May 5th, 1995 - Yankees host the Red Sox
Tina on the warpath
Well, back in business. The regular umpires were back on the job after a squabble with MLB, so no more Mike Riggers, Joe Padilla, Dick Jackson, and Terry Boveys. I had missed the middle 2 affairs constituting this 4 game set, probably nursing quite the headache from my first Yankee game in 9 months earlier in the week.
I knew this was going to be a funny one on the way up as someone stormed the mic hookup in the conductors booth on the subway train in and started chanting, "Boston sucks! Boston sucks!" I love NY. Once inside a friend of mine from home promptly dropped a home run ball during BP and spent the rest of the game muttering over it.
Lots of animosity during this game, set to a backdrop of weepy rain. "ooooh, pretty rain" someone sarcastically cracked as I tried frantically to keep the scorecard dry. "We need Moses to part the infield. " someone else cracked. I go downstairs to wring out and people were washing their muddy hands in the water fountains, of all places.
Some interesting times are marked for posterity, including "guy hit a woman - 7:52." Again, I love NY. I marked the first Sox fan sighting at 6:52, which is actually kind of late as I was in for BP, and old Ali's first cowbell 3 minutes later at 6:55...well over 30 minutes before the first pitch. Crowd would get fired up early in them there days.
Queen Bee Tina was on one of her rampages. What initially piqued her ire was a bucketful of condoms that had made its way out there, and condom balloons were floating lazily around in between the raindrops. Tina was absolutely beside herself, trying to pull them out of the air to pop them. She managed to corral one and pop it, and was met with chants of "Virgin!" and "Asshole!" for her harried efforts.
She also took umbrage at the wave, rightfully so! A group of yahoos dotting the small crowd of 18,994 were enjoying the stylings of a wave creeping through the area a bit too much, and Tina stomped down to their row and screamed, "we don't do the wave here, faggots!" Oh, was she on on this night. I also have her marked as getting into a fight with a guy that got really ugly...as she was in his face the guys friend grabbed her from behind, and she was ready to flash dukes with him. Security ambled over and took the 2 guys out, another small victory for Tina, who always (and still does) had the run of the place.
I was having problems of my own. "Queen Latifah" on security was convinced I had snuck beer in...no remembrance if I did or not, but i mentioned on here she was on my case, and I was summarily warned and consistently eyeballed.
This was the game I still cite, where we cracked on a poor old man who walked in sluglike fashion up the ramp to our left, hooked a turn, and walked SLLLLLOOOWWWWLLLLY along the front of the section. "They need to stamp a yellow triangle on his back." someone mused as he hobbled along. "Sir, your blinker has been on since you left the ramp!" I hollered after him as he was close to his destination 30 feet after the turn. "Hey, the speed limit is 5, pick it up!" someone else cracked.
There was a vicious, violent fight up there that night. Some guy in a Nebraska sweatshirt went to town and battered a couple of guys, including tossing some guy 4 seats southbound. He was tossed for his efforts, making muscle poses on the way out, and the crowd applauded. Later in the game "a junkie" also got the boot, and on the way out was hit with a "stay away from our schools!" command from the crowd.
But the funniest toss was a guy who kept standing by the rail that Milton commanded with his cowbell after he morphed into the bellkeep after Ali's tragic passing in 96, who was "doing a jig." He was very drunk, but I think it was the bad dancing and not the public intoxication that got him. At one point, he actually stumbled and fell while dancing, and Queen Latifah on security joined in with us and booed him. She then told him to find a seat and "never dance again." Sure enough a few innings later he "jigged again" and he was given the old heave-ho. As he had been singing as well, someone attributed his behavior to "one doo-dah, doo-dah too many."
The "Y R U GAY" song (sung to the infamous YMCA song) was not in full effect yet, as we subbed "Whiten IS Gay" for the main chorus of that old standard during this game at least. We were rabid, and we wanted beer, so much so that when a friendly and grinning soda vendor ambled up he was met with a "get your soda sellin' ass back in the kitchen." When a pack of idiots headed up the wrong aisle after a food run, they were kindly informed "the Goofy movie is filming over there."
During the 7th inning stretch some guy in our midst gave us a heads up and a "watch this" and while everyone was standing he spun towards the loge and whipped a tennis ball at the security guard leaning on the rail up there. "Boop" - it got him right off the back, and the crime was never bought to trial. A nice shot.
