Associated PressNEW YORK ó Beautiful, majestic ó or just plain awesome.
New York fans put up with damp seats Friday to watch the Yankees and Mets test their plush and pricey new ballparks in exhibition games, a double debut in a city that hasn’t had a new Major League Baseball stadium in 45 years.
The faithful were awed.
“When I pass, I want my ashes to be buried here. That’s how beautiful it is,” John Zozzaro said as he admired the $800 million Citi Field, where fans lavished praise on everything from the brilliant green of the outfield to the cup holders in front of the seats.
Across town, Frank Sinatra songs played as fans took in the new Yankee Stadium, bedecked with old Yankees memorabilia and pictures of team titans such as Babe Ruth. At $1.5 billion, it is the costliest baseball stadium ever built.
“It looks great. I think the word is ‘majestic.’ It’s awesome,” said 39-year-old Mike Generose. He and his wife, Lori, 24, had driven to the game from their home in Allentown, Pa.
The Mets’ first pitch came first, delivered by Livan Hernandez with Boston’s Jacoby Ellsbury at the plate. The Yankees were set to play the Chicago Cubs in the Bronx an hour later.
It rained on and off through the day and more showers were in the forecast.
As a longtime Yankees fan who saw more than 200 games at the old House that Ruth Built, Mike Generose acknowledged feeling a bit sentimental about the Yankees’ old park, still standing alongside the new venue.
“A little bit of your heart stays across the street,” he said. “But I guess if you have to move, this is a good place to move into.”
The Bronx stadium felt and sounded every bit like its urban setting, with elevated subway trains rumbling by within sight behind the outfield.
The 62-year-old John Panzico lauded the ballpark’s openness as he squeezed the new, cushioned seats.
“I grew up in the old stadium. I brought my children there,” said Panzico, who was raised on Staten Island and now lives in upstate Monroe. “I hope I’ll be starting a new tradition at this stadium with my grandchildren.”
Even some of the visiting teams’ partisans had nice things to say about the New Yorkers’ new digs.
To Brian Lowder of Boston, Citi Field far outshone the Mets’ former park, Shea Stadium.
“The nostalgia wears thin when you’re jammed into those seats,” Lowder said, comparing Citi Field favorably even to Fenway Park, the old home of his beloved Red Sox.
Joe Sherman, 58, an attorney from West Orange, N.J., arrived at Citi Field so early that the gates were still locked.
A season ticket holder for 31 years at Shea, Sherman said he couldn’t afford his old seats behind home plate at the new Citi Field. But he didn’t care.
“I’m in the ballpark, and that’s what counts,” he said.
Both teams open the regular season Monday on the road.