Posted under mtv
By Jayson Rodriguez
Last night, deep inside the bowels of the new Yankee Stadium, Shaheem Reid and I found ourselves given free rein to roam pretty much anywhere we wanted to in the Bronx venue. During game two. Of the World Series.
Now, we’ve both been backstage at some major concerts before. Or inside recording studios when hits were being created.
But this experience was entirely different.
Two music journalists who are big (big!) sports fans with the opportunity to masquerade as baseball writers with credentials to go just about anywhere we wanted. Only the guys in the Phillies and Yankees uniforms had more access than us. (And maybe that Jay-Z fellow who performed last night before the game.)
When we walked into the stadium we were overwhelmed by the amount of people, cheers and general pandemonium that ensues during a game of this caliber.
We quickly found a staircase and traveled down to the field level and unexpectedly ran into Swizz Beatz, who told us Jay-Z and Alicia Keys were about to head onto the field. We hurried along with him and soon spotted Jay-Z’s camp. The second Swizz yelled out, “There goes Jay!” it seemed like we stumbled onto the stage like Lil Mama to witness something epic.
Jay-Z was standing behind the left field wall, which slowly opened up to let him out onto the field like he was Yankees closer Mariano Rivera.
The view we had was just like the beginning shot of his performance at the VMAs last month: A panoramic shot from behind as Jay-Z walked into the stadium with 50,000 pumped-up Yankee fans going crazy.
We swung around and walked through a back door that delivered us right into the Phillies’ bullpen, where we could see Pedro Martinez warming up. Soon, Shaheem, myself, and Jay’s team were walking along the warning track to get a closer view of the proceedings. When Sha and I hunkered down to watch, we were along the third base line flanked by Swizz to the left and Philadephia’s Jayson Werth to the right.
Needless to say, Jay-Z ripped through his Alicia Keys-assisted performance of “Empire State of Mind” as effortlessly as A.J. Burnett’s curveball confounded Ryan Howard all night.
Immediately after his performance, Jay returned back underneath the stadium and huddled with Swizz Beats for a few pictures. He spotted two-thirds of the 15ǯ Boys and stepped over to drop off two pounds.
With the Maybach waiting, he muttered “Let’s go,” and with the speed of Jimmy Rollins on the basepaths, Hov exited the building. Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys hopped into a golf cart and were whisked away.
Shaheem and I wondered around again before an employee offered to usher us around. A few turns here and there, a short walk down a hallway and we were back on the field again to see John Legend sing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Just me, Sha … and Ozzie Guillen.