GO YANKEES!

When Josh's parents said that they were coming to visit, the first thing we did was buy Yankees tickets.  Josh's stepdad Steve is probably one of the biggest Yankees fans ever, and Josh is pretty close behind.  After we got the tickets, it popped into my head that I read about a Yankee Stadium Tour so I quickly took a peek online but it showed that it was sold out.  The next morning I called the number on the website and was told that tickets would be added shortly so not even 10 minutes later I went on and there were four tickets to the 9:40am pre game tour.  This was a bit earlier than I was hoping but I snapped them up and let everybody know (I think they were pretty excited!).  

When game day came we were up and out bright and early for the hour long trip to Yankee Stadium.  Somehow we managed to miss the PATH and the connecting Subway but we made it there just in time as the tour was leaving.  Our first stop was the Yankee Museum in the stadium.  It is filled with memorabilia, cool photos and everything Yankees.  I didn't even know the museum was in there!

This is Yogi Berra catching a pitch from Don Larsen.  The autograph wall is the distance from The pitcher's mound to home plate.  

A couple of my favorite World Series rings.

I was kind of trying to be the ump in this picture but it didn't work out so well.  Apparently I wouldn't make a very good MLB umpire.

The last World Series trophy.

A scale replica of the current Yankee Stadium.

Therman Munson's locker as it was when he died in a plane crash in 1979.  He was a member of the Yankees for 11 years and when the new stadium was built they moved the locker from the old stadium.

Babe Ruth memorabilia. His jersey, hat and bat with notches of all the home runs that he got during his time with the Yankees.  

Jeter memorabilia.

The guys were loving the tour and being in the museum before it was open was really cool.  I can't imagine what it would have been like once people started piling in!  We walked the halls of the stadium down to Monument Park.  It is located beside the bullpen in right field.   Again I had no idea this was even a thing!  It is filled with plaques commemorating past Yankees and their retired  numbers. 

There are also plaques for Nelson Mandela, Jackie Robinson and a 9/11 Memorial.

I managed to maneuver my iPhone lens enough to get a bit of a picture of the Bullpen.  Sadly, no one was there.

The view from Monument Park.  

Josh and I with mom and Steve.

We then headed to the sidelines and hopefully see some warm ups. We got some bad pictures of some of the guys warming up, it was pretty awesome though.  We got to stay for about 40 minutes which was great and it was the most gorgeous day.

That was it for the tour and by this time we were all starving.  There is a Hard Rock in the stadium so that is where we headed.  None of us had been to one for quite a while (in Lima for us) and I forgot that the food is actually really great.

After lunch we checked out one of the many merchandise shops.  We almost never get there in time to do this so I was excited.  I had been wanting another Yankees shirt for quite a while and had a hard time deciding which one.  We did find this awesome huge $35 foam finger.  I settled on a V.S Pink Raglan shirt.  I'm pretty in love, and it was on sale!

Finally it was time to get out to our seats and get the party started!  The Yankees were playing the Tampa Bay Rays.   Everyone was slightly nervous as I seem to be a bit of a bad luck charm.  I have been to probably 8 or 9 games and I had never seen a winning game... thats right, like an 0-9 record.  Not good.  I was hoping my luck would turn around and so was everyone else.  

Things weren't looking too great until Brian McCann hit a home run... and then A-Rod hit another for back to back homers.  So cool to see that!   And that pulled the Yankees ahead!  We were winning!

It stayed that way and I got to see my first winning game.  How excited was I? (and I think Josh and Steve were secretly relieved that my bad luck streak was broken).  It was a great end to a great day!  If you are a Yankees fan, totally try to take the Pregame tour if you are going to a game, so worth it!