July 23rd! My bags on fire!

JULY 23rd, 1993
Mark Huttons vaunted debut!

Lets go to July 23rd, 1993. 2 days before my 25th birthday. Geez. (ok, do the math!)

Mark Hutton's debut! The lanky Australian who went on to a lifetime 9-7 record in 84 games (18 starts) in his 5 year career. A nifty 4.75 ERA too!

Australia was described on the scorecard as a place where "they eat a lot of Kiwi and stuff." I noted that a little kid was walking around with a tag on his hat...considering I saw about 10 people doing that years later as I was first writing this up in 2002 or so, I think he was a trendsetter for what is now a fad.

Apparently I was VERY drunk during this game. After all, it WAS a Friday game. A note in the margin that says "incomplete inning for TJ....drunk beyond belief!" is one hint. The way my writing was getting more difficult to decipher inning to inning is another. The totally impossible to read sentences on there make it quite obvious what was going on.

I seem to have wrote the lineups in a steady hand, so we know this was part of the golden era, when beer was on hand inside the bleachers and I would get progressively drunk, rather than have to pound outside and show up drunk due to the beer ban. Someone else's hand wrote "If you can read this you are lying" which may have been either directed at me, or anyone trying to read my gibberish in the middle innings.

The most telling part of my inebriated nature is this note - TJ PUKES HIS GUTS OUT IMMEDIATLY AFTER GAME! - this I remember and there may be a few of you who do as well. I remember holding it in, and the second the game ended I spewed right on the floor in front of me. I ended up doing this again a couple of years later when I was experimenting with chewing tobacco out there. Ah, peer pressure!

The game went fast. Officially, checking retrosheet.org, it ended in 2 hours and 22 minutes. "Outta Here Before 10!" is on the card, which means I must have pounded my beers pretty fast. These were the days of the 7:30 start. I forget where we were drinking before games back then....could have been inside the Stadium cause we did some serious heckling back then before games when beer was sold inside. I did write "3 Fosters" on the top margin....possibly sucked down in the early days of our Yancey Park excursions on the other side of 161st, or even outside the Stadium against the wall. Jesus, I hope that is not all it took to get me this drunk, 3 Fosters.

"This game is going faster than a car thief in Newark" was a line in which variations of have appeared throughout the wildest years in Section 39 over the next decade that was broken out here. The top of the 6th was noted as being at 8:48....during a game that started at 7:30!! Its like someone pressed the FF button and it got stuck.

Ah, another note regarding "self inflicted cigar ashes in TJs beer!" - this was the cigar era when there would be 40 people peppered around Section 39 and 20 of them would be smoking cigars from that store that is still on the corner, although purchases can no longer be bought and burned inside Stadium confines. I remember clearly Tina "the Queen Bee" ambling up there one night, looking at all of us with smoking cigars clenched between our teeth, and snarling to the guy that started that trend, "Cigars??? What the Hell did you start here, Dave!"

Ah, heres another funny note about my drinking which is scrawled with an arrow to the 7th inning....."TJ SET HIS BAG ON FIRE!" - I believe that was due to dropping cigar ash on cheap vinyl Yankee bag. Yay me!

With Tim Salmon in right, the infamous "Salmon's Mom smells like fish" line made an appearance. We also used "Salmon does Curtis and Pees on Snow" referring to Tim, Chad, and J.T, of course. Thats some original work right there.

A bunch of fans autographed this scorecard. Remember, this was a gimmick I seem to have been running around this time. Under one autograph (a Victor something) is the description "I got hurt at Yankee Stadium!" I have no idea what happened there. I hope I didnt hurt him! Possibly burned by one of those cigars out there...And under a choppily written sig that looks like "Kenny" is the description "a real cool 5 year old!" I hope this lad lived to carry on this lunacy! And this happens to be the game where Dennis R., who has been mentioned on here already, signed his autograph. Worth money, surely!

And the most special one of all - Ali Ramirez signed the scorecard. The original cowbell man, who sadly passed away in 1996. Beloved, and revered, to this day. And underneath he simply wrote "cowbell" as if anyone would forget...

Some game notes. Mr. Hutton won his debut with a splendid pitching performance...8 innings of 3 hit ball. 2 runs, 4 walks, and 5 K's. I got this off retrosheet and not my messy scoresheet, as the person replacing me due to inebriation on my part did not compile the pitching stats and there are times where the factoids are impossible to read clearly. Amazingly enough there does not appear to be ONE mystery out the whole game. That means whoever was in charge of the card somehow missed only ONE play...there have been times over 20 plays were missed due to distraction at the time! The losing pitcher in this 5-2 Yankee win was one Mark Langston.

Luis Polonia led off for the Angels, and the infamous Torey Lovullo manned second. Mike Stanley hit the games only home run, and Steve "How Farr Will He Hit It" got the save for the Yankees with a shockingly uneventful 9th. Someone actually did write "3 up and 3 down for Farr? I cant fucking believe it!"

There were 25,989 on hand (someone probably predicted 25,982 in Chicos attendance pool and somehow lost) and your umpires were the late Durwood Merrill, John Hirschbeck, Tim Welke, and Ed Hickox.

Thanks for reading!