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!

Marlins 7 Mets 6

Saturday Afternoon
Shea Stadium
With Sujan and Paris

We got two free tickets as a gift from a parent in my class and bought the third for Sujan’s Orange County pal Paris from a friend of the aforementioned parent. A self described “old hippie”, she referred to me as a Stone Mets fan which should make old Stone Grooves across the nation rejoice.

Paris made Sujan’s day by surprising her with a stack of Kevin Elster (Sujan’s young girl crush) and Mookie Wilson cards. For one day at least, Dave N. had been supplanted in the giving of baseball cards award.

The Mets were on a recent hot streak that kept them right around .500 and within spitting distance of first place. They took a 5-2 7th inning lead which quickly evaporated on a 3 run Damion Easley pinch hit homerun off of Mike Stanton. Before the pitch, I said that I was going to leave if Easley hit a homerun. I should have, but I stuck it out through the cold rain. This was an ugly game to lose for the Mets. Too many bad pitches, too many stranded runners, too many mishaps.

In the bottom of the 9th, down by 2, the crowd was crying for returned big baby Armando Benitez. When Piazza hit his second homer of the game to lead off the inning, the fans could feel it. They’d seen enough Benitez implosions firsthand to know that another one was lurking right behind the corner. But, he retired the next three hitters and the Mets were done. Maybe this is the year Papi puts it all together for an entire season, postseason included. (No postseason chance after all for Papi Benitez.)

This was the second game in a week (in two different cities) where I was hassled in the men’s Room for wearing an Orioles cap. The bizarre aspect is that no one said a word to me (except cheers from other Orioles fans) when I wore the cap to the Yankees game in between the two National League games.

Fans across the country rejoice at yet another chance to ridicule the author.

Mets 7 Indians 2

Tuesday Night
Shea Stadium
With Alex B.

There is nothing better than going to a ballgame when school lets out for the year. Since I’ve been old enough to drive, I have tried to go to as many midweek night games as humanly possible to celebrate the coming of summer. There is a real relaxing feeling to it with the entire summer stretched out in front of me. Infinite possibilities. I love being a teacher and being on the same schedule that I’ve been on since pre-school. And who better to share the experience with than another teacher. We watched some baseball, drank some beer, and made fun of all the suckers who had to work the next day.

Steve Traschel continued to pitch well, the Mets’ bats woke up after the firing of hitting coach Denny Walling, and the climb back to .500 continued. All was right with the world.

Hey, it wasn't my fault that Jason Phillips blows!

I spent the majority of a few innings trying to figure out how to make my brand new cell phone work.

Reds 6 Mets 2

Thursday Afternoon
Shea Stadium
By my lonesome

Summer Dan in full effect! While you slobs had to go to work, I got to go watch two mediocre baseball teams battle it out! It was a beautiful relaxing day at the ballpark by myself. Glavine was sharp but his league leading ERA rose to 2.11. It was my first game seeing the oft-injured Reyes play this year and my first glimpse of the newly acquired Richard Hidalgo. The Mets had been playing well and were sitting at .500. A series win over the Reds would have been nice before heading to Yankee Stadium.

But, alas, a win was not in the cards. With the score tied at 2 with 2 outs in the 7th, Mike Cameron lost a routine Ken Griffey flyball in the sun. The ball dropped right next to him and three runs scored. That was it. I sat there with 23,000 others in a stunned incredulousness. Ugly! The last time I saw a crowd so deflated after one swing of the bat in the middle of a game like that was back in the early 90’s when a Ken Griffey grand slam put the Orioles away. Man, Griffey sure knows how to clear a crowd out!

Most interesting development: During that awful Toby Keith (go to hell if you’re not a God Fearing American!) song that Mike Stanton likes to warm up to, a fan behind me stood up and yelled, “I was there on 9/11, I served in Afghanistan, I love my country, but I’m fed up with what’s going on right now!” The whole section broke into spontaneous cheering and applause. This made me hopeful that maybe Bush will indeed lose in November ( um… yeah) because Shea isn’t usually the most Blue State kind of place to be.

Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue