July 25th, 1993! Birthday! Beers! THE Comeback!

JULY 25th, 1993
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! Mother of all comebacks! Beer!

Ah, my infamous birthday game, 1993. July 25th...I turned a whopping 25 years old that day, and what better place to ring it in than the vaunted Yankee Stadium, for an afternoon tilt against the Angels.

This game was a Sunday affair. Round this time I was a Saturday regular, there is no record of me attending the game the day before. Upon checking with a reliable source, I was "getting inebriated the day before" at Down the Hatch instead. Yay me!

This was THE COMEBACK GAME. Yankees were down 8-0 in the second inning, only to come back and win. But I get ahead of myself...

The scorecard is mainly full of a tribute to me. Not only did I headline it with "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME" I seemingly coaxed anyone who was out there to sign it for me. If you were there way back then, you may have signed this card. Looks like there is a "Bill Butler" and a "Mike Cornell" on here, as well as 3 autographs under the denomination "Upstate Yankee fans!" Bleacher Legend Captain Bob also took time to scrawl a birthday wish.

One dominating and interesting autograph, scrawled after the game and right in the middle over everything, was that of Yankee broadcaster and horsehead Michael Kay. I can just imagine how thrilled he must have been to autograph my scorecard outside after the game, considering how drunk I must have been. Hell, I dont even know how anyone could have possibly coaxed me around to the back near the players exit in the first place, a place I usually staunchly avoided, especially when there was more beer to be drank elsewhere.

I see I spilled yet another beer, my 3rd of the week. And this was "before the game." There was a "Shove those Hot Dogs up your ass...we want more beer" ditty or chant that sparked up to greet the hot dog sliner, and someone went as far as to yell "Punch the soda guy!" when he came ambling up.

Any of you yolks remember doing the Munsters song when Mike Gallego used to come to the plate for us? With dozens of people all on cue, it was a beautiful thing. It was in full effect that day - Hell, that may have been the day it started, as I dont recall it appearing on a scorecard before, or since, and I chose to mention it on this fine day.

The Angels blasted Melido Perez and Rich Monteleone for 8 runs in the 2nd (although Monteleone ended up righting the boat and hurled 4 more scoreless innings on the day)

In another funny note, my cousin Jim came to the game that day and sauntered in during the bottom of the 2nd, all grins and giggles. He happened to take a offhand look at the scoreboard and nearly choked. "Is that 8-0?????" he suttered in shock and awe.

The scorecard became a veritable mess as early as this crazy 2nd inning. Its peppered with mystery outs and items in the wrong place. Of course I was blamed as someone wrote, quite succinctly, "Tom fucked up the scorecard!"

Someone that looked like Spike Lee was out there, and someone yelled "hey, 'Do the Right Thing' and sit down, asshole!" Sometime in the 5th inning a "renegade bird" swooped down and scared the crap out of everybody. I used to enjoy that.

As it was my birthday, I made the famous Gang Bang song for the first time. Captain Bob threw me in there, that big galoot. An early "Wave Stops Here!" sign and chant made its appearance in the bleachers, and subsequently on the scorecard.

As for the game, after falling behind 8-0 in the top of the second, the Yankees came back with 1 in the 2nd, 2 in the 3rd, and 1 in the 4th, and it was now split in half. Luminary Hilly Hathaway was on the hill for the Angels, enjoying his second (and last) season in the majors. He got out of there after the 5th, still holding an 8-4 lead. On came Gene Nelson, and by the time he left it was 8-7. And that is where we stood rolling into the bottom of the 9th.

The 9th, on my scorecard, is unfortunately illegible. Someone was trying to write with a pen that had seen better days. Not only that, they were probably drunk cause it just can not be read. I do see an arrow to the margin noting "2 wild pitches" so it looks like Steve Frey, now manning the hill for the Angels, was having problems of his own.

I honestly dont remember the exact play that won the game, but I do remember talking about it for years later. I thought it was Pat Kelly all along...he did come in as a pinch-runner and later went 1-1 with an RBI, so lets say he got the hit. Of course I can check it all these years later on Baseballreference.com, but its more fun being legend to me. Mike Stanley had the only Yankee home run on the day, back in the 2nd inning.

There was a nice crowd out there on a day that was "too fucking hot!" - 50,429. After some of the paltry crowd totals I have thrown up on here from that season, it must have been quite the pain in the ass for us, so used to having a seat for our bag, and a row for our feet when we were still thin enough to lift them. Your arbiters for this Sunday afternoon affair were Tim Welke, Ed Hickox, the late and lamented Durwood Merrill, and John Hirschbeck.

Thanks for reading!