First, I’ll admit something.  I left early.

It just didn’t feel right.  All the Yankee greats coming back like it was old-timers day.  All the fans cheering like it was a playoff game…Yet the Yanks weren’t going to the playoffs.

It was like going to wedding for two people that you know just shouldn’t get married.  You saw it coming the night before as the bride was out a bit too late with the best man and the groom took two hours in the champagne room.  It all felt so wrong, but you were obligated to be there anyway.

As I’ve struggled for any kind of feeling on the close of Yankee Stadium, I begin to realize that it just should not have ended this way.  Numbers will tell you that the Yankees got a sweet ride off taxpayers for the new park when they could have upgraded for much less.  But if the Mets were getting a new toy…well, the Yanks would have to spend three times as much and get a more expensive toy.

The tragedy is that the Yankees could not send the Stadium off in style.  Or maybe the tragedy is that the Stadium is closing at all.  But it was an interesting night to say the least.  I was fortunate enough to see Willie Randolph before the game and to bump into Paul O’Neil in the hallway.

The pre-game introductions were nice, and Willie’s slide into second base was great.  Babe Ruth’s daughter was a good sport during her pitch and then later at the press conference.  Hal Steinbrenner followed Julia Ruth Stevens at the mic and sounded like a man who spent too many hours in economics classes and too few sitting with fans of the team he’s inherited.

Bernie Williams is missed.

And underneath it all was an empty feeling.  It was all so wrong…the Yankees were done in the regular season for the first time since 1993.  All the celebrities in the world couldn’t change it.

As for the game itself, no one I know was really watching.  I spent an hour or so walking around with the Bronx News’ Rich Mancuso as we took in the game from different gates.  First, behind home plate.  Then out in right field not far from where Jeffery Mayer helped send the Yankees into the ‘96 series.  We tried the loge level for fun and then I started to look at my watch.  I didn’t really need to stay.  Someone could cover for me and I had to be up to teach at 6:30.  I didn’t feel like walking through the doors of my apartment at 3am.

So I left after the top of the sixth inning.

Spike Lee must have been feeling the same way because he was walking out of the press gate with his crew at the same time I was.  Spike went left and I took a right to the 4 train.

I looked back at the Stadium a few times and then over at the new one.  A wild rumor has it that the new one is so far behind schedule that the old one has had its lease extended one more year as an insurance policy.  It certainly looked far from done, but I’m sure it will somehow be ready for the new season.

The old Stadium has a ton of memories for me just like it does for a number of other people.  There were good memories for the most part like my first Yankees-Boston game taken in from the bleachers (in the days when one could drink out there).  I’ll never forget how the cops hogtied a Red Sox fan in the concession area as I stepped out to use the restroom.  Awesome.

So, thank you for those memories Yankee Stadium.  You weren’t given the sendoff you deserve, and your end may have come too soon.

But you were one hell of a place to catch a ballgame.

This might be Brian Cashman’s greatest move ever…and no, I’m not talking about signing Hideki Matsui or Mike Mussina, or selling beer in plastic bottles instead of easy-to-spill cups — I’ll give Cash credit here.  I’m talking about the mid-season acquisition X-Man, Xavier Nady. The man has brass cajones.  In tonight’s 9-4 victory over the O’s, Nady singled in the go-ahead run and then tacked on a solo homer in the ninth for good measure.  When the Yanks win these days, it seems like Nady’s right in the middle of it.

In under a month as a Yankee, Nady is now hitting .319 with eight home runs and 21 RBIs.  Nice. And you know what’s nicer?  He shuts his mouth and does his job in a way that doesn’t command too much attention — of course he does get to hide behind the glowing lights that are A-Rod and Jeter.  If Cashman wants to make another good move here, he locks this 29-year-old up long-term.  Then again, Cashman may try to trade X-Man off to whatever team the Yankee GM winds up with next year…

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Derek Jeter got his 2,500 career hit tonight, putting him on pace to get to 3,000 sometime in 2011…assuming he doesn’t get injured or go into a major tailspin.  And every time I see Jeter move along on the all-time Yankee hit list, I can’t help think of Joe D and his service to Uncle Sam.  Yes, the Yankee Clipper spent three of his prime years playing ball for the U.S. Army during WWII.  Give DiMaggio 200 hits in each of those three years and he passes Lou Gehrig for first place on the list with around 2,800.

But I guess you can’t play the “what if?” game like so many Yankee fans do with Joe D or Mickey Mantle and his injuries…and his booze.  Personally, I’ll argue that the latter may have helped Mickey play better.

Check out the Yankee all-time list here.

Still, Joe D does not have the highest Yankee lifetime average.  That honor goes to Babe Ruth with a .349 lifetime mark…Jeter is currently fifth at .315 and DiMaggio was fourth at .325.