The only other notes of interest on here mention a Fat Daddy Chico lookalike that shared some space in 37 with his scamming doppleganger, and a nod to a discussion over how funny it would be if they could get a mime and a lady with a semaphone to stand by the rail and do the game for everyone.
Out on the field the Yankees went to 6-2 with a 5-3 win, coming back with 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th off old friends Lilliquist and Joel Johnston to grab it. The inning featured jacks off the bats of Paul O'Neill and Don Mattingly. Wade Boggs went 2-4, scored twice, and actually stole a base! Mattingly and Tony Fernandez also had 2 hits for the Yankees. The pinstripes had a lineup of LF Polonia, 3B Boggs, RF O'Neill, DH Tartabull, 1B Mattingly, C Stanley, CF BW, SS Fernandez, and 2B Pat Kelly. Melido Perez started and pitched a decent enough game, but the beneficiary of the late runs was Joltin' Joe Ausanio, and John Wetteland notched his 4th Yankee save.
As for the Sox, they only managed 6 hits, two from Mike Greenwell, with home runs from Ho-Mo Vaughn and Tim Naehring. They offered up a lineup of 2B Alicea, SS Valentin, 1B Vaughn, RF Whiten, LF Greenwell, C MacFarlane, DH Reggie Jefferson, 3B Naehring, and CF Lee Tinsley. The immortal Troy O'Leary, the Irish black guy, made a pinch-hitting appearance in the 9th. Erik Hanson started for the Sox, and after Lilliquist and Johnston blew the game Alejandro "Penis" aka Alejandro Pena wrapped up.
Todays player profile is scampy Lee Tinsley, who haunted the league from 93-97, wearing 3 different uni's in that time (Boston, Seattle, Philly) - a pesky sort, he snuck into 361 games and managed 870 at-bats, showing some true Punch and Judy statistics at the stick. Batted .241, with a whopping 13 home runs and 79 runs batted in. He had a modicum of speed, nailing 41 in his tenure, but he was also caught stealing 20 times. He also struck out a lot, 231 times, basically one in four trips to the dish. In this night in May, 95, we saw him go 1-4, complete with a whiff off of Melido. Born in 69, the native Kentuckian was a first round draft pick that did not pan out, for the A's in 1987. He actually made a leaderboard in 95...9th most "sacrifices" with 9. It was a joy to watch him play!
Again, a morbidly small crowd, especially for a Yankee/Sox affair. Your umpires, back on the job, were Vic Voltaggio, Dale Scott, Jim Joyce, and Jim McKean, and the game was played under damp conditions in 3:01.
Thanks for reading, yo!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
May 1st, 1995! Welcome back me! And scab umpires!
May 1st, 1995 - Yankees host Red Sucks
Welcome back me (along with 17,411 others...and scab umpires)
And now, ladies and gentlemen...welcome to 1995! Lets get to it, shall we.
Back in business, strike over. The heading, aptly enough, read "welcome back me." So much for welcoming back the returning players. Both the Yankees and the Sux came into this game at 3-1, and it was time to get back to business. I noted the game started at 7:30, and added a "Thank God" cause that meant an extra 30 minutes to drink cheaper beer outside the Stadium before first pitch.
Time for milestones. The first "Boston sucks" chant rang through at 6:42. 1st Crapman the vendor sighting was logged at 7:10. First Horse's Ass ditty, dedicated to Jose Canseco, was belted out at 7:40. The first fan ejection was at 8:05. The first command to "lose that tie!" was at 8:57.
I bought along a friend of mine named Eric who was pretty much in awe. "Truly unbelievable" he enthused after Captain Bob sang a long, rousing version of "Gang Bang." "My God" he said after spending $22 on one order of beer and food downstairs.
There was a faux "John Candy" sighting, and I queried aloud, "hey, did you take a plane, train and an automobile to get here?" Other faux celebs who were at the game included "Shaft", "Roc" from the Fox sitcom of the same name, "BB King", "Fernando Valenzeula", and "Cornelius from the Planet of the Apes". We loved our lookalikes out there in Section 39.
Replacement umps were on hand! In other words, SCUM-pires. "These umps could not call...their Mom" someone said. Handling this game was not the likes of Rocky Roe, Jim Joyce, and the late Durwood Merrill, instead we saw the work of Jeff Henrichs, Joe Caraco, Darryl Mason, and Larry Bialorucko. LOL.
Some guy fell down right there in our section. "I didnt see it...I heard it" I subsequently logged. In another spot on the scorecard I wrote "that guy fell down again." So we know while the beer was pricey, apparently it was good!
