Even though I am a big Mets fan I like to go to a few Yankee games every season.  It is very convenient to buy tickets online, but there is usually a service charge of up to 25% per ticket.  Very often it is impossible to avoid that, but since I am retired I have time to take a subway trip to Yankee Stadium to save money.  I bought tickets for two games and saved about $40.

One of my retirement projects is to index articles for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).  I encountered an article about the late Mel Allen known as The Voice of the Yankees.  The bibliography listed:

Borelli, Stephen. How About That! The Life of Mel Allen. Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing, 2005.

I was able to get a copy from Queens Library and started reading it a few days ago.  I had about 30 pages to finish it and thought I would read it on my subway ride to Yankee Stadium.  Mel was certainly a remarkable man.  He grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and was proud of his Jewish heritage.  The biggest mistake the Yankees ever made was letting Mel go after the 1964 season.  I refuse to use the term "fired".

After I bought the tickets I took a short walk across the street to the site of the original Yankee Stadium and took the photo seen below.