2004 Baseball

Yankees 6 Orioles 5

Wednesday Night
Yankee Stadium
With Alex B, Chris M., and Matt

The Orioles looked so good after a half of an inning. Or I should say the Yankees looked so bad. Two errors (including the first of two in the game for Jeter) AND two should-have-been double play balls AND a wild pitch led to five Oriole runs. But with Eric Dubose on the mound, I was not confident.

Sheffield’s 3 run homer in the bottom of the inning started the O’s downfall. The Yankees chipped away and eventually took the lead. The Orioles put the tying run on 2nd with 2 outs in the 9th, but pinch hitter Jose Leon struck out looking on a 3-2 pitch (as I predicted) and that was that.

Alex has learned a lot about baseball over the past two years. He knows how evil the Yankees are and feels it his duty to go to Yankee Stadium to root against the Yankees. Sujan, Dave N, and Jamie are all boycotting Yankee Stadium, but not Mr. Bowles. His take:

I hate Yankee Stadium, I hate the Yankees. I am still learning the game but this much I know. I can certainly understand why good people boycott the place. The thought of buying stuff there and fuelling the Yankees’ greed really upsets me. But I will not boycott the place. Yankee Stadium needs me. It requires dissent. What would have happened to Hitler if we had all just turned away because we didn't like his views? Therefore going to Yankee Stadium is, for me, very much like WW2. I don't like it, it's intensely annoying (and loud) but I must go. Not often but often enough to root for the other team and generally bitch about the place. I think I'm going because of a sense of duty.

After the game, we ran into some subway trouble. As we entered Broadway-Lafayette on the D (but on the F side of the platform) our conductor kept announcing “You are on a D train. D as in dog. a D train!” After the doors closed, another person announced that we were on an F train that was making its last stop at the next station (an F stop, not a D stop). Moments later, a D train arrived on the other side of the platform. As its doors opened and closed, our train’s doors remained closed. As the D train across the platform left the station, our train’s doors remained closed.

Our train started up and sure enough ended at the next stop. When the doors opened, people were pissed off to say the least. Matt brushed us all aside with a demonic look on his face. He went charging out the train and along the platform on a mission. I asked Chris where Matt was heading. Chris responded, “He’s heading to yell at the conductor. I’ve seen that look in his eye before.”

She was on the other end of the platform, but the train was going nowhere anyway. It was an ugly scene. I thought there was going to be a riot with Matt leading the carnage. Instead, he just hit the window to get her attention, made the universal head pointing gesture of “You have rocks in your head” before spitting a tremendous loogie at her face. Fortunately for her, the seething hate-filled wad of spit could not melt the window and her face remained Army-Free. Easily one of the more exciting climaxes to a baseball filled evening in recent memory.

Please Army Don't Hurt 'Em!

Posted by dan at June 2, 2004 06:59 PM