INTRO: Three years and one and a half billion dollars later, the new Yankee Stadium is open for business. The Yankees lost 10 to 2 to the Cleveland Indians in their home opener Thursday … but that was just one part of a historic day up on River Avenue in the Bronx.

 

Samantha Fields reports.

 

 

 

NARR:

The sun was out and shortsleeves were in order for the stadium’s debut. Thousands of fans poured out of the subway stops at 161st Street and River Avenue yesterday, many without tickets.

 

Nestor Martinez was one of them. He didn’t plan on coming to the home opener. But yesterday morning he decided he couldn’t imagine NOT being here … even if he couldn’t get inside.

 

 

AX//NESTOR: I took the 4 train and got off. It’s so much a part of my childhood and my life, I can’t imagine anywhere I’d rather be than here today.

 

 

Martinez grew up in the Bronx, just around the corner from the old Yankee stadium… which sits just across the street from the new one.

 

Tim Schantz came in from Greenwich, Connecticut, wearing a Yankees bowtie, and with one thing on his mind.

 

 

            AX//SCHANTZ:

(tim) The naïve hope that I might get into the stadium

(me) Any chance?

(tim) I don’t think so, no

(me) Looks like there’s a lot of people who are hoping

(tim) Indeed, too much hoping, not enough selling

 

 

NARR: The few tickets that scalpers were hawking on the street were going for astronomical amounts – one fan came willing to shell out $400. Even he couldn’t find a way in. So like thousands of others, he settled for a free seat on one of the benches outside the gates – and listened to the game blaring loud and clear from the speakers

 

 

            //BRING UP AMBI OF ANNOUNCERS//

 

 

Few people seemed interested in discussing the specifics of their team’s new digs... which, with its plush seats, monument park, cup holders, and built-in Hard Rock Café is the most expensive stadium in the country.

 

The bill – which is being footed by New York City taxpayers – is still somewhat of a sore subject, even among lifelong Yankees fans like Schantz.

 

 

AX//SCHANTZ: I think it was a mistake to build a new one Nothing wrong with the old stadium. That said, I’ll be happy to see the Yankees win here.

 

 

Other topics of conversation outside the gates: annoyance at the cost of a trip to the ballpark, nostalgia for the memories housed in the old gray walls across the street, and excitement over a new stadium for their beloved team.

 

Frank Nicotero, who grew up three blocks away, has been to every home opener since 1976 … until now. He couldn’t afford a ticket.

 

 

AX//NICOTERO: I spent what I had on an opening day t-shirt, I filmed some stuff, and I’m gonna leave soon and cry.

 

 

Nicotero does tear up, as he talks about the old park, and his best memory of it.

  

 

 

AX//NICOTERO: October 8th, 1956. My birthday. We moved out of the city in august of 56. And my father said, not knowing, if the yankees are in the world series. I’ll take you. So he took me for my birthday. You know what happened that day? Don Larsen’s perfect game. The only perfect game in World Series history.

 

 

There is a monument to Larsen’s perfect game – which was caught by Yogi Berra – in the new stadium. Both hall of famers were on hand yesterday. And one day soon, Nicotero will be there, too … no matter how much it costs.

 

 

Samantha Fields, Columbia Radio News.