Meet the Mets.” I have to admit, it's a better song than "Here Come the Yankees," even if "the butcher and the baker" and others (the milkman?) have been mostly replaced by supermarkets.

Mr. Met, a guy in a Met uniform (Number 00) with a big baseball head, appears to have been the original man-in-a-suit mascot at big-league baseball games. Don't worry, he's designed to be harmless, unlike the Phillie Phanatic, whose "tongue," however inadvertently, has hurt a few people. He's the only guy who can smile all the way through 81 Met home games, and he's the only Met who's allowed to have a big head.

Mr. Met has occasionally dressed in other costumes, including a superhero (Hero Met), The Fonz, Vegas Period Elvis, and others. Sometimes, he shows up with his wife, Mrs. Met, a.k.a. Lady Met. Sometimes, the Little Mets show up, too. But not on a school night.

In 1979, the Mets tried to bring in a new mascot: Mettle the Mule. This was a major public relations blunder. First of all, Mr. Met is revered by Met fans. Second of all, a mule had already been used by the Kansas City/Oakland A's. And 3rd of all, Mettle (meaning "strength" or "courage," and having "Met" in the name) was introduced to the fans by pulling a wagon around the field. And seated in the wagon was the owner at the time, Lorinda de Roulet, daughter of Mrs. Payson, who died in 1975. Mrs. Payson was beloved, as the woman who brought the Mets to the NL-deprived fans. Mrs. de Roulet was despised, as the woman who let team chairman M. Donald Grant do whatever he wanted, including trade away the players of the '69 and '73 Pennant winners, even going so far as to drive Seaver away from the team. Like Dandy, the weird mascot the Yankees introduced the next season, Mettle the Mulet was quickly scrapped, and has not been missed.

Nearly everything about Citi Field is an improvement over Shea Stadium. One thing that is not is the planes taking off from neighboring LaGuardia International Airport: I think moving the field a few hundred yards to the east actually made the problem worse. However, the truly loud ones are only those taking off. The ones landing go on a different runway, further away, and are usually not disruptive. The old "plane race" on the video board (which inspired the Yankees to do "The Great City Subway Race") has been retired.

When a Met hits a home run, the Home Run Apple is activated. Originally placed in Shea's center field after Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon bought the team from Mrs. Payson's estate in 1980, it was supposed to be a play not just on the New York nickname "the Big Apple," but also on the slogan of the time: "The New Mets: The Magic Is Back." It was a magician's black top hat, inverted, with the white letters "HOME RUN" on the front, and a big red apple with a Met logo on it would rise out, and the logo would light up.

In 1998, when an accident forced a brief closure of the old Yankee Stadium and 1 Yankee home game to be moved to Shea, Strawberry, who hit more homers at Shea than anyone, hit one for the Yankees, and the apple was rigged to rise to only half its height, so only the top half of the Met logo could be seen, showing the stylized New York skyline but not the word "Mets." I thought it was a good touch.

Knowing that Shea would be demolished, an Internet campaign went up to "Save the Apple." It worked: The old apple, which really was in bad shape, was restored and put outside Citi Field, and a new, larger apple was put in the center field hitter's background inside the new park.
The main Met fans' chant is, of course, the rhyming, "Let's go, Mets!" For many years, in the 1990s and 2000s (but I haven't seen them do it at Citi Field), they would, during some late rallies, cue up the scene from the movie Network, when Peter Finch's news anchor Howard Beale demands that people yell out their windows, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" so that it's rigged to say, "I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell... LET'S GO METS!"

In the 7th Inning Stretch, after Mr. Met leads fans in "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," the stadium speakers will play Newark native Lou Monte's half-Italian-half-English song "Lazy Mary." Why? Probably due to New York's huge Italian community and the song's inclusion in the New York-based film The Godfather. (Never mind that the recording was released in 1958, or 13 years after the film's opening wedding scene, which includes the song.) After the game, win or lose, even though Billy Joel is a Yankee Fan, the Mets play his song "New York State of Mind."

After the Game. If you’re looking for a postgame meal (or even just a pint), you're going to have to get in your car or on the Subway, as, like Shea before it, Citi is an island in a sea of parking. Fortunately, the Mets  do keep McFadden's open for a while after the game, and they list a lot of restaurant and bar ads in their game program. Sadly, Rusty's, Staub's once-wildly popular Midtown East Side restaurant which he based on the cuisine of his native New Orleans, is long gone.

A bar associated with the 1980s Mets, because some of their players liked to get tanked there, is Finn MacCool's, at 205 Main Street in Port Washington, 6 blocks west of the Port Washington station on the LIRR. If you want to go, go to the LIRR station across Roosevelt Avenue, and get on an eastbound train instead of a westbound one.

Sidelights. This could get long, so I'll limit it to Met-centric sites.

The Flushing Meadow site has been the Mets' home since 1964, with the site of Shea Stadium just to the west of where Citi Field now stands. Shea was also home to the AFL/NFL Jets from 1964 to 1983, the Yankees during the renovation of the old Yankee Stadium in 1974 and 1975, and the Giants in 1975 -- making 1975 the only time a single venue in North America hosted 4 different major league sports teams.

Across Roosevelt Avenue and the LIRR tracks is Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, site of the 1939-40 New York World's Fair (the Queens Museum is pretty much all that's left of it) and the 1964-65 New York World's Fair (a few more structures survive, including the Unisphere globe).

It includes the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, home of the U.S. Open, including the main stadium, named for tennis legend Arthur Ashe, and a smaller one that used to be the main stadium, named for music legend Louis Armstrong, who lived nearby in Corona, loved baseball, had season tickets for the Yankees until Shea opened, then became a Met fan, and, for some reason, loved tennis, going to the Open when it was still being held at the Forest Hills Stadium.

Louis Armstrong Stadium was originally the Singer Bowl, built for the '64 World's Fair. It was converted into 2 venues, attached to each other, for the U.S. Open, and reopened in 1978, seating 18,000. When Arthur Ashe Stadium opened in 1997, Armstrong Stadium had its top deck removed, and capacity was reduced to 10,000. It will soon be demolished and replaced with a 15,000-seat stadium, also named for Armstrong, in time for the 2018 Open.

In their 1st 2 seasons, 1962 and 1963, the Mets played at the Polo Grounds. It was home to the baseball Giants from 1911 to 1957 (and a previous stadium on the site, which burned down, hosted them from 1891 to 1911), the Yankees from 1913 to 1922, and the football Giants from 1925 to 1955. It hosted a few Army-Notre Dame games, including the one in 1924 where Notre Dame's backfield ran all over the place and was nicknamed The Four Horsemen by legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice.

Fordham's football team also played some home games there, including a famous scoreless tie with Pittsburgh in 1937, when ended the season ranked Number 1 and Fordham, with a line known as the Seven Blocks of Granite and including Brooklyn native Vince Lombardi and South River, New Jersey's Alex Wojchiechowicz (both in the Pro Football Hall of Fame), finished at Number 3.

Jack Dempsey knocked out Luis Firpo there in 1923, retaining the heavyweight title despite Firpo knocking him all the way out of the ring at one point. Joe Louis came from behind to knock out Billy Conn there, retaining the title in 1941. Floyd Patterson became the 1st fighter ever to regain the heavyweight title, knocking out Ingemar Johansson there in 1960, after Ingo had knocked him out at Yankee Stadium the year before.

