Re-creating History:
Both stadiums opened in 2009 with a centralized goal- to bring back the old facade of a stadium developed many decades ago. For the Yankees, there new stadium was designed primarily to model the 1923 stadium. The exterior resembles the first Yankee Stadium well before its construction in 1976. The interior, a modern ballpark with greater space and increased amenities, features a playing field. Citi Field, the Mets new stadium, however, serves to accomplish the exact opposite in that its design is largely modeled after the now non-existent Brooklyn Dodgers old stadium, Ebbets Field, entirely and very purposefully ignoring the largely criticized exterior and interior design of the Mets previous home in Queens, Shea Stadium. The exterior of Citi Field is nearly identical to the exterior of Ebbets Field. The interior is primarily influenced by PNC Park in Pittsburgh, which was the favorite ballpark of both Mets COO Jeff Wilpon and Sporting News Magazinge in 2007 when floorplans were proposed. Other influences included Great American Ballpark in Cincinatti and Coors Field in Colorado. The archietics designed San Francisco's AT&T Park. The interior of the new Yankee Stadium closely resembles the design of the previous ballpark before its closing in 2008. Both stadiums were built by the construction company 'Union Carpenters & Contractors'. Harshest critizisms of Citi Field's exterior call it "standard brick building with a citi bank logo slapped on the front" and the harshest critizisms of Yankee Stadium's exterior compare it to a funeral home.
INDEPENDENT PERSONAL PREFERENCE~ CITI FIELD
Photographic Instilations:
The interior of Yankee Stadium is adorned with hundreds of photographs capturing the history of the Yankees. The New York Daily News newspaper partnered with the Yankees for the exhibition "The Glory of the Yankees Photo Collection", which was selected from the Daily News' collection of over 2,000 photographs. Sports & The Arts as hired by the Yankees to curate the nearly 1,300 photographs that adorn the building from sources including the Daily News, Getty Images, the Baseball Hall of Fame and Major League Baseball. In response to heavy fan criticism, the Mets has installed photographic imagery of famous players and historic moments in Mets history on the Field level interior promenade. Citi Field also has enormous bannars of
players such as Mike Piazza, Tom Seaver and Mookie Wilson on the left field exterior of the stadium.
PERSONAL PREFERENCE~ YANKEE STADIUM
Dimensions:
Similar to Shea Stadium, Citi Field's spacious field dimensions make it a pitcher friendly park. However unlike Shea's symmetrical layout, Citi Field features several design quirks. While Shea's outfield fence had a uniform height of 8 feet, Citi Field's fence changes height several times, rising as high as 16 feet in left field and 18 feet in right field, which features a three sided notch that houses the Modell's Clubhouse seating area. During the first two games of a June series versus the Philadelphia Phillies, Chase Utley, the Phillies' second baseman, hit three home runs, including a game winner, into the bulge near the right field foul pole. Later, at a June 26, 2009 game against the New York Yankees, Mets broadcaster, Gary Cohen, referred to the area as "Utley's Corner". Yankee Stadium, on the other hand, is a hitter-friendly park. Yankee Stadium has quickly acquired a reputation as a "bandbox" and a "launching pad" due to the high number of home runs hit at the new ballpark. Through its first 23 games, 87 home runs were hit at the venue, easily besting Enron Field's (now called Minute Maid Park) previous record set in 2000. Early in the season, Yankee Stadium was on pace to break Coors Field's 1999 single-season record of 303 home runs allowed, and the hometown New York Daily News newspaper started publishing a daily graphic comparing each stadium's home run totals through a similar number of games. ESPN commentator Peter Gammons has denounced the new facility as "one of the biggest jokes in baseball" and concludes that "[it] was not a very well-planned ballpark." Likewise, Gammons' ESPN colleague Buster Olney has described the stadium as being "on steroids" and likened it to his childhood Wiffle-ball park. Newsday columnist Wallace Matthews joined in the criticism, labeling the stadium "ridiculous" and decrying its cheapening of the home run. Former Yankee Reggie Jackson termed the park "too small" to contain current player Alex Rodriguez and suggested it might enable the third baseman to hit 75 home runs in a season.
INDEPENDENT PERSONAL PREFERENCE~ CITI FIELD
Foul Poles:
Shea Stadium was the only ballpark in the Major Leagues to feature orange foul poles instead of the standard yellow, a unique characteristic that made its way into Citi Field. Yankee Stadium's foul poles are, like the rest of baseballs, a standard, bright yellow.
INDEPENDENT PERSONAL PREFERENCE~ YANKEE STADIUM