Some old favorites that hung around for another decade plus were appearing on here, way back in 1995. "Ho-Mo Vaughn" is here. "Thats a home run in a silo" accompanied a Jose Valentin popup to second. There was also a sing-song of "Eat A Salad" at someone fatter than us back then (though im sure most of us passed that person in good time)
At one point over the PA we heard that annoying song "Pop Muzik" - "holy shit, I have not heard that song in 12 years" someone mused. "There's a reason for that." was Erics retort.
The only other note on here worth mentioning is "sit down, you fu*k!" There were 4 MOs (mytery outs), and only 1 with the Yankees at bat (Tartabull in the 8th) so at least I was on point for the good guys.
The Yankees won 4-3 over their storied rivals, to take sole possession of first place! As I wrote on this card, "God Bless the Yankees!" Jimmy Key got the start and even though he hurled 7 strong, it was the end of 1994 all over again as he could not tally the win. The win actually went to our coked out friend Steve Howe, with John Wetteland notching his 3rd save as a Yankee. Paul O'Neill smacked the first Yankee Stadium home run of 95, while going 3-4. Danny Tartabull and Don Mattingly added 2 hits each, and the Yankees had 11 on the night.
For the Sux, Aaron Sele started but it was Derek Lilliquist that was tagged with the L. "Hard Hittin'" Mark Whiten had 2 hits for Boston, and Mike MacFarlane, in his first and only season with the team, had a 3 run clout off of Key. 8 of the 9 Sox in the starting lineup had hits, with only Vaughn showing a donut. On the hill Sele was followed by one Joel Johnston, Lilliquist, and one Jeff Pierce.
The Sox had a lineup of 2B Alicea, SS Valentin, DH Canseco (who did not even have to play the field to get a Horses Ass sung at him), 1B Vaughn, RF Whiten, LF Greenwell, C MacFarlane, 3B Naehring, and CF Lee Tinsley. The Yankees countered with LF Polonia, 3B Boggs, RF O'Neill, DH Tartabull, 1B Mattingly, C Leyritz, CF BW, SS Tony Fernandez in his first and only Yankee campaign, and 2B Pat Kelly.
I was going to profile Mr. Pierce, but his major league tenure lasted from April 26th of 95 to May 24th of 95, so lets go with Mr. Johnston instead. More renowned for what little body of work he had with the Royals and the Pirates, he managed to pitch in 4 games for Boston, and this was one of them.
What there was for his career stretched from 91-95, where he saw action in 59 games (zero starts) and escaped with a 3-5 record, with a 4.31 ERA in 85 innings. In that time he only gave up 66 hits, walking 37 and whiffing 61. His main problem is all that good came in 1 year, 1993. In 3 other seasons he showed ERAs of 13.60, 29.70, and 11.25. Boston released him on July 22nd. But on May 1st he pitched one perfect inning, striking out Kelly. Born in 1967, only 1 year my elder, and a product of Penn State, the guy who sponsored his page on baseball-reference.com when I first tallied this said, and I quote, "real nice guy, played softball against him after his MLB career. Hits a softball as hard as anyone I've ever seen. His stats were deserving of a better look at the MLB level but it didn't happen." - I am happy I saw him!
There were only 17,412 on hand, so people were not exactly flocking back. The game went on for 2 hours and 30 minutes and I already mentioned your goofy umps, but its funny enough to go through it again - they were Jeff Henrichs, Joe Caraco, Darryl Mason, and Larry Bialorucko.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy 1995!
Welcome back me (along with 17,411 others...and scab umpires)
And now, ladies and gentlemen...welcome to 1995! Lets get to it, shall we.
Back in business, strike over. The heading, aptly enough, read "welcome back me." So much for welcoming back the returning players. Both the Yankees and the Sux came into this game at 3-1, and it was time to get back to business. I noted the game started at 7:30, and added a "Thank God" cause that meant an extra 30 minutes to drink cheaper beer outside the Stadium before first pitch.
Time for milestones. The first "Boston sucks" chant rang through at 6:42. 1st Crapman the vendor sighting was logged at 7:10. First Horse's Ass ditty, dedicated to Jose Canseco, was belted out at 7:40. The first fan ejection was at 8:05. The first command to "lose that tie!" was at 8:57.
I bought along a friend of mine named Eric who was pretty much in awe. "Truly unbelievable" he enthused after Captain Bob sang a long, rousing version of "Gang Bang." "My God" he said after spending $22 on one order of beer and food downstairs.
