August 14th, 1993 - Im the I in Reggie!

August 14th, 1993
Reggie Jackson Day!

Ah, Reggie Jackson Day at the Stadium. Need I say more? Probably not, but its me, so off I go.

Oh boy was I drunk again. The scoresheet is splattered with seas of blue, smudgy ink...more on that in a minute. I know a bunch of people were looking forward to this scorecard when I first started putting these together, but I may be of little help to them, as I was a bit intoxicated. This scorecard is actually more full of fan autographs than anything else.

The Orioles - long known as the Blow-rioles on these cards were our foes on the field. Jesus, there are no less than 5 fan autographs on here...do you see your name? There is a John Nettles (?) and a Bill Butler (?) and a Jeff "Stig" something or another, and a Garry something.....I am pretty sure these are some of the yokes who spelled out R E G G I E on their chests, needing me to pinch-pose, but more on that later...

It was Joe Pagano's 20th birthday. He's 37 here in 2010...wonder what became of the yoke, he seems to have signed these scorecards an awful lot. On the card, in the slot next to "date" I put "none" - so what else was new.

Anyone remember "hot dog girl?" They seemingly grabbed some trollop out of a club and made her sell hot dogs at Yankee Stadium back then. "Hot Dog Girl has nice buns!" someone hollered. Someone signed "Hot Dog Girl" on the scorecard, but I cant imagine she would demean herself and do that in her own hand the way everyone was carrying on over her. "Take it off, hot dog!" was a popular refrain that day, as was "can I dump some mustard on you?" Someone even wrote in the left margin "I love hot dog girl" with a cartoon heart and everything.

There was a fan on hand that looked like Rollie Fingers, and he got a couple of "sit down, Rolaids fireman of the year!"

Someone pointed out that Fat Daddy Chico was the "Abdullah Butcher of the bleachers." I am shocked that comparison did not come up before then, and I have not heard it since. Both were indeed roly poly dark-skinned men who frightened children with all their bombard. It was noted that Cowbell Man Ali had a new hat, so you can tell there was not much going on out there in the wit department, for us to relay such trifling news.

Not many Reggie notes on here, which is a bit of a shame. The most poignant is a Naked Gun reference, in "I...must...kill....the Queen" Its funny that over the years this game constantly comes up in bleacher musings, but not much of it is recorded for public consumption.

But, if you were there, I am sure you would remember me starring as the "I" in REGGIE. I doffed my shirt, painted a big I on it (people could have taken shade under the curly-Q's at the ends of my I) and pranced around for all to see. There IS a picture of said incident, which is available for public viewing for a small donation to get more beer.

What happened was this....this group of drunkards came to the game, shirtless and spelling out REGGIE on their chests. They were thin, in pretty much all cases muscular, and very tan. For some reason "I" took a powder. It is not recorded if he was booted, cold, embarrassed, or what....I guess that is one of the bleachers many unsolved mysteries.

So they started asking around for someone to fill the prized "I" slot. Of course I hopped up, I was ever the ham, even with my shirt on. In the course of painting an "I" on my buddha belly, I made a mess with the ink. It is all over the scorecard for eternity, and I got it all over my jeans (and continued to wear them for the rest of the season, blue ink and all)

And there I was. From a distance it looked like a haystack in the middle of a series of fenceposts. The only pic, sad to say, is a closeup of me having too much fun....I believe I had a beer in one hand and a cigar in the other....if not, I know I was drinking and smoking cigars all game. Hell, we all were.

"Hit the beach Tom!" was a common bellow.

As for the game....when the first game note was "we're getting one of those fucked up lineups today" that is an ominous note. But the Yankees ended up notching a 4-2 win, with Paul ASSenmacher getting the W and Steve Farr actually notching a save, much to the amazement of the crowd on hand. We thought so little of Farr those days that I actually wrote an "afterthought" on the card...(I did this from time to time. I would pick up the scorecard later, either on the train home, in a bar, or from my apartment, and make a note) - well, this one was written at 1:57AM (what I was doing up at that time thinking of Steve Farr is a sad thought) and I wrote "we thought this game was FARR from over."

Seems like we were barring it up after the game, someone said the line, and being drunk I thought it was much funnier than it actually was, and NEEDED to write it down for posterity. 17 years later, aren't you happy I did?

I have to give us credit...even with the lack of jokes on here, there are NO MYSTERY OUTS. The keeper of the card did not miss one play! And the card was passed around for sure. Actually, the game log is the neatest thing on the scorecard.

Arthur Rhodes started for Baltimore, and only pitched into the 5th, when he was relieved by a man only identified as "Mystery Man????" - years later playing on baseballreference.com I can see we had the honor and the privelage of seeing Mark Williamson take the hill. Whoever wrote "mystery man" should be ashamed of themself, as this was Williamson's 6th year in the league.

Another interesting reliever came sauntering in for Baltimore that day, one John O'Donaghue. Now THAT sounds like a bleacher creature name. Anyway, we had met Mr. O'Donaghue sometime that weekend, over the outfield fence during BP. We were dropping the banter back and forth with one Ben McDonald (who is one of my favorite baseball players of all time, by the way - I have an autographed 8 X 10 framed on my baseball wall around the computer) and we see this no-name neophyte shagging some flies.

"Hey, Ben!" we say. "Who the fuck is that?" He tells us he is this new kid named O'Donaghue, and he rolls his eyes a bit as if to say "see him now, cause you'll never see him again." We ask Mr. McDonald to go grab the kid and bring him over so we can roast him on the proverbial spit. So he does, he goes on over, puts his arm around the kid, and brings him into the lions den. So we were able to give Mr. O'Donaghue a bit of baseball experience I would hazard to say he still has in his treasure trove of baseball memories.

He did go one and done in 1993 - his only year in the majors. In 11 games (one start) he threw 19 innings, giving up 10 earned runs on 22 hits and 10 walks. He did strike out 16. Of course that day he pitched a scoreless inning and a third against the Yankees. I am happy to check out this card again, I remembered bandying with this guy, but I did not realize I had actually seen him pitch!

Speaking of nondescript, Domingo Jean started for the Yankees, and only went 5 innings himself. The only home run of the game was from Mike Devereux, in Jean's final inning. After the O's took a 2-0 lead in that frame, the Yankees stormed back for 2 of their own, then notched 2 the very next inning and locked it down, to send us home with a 4-2 win to celebrate.

The oddball Yankee lineup that was cited early in the day had Gallego leading off, followed by Randy Velarde. Then Mattingly, Tartabull, Stanley, BW, Leyritz, Spike Owen, and Patrick Kelly. Paul O'Neill did not start, he actually came in for Leyritz, who was in right. The Oriole lineup contained standouts such as Mark McLemore, who spent many more years annoying the fuck out of Yankee fans, and luminaries such as Chris Hoiles and Jeff Tackett, who was behind the dish. Jack Voight actually pinch-hit for Tackett, and walked. Leading off for Baltimore was "Brady's a Lady" Anderson, that dick. We got to see Harold Baines and Cal Ripken Jr on that day, along with baseball sage Harold Reynolds, playing second during his only season with the O's.

There were a whopping and whooping 52,598 on hand, and your umpires for the day were John Shulock, Tim Tschida, Jim Joyce, and Donald Denkinger.

Thanks for reading, tell a friend!

PS - I know there are no pregame festivity notations on here. I guess we were still outside drinking at that time!