The Upper Deck at Yankee Stadium Is Not Like the Upper Deck at Safeco Field

You may have heard about the unfortunate Kirkland man who was enjoying a Yankee game with his wife and son when some drunk asshole fell on top of and nearly killed him.

Seattlest lived in New York for nine years, we attended innumerable Yankee games--usually in the very upper deck where the above tragedy occurred.

We were also once landed on by a drunk fan--this during game five of the 2001 AL playoffs, when a two-run single by Alfonso Soriano proved too much stimulation for one rooter. We were annoyed, but felt even worse for the A's fan who got the brunt of the collision--bad enough to be watching your team self-destruct before your eyes, let alone contend with Yankee-fan-sized hail.

Luckily, he only came from a couple of rows behind us--sounds like the neck-breaker guy tumbled down the very steep upper deck for a bit (once we saw a guy roll down 15 rows before a railing stopped him just when it looked like he was headed down to the field level the hard way).

You kind of have to be on your toes when you do anything in New York, and especially so in the cheap seats at a baseball game.

The code of behavior in New York's baseball stadia is far different than the one adhered to at Safeco. At Safeco, cursing can get you kicked out of the stadium.

By contrast, here's is a sampling of things we heard fans chant at our various trips Yankee Stadium:

"Griffey takes it up the ass, doo-dah, doo-dah" (to the tune of "Camptown Races")
"Show us your tits!" (usually at any unaccompanied woman that was a B-cup or above)
"Doooooouchebag, Doooooooouchebag."
"Aaaaaaassshole, Aaaaaaasssshole."

And, at Shea Stadium, this chant, which would break out at any provocation whatsoever:

"Fuck the Yankees (clap, clap, clap clap clap)."

In the upper deck and in the bleachers, drunkenness is common (though less so since post-9/11 searching made it harder to sneak beer in), loutish behavior more so. They do things there that would cause a Seattle crowd to release some of the greatest passive-aggressive huffs in history.

So if you travel to New York and want a Safeco-like experience, and less chance of getting killed, spring for tickets in the lower level, where a higher standard of civility is expected, and the incline isn't as steep.

The Yankees, after originally refusing to release information to the man--his name's Paul Robinson--are flying him home on a private jet today, and asking fans for help in identifying the drunken lout who broke his neck.

Belated thanks to jseattle for tipping us to this story. Did you know you can tip us to stories? Well you can, from here.