Yankees have helped Lang discover a new world

On a good day, it takes a little under three hours for Jane Lang to get to Yankee Stadium from her home in Morris Plains, N.J.

First, there is a mile walk with her dog, Clipper, to the train station. Then, there's a 70-minute train ride to Penn Station, followed by a potentially perilous walk in thick pedestrian traffic to Herald Square. Finally, comes the hard part. Exactly eight stops on the D train to 161st street.

"I used to put eight candies in my pocket and move them after each stop, so I would know to get off when there was one left," Lang, 67, said. "Now, I just count."

Lang was born blind, but it hasn't stopped her from doing everything she's ever wanted to do in life, including attending 30-plus Yankees games a year with only her guide dog as a travel companion.

Tuesday, the two had an unexpected escort to the game. Manager Joe Girardi, Joba Chamberlain, Chad Gaudin, David Robertson, Kerry Wood and former player Tino Martinez arrived at her door at 11:30 with a bouquet of flowers. Lang, who thought she was spending the day at the Guggenheim with her daughter, was stunned when she opened the door and heard a familiar voice.

"Hi Jane, it's Joe Girardi," the Yankees manager announced before introducing her to his players. "We're going to escort you to the game today. We think your story is pretty amazing."

"You're the ones who are amazing," Lang said as she ran her hand over each player's face.

Lang's visit to Yankee Stadium was a part of the team's Hope Week Community Initiative, which honors a different person, family or organization each day this week. In addition to being escorted by the Yankees to the Stadium, Lang received a tour of Monument Park from Paul O'Neill, one of her all-time favorite Yankees, and was honored in a ceremony at home plate before the game.

"She's just an amazing person," said Chamberlain, who got to know Lang because his father, Harlan, sits next to her in a section behind home plate. "Just the fearlessness that she shows by coming here. She's incredible."

Lang, 67, begs to differ: "I'm just a regular person. I just do things a little differently."

Lang is from Boston, and used to go to Fenway Park without a guide dog as a teenager. One day, however, after she got lost in the snow, her mother convinced her to go to The Seeing Eye, in Morristown, N.J., the oldest guide-dog school in the world. After four weeks, she finished training with her first dog, Sandy, and met a new instructor at the school, Pete Lang, whom she wed three months later.

She raised three children, Sharon, Danny and Billy, along with running a knitting business and a chair-caning enterprise. It was Danny who introduced her to the Yankees

In 2000, she learned how to navigate to the Stadium with her dog at the time, Laramie. The two went to 256 games, with his last game being the finale at the old stadium.

None of them, however, were as thrilling as last night's contest. Lang made a point of doing two things to every Yankee she met Tuesday. She touched their face. And she thanked them.

Said Lang: "I just want them to know how much pleasure they have given me over the years."