CreditChang W. Lee/The New York Times
Early in the afternoon on many spring, summer and fall days, two men — sometimes three — hike to the top row of the upper deck at Yankee Stadium, where the oxygen begins to thin.
They climb a 20-foot ladder and squeeze through a portal in the roof that is no bigger than Brett Gardner’s strike zone. Once they have pulled themselves through and regained their equilibrium, if not a settled stomach, they clip safety harnesses to a rail and go about their work.
“We always talk about bringing beach chairs up here and saying, ‘Let them come find us,’ ” Clinton Thomas, the leader of the crew, said with a laugh.