In with the new, out with the old

There is something quite conspicuous at both ends of this doubleheader. In the Bronx, right next to the Subway, it's the hulking form of the new Yankee Stadium, looking nearly complete from the outside. Massive stone blocks rise up into the sky, dwarfing even the old Yankee Stadium across the street. Only some construction trucks and unfinished wood betray its incompleteness, and those too will disappear before long.

In Flushing, the first sight off the Subway is Citi Field, the nearly-complete future home of the Mets. Its brick exterior is humble in ways that the new Yankee Stadium is not, and homely in ways of which the old Shea Stadium could never dream. Modeled after Ebbets Field, former home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Citi Field is an upgrade from Shea in every way but size. And that's just how the Mets want it. 

Those two parks will house the Yankees and Mets, respectively, next year, and workers are continuing to prepare them throughout the summer. So this season has become something of a farewell tour for Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium, and this weekend's Subway Series has come to punctuate that farewell.

Never again will these two teams play at Yankee Stadium -- barring a World Series -- and after this weekend, never again will they play at Shea. So when Joe Girardi called this an "unusual" weekend, he wasn't kidding. 

It will never happen again. What a sobering thought.

The way the Yankees played during the first game of this doubleheader, Girardi might not want it to ever happen again. But both teams seem crisper in the nightcap, with the Yankees cracking a scoreless tie by touching Pedro Martinez for two runs in the fourth. I'm watching it all from the press box, just having polished off a roasted turkey sub from Mama's of Corona -- bar none the best concessions at Shea.

Twelve innings down, six innings to go. If not more.