DEVILLE: Taking the “D” Train to the Bronx

Once in a lifetime experience; taking in the All-Star Game in Yankee Stadium

In this week’s issue of Tiger Rag, columnist Lee Feinswog talks about his recent vacation, on which he traveled through the western United States.

He mentions that even when passing through the country’s most remote corners, like North Dakota, he still runs across folks that want to talk about LSU football. They can’t seem to help themselves.

This is a common occurrence in my life. Only the string of football-related questions are typically followed with the obligatory “you must be enjoying some downtime right now, huh, y’know, since it isn’t football season?”

Not football season? When is it not football season in Baton Rouge?

While Tiger Rag assistant editor Matt Reynolds was chasing Paul Mainieri’s Tigers to Omaha for the College World Series, I was burning up the keyboard back home, putting together our football preview issue. The start of football season is still over a month away, but I have been pounding out football stories for the past month and a half.

Our special 30th anniversary football preview edition is slated to hit the streets on Aug. 5. Celebrating three decades of Tiger Rag, we have put together the biggest preview issue in the history of the magazine. We hope you like it.

And while I am so well versed in LSU football right now after months of research and writing, I am going to use this space to discuss something other than Les Miles’ Tigers.

I have decided to use this column, the last opportunity before six months of football begins, to share an adventure I recently experienced.

I am a sports nut. Period. I will watch anything from curling to croquet, but football is typically my favorite. Like all kids, I grew up being a baseball fan. When I was a child, I spent many Saturday afternoons sitting on my living room floor, surrounded by stacks of baseball cards, watching Saturday Afternoon Baseball on ABC with Vin Scully.

If you’re from north Louisiana, you typically rooted for the Astros or the Cardinals, especially in the mid-1980s. The Braves craze was still a few years off, and Atlanta had yet to really become a national team.

But I went against the grain. For whatever reason, I am a sentimental traditionalist. I love history, talking with old people, visiting old churches and museums – that sort of thing. So there was no other team for me than the New York Yankees.

Sure enough, in the 1980s, the Yanks were pretty awful. Aside from having Don Mattingly, the quarrels between off-and-on skipper Billy Martin and owner George Steinbrenner kept the franchise pretty average on the field.

But there were two things that I liked about the Yankees, despite the play of the team on the field: Yankee Stadium and, of course, Babe Ruth.

I will not profess to be the biggest or most knowledgeable Yankee fan; I was just always enamored by the aura that surrounded the Bronx Bombers.

With that being said, I was deeply saddened when I learned Steinbrenner sealed the deal to build a new Yankee Stadium and swing the wrecking ball through “The House That Ruth Built.”

It further saddened me to know I would never get to lay eyes on that big, beautiful ballpark in the Bronx.

And then one chance meeting on a distant golf course changed my life forever.

Who knew that my route to Yankee Stadium would go through Augusta, Ga? But that ended up being the case.

Beth and I with our host, Marty Schatz, at the Home Run Derby.

My wife, Beth, and I attended The Masters last April. While standing on the first tee box at Augusta National, we struck up a conversation with two guys about (big surprise) college football. As the conversation progressed, I learned that one of the men – Marty Schatz – lived just outside New York City and was a huge Yankees fan. As a matter, he is a season ticket holder.

At any rate, the conversation led to Marty inviting us to New York to take in a game in the Bronx.

In return, we’d host Marty and his son in Baton Rouge for an LSU football game. Done deal. The plans have been made and Marty will be visiting for Saban Bowl II on Nov. 11 when LSU hosts Alabama.

But this is where the plot thickens.

Upon returning to Baton Rouge, Marty contacted me saying he had come into some tickets to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. He asked if we would be interested in attending that game instead of a regular Yankees game.

Well, yeah!

So last week, Beth and I traveled to New York for the big game. We took in the Home Run Derby on Monday night and watched Josh Hamilton’s record-breaking 28 home runs. And on Tuesday evening, it was the All-Star Game. Plus, we managed to cram as much of the Big Apple into the days as possible.

Visiting with Good Morning America co-hosts Robin Roberts and Chris Cuomo.

We visited the World Trade Center site, Central Park and Fifth Avenue. We took in a Broadway show (Mamma Mia!) and even attended a taping of “Good Morning America” where we got to visit with former Southeastern Louisiana alum and GMA host Robin Roberts.

I also stopped by the NHL headquarters on 6th Avenue and shared a visit with Andre Mika, a Baton Rouge native and Tiger Rag reader, who is a producer with the NHL Network.

We also had the chance to visit Marty’s house in New Jersey and witness the greatest private collection of sports memorabilia I’ve ever laid eyes on. Marty’s display included two Babe Ruth baseballs, a game-worn autographed Mickey Mantle jersey, as well as a actual section from the old center field fence in Yankee Stadium.

But nothing topped the game – in Yankee Stadium. And just to toss in a little lagniappe, this All-Star Game was even more special since it is the final year of Yankee Stadium.

With the new Yankee Stadium already built across the street, nearly every living member of the Baseball Hall of Fame turned out to give the old ballpark the appropriate sendoff.

The greatest third basemen ever? From left: Alex Rodriguez, Wade Boggs, George Brett, Mike Schmidt, Brooks Robinson and Chipper Jones.

Yogi Berra, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Brooks Robinson, Ozzie Smith, Ernie Banks, Willie McCovey … you name ’em and they were there. It was electric.

And as for the game?

In Feinswog’s column, he mentions he saw three Major League games on his recent vacation all of which ended with walk-off home runs in the bottom of the ninth. This was hardly the case for the All-Stars. It took five hours, 15 innings, and 23 pitchers for the American League to finally pull out a 4-3 victory.

Afterward, a weary-eyed Beth and I stumbled toward the subway station at 161st Street. As we chatted about the night, a lady on the train must’ve picked up on our Southern accents and asked where we were from.

“Louisiana,” we replied.

She said, in the thickest New York accent, “Well, now you can go back to Louisiana and tell ’dem folks you rode ’da D train back from ’da Bronx.”

It was truly an experience I’ll remember and cherish forever. And I cannot thank Marty enough for his hospitality. In return, I will now try and show him the best college football atmosphere in the country when he visits Tiger Stadium in November.

So come Nov. 11, if you have a chance, stop by our tailgate party near the Bernie Moore Track Stadium and show a New Yorker what the LSU game day experience is all about.

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Matt Deville is the editor of Tiger Rag. Reach him at matt@tigerrag.com.

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