There was a faux "John Candy" sighting, and I queried aloud, "hey, did you take a plane, train and an automobile to get here?" Other faux celebs who were at the game included "Shaft", "Roc" from the Fox sitcom of the same name, "BB King", "Fernando Valenzeula", and "Cornelius from the Planet of the Apes". We loved our lookalikes out there in Section 39.
Replacement umps were on hand! In other words, SCUM-pires. "These umps could not call...their Mom" someone said. Handling this game was not the likes of Rocky Roe, Jim Joyce, and the late Durwood Merrill, instead we saw the work of Jeff Henrichs, Joe Caraco, Darryl Mason, and Larry Bialorucko. LOL.
Some guy fell down right there in our section. "I didnt see it...I heard it" I subsequently logged. In another spot on the scorecard I wrote "that guy fell down again." So we know while the beer was pricey, apparently it was good!
Some old favorites that hung around for another decade plus were appearing on here, way back in 1995. "Ho-Mo Vaughn" is here. "Thats a home run in a silo" accompanied a Jose Valentin popup to second. There was also a sing-song of "Eat A Salad" at someone fatter than us back then (though im sure most of us passed that person in good time)
At one point over the PA we heard that annoying song "Pop Muzik" - "holy shit, I have not heard that song in 12 years" someone mused. "There's a reason for that." was Erics retort.
The only other note on here worth mentioning is "sit down, you fu*k!" There were 4 MOs (mytery outs), and only 1 with the Yankees at bat (Tartabull in the 8th) so at least I was on point for the good guys.
The Yankees won 4-3 over their storied rivals, to take sole possession of first place! As I wrote on this card, "God Bless the Yankees!" Jimmy Key got the start and even though he hurled 7 strong, it was the end of 1994 all over again as he could not tally the win. The win actually went to our coked out friend Steve Howe, with John Wetteland notching his 3rd save as a Yankee. Paul O'Neill smacked the first Yankee Stadium home run of 95, while going 3-4. Danny Tartabull and Don Mattingly added 2 hits each, and the Yankees had 11 on the night.
For the Sux, Aaron Sele started but it was Derek Lilliquist that was tagged with the L. "Hard Hittin'" Mark Whiten had 2 hits for Boston, and Mike MacFarlane, in his first and only season with the team, had a 3 run clout off of Key. 8 of the 9 Sox in the starting lineup had hits, with only Vaughn showing a donut. On the hill Sele was followed by one Joel Johnston, Lilliquist, and one Jeff Pierce.
The Sox had a lineup of 2B Alicea, SS Valentin, DH Canseco (who did not even have to play the field to get a Horses Ass sung at him), 1B Vaughn, RF Whiten, LF Greenwell, C MacFarlane, 3B Naehring, and CF Lee Tinsley. The Yankees countered with LF Polonia, 3B Boggs, RF O'Neill, DH Tartabull, 1B Mattingly, C Leyritz, CF BW, SS Tony Fernandez in his first and only Yankee campaign, and 2B Pat Kelly.
I was going to profile Mr. Pierce, but his major league tenure lasted from April 26th of 95 to May 24th of 95, so lets go with Mr. Johnston instead. More renowned for what little body of work he had with the Royals and the Pirates, he managed to pitch in 4 games for Boston, and this was one of them.
What there was for his career stretched from 91-95, where he saw action in 59 games (zero starts) and escaped with a 3-5 record, with a 4.31 ERA in 85 innings. In that time he only gave up 66 hits, walking 37 and whiffing 61. His main problem is all that good came in 1 year, 1993. In 3 other seasons he showed ERAs of 13.60, 29.70, and 11.25. Boston released him on July 22nd. But on May 1st he pitched one perfect inning, striking out Kelly. Born in 1967, only 1 year my elder, and a product of Penn State, the guy who sponsored his page on baseball-reference.com when I first tallied this said, and I quote, "real nice guy, played softball against him after his MLB career. Hits a softball as hard as anyone I've ever seen. His stats were deserving of a better look at the MLB level but it didn't happen." - I am happy I saw him!
There were only 17,412 on hand, so people were not exactly flocking back. The game went on for 2 hours and 30 minutes and I already mentioned your goofy umps, but its funny enough to go through it again - they were Jeff Henrichs, Joe Caraco, Darryl Mason, and Larry Bialorucko.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy 1995!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
August 9th, 1994! Our last game! We go out loud!
August 9th, 1994 - Yankees host the Orioles
Phil Rizzuto night....the re-scheduled one!
One last one, and its a wrap for 1994!
