Do NOT forget about your past!

As some of you may already know, the last game has been played at the historic Yankee Stadium in New York..
Yankee Stadium has been in the home for the Yankees from 1923 through 2008. That is 85 years.

There is no denying that Yankee Stadium is one of, if not, THE best known sports venue in the country. The time has come to close the doors permanently and make way for the "new" Yankee Stadium.

I myself am not a fan of the Yankees, but I can certainly respect almost everything that came from Yankee Stadium. Most notably the Babe Ruth era. Yankee Stadium was also known as "The House That Ruth Built," because of The Babe.

Many other famous players came from New York.

Lou Gehrig, who broke Babe's single season RBI record with 175 RBI's in 1927. His number would be the first ever to be retired.

Joe DiMaggio, who hit in 56 straight games. A record that is still stands to this day.

Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, all of whom where on the Yankee team that won 5 straight World Series championships from 1949 to 1953.

Even to this day, some very good players were (and still are) with the Yankees. Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettite, Mariano Rivera, Roger Clemens, and Joe Torre, who was the Yankees manager from 1996-2007.



So what is this post really about? Praise about Yankee Stadium? How great the Yankees were throughout the years?

No.

During the last game ever played there, September 21, 2008, in which the Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 7-3, a tribute video was shown to the fans in attendance. A very heart warming and touching piece of history, I'm sure.

Something was missing. Something was not right.

Joe Torre, who led the Yankees to 4 World Series Championships, 6 American League pennants, 10 Eastern Division titles... was missing from the film.

Roger Clemens, who won his 300th game and reaches 4000 strikeouts in 2003, was also missing from the film.

Included in the video was Chuck Knoblauch, who was listed in the Mitchell Report for allegedly using performance enhancing anabolic steroids.

Why?

Even though they were not with the team anymore, I personally don't think Clemens and Torre should have been neglected in the tribute. Say what you want about Clemens, who was also accused of using anabolic steroids... but Joe Torre?

Come on!

From Fox Sports,

"Estranged former Yankee Roger Clemens was "heartbroken" when his former team left him out of Sunday night's Stadium-farewell festivities, which included a video montage honoring the Bronx Bombers' greatest pitchers - but not him, a relative told The Post yesterday.

Clemens was sitting at home in hurricane-ravaged Texas, in front of a battery-operated television on his living room couch, when the team delivered a final crushing blow to its former star.

Clutching wife Debbie's hand on one side and mother-in-law Jan Wild's on the other, Clemens tuned in to his final team's last home game hoping for some recognition for helping win two World Series titles, Wild said.

But that Rocket never launched."

For a team that prided itself with "class", they certainly showed it, or the lack of. George Steinbrenner (owner of the Yankees) should have put his differences he had with Torre aside and recognized Torre (at least) for what he was, and what he did for the Yankees.

If the Yankees had simply flashed an image of Torre on the scoreboard and detailed his achievements, it likely would have received a raucous ovation. The Yankees would have looked dignified for doing the right thing in honoring a manager who was a vital part of their Stadium’s history. Instead, the Yankees erased Torre’s name from their history, at least for Sunday night.

Like I mentioned earlier, I am not a fan of the Yankees, but I AM a fan of baseball, and to me, this is a major disappointment.

You can see the actual tribute below...