Demolition of the Polo Grounds began on April 11, 1964, by the same company and using the same wrecking ball, painted to look like a baseball, that had demolished Ebbets Field. This was right before Shea opened -- in other words, if Shea hadn't been ready on April 17 (and it nearly wasn't), the Mets would have been screwed, because the Yankees weren't going to let them in.

Polo Grounds Towers opened on the site in 1966. At the entrance to one of those towers, roughly where home plate was, is a plaque honoring the old stadium. Just to the north is a playground (not an actual field) named Willie Mays Field. Across 155th Street is Rucker Park, home to a renowned summer basketball tournament. 2955 Frederick Douglass Blvd. (what 8th Avenue is called above Central Park). B or D train to 155th Street. Definitely a place for a sports fan to visit during the day. Definitely not a place for anyone not from Harlem or Washington Heights to visit at night.

Speaking of Ebbets Field, the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1913 to 1957 stood at 1700 Bedford Avenue, at the corner of Sullivan Place. B or Q train to Prospect Park. Again: Visit during the day, not at night.

It was demolished in 1960, and in 1962, Ebbets Field Apartments opened on the site. Across McKeever Place was Jackie Robinson Intermediate School. It is now named Ebbets Field Middle School.
There are plenty of memorials to Jackie, including the Rotunda at Citi Field, and a statue of him and Dodger Captain Harold "Pee Wee" Reese outside the current home of Brooklyn baseball, MCU Park (named for the company formerly known as Brooklyn Union Gas and KeySpan).

The ballpark opened in 2001, and the Brooklyn Cyclones, named for the nearby roller coaster, won the New York-Penn League Pennant that year, but haven't won it since. They still sell the place out nearly every game, though. Their season starts in mid-June, always with a home-and-home 2-game series with their arch-rivals, the Staten Island Yankees.
1904 Surf Avenue. D, F, N or Q train to Stillwell Avenue-Coney Island. It's a relatively safe neighborhood these days, but it takes an hour to get there on the Subway from Midtown Manhattan.

*

As long as the Mets aren't playing the Yankees, with a deep hatred that goes back well before the Mets were even an idea, Citi Field is well worth a visit. You might be impressed -- by the ballpark, if not by the home team.

And if you're not, hey, it could be worse: You could have been at Shea Stadium, the old Flushing Toilet!

So much for objectivity.

This coming Friday, April 8, the Yankees travel to Detroit to begin a 3-game series against the Tigers.

Before You Go. The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press (or "Freep") websites, especially their weather pages, should be consulted before you decide whether to go. Michigan is in the Midwestern Snowbelt. Neither snow nor rain is predicted for the weekend, but it's going to be cold.

On Friday the 8th, temperatures are expected to be in the low 50s, so wear a light jacket. On Saturday the 9th, low 40s, so wear a winter jacket. On Sunday the 10th, it might get into the low 60s, but our game will be the Sunday night ESPN game. All 3 evenings are expected to see temperatures plunge into the 30s; Friday and Saturday, into the low 30s. So if you get the Sunday game, bundle up.

The whacked-out Interleague Play schedule always partly takes the American League Central Division teams out of the Yankees' schedule, so this will be the Yankees' only visit to Detroit this season. If you've gone before, and can only afford one roadtrip this season, this series should not be a priority. If you haven't gone before, and money is an issue, wait until next season, or a later season, to do this one, as flying to Detroit can be expensive.

Detroit is a border city. The Detroit River, connecting Lakes Huron and Erie, is one of the few places where you can cross from north to south and go from America to Canada. Windsor, Ontario -- the closest thing to a "South Detroit," making that line in the Journey song "Don't Stop Believin'" problematic -- is considerably safer, and, like Detroit itself, has a gambling casino. If you want to visit, you'll need to bring your passport. You can use either the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel or the Ambassador Bridge.

You'll also need to change your money. At the moment, US$1.00 = $1.30, and C$1.00 = US 77 cents.

Tickets. The Tigers have usually been good since their 2006 American League Pennant season. In spite of this, due to how hard the Bush Recession hit Michigan, attendance had not been all that strong. Until their 2012 Pennant season. But it is coming back: The Tigers averaged 33,654 fans per game last season, about 81 percent of capacity in a ballpark that officially seats 41,574 (but can be boosted to over 45,000 with standing room).

The Friday game will be their home opener, so you can probably forget about getting into that game. However, recognizing the Detroit area's special status as an economically-socked region, the Tigers have significantly dropped ticket prices from the last few years.

Infield Boxes are $72, Outfield Boxes are $55, Lower Baseline Boxes (in the outfield corners) are $43, Right Field Grandstands (bleachers) are $36, Upper Boxes are $33, Pavilion (left field bleachers) are $28, Mezzanine (upper right field) are $23, Kaline's Corner (a small right field family section named for the legendary Tiger right fielder) are $22, Bleachers (upper right field) are $21, and the cheapest section, the Jungle Rooftop Bleachers (reminiscent of the apartment buildings across from Wrigley Field, also copied in Philadelphia) are $16.

Getting There. Detroit is 600 land miles from New York. Specifically, it is 616 miles from Times Square to Cadillac Square. Knowing this, your first reaction is going to be to fly out there.

This may be the time to do it. The days of Detroit being "kind of an expensive flight," as George once described it on a 1992 episode of Seinfeld, may be over. If you buy tickets online now, you could get a round-trip flight to Detroit's Wayne County Metropolitan Airport for under $500 -- if you don't mind changing planes in Philadelphia.

The airport is 22 miles southwest of downtown. A taxi to downtown will set you back a bundle. There is a bus, SMART (Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation) bus Number 125, that goes directly from the airport to downtown, but it will take an hour and 20 minutes.

The most direct Amtrak route is the Lake Shore Limited, formerly known as the Twentieth Century Limited when the old New York Central Railroad ran it from Grand Central Terminal to Chicago's LaSalle Street Station. It leaves New York's Penn Station at 3:40 every afternoon, and arrives at Union Terminal in Toledo at 5:55 every morning. From there, you have to wait until 6:30 to get on a bus to Detroit's Amtrak station, arriving at 7:35. The station is at 11 W. Baltimore Avenue, at Woodward Avenue, 2 1/2 miles north of Comerica, so walking there is not a good option; the number 16 or 53 bus would take you down Woodward.

In reverse, the train leaves Detroit at 9:30 PM, arrives in Toledo at 10:35, and then you have to hang around there until the Lake Shore Limited comes back at 3:20 AM, arriving back in New York at 6:23 PM. Total cost: $184. A lot cheaper than flying, but a tremendous inflammation in the posterior.

How about Greyhound? Yeah, ride a bus for 14 hours to Detroit, there's a great idea. (Rolleyes.) Actually, having done it, I can tell you that it's not that bad. Two Greyhound buses leave Port Authority every day with connections to Detroit. One is at 5:15 PM, and arrives at 7:20 AM, with a 1 hour and 35 minute stopover in Cleveland in the middle of the night (but you won't have to change buses, in case you want to stay on the bus and sleep). The other leaves Port Authority at 10:15 PM, and you will have to change buses in Cleveland, arriving 6:50 AM and leaving 7:50, arriving at 11:25 AM. Despite having to change buses, this one is actually faster, taking 13 hours and 10 minutes, as opposed to the single through bus ride, taking 14 hours and 5 minutes.

