As we come close to finishing our Capstone research, we must find an interviewee to interview on our topic. The person we choose to interview has to be an expert in the topic. Originally, my grandpa reached out to Michael Loparo. He is the head of all retail at Yankee Stadium. It was getting close to the time our interviews had to be completed and he still hasn’t responded. I was getting nervous. So, my grandpa emailed someone else who knows people who are experts in Yankee Stadium. That guy got me in touch with Marty Appel. He is a baseball historian, author and worked at Yankee Stadium. He was happy to do the interview. He has done a lot with baseball so he probably knows a lot of information.

Now that I have someone to interview, we had to email back and forth to come up with a time that worked for both of us. After some emailing, we decided on Thursday, May 21st at 1:00. We were going to do it by phone call. Since I had someone to interview and a time, I started to get excited. Mr. Appel was going to provide me with information that will really help with my topic. I also started to get nervous. What was I going to say? Was he nice? I had all these questions about what was going to happen. The closer it came to the interview, the more excited I was and the more nervous I was. My stomach went from having ants to butterflies to birds to having giraffes. The last thing to enter my stomach was a blue whale. Eventually came interview time….

I picked up the phone and started dialing his number. Beep, Blorp, Bop. Finally, I got to the last number and the phone started ringing. “Hello, is this Ryan?” He said. I said “Yes.” I asked him if I could record the interview so I don’t miss any information. He said sure. That was the start of our conversation. He wanted me to tell him a little bit about myself. Then he asked why I chose this as my topic. Then the interview got started for real. I started asking him the questions. It was amazing how much he knew off the top of his head. He even answered some questions based on personal experience. He gave me a lot of useful facts and information. He was also very nice. Once we got that interview started I wasn’t nervous anymore. It felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. These were the questions I asked in the interview:

1. What foods were served at the old Yankee Stadium compared to the new stadium?
2. What was the pricing of the foods in the old stadium compared to the new?
3. What souvenirs and apparel were sold at the old stadium compared to the new?
4. How does the size of the retail stores in the two stadiums compare?
5. How does the pricing in the retail stores compare between the two stadiums?
6. How many restaurants were in the old stadium?
7. How many restaurants are in the new stadium?
8. Which stadium took longer to build?
9. Which stadium did people eat in more?
10. Which stadium has more rules for fans?
11. Which stadium allowed more behind the scenes tours of the stadium?
12. In your opinion, which stadium was harder to work in?

When I finished the interview, I listened to the recording to see if I had missed any information. Only, there wasn’t any information. The problem was, my phone shut off in the middle of the call. 

Overall, I think that I learned a lot. I learned the cost of yearbooks. 15 dollars in the old stadium and 20 dollars in the new stadium. He told me that since the management is the same, the stadiums had the same amount of tours. I also learned that if I face my fears, good things can happen.