June 1st, 1993! Take Me Out to the Ocean!

Scorecard Memories - 1993
June 1st, 1993 (Take Me Out To The Ocean...)

Poring through old scorecards here. I will be doing this from time to time. I will post funny quotes from the past, and obscure factoids from these scorecards. Maybe this will conjure up some memories, maybe this will piss you off. I may even scan some of these, where you may see some of your own writing, or some crazy drunken scrawls.

First fact from this night - The "Take Me Out To The Ocean" song was actually penned on June 1st, 1993, obviously during a Yankee/Indian affair. It was actually titled "Ode To Indian"

This was the season following the spring training boat crash that killed Steve Olin and Tim Crews, of course, and in which Bobby Ojeda survived. Here are the original lyrics (which never really changed) as they appeared on that night 11 years ago.

Take Me Out To The Ocean
Take me out on the boat
Buy me a 6 pack and a bottle of booze
We'll hit the pier just like Olin and Crews

Drink drink drink till you're drunk
If you dont die its Ojeda! (suck my Peter!)
Cause its 1, 2 dead Indians
On the ole speedboat!

Song notes are scrawled on the back, and the lyrics are printed in their entirety on the front. While I obviously shared a heap of credit, the actual names of the lyricists is nowhere to be found.....where you there on 6/1/93?

Funny notes off the scorecard include a couple of us were stopped outside the gate and told to "leave our sodas outside" - we apparently sang Row Row Row Your Boat to the Indians which caused Indian rightfielder Wayne Kirby to inexplicably laugh, and someone cracked that "Indian Pitchers win the Die Young Award"

Yet another Indian boat crash joke was "Indians and drinking....who'd have ever thought?" And, as if the song we penned was not historical enough, this apparently was the night oldtime bleacher legend George was told to stop his act of banging on the seats at the top of the bleachers with his miniature bats....anyone who was out there back then would remember that as a regular (and very annoying) feature out in Section 39.

On to the game notes themself....Jose Mesa started for the Indians, against Mike Witt for the Yankees, making one of his rare starts (and he only lasted a full one-third of an inning here, as the Indians put up a 5 spot) - the Indians won 15-6, with Albert Belle cranking 2 bombs. The Yankees made 3 errors (Boggs, Spike Owen, and Randy Velarde, who was playing centerfield, and someone commented was playing out there like he was on rollerblades)

Kenny Lofton led off for the Indians, Dion James for the Yankees. After Lofton led off the 4th with a bunt hit I wrote "a bunt? hit like a man!" in the margin.

Jim Leyritz was batting cleanup for the Yankees, and hit a home run. Among the parade of relievers that came in for the Yankees was Neal Heaton, who I forgot was ever on the team and current bullpen coach Rich Monteleone.

Hope you enjoyed your first of many Scorecard Flashbacks!