Compared to most of Detroit, the bus terminal, at 1001 Howard Street, is relatively new and quite clean. It was just about within walking distance of Tiger Stadium, which really helped me in 1999. It's also not a long walk from Comerica Park, but I wouldn't recommend this. Better to take a cab, especially if you're getting a hotel.

The first bus to leave Detroit after the Thursday afternoon game is at 5:40 PM, and you won't have to change buses, arriving at Port Authority at 7:40 Friday morning. Round-trip fare: $114 if you make an advanced purchase, $142 if you're buying at Port Authority. So Greyhound is also far cheaper than flying, cheaper than Amtrak, and less of a pain than Amtrak -- especially on this roadtrip.

If you decide to drive, the directions are rather simple, down to (literally) the last mile. You'll need to get into New Jersey, and take Interstate 80 West. You'll be on I-80 for the vast majority of the trip, through New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. In Ohio, in the western suburbs of Cleveland, I-80 will merge with Interstate 90. I point this out merely to help you avoid confusion, not because I-90 will become important -- though it is for "How to Be a Yankee Fan in Chicago" and some other cities. In Ohio, you'll take I-80's Exit 64, and get onto Interstate 75 North. This will take you into Michigan. Take Exit 50 for Grand River Avenue. Follow the ramp to Woodward Avenue.

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and a half in New Jersey, 5 hours and 15 minutes in Pennsylvania, 3 hours in Ohio and an hour in Michigan. That’s 10 hours and 45 minutes. Counting rest stops, preferably halfway through Pennsylvania and in the Cleveland suburbs, and accounting for traffic in both New York and Detroit, it should be about 12 hours.

I strongly recommend finding a hotel with a good, secure parking garage, even if you're only staying for one game.

Once In the City. The city, on the river of the same name, was founded in 1701 as Fort Ponchartrain du Detroit du Lac Erie (Day-TWAH, strait of Lake Erie), by Antonie de La Mothe Cadillac, for whom the downtown Cadillac Square and the brand of car was named.

Detroit's centerpoint, in culture and in terms of address numbers, is the Woodward Fountain, where Woodward, Michigan and Gratiot Avenues come together, with Cadillac Square just off to the east. Woodward is the street address divider between East and West.

Since the July 1967 race riot, Detroit has become known as a city of poverty, crime, decay, and poor city services, the kind of place where even Batman would fear to tread. The legendary comedian Red Skelton once said, "In Detroit, you can go 10 miles and never leave the scene of the crime." It's no wonder the RoboCop film series was set there.

There was a Nike commercial a few years back, in which young basketball players were seated, yoga-style, in front of a TV screen, on which their "master," a fat black man with a turban and sunglasses who looked nothing like an athlete, was dispensing wisdom. At the end, after the Swoosh logo was shown, the camera went back to one of the students, who asked, "But, Master, what if we behave badly?" And the Master lowered his shades, looked over them, and said, "You go to Detroit." This was in the early 1990s, when the Pistons had begun to fall from their 1989-90 "Bad Boys" championship teams, and going to Detroit was not a good option in any sport -- indeed, the only Detroit team doing well at the time was, strangely, the Lions, who were then a perennial Playoff team thanks largely to Barry Sanders.

I once saw a T-shirt that read, "I'm so bad, I vacation in Detroit." As I mentioned, I have. (I'm not saying I'm "bad," or a "hard man," just that I went.) Newark had a race riot 2 weeks before Detroit's. In May 1999, I saw Detroit, and I realized just how far back Newark had come, by seeing how far Detroit had not.

In the 1950 Census, Detroit was the 4th-largest city in America, after New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, with over 2 million people just within the city limits. "White flight" after the '67 riot has led to the Detroit metropolitan area having roughly the same number of people it had then, about 5.6 million, but within the city limits the number has dropped from over 2 million to just 680,000. The suburbs are beautiful, but the city itself is a hole, and good men (and a few bad ones) have busted their humps trying to get it back on its feet.

One of the good men who's tried is Mike Ilitch, probably the most famous American of Macedonian descent, who runs Little Caesar's Pizza, and owns the Tigers and Red Wings. He rebuilt the city's historic Fox Theater, put Little Caesar's headquarters in the building above it, and had Comerica Park built across the street. He, and many others, including Pistons Hall-of-Famer turned major area businessman Dave Bing, who served a term as Mayor, are trying, they really are.

But Governor Rick Snyder, a Tea Party Republican currently under a criminal investigation for allowing the water of Flint to be poisoned, ordered a State takeover of Detroit's finances. Apparently, he didn't learn the lesson of Hugh Carey, New York's Governor in 1975, who found another way to get New York City's finances back on their feet. In Detroit's case, as in every other place in which it's tried, austerity hasn't worked.

As for you, the potential visitor, the fear of crime should not keep you away. As with Yankee Stadium during the depth of New York's crime wave from the late 1970s to the early '90s, the ballpark is probably the safest, best-protected place in town.

In terms of residents, the suburbs are nearly all-white; the city itself, nearly all-black. If there is another city in North America that is so segregated, I'm not aware of it. The sales tax in the State of Michigan is 6 percent, and does not go up in either the County of Wayne or the City of Detroit.

Detroit is a weird city in some ways. It often seems like a cross between a past that was once glorious but now impossible to reach, and a future that never quite happened. (That observation was once made about the remaining structures from New York’s 1964-65 World’s Fair, and the Astrodome in Houston.) Art Deco structures of the 1920s and ‘30s, such as the Penobscot Building (the tallest building outside New York and Chicago when it opened in 1928, the tallest in Michigan until 1977) stand alongside abandoned, boarded-up or chained-up stores.

But alongside or across from them, there are glassy, modern structures such as the Renaissance Center, shown in the photo above: A 5-tower complex that includes, at its center, the 750-foot tallest building in Michigan (the tallest all-hotel skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere), and, in one of its 4 outer towers, the headquarters of General Motors (although the RenCen was originally financed by Ford).

Downtown also has the Detroit People Mover, a monorail system that is part of the suggestion of Detroit trying to get from 1928 to 2028 while jumping over the difficult years in between. Like the Washington and Montreal Metro (subway) systems, the company running it prides itself on the artwork in its stations.
It has a stop called Times Square, but it won’t look anything like the one in New York. It has a stop called Bricktown, but it won’t look anything like Brick Township, the sprawling Jersey Shore suburb off Exits 88 to 91 on the Garden State Parkway. The Grand Circus Park and Broadway Street stations are both 3 blocks from Comerica Park. The DPM also has a stop at Joe Louis Arena, home of the Red Wings. It’s cheap, only 75 cents, and it still uses tokens, although it also accepts cash. Be advised, though, that it stops running at midnight, except on Fridays and Saturdays, when it runs until 2:00 AM. Local bus fare is $1.50.

Going In. The closest parking lots to the park are $25, but most nearby lots can be had for as little as $15. This is a far cry from parking at Tiger Stadium, which usually had people boxed in, resulting in tremendous traffic jams both before and after the game (and, every bit as much as the crime and the condition of the stadium, was why the Lions wanted to get out and built the Silverdome). It also involved local kids being willing to "Watch your car, Mister?" for a small fee. Translation: "If you pay me $5.00, I'll make sure nobody damages your car. If you don't pay me, I'll make sure somebody, namely myself, does."

