Yankee Stadium

Yankee stadium smells like feet.

I went for the first time to a Yankees game the other night — a pretty good game that went down to the bottom of the ninth. The Yankees almost pulled it out, but lost by one. As you may know, this is the last season in the old stadium, built In 1923, and about to be replaced by a new ball park being built next door. In the reports about what athletes will miss and not miss about the venerable House that Ruth Built, one of the comments made by several is they won’t miss the smell. “Especially when it rains, the smell that comes up through the drainage system is not pretty,” said Jason Varitek of the Boston Red Sox in the New York Times. “It affects your sinuses, I’ll tell you that much.”

Well, even in the cheap seats, near the yellow foul ball pole in the upper decks of right field, there was a noticeable stench, as if the Bambino’s smelly old cleats were buried under my seat.

Or maybe it was the guy next to me, who talked on his cell phone through most of the game.

The Bronx Bombers may not be the only ones with a stinky NY home. The Arizona Diamondbacks’ Brandon Webb told the Times: “I think Shea smells worse.”

(And he’s not talking about my friend Tracy Shea.)

That stadium is also in its final throes. Last week, Billy Joel played two sell-out final rock shows in the stadium where the Beatles played in the 1960s. Sir Paul McCartney came out for an encore during one of Joel’s shows.

I’m told it didn’t stink.