By Luis Guzman

(as told to Alex Belth)

I grew up in Greenwich Village in the 60s on 10th and Hudson. I went to PS 41. Then when I was ten, we moved to the LES, to the Lower East Side. All my life I’ve been a Yankee fan, B. Mantle, Pepitone. I remember Horace Clarke, Kekich, Peterson, Hamilton, “the folly floater.” When I was between the ages of say 10 and 14 which would have been ’66 to 1970, I’d get together with my buddies in the Villiage, my man Wayne Teagarden, my boy Norman sometimes too, and we’d shine shoes outside of the bank of 7th avenue and Christopher Street. We’d shine shoes in the morning, make enough money, sneak on the train, get up to the Stadium, and sneak into the bleachers. We’d make $2-3 dollars which was pretty good back then. Sometimes we’d pay to get in, it depended. It was fifty, seventy-five cents. We’d fill up on hot dogs and soda and cracker jack, which was the thing at the time.

Back then, they had day games during the week. We used to go out Sunday for bat day and hat day and ball day and yadda-yadda day. It was great. I’d go to every Old Timers’ game, that was a big thing for me, and nothing was bigger than the day Mickey Mantle retired. We had seen Mickey play, he had hit a few home runs when I was there, that was big stuff man. But that day, his family was there, it was heavy.

Between 66-70 the Yankees weren’t doing too good. But we watched Mickey Mantle wind down his career, and you’d see other guys that would come in—Yaz with the Red Sox, Luis Aparicio with the Twins, Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew.

We didn’t know at the time but the old Stadium was…it was amazing. They had those beams that would come down and we’d wonder how anybody would be able to see if they had to sit behind one of them. But we were always in the bleachers, the right field bleachers, cause we used to like looking into the bullpen to see who is warming up. Remember when the bullpen was in the tunnel? We’d be talking to the pitchers.

Back then Yankee Stadium was a real relaxed, kicked-back kind of a place. They didn’t have guys coming onto the field between innings like now, it wasn’t this high–security place. It’s when it was a ballpark. Dude, we used to wait for the third out in the top or bottom of the ninth and after the third out we’d jump over the railing and run around all over the outfield. There would be fifty, one hundred kids running around. But that’s all we’d do was run around. We were respectful about it. We’d wait for the last out, you know, bro.

What ruined it were the people who would jump on the field and tear up the grass. We were just happy just running around. The Stadium guards would open up the gates to the bullpen and behind it the gates to the exit. They’d wait for us to run out of air. And then we’d exit and go home. There was no harassing. That’s when it was worthwhile being a kid.

But even the new place has nostalgia. I was there in the Seventies when they turned it around. And later, I took my first son there with me when he was one, one-and-a-half. This was in ’92. We’re sitting front row right on top of the visitor’s dugout and who are they playing? They’re playing the Toronto Blue Jays—Joe Carter, Robbie Alomar, David Cone, Devon White, all those guys. So Robbie gives my little boy a ball between innings. My boy looks at the ball, and I’m like, ‘Oh, my god, he just got a ball from Robbie Alomar.’ Little guy looks at the ball and throws it back out on the field. I said are you kidding me? Robbie gave me the ball back, he thought it was funny. He and I became buddies after that.

And Devon White, what a gentleman he was. One of the nicest guys I ever met. He goes to one of the people who takes your order and says, ‘Whatever he wants.’ And the lady goes, ‘Ah, I need money.’ I go, ‘Devon, Devon, don’t worry about it, I got it.’ What does he do, he goes down to the clubhouse, comes back and gives the lady $200 and says, ‘Whatever he wants.’ I said, ‘Damn, thank you.’”

I remember being at the game when Charlie Hayes caught the last out. I sat right behind home plate for that game. That’s probably the loudest I ever heard Yankee Stadium. Mickey Mantle day was big too, I was there when I was a kid, but I was out in the bleachers for that, when you sit in the box seats the sound is different, that’s for sure. There’s nothing like the World Series in the Bronx, man.

Luis Guzman is one of the great character actors of his generation.  He has appeared in many movies, notably Carlito’s Way and Boogie Nights.