The area around Comerica Park (named for a Midwest-based bank) and Ford Field (home of the NFL's Lions, across Brush Street from Comerica, and named for the automaker), at the northern edge of downtown Detroit, is called Foxtown, after the Fox Theater, which, as I said, Tigers/Wings/Little Caesars owner Mike Ilitch had restored.

The ballpark can be entered at Gate A on Witherell (that’s the 1st base stands), Gate B at Witherell & Adams (right field corner), Gate C at Adams & Brush (left field corner), or Gate D on Montcalm (home plate). The official street address is 2100 Woodward Avenue, even though the park is not on Woodward.
There are a lot of distractions in the park, from the huge Tiger statues to the Comerica Carousel, near the Big Cat Food Court under the 1st base stands, to the Fly Ball Ferris Wheel, with baseball-shaped compartments, under the 3rd base stands. But, not being a kid (except maybe at heart), you’re interested in the baseball, so let’s move on.

The ballpark faces southeast, as did Tiger Stadium. Unlike Tiger Stadium, Comerica is not fully enclosed, so you can see out, and some of Detroit’s taller buildings can be seen from the seats behind the plate, including the RenCen and the Penobscot. Much of Detroit’s financial district, including the Penobscot, was built in the 1920s and ‘30s and, like many of New York’s buildings of the same period, were heavily influenced by the Art Deco movement. Some of these structures show just how much of a shame it is that Detroit has so badly fallen apart in the last half-century.

Unlike Tiger Stadium, whose overhanging upper deck in right field and close left-center power alley made it a hitter's park, Comerica favors pitchers. Outfield distances are as follows: Left, 345 feet; left-center, 370; center, 420; right-center, 365; right, 330.

Actually, the dimensions are not all that different from Tiger Stadium, but the lack of an outfield upper deck means not only is there no batter-aiding overhang, but air can circulate better, and when the wind comes in off the Detroit River, it makes it tough to hit one out. J.D. Martinez hit Comerica's longest home run, last July 22, 467 feet. (It's not clear who hit the longest homer at Tiger Stadium: It's been credited to Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Norm Cash and Cecil Fielder.)

The field is natural grass. In the early 20th Century, most ballparks would have a strip of dirt between home plate and the pitcher's mound, known as a "keyhole." Comerica Park added this feature, and so did the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, now known as Chase Field.

In center field, the Tigers have the Chevrolet Fountain, a takeoff on the fountain in Kansas City, and honoring the automobile industry's contributions to the city that got it nickname "The Motor City" and "Motown." In solidarity, the Chrysler and Ford logos now flank the Chevy ad on top.

During Christmas Week 2013, Comerica Park hosted the Hockeytown Winter Festival, in connection with the NHL Winter Classic to be held nearby at Michigan Stadium on New Year's Day. Events included public ice skating and college hockey games.

Food. When I visited Tiger Stadium in its final season, 1999, it had great food, including the very best ballpark hot dog I've ever had. Since they're owned by Little Caesars mogul Ilitch, and before that were owned by Domino's Pizza boss Tom Monaghan, food is taken very seriously by the club. This is, after all, Big Ten Country, where college football tailgate parties are practically a sacrament.

Their big feature is the Big Cat Food Court, under the 1st base stands, featuring Little Caesars, naturally; Sliders, a stand featuring that Midwest staple, the Coney dog (a hot dog with chili and onions, though they're not that popular at the actual Coney Island); the Brushfire Grill, with barbecue specialties; a stand selling "Chicago Style Hot Dogs," with the little pickle slice, the tomato slice, and the celery salt (and, no, I don't know why Detroit's ballpark would sell a Chicago-themed item); Asian Tiger, with Chinese food and sushi; a Mexican food stand; and "Lemons & Ears," which sells lemonade and "elephant ears," a Midwestern variation on that Middle Atlantic States standard, funnel cake.

The Tigers also have numerous in-park restaurants, but, like the ones at Yankee Stadium II, you can only get in with certain tickets. But if you go to a Detroit Tigers home game and you don't find something good to eat, you're not trying hard enough.

Team History Displays. The main concourse features a Walk of Fame, showing great moments in Detroit baseball history, from the 1887 National League Champion Detroit Wolverines, through the Pennants the Tigers won with Ty Cobb Pennants in 1907-08-09, to the Hank Greenberg years of 1934-45, to the amazing 1968 "Year of the Tiger," to the "Bless You Boys" of 1984, and the 2006 and 2012 Pennants.

Along the left-center-field wall are statues of the 5 Tiger players who have had their uniform numbers retired: 2, Charlie Gehringer, 2nd base, 1924-42; 5, Greenberg, 1st base, 1933-46; 6, Al Kaline, right field, 1953-74 and broadcaster 1975-2002; 16, Hal Newhouser, pitcher, 1939-53; and 23, Willie Horton, left field, 1963-77 (and grew up in Detroit). There is also a statue of Cobb, center field, 1905-26, who played before uniform numbers were worn (though I once saw film of him at an old-timers' game, wearing a Tiger uniform, Number 25). Their names and their numbers are on a wall in left field.

Not with those statues, but rather at the 1st base entrance, is a statue of the late Ernie Harwell, the broadcaster whose very voice meant "the Detroit Tigers" from 1960 to 2002. His name is on a matching wall in right field, along with those of 1979-95 manager Sparky Anderson, Number 11 retired; and the names of Tigers who, while their numbers have not been retired by the team, are, like the preceding (with Horton the lone exception) also in the Baseball Hall of Fame: Sam Crawford, right field, 1903-17; Hugh Jennings, manager, 1907-20; Harry Heilmann, right field, 1914–29 and broadcaster 1934-50; Henry "Heinie" Manush, left field, 1923–27; Gordon "Mickey" Cochrane, catcher 1934-37, manager 1934-38; and George Kell, 3rd base, 1946–52 and broadcaster 1959-96. Jackie Robinson's universally retired Number 42 is also with these names. These walls, in left-center and right-center, serve as Detroit's answer to Yankee Stadium's Monument Park.

Not included, although he is in the Hall of Fame, is 1934-37 left fielder Leon "Goose" Goslin. He, Greenberg and Gehringer, in those early days of the FBI, were nicknamed the G-Men.

The first great Tiger announcer was Edwin "Ty" Tyson, who announced from 1927 to 1953. Unlike Harwell, he has not been honored on these walls or received the Hall of Fame's Ford Frick Award for broadcasters.

The Tigers have removed from circulation, but not officially retired, the following uniform numbers: 1, Lou Whitaker, 2nd base, 1977-95; 3, worn by Cochrane, Dick McAuliffe (2nd base, 1960-73), and Alan Trammell (shortstop, 1977-96 and manager 2003-05); and 47, worn by Jack Morris, pitcher, 1977-90.

In 1999, Cobb was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. That same year, he, Crawford, Heilmann, Cochrane, Gehringer, Greenberg, Goslin, and Kaline were named to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Baseball Players. Since the 1st All-Star Game was held in 1933, right at the dawn of a golden age for the Tigers, Gehringer was their only player selected for it.

Stuff. The Tigers have 5 team stores located throughout the ballpark. Stuffed tigers are a natural to sell, and jerseys, jackets, T-shirts and caps abound. You can also buy DVDs of the official World Series highlight films of 1945, 1968 and 1984 (they come in 1 disc, with the 1935 edition preceding the start of official films sponsored by MLB which started in 1943) and The Essential Games of the Detroit Tigers.

