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My trip down to baseball's Evil Empire was a part of a greater road trip that I call my 'Baseball Odyssey,' where I went to 11 stadiums over the span of about three weeks. I talk about it in my post reflecting my baseball chase.. This was one of the spots I became most excited to see, as I had passed it multiple times over the course of my time in New York. The intimidating aura of its facade is something that I haven't seen in any other stadium -- the building itself exudes the success of the team that resides within it. The exterior is limestone, with the inside of the stadium being lined with a frieze that mimics the inside of the older stadium which closed in 2008. In addition to the stadium being intimidating enough on the outside, this game took place during a time where wildfires from Canada swept across the northeastern United States. My friend Lucas (who's appeared here a few times) and I joke about how one time in California his weather app said the weather was "Smoke," this time I was on the receiving end of that forecast as an unhealthy grey swept over the entire stadium. Hilariously fitting for the team I was about to see, and the humor wasn't lost on me.

My friend Octavia, who had never been to a baseball game prior to this point, and I went up to our seats after briefly walking the concourse. The most memorable part of the concourse was the outer ring housing the security checkpoints -- large banners of Yankee greats such as Derek Jeter and Mickey Mantle lined the entrance, lit by a skylight above. Outside of this, the concourse is pretty typical of what I had seen up to this point, with a fair dosage of white and navy to match the team. Food-wise, I stuck to the basic ballpark fare of a hot dog and peanuts. I'm sure that if I took the time to look around I would have had one of their more 'signature' food items, such as the Judge Burger. Regardless, I could tell that there weren't as many offerings as there were at the Mets' stadium.

My seats were in the outfield as opposed to behind home plate due to cost, but the view from the top was still stunning. Despite the haze layered across the skyline, I could tell that the stadium had a nice backdrop of a slice of the expansive New York City skyline behind center field. The scoreboards are some of the smallest I've seen to date, which gathered attention to be drawn to the field as opposed to the scoreboard. There are also a truly hilarious amount of championship banners aligning the top of the stadium -- 27, in fact -- creating what is essentially a circle of banners across the frieze. We were sitting in right field, which means I did not get to see the short porch from my seat, but besides this coverage of the field was decent.

The short porch did play a role in the game, as a home run was notched by the White Sox' catcher Seby Zavala an eye-watering 320 feet(!!) to right field. It would have been a home run in three stadiums -- Oracle Park, Fenway, and here. Watching it live, I surely thought Willie Calhoun in right field (subbing in for an injured Aaron Judge) would have picked up the easy fly ball. Oh, how wrong I was. Pitcher Clarke Schmidt shook his head in disbelief. However, as to seemingly be not called a fraud, Zavala put a 435-foot bomb in the much more reasonably distanced left field stands an inning later. If I had a nickel for every time I saw Lucas Giolito pitch six no-hit innings for the White Sox, I would have two nickels -- which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice, as he kept fanning batter after batter but got pulled after 100 pitches. The Yankees came alive after Giolito and his seven strikeouts exited the game, but were still held to only two runs in a Judge-less 3-2 loss.

I quite enjoyed my trip to Yankee stadium! The smog provided quite the interesting atmosphere -- the next day, all MLB games in the area (including my next stop in Philadelphia) got postponed. One of my favorite baseball photos ever taken is of Citi Field the next day, where I had been two days prior, blanketed in a thick orange smoke. Seeing the most hated team in baseball, at their home called "The Evil Empire" by some, surrounded by smoke, is a baseball memory I will cherish. It lies in the 'Decent' tier for me due to the inside facilities being just okay, but is difficult to rate due to the storied history of its residents and one-of-a-kind presence. I've also never seen a baseball game in smog like this, and doubt I will again.