We never forget our first time!!!

April 15th, 1993
MY FIRST EVER DOCUMENTED BLEACHER REGULAR SEASON GAME!

Love me or hate me, I have made sort of a name for myself in that block of seats that has since upped and moved across the street. A heap of stories, capers, and antics. I (and many before and after me) will never be forgotten, and others are building their names right now. And it all had to start sometime...

In 1992 I hit a few games out there. As I touched on, around then I was intimidated by old school creatures like Big Nose George, Animal, or Queen Bee Tina and was nervous to even speak to them. Can you imagine? I sat there and kept my lip zipped. I never found any scorecards from the 1992 season, so I guess I was too busy trying to fit in to keep score. That, or gulping down beers off to the side.

I kept score during the Mayors Trophy Game in 1993, on April 4th. But my first regular season game - the first of nearly 600 games (Six-Freakin Hundred!) I have documented came 2 weeks later.....it was...

APRIL 15th, 1993

And, oh Christ, what an ending. Steve Howe and Steve Farr blew a FOUR RUN LEAD IN THE 9th and the Yankees fell 5-4. Holy fuck. This was the night the infamous "HOWE FARR can they hit it?" axiom was born forevermore.

First, the notes on the card. Not much happening here. I guess I was still finding my footing. I actually saw fit to write down that we were told to "stay off the seats" when we stood on them to do some such thing. And I even found it worthy to write down the time of the first pitch, quite the silly stat. Incidentally, it came at 7:36. Now we can breathe easy.

I noted that the weather was cool and foggy. When the Hell have you ever seen it foggy out there? I wrote that Brian McRae was "Daddy's Little Girl" . I noted that there was a "big fat guy in the box seats." Not much effort on my part there.....not even one fat joke. Can you imagine any of us jokesters simply writing "big fat guy in the box seats" on a scorecard today? Total lack of creativity, not even a simple "he's so fat he stepped on a dollar bill and made change."

I used to note EXACTLY where certain rhymes and ditties were sung...on this particular night "Horses Ass" was belted out with Felix Jose the unhappy beneficiary in right with Wade Boggs coming up in the bottom of the 7th and the Yankees up 3-0 at the time.

I "gave a star on the play" to what I termed as an "unbelievable leave his feet catch" by McRae on a liner by Pat Kelly in the 8th inning. This ended up being a HUGE play as it came with 2 outs and 2 men on, and would have plated some runs which the Yankees ended up truly needing. Then again who is to stay Howe and Farr would not have choked up a 6 run lead as easily as a 4 run lead?

THE GAME ITSELF

Jimmy Key manned the hill for the Yankees, and pitched an insane 8 innings of shutout ball. 3 hits, a walk, and 4 Ks. The Yankees had a fat 4-0 lead going into the 9th when Steve Howe ambled in to start the 9th. All was calm.

Howe promtly gave up a single to Wally Joyner, a double to Hubie Brooks of all people, and another double to Felix Jose who was probably still smarting from being called a Horses Ass in verse, which plated both runners and it was now 4-2. Here comes Farr, the idiot...

BANG! GONE! 2 run home run to tie the game by catcher Mike McFarlane. Holy crap, I will never forget the rage this instilled. Just like that it was tied, in mere minutes.

After a popup to the catcher Farr gave up 2 more singles, then got the second out on a fly ball from Greg Gagne (the scrawny shortstop and not the scrawny AWA wrestler). And then McRae, the bastard who made that catch to save those 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th notched an infield single that somehow scored the run to put the Royals ahead.

And I BROKE MY BAT. I had one of those stick souvinier bats, and I broke it at this point, as noted on the card. John Habyan of all people had to come in to notch the last out, the Yankees failed to score in the bottom of the 9th off of Royal closer Jeff Montgomery, and the game was history.

As Farr left the field to a barrage of boos, someone snarled "Joey Gasoline....Fireman of the Year!" and that made the card.

What pain. I am sure you all remember games that are somewhat similar. The fact that this was the FIRST regular season game I decided to score out there is sort of funny, when you think of it.

There were a whopping 14,091 fans in attendance..as I go through these I think I may find that this will be one of the lowest attendance figures I was ever a part of. I mean, holy crap, 14,091!! There were times more people than that were in front of me in the beer line behind the bleachers! Your umpires were Tim McClelland, Joe Brinkman, Derryl Cousins, and Rick Reed.

Thanks for reading, and check back here at The Tom Drum DAILY as I march through these like Sherman through Atlanta!