Unlike the "Essential Games" series for the old Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium, instead of 6 games, there's only 4, and, due to the limitations on what Major League Baseball Productions has, they only go back to 1968. Despite it not being "The Essential Games of Tiger Stadium," they still limit it to home games. Thus the 1984 clincher, Game 5 at Tiger Stadium, is included; 1968's Game 5 at Tiger Stadium, the only home game the Tigers won in that Series, is included; but the Game 7s of 1945 (at Wrigley Field) and 1968 (at Busch Stadium) are not. They do, however, include the Tiger Stadium finale in 1999 and Game 4 of the 2006 American League Championship Series, which was won by Magglio Ordonez hitting a walkoff homer to cap a series sweep.

The Bonus Features include highlights from the 1971 All-Star Game (future Yankee Reggie Jackson hitting the Tiger Stadium roof off future Yankee Dock Ellis), the 1976 "Mark Fidrych Game" in which "the Bird" beat the Yankees on ABC Monday Night Baseball; the Comerica Park opener in 2000; a tribute to Trammell and Whitaker; a big moment from the career of Curtis Granderson, now a Met, a former Tiger and a former Yankee; and a brief Tiger Stadium retrospective.

Books about the Tigers are plentiful. In 1989, then-manager Sparky Anderson collaborated with legendary Detroit sportswriter Joe Falls on The Detroit Tigers: An Illustrated History, probably the best single-volume history of the ballclub.

Charles C. Avison wrote Detroit: City of Champions, telling of how the city produced champion after champion in the Great Depression and World War II: The Tigers winning Pennants in 1934, '35, '40 and '45; the Lions debuting in 1934 and winning the NFL Championship in 1935; the Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup in 1936, '37 and '43; and Alabama-born, Detroit-trained Joe Louis winning the Heavyweight Championship of the World in 1937 and keeping it until his first retirement in 1948. Back then, Detroit was a city where anything was possible.

Even as late as 1968, in the middle of the golden age of muscle cars and Motown Records, it still seemed like the 1967 riot might be a brief setback to a great city. Earlier this year, George Cantor published The Tigers of '68: Baseball's Last Real Champions, the title based on the fact that 1968 was the last season before Divisional Play began. In contrast, by the time the Tigers won it all again in 1984, Detroit was unquestionably a city of the past, falling apart, torn by racial strife and poverty, and surpassed as an automotive center by Germany and Japan. And, as it did during the Depression, The War, and after the riot, Detroit once again needed a winner. Mark Pattison, David Raglin, Gary Gillette and Richard L. Shook recently published Detroit Tigers 1984: What a Start! What a Finish! (based on the fact that the Tigers won 35 of their first 40 and then won the World Series in 5 games).

Ernie Harwell published several books, including Tuned to Baseball (1984) and Ernie Harwell: Stories from My Life In Baseball (2001). While neither book is solely about his experiences with the Tigers, the man was a born storyteller. He also collaborated with Jim Hawkins on Al Kaline: The Biography of a Tigers Icon, telling the story of the most beloved athlete in Detroit history -- ahead of Ty Cobb, Gordie Howe, Steve Yzerman, Isiah Thomas and every Lions player.

Charles C. Alexander's Ty Cobb, published in 1984, remains the best biography of the Georgia Peach. He recently collaborated with historian Rick Huhn on The Chalmers Race, about Cobb's 1910 duel with Cleveland star Napoleon Lajoie for the AL batting title, and thus for a brand-new Chalmers 30 car (roughly the equivalent of winning Lexus today). Both My Life In Baseball: The True Record, which Cobb wrote with Al Stump, and Cobb: A Biography, which Stump left to be published after his own death, should be discounted as full of tall tales. In contrast, Hank Greenberg: The Story of My Life is a fair self-assessment, and John Rosengren's recent Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes tells the complete tale, including a comparison of Greenberg's injury-shortened career with more recent, drug-aided sluggers.

During the Game. You do not have to worry about wearing Yankee gear in Comerica Park. Maybe if it was a Pistons game and you were wearing Chicago Bulls stuff. Or if it was a Lions game and you were wearing Chicago Bears or Green Bay Packers stuff. Or if it was a Red Wings game and you were wearing Chicago Blackhawks or (due to their nasty late 1990s, early 2000s matchups) Colorado Avalanche stuff. But for a Tigers game, you can wear just about any opposing team's cap, jersey, jacket, whatever, and no one will give you a hard time based on that.

A recent Thrillist article ranked Tiger fans as the 12th "most intolerable" out of MLB's 30 teams, putting them about in the middle of the pack:

The fellas are in their Cabrera jerseys (every penny towards that salary counts) and about 18 beers deep, while the ladies have their curled hair and temporary Tigers cheek tattoos (and ladies-fit Verlander jerseys) and are about nine Atwater Dirty Blondes deep. Some things are up in the air, like whether one of the guys will fight some meathead who rode the bus up from The Old Shillelagh for staring at his girlfriend (which he was), or some opposing fan who questioned Alan Trammell’s hall-of-fame credentials. One thing is not up in the air: they’ll be safely back in Wyandotte before the night is over.

That's a bit unkind: On my visit, I had absolutely no problem with any Tiger fans, and, while mainly suburban, they had enough street-sense to be properly balanced between edgy and decency. Then again, that was at Tiger Stadium, on the edge of the Corktown ghetto; downtown at Comerica Park, things might now be different.

The Friday afternoon game is the Tigers' home opener. On Saturday afternoon, the ballclub is giving out magnetic schedules. And on Sunday night, they're giving out kids' bats, of the Miguel Cabrera and J.D. Martinez models, to all kids age 14 and under.

The Tigers hold auditions for National Anthem singers, instead of having a regular singer. Their mascot is Paws the Tiger, and not only is he one of the less ridiculous mascots in the major leagues, but he's a better dancer than the Phillie Phanatic.

Whenever the Tigers score a run, the sound of a tiger growling is played through the public address system. It's a bit more intimidating than the really loud variation on the "Westminster chimes" that gets played at Yankee Stadium. But it's been a long time since "Tiger Rag" (a.k.a. "Hold That Tiger") was played at Detroit baseball games.

The Yankees inadvertently contributed to the Tigers' version of the Angels'"Rally Monkey." In a June 2006 Yanks-Tigers game at Comerica, Tigers pitcher Nate Robertson (not to be confused with former Knick Nate Robinson) was featured on FSN Detroit's "Sounds of the Game," in which the TV station puts a microphone on a coach, or a player not in the game. To get the fans going, Nate began to stuff Big League Chew (co-invented by former Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton) into his mouth, hoping to spark a late-inning rally. The trend caught on, with Jeremy Bonderman, Zach Miner and Justin Verlander all chewing from time to time.

The Tigers came back to tie the game, and the phrase "It's Gum Time" has become a new rallying cry for the team, along with 1935's "Hold That Tiger," 1968's "Sock It to 'em Tigers" and 1984's "Bless You, Boys."

The Tigers do not have a regular song to play in the 7th inning stretch after "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." However, when they take the field, "Detroit Rock City" by KISS is played. And, following a Tiger win, they play "Lifelong Tiger Fan Blues," written by actor Jeff Daniels, who grew up in suburban Chelsea, Michigan, and attended Central Michigan University.

While Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" is played at Red Wings games, it is not played at Tiger games. Lead singer Steve Perry wrote the part about the "city boy, born and raised in South Detroit" about a Detroit-born roadie for the band. As for the messed-up geography, he's said, "I tried 'North Detroit,' I tried 'East' and 'West,' and it didn't sing, but 'South Detroit' sounded so beautiful. I loved the way it sounded, only to find out later it's actually Canada."

After the Game. With Detroit's rough reputation, I would recommend not hanging around downtown after a night game. If you want a postgame drink or meal, you're better off sticking to your hotel.



* Site of Tiger Stadium. The first ballpark on the site was called Bennett Park, after Charlie Bennett, a catcher for the NL’s Detroit Wolverines, who didn’t play there. Bennett Park opened in 1896, for the Detroit team in the Western League, which became the American League in 1901. However, the team we know as the Tigers (so named because the orange stripes on their socks evoked not just tigers but the teams at New Jersey’s Princeton University, also called the Tigers) are officially dated from 1901.

After the 1911 season, the wooden Bennett Park was demolished, and replaced with a concrete and steel structure, opening on April 20, 1912 (the same day as Fenway Park in Boston) and named Navin Field, after Tiger owner Frank Navin. He died in 1935, and his co-owner, Walter Briggs, expanded the place to its more familiar configuration in 1938, renaming it Briggs Stadium. In 1961, new owner John Fetzer renamed it Tiger Stadium.
The Tigers played there from 1912 to 1999, and the NFL’s Lions did so from 1938 to 1974. The Tigers won the World Series while playing there in 1935, 1945, 1968 and 1984; the Lions won the NFL Championship while playing there in 1952, 1953 and 1957. (The ’52 Championship Game was played in Cleveland against the Browns; the ’53 and ’57 editions, also against the Browns, at Tiger Stadum.)
After the Tigers left, Tiger Stadium (with CGI help, adding the 3rd deck) stood in for the pre-renovation Yankee Stadium in Billy Crystal's film 61* during filming in 2000. Demolition was completed in 2009, and construction is about to begin on the site, for a new headquarters for the Detroit Police Athletic League. The field has been maintained, and will host high school and college baseball when construction is finished.

Northwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Trumbull Street, 1 mile west of Cadillac Square down Michigan Avenue (U.S. Route 12). Number 29 bus from downtown.

* Ford Field.  Home to the NFL's Detroit Lions since 2002, it has mainly seen horrible football, although the Lions did make the Playoffs in 2011, just 2 years after going 2-14 and 3 after the only 0-16 season in NFL history. It hosted Super Bowl XL in 2006, with Detroit native Jerome Bettis leading the Pittsburgh Steelers over the Seattle Seahawks and then retiring on top. It's also hosted the only Final Four ever held in the State of Michigan, in 2009 (the "home-court advantage" didn't help Michigan State, as they lost to North Carolina); and the U.S. soccer team's win over Canada on June 7, 2011.

2000 Brush Street, across Brush from Comerica Park, also bounded by Beacon, St. Antoine and Montcalm Streets.

* Joe Louis Arena and Cobo Center. Opening in 1979, while Louis was still alive, this 20,000-seat building was considered very modern at the time. There has been talk of a replacement for “The Joe,” but it doesn’t look likely that an agreement for one will be reached anytime soon.

The Red Wings have come a long way from the building’s early days, when they were nicknamed the Dead Things, winning 4 Stanley Cups in 6 trips to the Finals between 1995 and 2009. It’s considered one of the loudest arenas in the NHL: In 1992, a writer for Hockey Digest compared it to Chicago Stadium, the now-demolished home of their arch-rivals, the Chicago Blackhawks, and said that, if the visiting team scores 2 early goals, the Chicago fans quiet down, but Detroit fans stay loud throughout the game.

The Joe hosts college hockey, including the Great Lakes Invitational, in the week between Christmas and New Year's. Michigan Tech is the host, with Michigan and Michigan State usually participating, and a 4th team in rotation -- this year, it's Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. (Comerica Park hosted it in 2013, since the NHL Winter Classic of January 1, 2014 was being held there between the Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs.)

The Joe also hosted the 1980 Republican Convention -- right, the GOP meeting, and nominating union-buster Ronald Reagan no less, in a majority-black, heavily union city, in an arena named for a boxer who struck a blow for racial equality. (Then again, in 2012, the Democrats met in conservative Charlotte.)

The Joe was built next-door to Cobo Center, which was named for Albert E. Cobo, Mayor from 1950 to 1957. Its centerpiece, a building originally known as Cobo Hall, has been Detroit’s major convention center since its opening in 1960, and, following the rejection of a plan to demolish it and put a new Pistons-Red Wings arena on the site, it recently underwent a renovation and expansion.

It includes a 12,000-seat arena that was home to the Pistons from 1961 to 1978, and a convention complex that includes the city’s famed annual auto show. It is known for some legendary rock concerts, including the KISS album Alive! and area native Bob Seger’s Live Bullet. Unfortunately, it may be best known for the January 6, 1994 attack on Nancy Kerrigan during a practice session for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. 600 Civic Center Drive at Jefferson Avenue. Each arena has its own station on the Detroit People Mover.

* Site of Olympia Stadium. From the outside, it looked more like a big brick movie theater, complete with the Art Deco marquee out front. But “The Old Red Barn” was home to the Red Wings from 1927 to 1979, during which time they won the Stanley Cup in 1936, ’37, ’43, ’50, ’52, ’54 and ’55. In 1950, they hosted Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and Pete Babando’s overtime winner defeated the Rangers. In ’54, they had another overtime Game 7 winner, as “Tough Tony” Leswick hit a shot that deflected off Doug Harvey, the great defenseman of the Montreal Canadiens. (In hockey, the shooter is still credited; in soccer, this would have been officially listed as an “own goal” on Harvey.)

The Olympia was also home to the Pistons from 1957 to 1961, and the site of some great prizefights, including Jake LaMotta’s 1942 win over Sugar Ray Robinson – the only fight Robinson would lose in his career until 1952, and the only one of the 6 fights he had with LaMotta that LaMotta won.

Elvis Presley did 2 shows there early in his career, an afternoon and an evening show on March 31, 1957. (If you think that's a lot for one day, he did 3 shows at the Fox Theater on May 25, 1956.) He returned to the Olympia on September 11, 1970; April 6, 1972; September 29 and October 4, 1974; and April 22, 1977. The Beatles played there on September 6, 1964 and August 13, 1966. (However, it was in the Detroit area -- specifically, on the University of Michigan's radio station in Ann Arbor -- that a disc jockey started the 1969 rumor that Paul McCartney was dead. In a 1989 interview, Paul said, "'Paul is dead'? I didn't believe that one for a minute.")

It was the neighborhood, not the building, that was falling apart: Lincoln Cavalieri, its general manager in its last years, once said, "If an atom bomb landed, I'd want to be in Olympia." It was not a nuclear attack, but an ordinary demolition crew, that took it down in 1987. The Olympia Armory, home of the Michigan National Guard, is now on the site. 5920 Grand River Avenue, corner of McGraw Street, on the Northwest Side. Number 21 bus. If you’re a hockey fan, by all means, visit – but do it in daylight.

