Back in February I put together my Bucket List for Tailgaters. It listed the Top 9 places you need to go tailgating before you “kick the bucket”. Upon further review I realized a “once in a lifetime” tailgate party was left off the list (Sorry LSU fans, despite your whining and complaining I am still not amending the original list.) That once in a lifetime tailgate party? Tailgating prior Pope Benedict XVI’s mass at Yankee Stadium.
Gates will open at 9 a.m. ET, with pre-mass festivities beginning at noon and the formal mass beginning at 2:30 p.m. Tickets have already been distributed through the Archdiocese of New York and its many parishes for the approximately 2 1/2 hour ceremony. There are no tickets available at Yankee Stadium for the mass. Even if you have a ticket to go inside for mass or not, tailgating Pope Benedict XVI’s first visit to the United States has to rank up there with any other tailgate party in history. Tailgating a papal mass would be the yardstick by which other tailgaters could measure themselves.
Do you think you might catch some flack for tailgating a papal mass? Probably. Anyone who thinks tailgating the pontiff’s visit is blasphemous or in bad taste needs stop taking themselves so seriously. If they are going to be serving wine and crackers inside the stadium, why can’t you toss back a few beers and grill some brats outside the stadium?
Because Pope Benedict XVI will visit Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan before arriving at Yankee Stadium at 2:15 p.m., the likelihood of him making it out to the parking lot to share a few cold ones is pretty slim. It’s too bad because as a tailgater, that would be the ultimate to have the Pope bless your keg. That would truly be “holy water”.
If anyone out there takes my advice to tailgate the Pope’s visit, please send us the photos. Even better, make a video and send us the YouTube link. Make sure to include a Pope bobblehead doll or make you own Pope hat to wear in the photos to commemorate being one of a handful to tailgate the pontiff’s visit.