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.

Frankly, I’m stunned.  Back when I covered the Yanks in the ‘05 and ‘06 seasons, Chacon often appeared to be a few hours removed from a session with the peace pipe.  In my interactions with the guy, he was nothing but relaxed and pleasant, exercising a vocabulary that including surfer terminology.  I recall him admitting to “taking a serious digger” once when he slipped on the field.

Still, he choked his boss.  I don’t see the mellow reputation saving him.

As for the Yanks, it’s been a typical two-game stretch where the world has both deemed the season over and then praised them for getting hot at the right time.  I love this town. 

The fact is, Joe Girardi did what he needed to do after Tuesday night’s loss by tearing into his team.  Tuesday was pitiful.  Jeter and Abreu swinging against Tom Gorzelanny after the Pittsburgh starter walked Daryl Rasner (a pitcher) and then Melky Cabrera on four pitches.  The result, of course, was a fielder’s choice ground out and a double play against a guy that couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. 

I turned off the game after that…the Yanks were destined to lose.

As for last night, the Yanks got the message.  When I saw Bobby Abreu leg out a single in the first and then Alex Rodriguez go hard into second to force a wide throw from Jack Wilson — allowing two runs two score on what would have been an inning-ending double play — I knew the Yanks were going to win.   The fire was there last night.

This weekend it’s the Mets…I’ll be at the Yankee Stadium end of things to watch Dan Giese take on Mike Pelfrey.  I hope, somehow, Hank Steinbrenner has Willie Randolph back in a Yankee uniform either tomorrow or at least to showcase at the All-Star game.  What happened to him was awful.  He’d be a great mentor to some of the young players on the Yankees and is the kind of guy who excels in a professional atmosphere…something that I hear was lacking across town.

First with Willie, forever a Yankee, it will be the Mets’ loss that he’s gone.  Like many say, he was set up to fail by a power structure that did not support him…the Mets’ management wanted Randolph gone and thus Randolph was blamed for Carlos Delgado’s .242 average as well as slumps by Jose Reyes and the relief pitching. Meanwhile, the Mets’ pitching staff is 6th in the NL in ERA…yet the pitching coach also took a hit.  Foolish.

Perhaps the Yanks will make a little room to bring home a faithful third base and bench coach…

As for Hank…well, I know his years in the game (and then years out) give him the right to brush off NL rules that would have a pitcher run the bases…or is it his money and birth family that give him that right…here’s the million dollar quote:

“The pitcher has enough work to do. It’s something Bud (Selig) needs to address and he needs to address it soon. Don’t give me that traditionalist crap.

“We go to these NL cities, draw great crowds and we end up losing one of our best pitchers. I’m not happy.”

Of course you’re not happy, Hank…you lost a very expensive toy…and it’s hard to buy new 19-game winners.