August 2nd, 1993 - Toronto Blow Jays!

AUGUST 2nd, 1993 - Toronto at Yankees
Tensions rise between US and Canada!

Moving onward, we are now at August 2nd, 1993. The "Blow Jays" as we called them, were in town. I used to have a pin with a Blue Jay cartoon head on it, with the words "Toronto Blow Jays" around it. Problem was, when I would wear it, people could not read the writing from afar and thought for whatever reason I was wearing a Blue Jay pin. So, Yankee hat or shirt or not, I got too much heat and left the pin tacked up in the cube at work. Instead, as accoutrement to my dandy attire, Id wear my button with the cartoon pic of the Met logo turned sidways and stuck in a pile of poop.

I wish I could tack some wacky photos i have buried in an album here with just a wiggle of the nose - this particular shot from this day has me, Big Nose George, my friend Jamie from upstate who fell from the face of the Earth, and some other crazy guy that was out there whose name I could not recall nor do i particularly wish to.....one of them (George, methinks, he always seemed to have too much time on his hands) printed out these long computer paper streams that read "Blow Jays" on them, and we wore them draped over our clothes....we looked absolutely ridiculous. Sort of like when wind blows pages from a newspaper over a branch and they just wave around in the breeze, stuck there until the next gust comes by. The neon green shirt I was wearing underneath just added to the stunning melange.

To the scorecard! Well, this was a sad anniversary, of course. The Captain, Thurman Munson, passed away on that date 14 years before. I will never forget the very day he died, my Mom took me in a room and sat me down, explaining it to me like a family member left us. What a legacy he left. The Stadium did a nice video tribute to him that evening, which was duly noted. When I went to retrosheet.org for scoring info as I prepped this years later I noticed Munson was nicknamed "Tugboat, Squatty Body, and The Wall." I have only been able to confirm Tugboat, a name hoisted on him by Graig Nettles. I learned to check nicknames on retrosheet after current bleacher stalwart ViolentA started using "Willow" to identify Windmill-ie Randolph.

The fans certainly showed respect to Thurman, but not the Canadian National Anthem. This was the year deafening boos were ringing across country lines in regards to the Anthems. The Canadian Anthem was booed lustily, which resulted in measures and comments you will see in the next couple of scorecard installments. All Hell broke loose later on this homestand, stay tuned.

Thats not where it ended with Canada. "Kids In The Hall Suck!" was bandied about as well.

There seemed to be a lot of animosity in the air. Maybe hovering around first place was getting to us. BOX SEATS SUCK (DICK!) someone wrote. At 7:10 I noted that I "lit my first cigar" so I was a multiple cigar burner a game man back then. A "1st asshole alert" was posted on the card at 7:11PM, with no mention of the transgression to elicit the tag. 11 minutes later someone wrote "We got a party!" with a 7:22 attached. Devon White, in center, got a "Devo sucks, and he knows it!"

Not all sat well with the crowd. It was a total sausage factory out there, as someone wrote "saw more guys asses than Yankee runs" with a frowny face on the card. The infamous "Crapman" song, which is a favorite to this day, was sang lustily in the top of the 5th. This was simply the Batman song with Crapman superimposed, sung lustily whenever the vendor selling the big balloon bats and other gaudy distractions came ambling up.

Even with this there were moments of joy outside of the game action. "Eddie Layton playin' some bitchin' tunes" someone wrote. The sentiment seems to have turned, though, cause right under that someone wrote "shut the fucking music off!"

Seeing how many comments from others were on here (and a total lack of funny ones) I have to believe that I must have been deep into my cups. I did manage to write on the card that the D train won the Great Subway Race....was I so starved for material that i was scoring a cartoon race off the Stadium scoreboard?

No less than FIVE people got the boot from the box seats together in a mass ejection at some point. That was duly noted with some glee. There was yet another broken souveiner bat, there seemed to be one every day at this point, as someone named "John" broke his "already" in the bottom of the first. These broken bats only stopped when we were summarily told to not bring them in.

Kept a running tally on how many times we heard certain chants and ditties...."Horses Ass" was belted out 8 times over the course of the night, and ".....Takes It Up The Ass" tied things up late in the game, with 8 renditions of its own. Your lucky beneficiary of this fun song was one Joe Carter, who had plenty to say about the Yankee fans booing the Canadian anthem in the next couple of days. Carter also got a heartfelt "Fuck you, Carter.....fuck you!" from a rowdy patron.

I see "a non-midget would have had that one" written on here, and seeing Pat Kelly made the only error of the the game, yeah, it was probably directed at him.

Jim Abbott was on the mound for the Yankees, facing the fiery Todd Stottlemyre. A pitching duel, with an unhappy ending. The Jays took a 2-0 lead in the top of the 6th on a two-run homer from our friend Devon White, and upped it to an insurmountable 4-0 with 2 more in the top of the 9th before Abbott got the hook and Paul Assenmacher, making his second Yankee appearance after coming over from the Cubs, stopped the bleeding. Our other nemesis on the night, Joe Carter, had the two run dinger in the 9th, so the two guys we yelled at all night put one over on us in the end.

Stottlemyre hurled 7 scoreless innings before Danny Cox (written, of course, Cocks in the pitching line) came in to shut the door and notch a save. Did you know Cox was born in Northhampton, England? Nor did I.

Other luminaries in the Toronto lineup included Ed Sprague (who shares my birthday of July 25th) John Olerud, Tony Fernandez, and Pat Borders. Roberto Alomar started at second, but came out of the game in the first inning after striking out....as he was back in the lineup the next day I am figuring he must have been ejected for arguing the call (sure hope he did not spit at anyone) although there is no real explanation on the card.

The Yankees wasted 9 hits in getting shut out, with Boggs, Dion James, and Bernie all going 2-4. The Yankees started the first with back to back singles by Boggs and James but got nothing for thier efforts. Mike Stanley threw out Borders stealing.....no, I dont know why Borders was running either.

A VERY nice crowd for a Monday (43,304) and your umpires on the field were Joe Brinkman, Derryl Cousins, Rick Reed, and Drew Coble.

Thanks for reading!