6/1 Sunday afternoon, Camden Yards
Mariners 11 Orioles 8 In attendance- Dad
It was at this game that I convinced my dad to come visit New York City again - a city that he has despised since he left it as a three year old in 1947. The hustle and bustle, the dirtiness, the rudeness, the Yankees. He hates New York. But, somehow I convinced him. I enlisted a former Brooklyn cab driver from the 1970’s, now a Maryland resident who happened to be sitting right in front of us.
As far as the game goes, the Orioles 7-1 lead disappeared quickly. Bret Boone’s grand slam was the final nail.
6/2 Monday night, Yankee Stadium
Yankees 4 Orioles 3 In attendance- Mitch
The highlights of this game included teasing a third grader from my class about how bad the Yankees are when we sat with her family for an inning and being bought ice cream by the guy next to me. He wanted to buy ice cream for his kid from the waiter service, but he had to spend at least ten bucks so he ordered one up for me too. When I tried to give him money, he exclaimed, "I’m from Utah - it’s on me!"
6/8 Sunday afternoon, PNC Park
Pirates 5 Brewers 4 In attendance- Jack, Kara, Chris M., Mike Baldwin, Sarah, Meredith, Shawn, Marc, Jamie, Rich
A day after Kennywood glory, a bunch of us descended on the beautiful PNC Park in scenic Pittsburgh, PA. Jamie and I debated the merits of PNC versus Camden Yards. I can’t decide which one I like better, but Jamie is happy enjoying both and asks me why I must rank everything. Well, at least this year, I’m not ranking my games! That is a step in the right direction isn’t it? At one point, Kara offered me a cracker while I was pontificating on some sort of baseball minutiae. I thanked her for the cracker to which Rich (fresh off Posse Mucho glory and ready to be social) tells me that she was offering me food just to get me to shut the hell up. We’ve all missed you Rich!
Sarah was getting quite upset at her Brewers losing yet once again. At one point, a ball was called on a Brewer hitter which brought on a cascade of boos from the Pittsburgh faithful. Sarah admonished the crowd fairly loudly, "That’s a ball, bitches!!"
Chris and Mike were featured on the Jumbotron between innings drinking beer. God loves Yuengling. In the 7th inning, the Code Red man was making his rounds calling out for the last call for Code Red, last call for Code Red. He is at least ten rows away from me when he looks right at me points at my old school Orioles hat with the white front and caricature bird and asks plaintively, "Baltimore? Code Red?" To which I had to politely decline.
I’m happy to say that after an exhaustive search, PNC Park is home to the best Soft Serv ice cream in the major leagues two years in a row.*
* The sandwich with the french fries on it lost a little luster this time around due to general hangover related malaise. I still recommend getting the pickles ($1.00) though. Pickles are always good.
6/14 Friday night, Shea Stadium
Yankees 4 Mets 2 (10 innings) In attendance- Marc, Dad, Sarah
My dad attended his first non Baltimore game since Opening Day in Oakland 1979. That was a season that the A’s sold out the first game, but only drew 306,000 for the entire season. Actually, that might not be true but I’ll let one of my Baseball Prospectus type nerd friends do the research on that one for me.*
On the subway ride over, my dad expounded on his newfound dislike for Sir Cal Ripken. The game itself was bitterly cold and rainy. It felt more like mid-November rather than mid-June. Benitez gave up a late inning homer to make my dad feel right at home, Robin Ventura hit a game winning homer, the Mets couldn’t get the big hit when they had the winning run on third in the 9th. Typical Mets for 2002.
Highlight 1 - the guy who ran onto the field who made it all the way to the fence, tried to scale it, but was grabbed by a cop as he was on his way over. I’m not sure if he thought he’d be in the clear if he could just make it to the Pepsi Picnic Area where he could disappear into the crowd of freezing fans. It took four cops to pull him down from his grip on the outfield wall.
Highlight 2 - the guy in the NYPD hat in a yelling match with New York’s finest.
Highlight 3 - my dad’s response to Frank Sinatra Jr.’s version of "New York, New York" during the 7th inning stretch. Sinatra sang the line about wanting to be in a city that never sleeps to which my dad retorted, "Why would I want to live in a city that never sleeps? ……. I love to sleep!" Stone Groove is in the house!
