The view from my first game at Yankee Stadium.

Little did I realize that when I purchased tickets on August 12 that Boston would be as far away in the standings as I would be from the playing field on Friday night.

With the team removed from the playoff picture, the biggest question would be how the New Yorkers would welcome a diehard Red Sox fan into their city, and then into their home field, for games Friday night and Saturday afternoon. My brother, a Braves fan, was with me for the first game as well.

Driving in New York is not recommended unless the color of your vehicle is yellow, so I wore my Red Sox jersey with pride on the bus from our Queens hotel to the connecting number 4 train that drops you off at the Yankee Stadium (161st Street) exit. The token fare is $1.50, but you can buy a one-day Metro Card good for unlimited rides on the subway and bus system for $4. They are sold at many places in addition to the subway terminals. I bought my daily passes from a hotel gift shop and from a newsstand at LaGuardia Airport.

My ride on the subway was an insult-free journey, but after leaving the platform and heading walking down the street parallel to Yankee Stadium, the anti-Red Sox message was clear. There were many "Boston Sucks" T-shirts worn by the local morons, with the Red Sox logo dummified on the back of the shirts. A number of the local fans greeted Red Sox passerby's with the same message printed on their shirts.

Before heading into the stadium we sought nourishment outside, which is the best way to fill up your stomach without the exploitation of your wallet that occurs inside. The street next to Yankee Stadium is beneath the subway tracks, so the chatter below is frequently broken up by the clatter above.

On the Yankee Stadium side of the street, the vendors sell hot dogs and the like at inflated ballpark prices ($4 hot dogs). If you meander to the other side of the street vendors set up outside the local bars and shops. We had the hot dogs of the $1 variety, which were being sold in the doorway of the Ballpark Bowling Alley. After eating two dogs I figured it was time to exchange the anti-Red Sox madness outside for the solitude of the ballpark that still exists an hour before the 7:05 gametime.

The entrance for the infamous New York fans known as the "Bleacher Creatures." It's less rowdy in this secion since the Yankees made it alcohol free earlier this year.

With only a smattering of fans inside Yankee Stadium at 6:00 we walked around the field level section and headed toward Monument Park, which was already closed to fans, despite the disclosure found it Yankees Magazine that says "Monument Park is open from the time the gates open until 45 minutes prior to the game."

We were told by an usher that the only way to assure an opportunity of seeing one of the Stadium's more unique features was to show up when the gates opened two hours prior to the first pitch.

Either that or shell out $10 to take a Yankee Stadium tour, dubbed the "Babe Ruth Tour." The team even has a $15 tour with "increased stadium access and Yankees' history." Furthermore, the Yankees have a sponsor for their stadium tours, as they are "Presented by Kodak." Do you think a small market team like the Twins could pull off such a feat?

Thwarted in that attempt, we headed upstairs to find our seats, which were located in the upper regions in the next-to-last section down the left field line. Unlike the wide aisles of the lower level, the aisle in the upper deck is wide enough for only one person to walk through and two people have to turn sideways to pass each other when heading in opposite directions.

In addition to that inconvenience, my search for a game program lead me all the way to the stands behind home plate. Apparently the upper patrons past the bases aren't interested in much beyond beer sales.

The first game of the series was another chapter in the reign of futility under the field leadership of Joe Kerrigan. With a crowd of 55,524, the largest baseball gathering I've ever been a part of, assembled to watch Pedro Martinez face off with Orlando Hernandez, things got off to a good start as the Sox scored two in the first.

But from that point on the Sox bats remained quiet and the game a lost cause when the Yanks scored three of Pedro in the second. Martinez pitched a 1-2-3 third and then left the game with an injury, and the appearance wound up being his last in an injury filled 2001. While Pedro finished his year with a 7-3 mark following the defeat, El Duque picked up his first win (1-6) by pitching seven innings and the Yankees won 3-2.

Believers in the Curse of the Bambino will note that Martinez failed to win a game after his "I don't believe in curses, wake up the Bambino and I'll drill him in the butt" comments.

With the action on the field limited after the scoring was completed in the second, two fans, a few innings apart, became restless and decided to be a part of the entertainment themselves. The two men succeeded in running onto the field and the second guy ran from the first base side, dove into second, then got up and dove into third. While the security guards came out to get him, he slid under a clothesline attempt before being taken down on the infield grass. As he was taken through the far end of the Red Sox dugout he thrust his Yankee hat toward the Red Sox' bench before disappearing down the tunnel.

One of the signature areas of Yankee Stadium highlights another Red Sox defeat.