* Silverdome. Originally Pontiac Metropolitan Stadium, this stadium was home to the Lions from 1975 to 2001 (after which they moved back downtown to Ford Field), and very nearly became home to the Tigers as well, before owner John Fetzer decided to commit himself to Tiger Stadium. Heisman-winning running backs Billy Sims and Barry Sanders ran wild for the Lions here, but the closest they got to a Super Bowl was reaching the NFC Championship Game in January 1992 – unless you count hosting Super Bowl XVI, 10 years earlier, the beginning of the San Francisco 49er dynasty led by Bill Walsh and Joe Montana.

The Pistons, playing here from 1978 to 1988, had a little more luck, reaching the NBA Finals in their last year there. It seated 80,000 for football, set an NBA attendance record (since broken) of 61,983 between the Pistons and Boston Celtics in 1988, and 93,682 for a Mass by Pope John Paul II in 1987. In 1994, it hosted 4 World Cup matches, including 1 by the U.S. and 1 by eventual winner Brazil. It hosted a U.S. soccer draw with Russia in 1992. Elvis had his biggest crowd ever at the Silverdome, 60,500, on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1975.

Without the Lions and Pistons, its future is unclear. It hosted a Don King-promoted boxing card in January 2011, and in August 2010 hosted a friendly between Italian soccer giant A.C. Milan and leading Greek club Panathinaikos – appropriate, considering the area’s ethnic makeup. In 2013, the roof was deflated as an energy-saving measure; if a new tenant is found, a new roof will be put in as part of renovations. A current rumor is that a group trying to get an MLS expansion franchise for Detroit will use it, or demolish it and build a new facility on the site. But in March of this year, the owners announced that they would be auctioning off the contents of the facility, including seats and fixtures -- suggesting that they're not optimistic that anything new will be coming anytime soon.

In October 2015, it was announced that the Silverdome would be demolished on the Winter of 2016, and the area would be part of a Oakland County, Michigan mixed-use development.

1200 Featherstone Road, Pontiac. Getting there by public transportation is a pain: The Number 465 bus takes an hour and 25 minutes, and then you gotta walk a mile down Featherstone from Oakland Community College. So if you didn't drive in (or rent a car at the airport), unless you have to see everything on this list, or if you're a Lions fan living in New York who has to see it one more time, or if you're a soccer nut on a pilgrimage to all World Cup sites, I'd suggest skipping it.

* The Palace. Home to the Pistons since 1988, they won the 1989, 1990 and 2004 NBA Championships here, and almost won another in 2005. The Detroit Shock won 3 WNBA Championships here, and, as a result, every time a title is won, the address changes: Currently, it’s “Six Championship Drive, Auburn Hills, MI 48326.” However, the Shock moved to Tulsa in 2010, so unless the NBA tries again with a new WNBA team, only the Pistons (theoretically) will be able to change the address to "Seven Championship Drive."

Unfortunately, the 22,000-seat building’s best-known event isn’t a Pistons title or a rock concert, but the November 19, 2004 fight between the Pistons and the Indiana Pacers that spilled into the stands, becoming known as "the Malice at the Palace." Even the WNBA had a rare brawl there, between the Shock and the Los Angeles Sparks in 2008. Lapeer Road and Harmon Road, Auburn Hills, off I-75. Don’t even think about trying to reach it by public transportation: You’d need 2 buses and then a half-hour walk.

Detroit is the largest metropolitan area in North America without a Major League Soccer team. Detroit City FC plays in the 4th tier of American soccer, at Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck, a 7,000-seat high school football stadium 5 1/2 miles north of downtown. Number 10 bus. The closest MLS team to Detroit is the Columbus Crew, 204 miles away. However, the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry may complicate that.

* Motown Historical Museum. As always, I’m going to include some non-sports items. Detroit is generally known for 3 good things: Sports, music and cars. The Motown Historical Museum is the former Motown Records studio, which company founder Berry Gordy Jr. labeled “Hitsville, U.S.A.” His sister, Esther Gordy Edwards, now runs it, and it features records and costumes of performers such as the Supremes, the Temptations and the Four Tops. 2648 W. Grand Blvd., on the North Side. Number 16 bus.

* Henry Ford Museum. The centerpiece of the nation’s foremost automotive-themed museum is a replica of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Henry Ford himself established the museum: “I am collecting the history of our people as written into things their hands made and used... When we are through, we shall have reproduced American life as lived, and that, I think, is the best way of preserving at least a part of our history and tradition.”

It contains the fascinating, including early cars and bicycles, Henry Ford’s first car (his 1896 "Quadricycle"), Igor Sikorsky’s prototype for the helicopter, the bus Rosa Parks was riding in when she refused to give up her seat to start the 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott, and a Buckminster Fuller “Dymaxion house.” It also contains the macabre, with the chair Abraham Lincoln was supposedly sitting in when he was assassinated at Ford’s Theater in Washington (the theater owner was no relation to Henry); and the chair, and the rest of the car as well, that John F. Kennedy was definitely sitting in when he was assassinated, the back seat of in the 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible limousine he was riding in through downtown Dallas.

Next door to the museum is Greenfield Village, which Ford imagined as a kind of historical park, a more modern version of Colonial Williamsburg – that is, celebrating what was, in 1929 when it opened, considered modern American life, including a reconstruction of the Menlo Park, New Jersey laboratory of his good friend Thomas Edison. Ford and Edison were both friends of rubber magnate Henry Firestone (whose tires certainly made Ford’s cars easier to make), and Firestone’s family farm is reconstructed on the site.

Please note that I am not excusing Henry Ford’s control-freak attitude toward his employees' private lives, nor his despicable anti-Semitism, nor his failed union-busting in the 1930s. To be fair, he did give his black auto workers the same pay and benefits as his white ones.

But I am recommending the museum. It's a tribute to the role of technology, including the automobile, in American life, not to the man himself. Oakwood Blvd. and Village Road. Number 200 bus to Michigan Avenue and Oakwood Blvd., then a short walk down Oakwood.

* Greektown Historic District. Although Detroit is famed for its Irish (Corktown, including the site of Tiger Stadium) and Italian communities, and has the largest Arab-American community of any major city, its best-known ethnic neighborhoods are Greektown and the Polish community of Hamtramck. New York’s Astoria, Queens has nothing on Detroit’s Greektown, which not only has some of the country’s finest Greek restaurants, but also the Greektown Casino, which is at 555 E. Lafayette Street, at Beaubien Street. Greektown Station on the People Mover.

* Hamtramck. Pronounced “Ham-TRAM-ick,” this city is actually completely surrounded by Detroit. When the Dodge Brothers (who later sold the car company bearing their name to Chrysler) opened an auto plant there in 1914, it became a hub for Polish immigration.

However, the Polish population of the city has dropped from 90 percent in 1970 to 22 percent today. And Arabs and South Asians have moved in, making it Michigan’s most internationally diverse city. Nevertheless, if you want the best kielbasa, kapusta, golumpkis and paczkis this side of the Oder, this is the place to go. Hamtramck Town Shopping Center, Joseph Campau Street and Hewitt Street. Number 10 or 34 bus.

* Mariners’ Church. On my 1999 visit to Detroit, I discovered this church by accident, walking past it without realizing it was there until I saw the historical marker. Every March, it holds a Blessing of the Fleet for every person and ship going to sea. Every November, it holds a Great Lakes Memorial Service for those who have lost their lives at sea within the past year.

