The Finto File: Boxing: Fight night in the Bronx, Part 2

Note: If you haven't yet read the previous post, "Fight night in the Bronx, Part 1," please scroll down and do so now, before reading Part 2. Go ahead, we'll wait.

Additional Note: The above photo is called "A Blur of Action," and yes, I know it's blurry. Was that my intention when I took it? Don't worry about that--sometimes art is serendipitous.

The new Yankee Stadium is indeed bright and new and, in many ways, better-designed than the old, post-1970s-renovation, Stadium. As in the Mets' new home, Citi Field, you can see the field from nearly anywhere in the arena, including the concession stand areas. And there are few or no bad seats; if you have a lesser-priced ticket (there are no cheap tickets), you may be high, but you're not far--you look directly down at the action.

But the new Yankee Stadium has a disappointing whiff of the low-bid about it, as if someone's brother-in-law got the contract rather than designers and builders of state-of-the-art ballparks. Once you're in the Stadium, you walk along bleak concrete walkways past bleak concrete walls unbroken by art or decoration, like you're in the parking deck of a suburban mall. By the time of last year's World Series, small cracks were already beginning to appear in the cement. And on this visit, taking a few minutes to see Monument Park, we had to walk through a narrow, featureless corridor that lacked only the smell of urine to be a good imitation of a housing-project hallway. Between New York's two new ballparks, Citi Field is by far the more pleasing to the eye.

Nonetheless, Yankee Stadium was looking good for fight night. The ring, located in right field, was protected by an imposing, space-age-looking canopy setup.