Last night was the final game played on the hallowed grounds of Yankee Stadium. The setting last night was as perfect as anything ever crafted by a Hollywood screenwriter. With retired Yankees and the new cast filling the field, it reminded me how much this franchise has meant to New York and all baseball fans, even though many of them won’t admit it.

The Stadium is closed and will be partially torn down, but the new one across 161st will surely make up for it. The ghosts that inhabit the current stadium will most assuredly cross the street. While the new building will be as perfect a baseball facility in the world — what would you expect from the Yankees? — there is a bit of sadness in the hearts of Yankees fans now that the old site is becoming a park.

For me, I remember my first time in that home of baseball giants. Reggie Jackson hit a home run. Don’t ask me who the Yankees played or what the final score was, but I remember Reggie pounding one over the fence. Over the years, I have attended many games at the old ballpark in the Bronx, including one World Series game in 1996. That just so happened to be Game 6. Our seats were way up in right field – the next to last row. When then-catcher Joe Girardi hit the ball into right center, none of us could see it. We just kept cheering as he ran around the bases with a triple. When Charlie Hayes squeezed the final out into his glove, the place erupted.

Some of the memories I have about the Stadium will forever be set in my mind. The time when “Donnie Baseball,” Don Mattingly, shook my hand and I forgot to ask for an autograph. The day when I ran into Phil Rizzuto and we talked a bit about Cora, his wife. Or even the time when as a kid, my father forgot where he parked the car in the lot across the street from the Stadium.

The new Stadium will be a home of many more memories. Though I don’t know if I can attend as much since the tickets are going to be quite up there price-wise. The new place will be the home of my beloved New York Yankees.

Now they just have to get some starting pitching…