Wednesday, February 25, 2009

For all the screw-ups, at least this went well

No misspelled, awkward, strong-armed emails from the ticket office discussing relocation plans. No blocked sight lines. Just the calm re-establishing of one of the better Yankee traditions:

The transfer began at 7 a.m., when workers loaded the monuments by forklift into a massive steel box, each legend encased in a plywood box, the contents identified by simple black marker. "The Babe," it said on Ruth's. On the 9/11 box, someone wrote, "We Will Remember." The steel box was strapped down onto a flatbed truck. The truck trundled two blocks north. At the new Stadium, a crane rig picked up each monument - they weigh 5,500 pounds apiece, except for the one for the diminutive Huggins, which weighs 7,100 - and gently lowered them over a wall, into Monument Park, where they were hoisted again and moved to their appointed spots.
The Yanks, as an organization, rankle many with their attitude. As do many fans. I get it. I hear it from the Haters. And they are often right. Some of the things the Ownership group does and says if flat out absurd and insulting. But, what the Yanks do well -if not better than anyone else- is celebrate and embrace their history. This is another example of that.
"This is our legacy," [Tony Morante, director of Stadium tours and the Yankees' in-house historian] said. "People will come here not just for ballgames, but for our history, and a big part of that is these icons, and 9/11."

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