The game comes first

I love baseball, even in an American League park. Yankee Stadium is a shrine. It's still a great setting for a game. There was just enough of a breeze to make it a comfortable evening. But the lasting impression of the Sunday night out - other than how superior the Yankees were to the Mets for that game - was how commercialized everything is. Everywhere you look there's an advertisement. And the big screen supposedly entertaining the fans between innings always comes with a commercial coda. Sure, it helps pay the Yankees' substantial payroll, but does it have to be so pervasive?

Equally as jarring is the music that blares before each batter and between innings. Baseball is a cerebral game. Real Yankees and Mets fans aren't there to be entertained. They're there to watch the game, savor great plays, discuss strategy. They don't need or want the noise. The folks at Wrigley and Fenway recognize that. The Yankees should tone it down. They would sell out every game anyway.