Joe Nathan has an unusual perspective about the site of this All-Star Game. All the players look around at Yankee Stadium and are impressed; Nathan looks around and sees where he used to sit.
"I had upper decks [tickets], I had lower, I sat pretty much everywhere in the Stadium," he said, thinking back to his adolescence in Pine Bush in Orange County. "So it's a spot that even now gives me goose bumps."
Then again, the Twins' closer has yet another unique perspective. He actually has been in an All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium. It was when he was playing for Stony Brook University.
"I believe it was a Division II-Division III all-star game," he said. "I was a shortstop back then, so I started at shortstop."
Aside from that, he said the best park that Stony Brook played in was one at Ithaca during the playoffs.
Nathan has to rank near the top of the list of players on the "how did they get there?" list. It was a big leap from Stony Brook shortstop to American League All-Star reliever, and he plans to savor every second of it. He appreciates the historical significance of this final All-Star Game at the current Yankee Stadium.
"I know we don't get a chance to come in here as much as the teams in-division that play the Yankees," he said, "but I think the energy that's created in this stadium is unbelievable."