* Dan is correct, as the Oakland As (note: no apostrophe for plurals please) drew only 306,763 fans for the season, which means they averaged around 3,000 per game after opening day. They finished a Devil Ray-esque 54-108, but you didn’t hear anyone trying to contract them now did you?
6/15 Saturday afternoon, Shea Stadium
Mets 8 Yankees 0 In attendance- Jamie
It is sad to say that if I was ranking my games this year, this would probably be number one. This was the heralded showdown between the Mets and Roger Clemens. All week, the questions swirled around New York about what would happen. Would the Mets throw at Clemens? Would Piazza take a swing at him? Would Clemens come up with some sort of phantom injury before the game to get out of it? Would anything happen? Some thought that Clemens had thrown at Barry Bonds the week before so he could get suspended and not have to face the Mets.
The Mets pitcher Shawn Estes tried to downplay what he was going to do. He said that he wasn’t even on the Mets in 2000 when all the bad blood got started.
The crowd was delirious with bloodlust* when Clemens stepped to the plate for the first time. It really was exciting to see what would happen. Estes’ first pitch missed Clemens’ butt by a wide mark. And that was it. Estes went on to strike him out and then pitch a masterful game. Clemens never got close to hitting Piazza who later in the game hit a homer off the Texas thug. Estes also hit a homer off Clemens. Even Clemens got into the action by legging out a double in his second at bat. All in all, it wasn’t the most exciting game, but for that one moment when Clemens stepped to the plate for the first time in the game, the tension was wonderful. Too bad Estes and the rest of the heartless Mets let a good opportunity go to use this game as a springboard to better things. After this game, Estes didn’t really do anything again and was traded two months later.
* Literally. If Clemens had been beaned in the head and died instantly people would have still wanted Piazza to disembowel his corpse with a bat. I seem to recall actual howling. The talk radio morons would go on to skewer Estes for letting his teammates down by not maiming Clemens in some way. Baseball – the thinking fan’s game.
6/22 Saturday night, Shea Stadium
Royals 5 Mets 1 In attendance- Me
Raul Ibanez began to heat up for the Royals this week.* Other than that, this day was more notable for other things. Darryl Kile was found dead in Chicago which I found out about after coming home from the Mermaid Parade which served as a bizarre interlude between parading T and A and the listless Mets. Also, Luis Castillo’s hitting streak disappointingly ended on this day at 35 games.
* Thereby single-handedly putting one of my fantasy teams into the money. Thanks Raul!
6/23 Sunday night, Keyspan Park
Cyclones vs. Ironbirds In attendance- Sarah, Marc, Mitch
The first Cyclones game of the year! If you haven’t made it out to a game in Coney Island yet, you are truly missing out. The Parachute drop, the beach, the amusement park are all enough to make this place amazing. But the crowd truly makes it. No Manhattanites here, no Williamsburg scenesters, no annoying New York types. Just Queens and Brooklyn folk. People who don’t like Staten Island. People that are fun to be around. Neighborhood loyalties are paramount here and it is one of the best places I can think to spend a summer evening.
This game was notable for being able to boo Cal Ripken’s vanity minor league team named after him (The Ironmen were taken) and featuring a mascot with a baby blue eye to ostensibly honor his mom (last I checked Cal has the same color eyes). Also, this Max Patinkin* type clown named Party Marty blew the official mascot Sammy the Seagull out of the water for fun and laughs.
Highlight of the game- the two umpires! The home plate umpire had some Lurch from "The Addams Family" like qualities. Huge shoulders, really tall, kinda intimidating. The other umpire reminded me of DJ Squalls- really tiny and runt like. When the two of them stood side by side for the National Anthem and God Bless America, it was truly a sight to behold. Check balgavy.com if you don’t believe me.
* The Clown Prince of Baseball’s name was Max Patkin. Mandy Patinkin on the other hand, is a cherished actor and singer whose versatility has allowed him to appear in such disparate material as "The Princess Bride", "Chicago Hope", "Evita", and A Frosted Mini-Wheats commercial.
