Olé to Old

Over this past weekend, it was sad to see the last baseball game to be played at Yankee Stadium.  Even though I grew up a train ride (or two... or three) away from it and my Dad has been a life-long Yankee fan, I never did get to the House that Ruth Built. 

A couple of years ago on a trip back home that included a quick jaunt over to NYC, we were hoping for that chance but unfortunately the Yanks were out of town - so instead we saw a Mets game -- which at least provided a first and last visit to Shea.   

While I know we must continue our march into the future, it is still sad to see these sports cathedrals fall to the wayside.  Shea certainly had lots of "character"... but having visited our share of more recently built venues, we could certainly how things have changed... some for the better (bigger bathrooms, wider walkways, better sight lines) or worse (corporate boxes and higher ticket prices to pay for it).

So it was kind of cool to see that 'old' is not necessarily a bad thing when I saw pictures of the USA vs. Spain Davis Cup (that's tennis) match in Madrid.  One of the cool things about our travel adventures this year has been a real appreciation for the 'old'... seeing stuff that pre-dates the birth of our country... and sometimes by centuries!   

Granted the Las Ventas bullring - the venue for this match-up - built in the 1930s, it is likely considered "new" by European standards, it was still cool to see... and I would have loved to have been there, as watching tennis would be much more enjoyable for me personally than seeing bulls speared...

Okay, now this post devolves into just another reason to post a picture of Rafael Nadal - who won both of his singles matches to advance Spain into the Davis Cup final (vs. Argentina).  Here is a picture of Rafa practicing... but what I loved about this shot -- well, in addition to the shorter shorts -- was his "Kiss My Ace" t-shirt.  Okie dokie!

And here is a picture of the Spanish Davis cup team -- Fernando Verdasco (hardly recognize him with clothes on), Feliciano Lopez, David Ferrer, Rafa ... and coach, Emilio Sanchez (who sadly is my age peer in this group). 

In its next life, my hair would very much like to come back as a Spaniard....

... or else, I'm thnking we need to plan a trip to Espana... though that would likely result in me walking into light poles!

Comments

[Kim Dallas]

Hello,

I was looking at this post and really admired the hair on these Spaniards! They are all so hot! Anyway, I was in the Beijing airport on the way to Tokyo yesterday when I saw a man with gorgeous hair very similar to the Spanish boys above. I remember the China Open was being played this past week-end and this person was obviously a VIP because he was being driven to the gate plus he had a bag of tennis rackets over his shoulder. I do follow tennis, but I honesty am most familiar with Rodger, Rafa, Blake, Andy Murray, and Andy Roddick. I was a big chicken, so my husband asked him who he was and he was Fernado Gonzales from Chile! He is absolute beautiful in person! He was really nice and I acutally had him autograph my Japan Rough Guide book. I thought you would appreciate this story as you used to be a tennis writer. I did check the interenet and he was the silver medal winner and is also ranked 11th in the world. I feel like such an ass I didn't regonize him!

Best regards and keep blogging!
Kim