Major League Baseball is committed toward making a connection with pop culture, thus inspiring a baseball fan’s dream of a “cave” in New York City. The MLB Fan Cave, located on 4th and Broadway in the NoHo section of the city, is where two winners of MLB’s Dream Job contest will watch every game this season. Yes, e-v-e-r-y g-a-m-e. If you’re wondering why someone would want to do that to himself, well, just check out the photos and accompanying video I took of the Cave during a visit last week. We’ll start with the ground level in this post and take it downstairs in the next one.
There are 15 TVs on the wall – 3 60", 12 32", all Sony Bravia LED/LCD. Note the 18-foot Willie Mays statue in the background. That pose is taken from him making The Catch in the '54 World Series.
The two guys who watch all the games have to manually update this scoreboard, which is above the Cave's front entrance.
Comfortable furniture is a "must" for watching games. The Cave has a distinct '50s/'60s vibe throughout, as is apparent here with the choice of coffee table and chair.
Apple computers and an iPad near the window let the guys communicate their baseball thoughts through Twitter, email and other means. You also might notice the furniture in the foreground is on an elevated floor. It's actually a Lazy Susan. During MLB Network interviews the couch can be positioned toward the street with the TVs in the background.
The barbershop/tattoo parlor area. No, seriously. The Cave will have barbers visit the store throughout the season to give selected fans a cut – even some MLB players are expected to stop by to stay "fresh to death", as Pauly D would say.
A manual switchboard lets the guys turn the light on each ballpark which is hosting an ongoing game. Kind of cool.
The laptops to the left are synced with playlists from selected MLB players; it's usually their at-bat music or preferred tunes, in general. To the right is a DJ booth, although invited DJs typically bring in most of their own sound equipment. Straight ahead was supposed to be an area for visitors to test their pitching speed against the wall. Concerns about people throwing as hard as they could around big windows has turned this into an all-purpose nook.
This is a fan (man) cave, after all. The requsite jukebox, pool table, leather chairs and 60" 3D TV simply have to be included in the space.
A really cool graphic behind the DJ booth.
Even the bathroom is baseball-themed. Notice the 'no sliding' message on the mat beneath the sink.
We end with another look at the barbershop. You can see the reflection of the "closet" that's on the back of the TV wall. A pulley-enabled hat rack lets the guys stay suited in whatever team's hat and jersey they want to rock.
KyleStack.com 