A Night at the Ballpark

The writer spent a Friday night at Yankee Stadium with two of his favorite people, where he debated on whether or not to hit the panic button, paid too much for refreshments, and got to see just a little bit of history.

On Friday, I found myself with three tickets to see the Yankees play the Mariners in the Bronx. As we hit the end of April, we find the Yankees 14-16, two games below .500. They have just put two of their biggest producers, A-Rod and Posada, on the DL, along with 21 year-old pitcher Phil Hughes. As a team, they are hitting .254, with names like Damon and Cano mired in pretty nasty early slumps, and are batting a paltry .245 in that all important category—with runners in scoring position. As a Yankee fan over the last few years, I have learned to be patient and wait out these slow starts, but something about this year seems a little different. Wang has been the only reliable starter (starters have a 5.11 ERA and opponents have a .771 OPS against them); the bullpen has been shaky, especially if you remove Joba and Rivera; and the offense has looked old. The slow bats and creaky swings are analogous to your grandparents complaining about a draft at Thanksgiving dinner—despite moments of rest, they are constant and incessant.

For the last week, I have been arguing with myself as to whether or not I should hit the proverbial panic button. Is the writing on the wall? Are the veterans becoming too old and too ineffective? Are the young players too young? What do I honestly expect from this team this year? I decided to hold my judgment until I saw them in person again. I also decided to keep a running log of Friday’s game.

4:00 pm-The first question–who should accompany me–was a no-brainer. I would be watching the game alongside my girlfriend, Karen, and Jason, whom I have known since high school and is now a med-student at NYU. The second question was what should I wear? Weather.com said that the temperature would be going down to 46 degrees and there was a 50% chance of rain. I ultimately choose my bright red team jacket from my days at Washington University in St. Louis. It is waterproof, warm, and I have spent many cold baseball games bundled in it. However, I know I will receive crap for wearing it. Nevertheless, a professional sporting event is one of the only places in today’s society where you can basically wear what you want with impunity. Old ratty T-shirts, ridiculous hats, capes, and whatever else strikes your fancy all happen to be acceptable. Even the windbreaker under the jersey look has traveled from the coaching boxes of the 1980s into the bleachers in 2008.

6:00 pm- Having met up with Karen and Jason, the 4 train slows to a stop because of train traffic. As I feverishly take notes on a small pad, it is suggested that I bring a tape recorder next time. Give me a break here; this is my first running diary.

6:25 pm- We reach the 161 St—Yankee Stadium stop. You know that footage that FOX constantly trots out, where the camera catches the front of the subway and the stadium? Well, there is a reason that the camera is on the outside of the subway. In no way, shape, or form, could a camera crew fit inside these subway cars. From my vantage point, I get a great view of the other side of the subway stop. But, with the construction of the new stadium, if I were to drive to the ballpark, I would still be waiting in traffic on the Van Wyck.

6:39 pm-We have made our way to Stadium Pizza, a little hole in the wall right across from the stadium, where we have procured cheap pizza and three beers for twelve dollars. It is the cheapest purchase we will make tonight. Finding no place to sit, we huddle around the stacks of empty Corona, Coors Light, and Budweiser cases, and use them as a makeshift table. Jason leaves a small piece of melted cheese on his plate. Upon being asked if he is going to eat it, Jason lifts the plate to his face and licks the cheese. I have a good feeling about tonight.

6:50 pm-Having made our way through security and on our way to our seats, which are in the Tier Reserved section down the third baseline, Karen and I have lost Jason to his pursuit of chicken fingers and fries. We stop at a Bud Light stand. To save time, from this point forward, instead of elaborating on just how expensive refreshments are, I will write HJIJS (holy jeez, I just spent) $9.50 on beer. At A&P, I could buy twelve for the same price.

A quick note: while it may seem that our seats “in the Tier Reserved section down the third baseline” are not the best, I still contend that there is not a bad seat in this ballpark. Throughout the game, we will be able to see every play, and lose only a little bit of action in the left field corner. No matter where you sit, you get a pretty good angle of the full infield and 75%-100% of the outfield.

6:57 pm- Bob Shepherd pronounces Eric Bedard’s name “Bidderd,” the man is the king of underhanded insults. He always mispronounces the name of at least one member of the opposition, just to let them know he can; yet another reason why he is the best. (Correction: Bob Shepherd has been sick this season, and the guy doing the announcements is a protege of his that sounds exactly like him.  The only time one hears Shepeherd’s voice in Yankee Stadium right now is when Jeter bats.  They play a recording, because Jeter said that as long as he’s a Yankee, he wants Bob Shepherd to announce his plate appearances.)

By the way, with Wang going for the Yanks and Bedard pitching for the M’s, on paper, this looks to be the only pitcher’s duel of the series. That means the game will go relatively quickly, and with the game time temperature at 49 degrees and a nasty wind, that really is a plus. You know it is cold when the first vendor you see is selling hot chocolate and coffee.