In a nod to the upcoming strike, the Yankees moved up the eagerly anticipated Phil Rizzuto Day slated for later in August, and made it into Phil Rizzuto night. Knowing what was ahead, I took the occassion as a reason to get sloshed. It was a somber night, even though it was supposed to be celebratory. The Yankees even paraded out "My Life" from the Beatles, as they showed a clip melange of the inimitable "Scooter".
Quite a few dignataries were on hand. Frank Messer, who once read off recipes on the Yankee radio airwaves during a rain delay, was your Master of Ceremonies. Mel Allen, Joltin' Joe Dimaggio, and Enos "Country" Slaughter were there...it was like a parade of the soon-to-be dead. Representing the "still living in 2010" faction were Bill White, Rudy Guiliani, and via taped scoreboard message (and booed lustily upon introduction) Mario Cuomo. Meat Loaf also apparently had something to say on the scoreboard, and we laughed at how bad the dubbing appeared to be with the delays over the mic booming through the Stadium environs. That is what passed for fun with a strike hovering over us like the Sword of Damocles.
This is where Scooter broke down when awarded a meeting with the Pope, and Bill White gave him some sort of ring. Right underneath these notes I found time to scrawl, "no beer guy in 31 minutes" so you see where my priorities lie. Some woman representing the Baseball Hall of Fame paraded out on the field and was showered with "Show Your Tits!" chants from the bleachers.
"Our last game - we go out loud!" was how I headed this thing. Ali the old cowbell King, probably sour at the prospects of the strike and an early hibernation of the bell, played his "first and last bell" of the night at 8:27. Beyond that, this scorecard is a mess. I can not read just about anything on here. I mentioned that a pal named Dennis, in what was his swan-song (unbeknowenst to us at the time) sang "Blender" in the bottom of the 7th??? What the fu*k does that mean? Is that a Nirvana song or something?
A couple of celeb lookalikes were not treated well. "Down in front, "Bleacher Bill White!" was yelled. "Hey, Clarence Thomas, get the beer guy out here!" was another.
People were taking the Leroy Neiman collectors posters of Rizzuto and making them into nifty (and rather large) paper airplanes. They were flying about, and a few landed on the field. Bob Sheppard made an announcement to stop, and sure enough that was simply an invite for a fleet of more planes to sail to the field before he was even done with his first plea.
We sort of mailed it in for this one. Under "Caught Stealing" someone wrote "probably Polonia...but who cares." To the contrary, Polonia stole a base early on. In another case a player box has a groundout to short reported for an out, but an arrow leading out to the margin reads "I dont know, but he's on first..."
There is a mention here of a Broncos/49rs game, and a reference to Steve Young, but it is unreadable. What makes this possibly even more noteworthy is the autograph underneath by a fan at the game, and it looks like our friend Justin, who was a Bronco fan way back then, and a treasured friend of mine to this day. I am trying to confirm if this was indeed the first direct Justin reference on my cards, back there in August of 1994.
To show how stupid the idea of going out on strike was, and a tip and a nod towards Rizzuto, there was an incredibly whopping 50,000 plus on hand for a Tuesday night game. The Yankees dropped this game, but left the Stadium with an 8 game lead on the second place O's. Lots of good it did em!
Its fitting that Jim Abbott started, its long been a joke on here that every time I went to a game it seemed like he was on the mound. He pitched 5.2 sluggish innings, giving up 6 runs in that time, enough to tag the L on the Yankee ledger. The main foe was "Brady's a Lady" Anderson, who went 3-5 with 2 runs and 2 RBIs from the leadoff position. Cal Ripken Jr and Chris Hoiles also had a couple of hits for the birds from Baltimore. The O's proffered up a lineup of RF Anderson, LF Hammonds, 1B Raffy Palmiero, SS Ripken, 3B Leo Gomez, C Hoiles, DH Lonnie Smith (lol), and 2B Mark McLemore.
For the Yankees, they outhit the O's 10-9, with Bernie, Boggs, O'Neill and Stanley (the top 4 hitters) all getting 2 hits. Boggs connected for his 11th home run, off of starter Jamie Moyer, who still hasnt taken the hint and has not yet left the party. In some tragic irony Lee Smith, who cameoed for the Yankees the year before, nailed down the save for the bad guys after Moyer pitched 8 innings, giving up 5 runs. Moyer upped to 5-7, Abbott dropped to 9-8.