The most famous of these ceremonies was for the 29 men lost on the iron ore freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. Built and homeported in Detroit, the Big Fitz was commemorated by Gordon Lightfoot, whose 1976 song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” mistakenly, but poetically, called the church “The Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral.” (Edmund Fitzgerald himself was the president of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, which invested in the ship's construction, because it was heavily invested in the ore industry.)

170 E. Jefferson Avenue, at Randolph Street, across from the Renaissance Center. If you're going to visit the church, be careful, because Randolph Street empties into the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.

* Spirit of Detroit. In front of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, the city hall named for the 1974-93 Mayor, stands a marble monument with a bronze statue of a kneeling man, the seals of the City of Detroit and Wayne County, and a Biblical inscription, from 2nd Corinthians 3:17: "Now the Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

In his left hand, the 26-foot-high kneeling figure holds a gilt bronze sphere emanating rays, to symbolize God. The people in the figure's right hand are a family group. The statue was dedicated in 1958, 4 years after the Municipal Center opened. In recent years, a large jersey has been placed over it when the Tigers, Pistons or Wings have been in their sport's finals. (As yet, this has never been done for the Lions, who haven't been to an NFL Championship Game since 1957, 9 seasons before they started calling it the Super Bowl.) 2 Woodward Avenue at Jefferson Avenue.

* Monument to Joe Louis. Erected in 1986, on a traffic island at the intersection of Woodward & Jefferson, it is a 24-foot-long arm with a fisted hand suspended by a 24-foot-high pyramidal framework. Since it is a monument to Louis, the great black heavyweight champion, the arm and fist are black bronze.

* Colleges. The University of Michigan is 44 miles west of downtown Detroit, in Ann Arbor.  It is possible to reach it from Detroit by bus, but it will take 2 hours: You can take the 851 bus to the airport, and transfer there to the 787.

Gerald Ford was President from August 9, 1974 to January 20, 1977, and was a graduate of (and an All-American football player at) Michigan in the 1930s. His Presidential Library, and a School of Public Policy named for him, are on the Ann Arbor campus, at 1000 Beal Avenue. However, he is the only President whose Library and Museum are separated, and his Presidential Museum is in his hometown of Grand Rapids, at 303 Pearl Street NW, 158 miles northwest of Detroit. You'll need Greyhound if you want to visit Grand Rapids.

Michigan Stadium is at 1201 S. Main Street at Stadium Blvd. "The Big House" has hosted UM football since 1927. Its peak attendance is 115,109 for Michigan's 2013 win over Notre Dame. This past year, it set new records for highest U.S. attendance for soccer (109,318 for Manchester United beating Real Madrid in the International Champions Cup), and for highest attendance anywhere on the planet for hockey (105,491 for the NHL Winter Classic, the Toronto Maple Leafs beating the Detroit Red Wings).

Adjacent is Crisler Arena, named for Herbert "Fritz" Crisler, the UM football coach from 1938 to 1947, who, in another connection between Princeton University sports and the State of Michigan, had previously coached Princeton's Tigers, and brought his "winged" helmet design with him, making Michigan's "maize and blue" helmets among the most famous in college football. Elvis sang at Crisler Arena on April 24, 1977. The other sports facilities, including Yost Arena (hockey) and Fisher Stadium (named for Ray Fisher, who pitched for the Yankees in the 1910s before they got good and then coached at Michigan, including Charlie Gehringer), are adjacent.

Michigan State University is 88 miles northwest of Detroit, in East Lansing, adjacent to Lansing, the State capital.  Greyhound runs 4 buses a day from Detroit to East Lansing, at 8:00 AM, 12:10 PM, 2:20 PM and 7:40 PM, and it takes about 2 hours. Two buses go back to Detroit, at 3:40 and 5:55 PM. $38 round-trip.

Spartan Stadium, formerly Macklin Field, is at 325 W. Shaw Lane at Red Cedar Road, which is named for the river that bisects the MSU campus. Jenison Field House (the old basketball arena, where Magic Johnson starred on their 1979 National Champions), Breslin Events Center (their new arena), and Munn Arena (hockey) are a short walk away, at Kalamazoo Street & Birch Road.

* Home Improvement.  The 1991-99 ABC sitcom is easily the best-known TV show to have been set in Detroit, with Tool Time's studio being in the city and the Taylors' house in the suburbs, possibly Bloomfield Hills. But, as far as I know, there were no location shots, not even in the episode in which the Taylors got to see the Lions' Thanksgiving game from a Silverdome skybox. So if you're looking for the Taylors' house, you're not going to find it -- if there was ever a house, not just a studio set, it was likely in or around Los Angeles. Other shows set in Detroit have included Martin, Freaks and Geeks, Sister, Sister, and 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.

Several films have been set, but not necessarily filmed, in Detroit. Axel Foley, Eddie Murphy's character in the Beverly Hills Cop films, was a Detroit police detective, but most of the film, including the Detroit scenes, was shot in Los Angeles. While RoboCop was set in Detroit, it was filmed in Dallas. (And you thought "Dallas sucks" was just a sports chant.)

Billy Crystal's movie about the 1961 home run record chase, 61*, used Tiger Stadium as a stand-in (with computer-generated help) for the original Yankee Stadium (since the 1973-76 renovation left it looking very little like it did in 1961). Other recent movies set in Detroit include Eminem's Roman à clef 8 Mile, and Clint Eastwood's retired autoworker vs. gangs film Gran Torino.

* Windsor. Across the Detroit River is Windsor, Ontario. Most Americans know it for Caesar's Windsor, one of 4 casinos in the area.  Like its namesakes in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, it has a Roman theme. It may be only 2 miles from downtown Detroit, but because it's in Canada, where they have things like sensible gun laws and national health care, it may feel like the other side of the world (if not Rome itself). And, because it's in Canada, you'll need a passport.

377 Riverside Drive East. There is bus service available -- less for Michiganders wanting to gamble, more for Windsorites wanting to go to Red Wings games and concerts -- and you can contact Transit Windsor at tw@city.windsor.on.ca.

The Wings' first home was actually in Windsor: They played their first season, 1926-27, at the Border Cities Arena, which still stands, and is now named Windsor Arena. Like a lot of old arenas (this one was built in 1924), it looks like a barn, and so is nicknamed The Barn. It seats only 4,400 people in its current configuration, but it still hosts the University of Windsor hockey team. Its longest-term tenant, the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League, now play elsewhere. 334 Wyandotte Street East, at McDougall Street.

* Jimmy Hoffa. No, I don't know where Hoffa is buried. All I know for sure is that, when they demolished Giants Stadium in 2010, they found no human remains. Hoffa, who was born in Indiana but lived most of his life in and around Detroit, was last seen alive on July 30, 1975, sitting in his car in the parking lot of Machus' Red Fox. A fine-dining establishment open from 1965 to 1996, the building is still there, occupied by an Italian restaurant named Andiamo's. 6676 Telegraph Road (U.S. Route 24) at Country Club Drive, Bloomfield, 22 miles northwest of Cadillac Square. As with most sites in Detroit's outer suburbs, getting there by public transportation is a hassle: In this case, you'd need 3 buses.

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A visit to Detroit does not have to be a scary experience. These people love baseball. They don’t like the Yankees, but they love baseball, and their city should be able to show you a good time.