Indie Rocker Ben Gibbard Not a Fan of Yankee Stadium

Death Cab for Cutie played the National Anthem in 2010 for Opening Day at Safeco Field and I was totally there. I’ve also lived in Washington state my entire life, currently live in Seattle, and my wife grew up in the band’s hometown of Bellingham. All of this in sum makes me uniquely qualified to speak about Ben Gibbard’s recent remarks in Rolling Stone’s High and Tight feature wherein rock and rollers name their most and least favorite Big League ballparks. At least in my mind it does, and that’s really all that matters because I’m all by myself and my mind is the only friend I’ve got and it’s the one who’s creating all these thoughts and pressing my fingers to move and type all the words that I’m writing right now. Like this. If I ever lose my mind I’m going to be a real trouble, let me tell you. Did I mention that I also wear black framed eyeglasses?

Now that my impressive geographical resume (and topic appropriate eyewear) has been settled, we can get to the matter at hand, the matter of which stadiums happen to be Gibbard’s most and least favorite, and what he has to say about them (I’m just now starting to realize that this may be a very esoteric and unrelatable topic. Well, that’s never stopped me before, and besides, it’s too late now. I don’t even particularly like Death Cab for Cutie these days. I supposed they’re alright. Dear God, my youth is behind me). If it makes you feel any better, Gibbard is a self-appointed baseball nerd. He reads FanGraphs sometimes, he talks baseball with Jonah Keri. He seems like a cool dude. I’ll spare you the suspense and let you know he picked PNC Park as his favorite. I’ve never had the good fortune to visit PNC myself, but I’ll take Gibbard at his word here, because that is one stunningly good looking ballpark. And photogenic. Between their cool mascot, appealing uniforms, solid color scheme, ballpark, and Erik Bedard, those Pirates really have a good thing going for themselves, aesthetically speaking at least. Good for them. Gibbard’s more noteworthy selection is his least favorite ballpark. It’s the New Yankee Stadium! I bet that everyone will respect his opinion on this and no one will take umbrage in the least. He says:

"The new Yankee stadium is by far the worst I’ve been to. It might look like the old one from the outside, but inside it’s more like a gaudy, Long Island shopping mall than a ballpark. A classic example of what happens when people have too much money and very little taste. Plus, it tends to be full of Yankees fans."

Ha ha ha, tends to be full of Yankees fans. That’s not bad. The best jokes all have a hint or more of truth to them. Call me crazy, and again, I’m running with a non-first-hand opinion here, but I think this nerd might be right. Have you been to a shopping mall lately? They’re terrible. They’re overcrowded with insufferable people, everything costs too much, the lighting is dingy, and the food is mediocre. Sounds about right. I mean, Gibbard should know a thing or two about spending too much money and having very little taste, he was a Mariners fan during the Bill Bavasi era.

Kyle writes baseball nonsense at The Trance of Waiting. You can follow him on Twitter @AgainstKyle.