Now That’s A Stadium

A game at Richmond County Bank Ballpark at St. George on Staten Island reminds you how baseball can be experienced. Not so much for the level of play — the oldest players for the short-season Single A team were born in 1984, and the youngest ones were born in (ugh) 1990 — but rather for the experience of visiting a basic stadium that has a complete view of the field (try that at Citi Field) and which isn’t completely overpriced. The added-value charm of the ballpark in St. George is the panoramic view of New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty, the passing freighter ships and Midtown Manhattan. Neither of the two major league parks take advantage of their views in this way (owing in large part, I imagine, to the tradition of aligning the third base foul line along the north-south axis, but still . . .).

On a nice evening dusk emerges in the midst of this panoramic view, and you watch the colors slowly shift. It’s mesmerizing:

The passing ships are equally mesmerizing:

The prices are great — $5.25 for a draft beer, cheaper than many bars in the city, and tickets starting at $12. And the team, like many minor league organizations, makes a real effort to engage the fans. In all, Staten Island Yankees games continue to be one of the finest baseball experiences in the city or elsewhere. Thank god there is still a place in this great city that features the Cotton Eye Joe Dance:

Look At This Hipster

The first Jelly Pool Party of the summer took place on July 12 at a new venue, East River State Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn:

The setting on the East River with the Midtown skyline behind the stage was gorgeous, and it’s nice to see the park put to such good use — again, it seems like the State Parks Department is doing all the cool stuff these days. The only drawback with having the stage set up with that stunning backdrop was that the setting sun was a little bright behind the bands, but if you stood to the left of the stage (stage right?), it wasn’t too bad.

This is not a photograph:

One of the strangest, most loopy and generally awesome things I’ve seen in some time was Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz introducing headliners Mission of Burma (unfortunately, I missed the first part . . .):

Central Park, July 7, 2009

The Tisch Children’s Zoo:

More Central Park Mall photos:

The Falconer:

Dial and Discover Balto:

The Shakespeare in the Park Virtual Line Policy at the Delacorte Theater: