Yankee Stadium is about to get a lot less rowdy (and even more bourgeois)

Climbing to the Upper Decks (Before They're Torn Down)

I'm never happy when historic architecture gets destroyed, even when it belongs to the Yankees. Both Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium are set to be torn down once their replacements are completed, and both new ballparks will feature more luxury seating and less room for bleacher bums. Even the Times' Ben Sisaro, a Yankees fan, appropriately dubbed the Yankees' new $800 million park an "unfinished Death Star." Leave it to New Yorkers to take a traditionally working-class sport and turn it into a sterile, unaffordable theater performance. Fenway Park may be small, and it may be next to impossible to find tickets for face value (unless, like me, you happen to have lived next door and know all the secrets). It may have right field grandstands that don't face home plate and seats located behind posts. But at least it still has soul.