At first blush, the batter’s eye in center field — which is the window of a restaurant — appears to be a little low. And with seats above the windows and below a huge video screen, hitters might have trouble picking up pitches.
“I guess we will find out during the games,” said Johnny Damon, who explained it wasn’t a problem yesterday hitting against BP pitchers who weren’t on the mound. “I hope we figure it out more than the other teams.”
Hideki Matsui said, “It’s OK, a little small.”
“It’s not like at Yankee Stadium, but it’s still dark enough,” Jorge Posada said.
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Joba Chamberlain and Andy Pettitte threw their in-between-starts bullpen sessions off the main mound and raved about the hill.
“Andy told me it felt like they brought the mound from the old Stadium over here,” Joe Girardi said.
“It felt great as far as the depth,” Chamberlain said.
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Derek Jeter always said the infield surface at the old Stadium was the best in baseball. After fielding grounders during yesterday’s workout, Jeter said nothing has changed.
“Everything is good,” Jeter said when asked about the grass and dirt.
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A four-faced Buddha sits in A.J. Burnett’s locker, and what expression you see depends on what’s happening that day.
“If we win, I turn it to a smile. If we lose, I turn it so it’s [ticked] off. The days I pitch, it’s intense and [ticked],” Burnett said.
The Buddha was a gift from former Blue Jay teammate Jesse Litsch.
“In Toronto, the guys called me J.A. instead of A.J. on the days I pitched,” said Burnett. “I was locked in. This thing has been in every ballpark in the American League.”
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According to Hal Steinbrenner, his father will be on hand for the April 16 home opener.
“No doubt he is excited,” Hal said of George. “It’s been a year since he has been here. He is very excited. He understands we are working out the kinks. I am trying to soften the blow when he sees things he doesn’t like.”
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Hal Steinbrenner admitted some tickets might be overpriced given the recession but insisted the team read the market correctly for most of them.
“I think if anybody in any business had known where this economy was going to go, they would have done things differently,” Steinbrenner said. “Look, there’s no doubt small amounts of our tickets might be overpriced.
“You know, we’re continuing to look into that. But the bottom line is, the vast majority of them, it seems like they’re right on because we’ve sold 35,000 full-season equivalents, and a lot of the tickets have, you know, sold quite well.”
— With AP