ARod Celebration In the Street

ARod Celebration In the Street

(Photos by Gary Quintal)

Excitement on 161st Street and River Avenue, inside and outside Yankee Stadium 

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK (BRONX NEWS)- Saturday was a day of great excitement on 161st Street and River Avenue in the Bronx. Inside Yankee Stadium, very large crowds were attending a rare single admission daytime doubleheader between the two teams on top of the standings in the American League East, the Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays.

There were thousands of residents and visitors happily walking along the streets in the vicinity of Yankee Stadium. The 161st Business Improvement District (161 BID), under the direction of its very able and proactive executive director Dr. Cary Goodman, organized its fifth street fair on River Avenue. Street Fair V began three hours earlier than the 1 p.m. game began in Yankee Stadium. It was very wise planning and scheduling as a street fair encourages visitors to the neighborhood. Thus, not only do customers patronize those businesses at the fair, but the fair’s presence also allows stores in the area to increase their patronage through the many new customers in the vicinity. It was also intelligent to plan all five fairs on days in which the Yankees have scheduled high profile games or other notable sporting events have been scheduled at the stadium. Saturday’s timing was also perfect as the rains over the Bronx did not begin until the fair ended.

Since many families attend a street fair, Goodman offered pleasurable activities for children. The Bronx Museum and Bronx Children’s Museum taught button making to participating youngsters.

A wide variety of foods, including free samples of Bigelow Tea, and other merchandise were offered at the large number of stands set up on River Avenue. In addition to the usual street fair offerings, the fair attendees were treated to the opportunity to watch a professional artist paint a mural of Alex Rodriguez on a store gate. The artist, Andre Trenier, is a Bronx native, who had previously painted three baseball murals on 161st Street, Mickey Mantle, Satchel Paige and Roberto Clemente. The talented artist who is also a personable individual was happy to speak with fair‐goers and receive immediate feedback, which were overwhelmingly words of praise. He was also curious to determine how Rodriguez is viewed by most baseball fans. Not surprisingly, he assessed the relationship as “love‐hate”. Interestingly, while Trenier was painting, the cheers could be heard from inside the stadium as Rodriguez belted his 31st home run of the season.

The mural is the 11th baseball painting that has been sponsored by the 161 BID to appropriately beautify the neighborhood. Plans are being made to add painting of Joe DiMaggio and Thurman Munson to those already completed.

Unlike the people in the street, most fans in the ballpark, especially rooters of the Yankees, were exceptionally disappointed to see their favorite team drop a very crucial doubleheader to the Toronto Blue Jays and drop to 4 1⁄2 games behind the leaders of the American League East.