6:58 pm-Shepherd announces Jason Giambi. Karen boos. I agree. Maybe we’ll get to see him hit a ground ball directly into the shift tonight. Good times.

7:03 pm- We just witnessed great fan etiquette. Jason had just returned to us, when two strangers reached our row and had to get past us. Instead of making us stand and squeezing by, they reached Jason, stepped over the seats into the empty row behind us. Little things like that go underappreciated in today’s society.

7:09 pm-Wang deals a first pitch strike to Ichiro. Karen: “Oh they might not lose.” I have to say, since moving in together last September; Karen has been the best sports fan girlfriend. I have seen most Yankees games on YES, watched every Giants game, and even caught Rangers playoff games, not to mention the three weeks in March when the Final Four is going. While she watches Gossip Girl or Desperate Housewives in the bedroom, I get the couch and the big TV at 7 almost every night during baseball season. Like I said, it’s the little things that matter.

7:12 pm-Wang works a perfect top of the first, and Bedard takes the mound. Bedard is on my fantasy team, which is currently trailing this week 6-3 to a team named LAX Rules, managed by a ninth grader at the school where I work. I threw up in my mouth a little after writing that.

7:22 pm-Jason, my best friend, reminds Karen, my girlfriend, that he will be starting his OBGYN rotation next week. So, if she needs some free examinations, he’s there for her. Karen’s main response: “Would you giggle?” It’s going to be a very good night.

7:25 pm-After Jeter reached on an error and moved to second on an Abreu single, Matsui comes through with a two strike two out single that he just flipped out into left field. Thank God for Matsui and Abreu. Without them, the Yankees may not have won any games yet this season. I digress. Jeter scores and the Yankees lead 1-0. That was Derek Jeter’s 1,391 ^st run scored, with which Jeter passes Joe DiMaggio to become fourth on the All-Time Yankee list.

Jeter, who is now shockingly 34 years old, has played the game so well for so long in the right way. As someone who has been privileged to watch his entire career unfurl, it is almost personally rewarding to see him slowly climb his way into the categories of greatness. All of his detractors say that he is overrated, his range at shortstop is not the best, and he does not drive in as many runs or hit as many homers as the other elite shortstops in the league. However, these people do not get to see him compete on a daily basis. For thirteen years, the man has played every play with maximum effort and enthusiasm, and now that work is starting to show. Soon, we are going to see Jeter’s numbers compete with the likes of DiMaggio, Gwynn, and even Rose, and everyone is going to have to take notice of his body of work.

7:47 pm-In the bottom of the second, Melky grounds a two-run double inside third. The Yankees now lead 3-0. I am slowly giving up on winning this fantasy week. People are up and cheering, but not too much. Standing up means exposing most of your body to the wind, and as a result, most stand, clap, and quickly sit down. I’m not kidding; it is cold in the upper deck.

8:10 pm-The Yankees have gone through the order once, and that means it is useless and obscure positive stat time on the JumboTron. Did you know that Jason Giambi ranks 9 ^th in the majors in homeruns over the last ten seasons (40% of which he was not a Yankee)? Did you care? I didn’t think so.

Jason: Cano and Damon are sitting because “the Yankees only want one person hitting under .200 per day. Today it’s Giambi’s turn.”

8:12 pm-Giambi blatantly leans into a hanging curve ball. The scene from Major League II flashes through my head where Jake, knowing that Dorn will do nothing but get out, tells Dorn to deliberately lean into an inside fastball to start a rally. I half expect Giambi to start doing calisthenics and stretching at first base while Damon stands behind him and does the same preparing to pinch run.

8:20 pm- HJIJS $19.50 on two hot dogs and a beer.

8:24 pm- It is cold.

8:27 pm- Still cold.

8:32 pm- Both Wang and Bedard have settled into grooves. With this weather and the stuff these guys have, it is going to be a long night for the hitters.

Jason on his psychiatric rotation: “My psych rotation has been good. I love the psych floors. I do art. I play ping pong all day. It’s like camp.”

8:38 pm-I hate the wave. I truly believe the wave was started by two or three people that thought they were hilarious. People joined in without thinking, it quickly caught on, and before anybody realized it, the wave was a fixture at sporting events. The people that realized it was dumb were too late and too few in speaking out. Just like when Elaine saw the English Patient, too many people had bought into the hype and loved it, for her to actually show them that it sucked and that “sex in a tub doesn’t work.” I halfheartedly throw one hand in the air, as all those around me excitedly jump to their feet.

Wladimir Balentien puts a charge into a ball into deep left field that Matsui is able to track down.

Jason: “That’s what the wave does, the wave gets outs!!”

Karen (as the wave passes by us again): “I just couldn’t help myself. The wave took control of me!”

It is suggested that I title this article “Dumb and Dumber.”