Contributing to the Bronx Zoo moniker were some skirmishes in the bleachers and a fiasco in the upper deck right field seats that had fists a-flyin' and a fan tumbling down rows of seats. I saw a few fans escorted from the stands by the red shirt-clad stadium security.

Despite those few incidents and some "Boston Sucks" chants, it was a good baseball crowd, sprinkled with many Red Sox fans. The young couple sitting next to us made the four-hour drive down from Worcester, Mass for the game and headed out in the eight to beat traffic. Red Sox shirts and hats could be seen everywhere and the only banner on display at the Stadium was a large one located behind first base in the upper deck that simply stated "Can Duquette."

Apparently the crazies stay away during the day as the Saturday afternoon game was completed without anyone running onto the field. That might have been because the Yankees were too busy circling the bases.

In a rematch of the previous weekend's near-perfect game, Mike Mussina returned to the mound for New York and David Cone made his second start at Yankee Stadium since joining Boston.

My brother had headed back to Georgia on an early flight, so I went to the game by myself. Since it's easier to find one good seat rather than two together, my ticket went from the outer fringes of the Yankee Stadium seating bowl to the second row of the upper deck directly above the first base dugout.

A better seat and different perspective for Saturday's game, but the outcome remained the same.

Things got off to a bad start early for the Red Sox as Mussina struck out the side in the first, while Cone surrendered a two-out, two-run blast to Tino Martinez in the bottom half of the inning. By the time Tino repeated the feat in the sixth, this time with a three run shot, the Red Sox were well on their way to losing for the 12th time in 13 games, in the process following an even dozen games behind the Yanks.

New York ended up with a 9-2 victory, as Mussina stayed in the dugout following the Yankees' seven-run sixth. The Moose pitched six innings, allowing only one unearned run on three hits. As was custom in both games, Yankee Stadium fans loudly booed Carl Everett each time he stepped to the plate. Six days after breaking up Mussina's perfect game, a noticeably hobbled Everett went 0-for-4.

In the meantime, Mike Lansing added his name to the causality list in the fifth inning when he tried to slide back into first base on a pickoff attempt by catcher Jorge Posada. Lansing's left leg got caught underneath him as he slid hard back into the bag and the knee dug into the clay. The end result was a contusion of the knee and a spot on the 60-day DL to finish his Red Sox career, as undoubtedly Lansing will join Troy O'Leary and Co. in not being wanted back in 2002.

Speaking of not being wanted back, at least by the fans, the lone banner hanging from the facade of the upper deck exclaimed, "Duquette is the curse." Although it was removed after a few innings, The Duke and The Curse both remained intact through the weekend of Boston baseball ineptitude.

Diehard that I am, I stayed until the ninth inning and was rewarded with the major league debut of infielder Angel Santos, who struck out against Jay Witasick. The crowd of 55,316 had thinned considerably by the time Jose Offerman struck out to end the game.

For the second straight day my exiting of the stadium was accompanied by a looping rendition of "New York, New York," the version on Friday night was sung by Frank Sinatra, although I'm not sure who the woman was that sang the tune on Saturday afternoon.

The Red Sox' continuing implosion was the only negative in my five-day New York trip. In addition to the typical touristy things to do in NYC, I viewed a taping of the David Letterman Show, went to three sessions of the U.S. Open including the Sampras-Agassi classic, and made a magical trip four hours northward to Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame.

With the exception of finding a place to stay, New York City was very affordable. Street vendors are everywhere in Manhattan selling hot dogs, cokes, and my favorite, Snapple. T-shirts, including the "I Love NY" ones, were only $2. The double-decker city tour prices were reasonable.

As for getting tickets to the games, Ticketmaster was the means of distribution and they tacked on their ludicrous "service charge" on each ticket. A $15 face value upper tier seat on Friday night had an astounding $4.25 added to it, which made the $4.75 added to Saturday's $33 upper tier box seat seem like a bargain in comparison.

Among the large contingent of Red Sox fans that I met was a man that had flown in from England to watch the Sox play. He was making a two-week vacation to the States to see the team play for the first time in person. When I asked him how he had become a Sox fan he exclaimed that he began listening to baseball on Armed Forces radio around 1986 and he also liked the team's colors, which mirrored those of the Liverpool soccer team.

Whatever the reason, Red Sox fans are everywhere. Perhaps one day soccer fans overseas will become Sox fans when the team wins a championship or two and becomes more closely aligned with the dominant history of the fabled Manchester United team. In the meantime, the Yankees get the glory and the curse lingers.