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Yankees News: What Players Think Of Sharing Their Home

By Antonio Mendes |

As New York City FC nears it’s first home opener in team history excitement is rising for everyone, except a rather important group of people, the New York Yankees. Though NYCFC’s game is drawing as much interest as the Yanks opening day does, there is one problem with that, the game is in Yankees Stadium.

Players are simply nervous and weary that the field will not be in stable condition throughout the season, after NYCFC plays its 17 home games between Sunday and October 25th. They have reasonable issue, for past events have done damage to the field as well.

One player who talked out the most about this was Yankees first basemen, and who I think is the new face for the team, Mark Teixeira who said this:

“It’ll definitely cause an issue, but it’s nothing that we can control, so we can’t worry about it”.

Yankee Stadium is no stranger to other events besides Yankees games. There are constantly concerts that go on throughout the year, and players have took notice to the effects of those as well. So how much will a whole new sport affect the field?

If you’ve never seen a soccer game on a baseball field before, the actual soccer field covers the whole outfield, 1st, 2nd, and SS. However that isn’t mentioning the players who warm up on the side, and the only thing that is covered is the home plate circle.

How does this really change the field? Through the erosion the surface becomes unequal (grass/dirt). So for example a routine grounder on a normal Yankees stadium field, now turns into a bouncer that pops wherever it feels. Stephen Drew a big soccer fan himself, also spoke out about the schedule for NYCFC this year and that it is “not going to help”.

“You want to limit the amount of bounces, really. So I’m going to fall on the side of erring aggressively–much, much more so than staying back and trying to read some hop that’s unpredictable.”

The NYC Football Club were only supposed to be sharing Yankees Stadium for two to three years, while plans were being set to give them a stadium in one of the five boroughs. However talks for that plan have stalled. The top two options are between the Queens and the Bronx.

Whether NYCFC’s games will really have that bad of an affect on the Yanks this season all depends on the grounds crew. They’re going to have their work cut out for them this season, because if the Yankees aren’t absolutely delighted with the field, I’m sure the crew will be told.

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