8:42 pm- Jason mentions that we haven’t seen a double play from Wang tonight. I counter with the fact that there haven’t been many base runners. As our discussion concludes, Jamie Burke walks and Yuniesky Betancourt promptly raps into a 4-6-3 double play to end the top of the fifth. It is amazing how baseball consistently almost instantly provides moments that answer your basic questions and addresses your most inane thoughts.

8:50 pm- As the game has become official; we go through the process of counting down the regular season games that Yankee Stadium has left. Bobby Murcer flips some kind of switch and the Metlife.com billboard changes from 69 to 68 games left.

It’s funny how the loss of Yankee Stadium is almost analogous to what is going on throughout the league. I was fifteen in the summer of ’98, when McGwire and Sosa basically single handedly brought baseball back from the dead. I loved every minute of the chase of Maris’s 61 homeruns. My family gathered around the TV as that line drive screamed off McGwire’s bat and just cleared the left field wall in Busch Stadium. Between 2001 and 2004, I sat in awe of Bonds’s ridiculous run as one of the best hitters ever. Between the careful eye, the body armor on his right arm, and the vicious swing that had power to all fields, I felt I was watching one of the greatest displays of hitting ever. Around that same time, Clemens was putting up Cy Young numbers despite being over 40. Everyone knew something strange was going on, we just did not want to name it; because naming it might undo all the progress that had taken place since 1996. Now the Mitchell Report has named and defined that “something strange.” As baseball fans, we are in limbo. We don’t quite know what to do with the gaudy numbers and the Hall of Fame careers, because those legends of our time took steroids. So, we are kind glossing over recent history. We know that the whole era will have a proverbial asterisk next to it, and as a result, we are doing our best to look forward, and ignore the shadow cast over the previous decade.

How does this tie into Yankee Stadium? Well ultimately, these ball parks are physical connections to the past. When you step inside, you can feel the presence of those who came before, sat in those seats, and played on that field. By the beginning of next season, only Wrigley and Fenway will still be around. Baseball is slowly cutting ties to its past. Just like McGwire, Bonds, and Clemens, we will have our memories of their achievements, but there will be nothing physical to remind us of them. Only by mortgaging the past is baseball going to be able to succeed in the future, and that is a worrying prospect. But I digress…

8:56 pm-HJIJS $8.50 for beer. Ichiro flips an off speed and low two strike offering up the middle for a single. In my notepad, I write “Ichiro=good hitter.”

8:58 pm-Ichiro just stole second, stole third, and scored on a Raul Ibanez ground out to second. In my notepad, I draw an arrow to my previous entry and write “so good.”

9:08 pm- Wang (6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K) gives way to Farnsworth in the top of the seventh. The people in the seats behind me: “Kyle Farnsworth is the only pitcher in the Major Leagues that can give up a three-run homer to the leadoff hitter.”

9:14 pm- Farnsworth’s line: (1 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 K). I cringe every time he succeeds nowadays, because it brings Girardi that much closer to using Farnsworth in a big spot in August and September, which in turn brings us closer to Farnsworth allowing a penant changing homerun in August and September.

9:24 pm-JOBA!!! As Chamberlain trots out to the mound, the crowd comes alive. In just three short months, Joba has energized this fan base like nothing I have seen before. Jason removes his coat to show off an “In Joba we trust” T-shirt. Did I mention it is really cold?

9:38 pm-Joba pitches a scoreless eighth, facing four batters. Ichiro got another two strike hit. He is still really good.

9:48 pm- Jason leaves to meet up with his girlfriend. Karen and I move down to the lower level, which seems to be populated only by drunks and idiots. They chant “Boston sucks” and harass someone wearing a Red Sox hat that I am not sure is even there.

9:57 pm-Jose Molina hits a sac fly, making it 5-1 Yankees in the bottom of the eighth. The question now remains, is Rivera going to make an appearance?

9:58 pm-The first strains of “Enter Sandman” play over the loudspeaker. Those of us that have braved the last three hours of cold and wind get up and cheer. Ask any Yankee fan, there is no better feeling in baseball than being in the stands when Mariano Rivera enters the game. Simultaneously, you have a strong feeling that the game is about to end in the Yankees’ favor and that you are about to witness firsthand one of the best pitchers of all time do his thing. It is an incredible feeling of elation mixed with nostalgia and importance. You know you will be able to tell your kids and grandkids that you saw Mariano Rivera pitch.

10:06 pm-Rivera pitches a perfect ninth. Frank Sinatra sings “New York, New York” over the loudspeaker. Karen and I make our way to the 4 train, arrive at the front of the line, and are able to procure a seat as we make our way back downtown.

Overall, this is the kind of game you want to see when you go to a ball game. It was a well-pitched, tight match up, defined by timely hitting. As a fan, I got to see Joba and Mo, and more importantly, saw the Yankees come through when they got their opportunities. They took advantage of errors and did not leave a ton of runners on base. So, am I ready to push that panic button? Not just yet. Mussina pitches tonight, let’s see if they can string some wins together. To paraphrase Lou Brown, if you win a few in a row, “that’s called a winning streak.”