The final Yankee lineup for 1995 as far as I was concerned (there were still a couple of games left on the ledger) was CF BW, 3B Boggs, RF O'Neill, C Stanley, 1B Mattingly, DH Leyritz, LF GW, SS Gallego, and 2B Kelly. This card featured THIRTEEN mystery outs - too many to name them all - what a fu*king mess this is - this includes 3 straight mystery outs in the bottom of the Yankees second. What the Hell were we doing??
As mentioned, there were a whopping 50,070 on hand, to see a game that went a slogging 3:31. Your umpires on hand were Larry McCoy, Jim Evans, Derryl Cousins, and Rick Reed.
What the Hell, lets roll one last profile for 1994. Lets go with Leo Gomez, who came into baseball with such promise, but I believe ended up making most of his mark overseas when he fizzled out. A tenure that lasted from 1990-1996, he played in 611 games and could not nudge his lifetime average above .243. He did go yard 79 times, plating 259 runs. He finished his career with 4 stolen bases and 10 caught stealings, a pungent and apalling stat. In 1916 at-bats, he stuck out 399 times, and walked 255. Born in 1966, this Puerto Ricano was signed by the O's as an amateur free agent in 1995. Without researching, I believe he went on to Japan after one year with the Cubs and ended up hitting many a home run over there. I am happy to have seen him!
Hey, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed 1994. I think you know what is set to come in 1995...the regulars start appearing, some of them have still not left, and the "humor" steps up a notch. I also believe the material is even more "salty" as we tended to work blue. As for 1994, it was fun, unofficially I scored 28 games, finishing with a 16-12 record.
Cheers and beers!
Phil Rizzuto night....the re-scheduled one!
One last one, and its a wrap for 1994!
In a nod to the upcoming strike, the Yankees moved up the eagerly anticipated Phil Rizzuto Day slated for later in August, and made it into Phil Rizzuto night. Knowing what was ahead, I took the occassion as a reason to get sloshed. It was a somber night, even though it was supposed to be celebratory. The Yankees even paraded out "My Life" from the Beatles, as they showed a clip melange of the inimitable "Scooter".
Quite a few dignataries were on hand. Frank Messer, who once read off recipes on the Yankee radio airwaves during a rain delay, was your Master of Ceremonies. Mel Allen, Joltin' Joe Dimaggio, and Enos "Country" Slaughter were there...it was like a parade of the soon-to-be dead. Representing the "still living in 2010" faction were Bill White, Rudy Guiliani, and via taped scoreboard message (and booed lustily upon introduction) Mario Cuomo. Meat Loaf also apparently had something to say on the scoreboard, and we laughed at how bad the dubbing appeared to be with the delays over the mic booming through the Stadium environs. That is what passed for fun with a strike hovering over us like the Sword of Damocles.
This is where Scooter broke down when awarded a meeting with the Pope, and Bill White gave him some sort of ring. Right underneath these notes I found time to scrawl, "no beer guy in 31 minutes" so you see where my priorities lie. Some woman representing the Baseball Hall of Fame paraded out on the field and was showered with "Show Your Tits!" chants from the bleachers.
"Our last game - we go out loud!" was how I headed this thing. Ali the old cowbell King, probably sour at the prospects of the strike and an early hibernation of the bell, played his "first and last bell" of the night at 8:27. Beyond that, this scorecard is a mess. I can not read just about anything on here. I mentioned that a pal named Dennis, in what was his swan-song (unbeknowenst to us at the time) sang "Blender" in the bottom of the 7th??? What the fu*k does that mean? Is that a Nirvana song or something?
A couple of celeb lookalikes were not treated well. "Down in front, "Bleacher Bill White!" was yelled. "Hey, Clarence Thomas, get the beer guy out here!" was another.
People were taking the Leroy Neiman collectors posters of Rizzuto and making them into nifty (and rather large) paper airplanes. They were flying about, and a few landed on the field. Bob Sheppard made an announcement to stop, and sure enough that was simply an invite for a fleet of more planes to sail to the field before he was even done with his first plea.
We sort of mailed it in for this one. Under "Caught Stealing" someone wrote "probably Polonia...but who cares." To the contrary, Polonia stole a base early on. In another case a player box has a groundout to short reported for an out, but an arrow leading out to the margin reads "I dont know, but he's on first..."
There is a mention here of a Broncos/49rs game, and a reference to Steve Young, but it is unreadable. What makes this possibly even more noteworthy is the autograph underneath by a fan at the game, and it looks like our friend Justin, who was a Bronco fan way back then, and a treasured friend of mine to this day. I am trying to confirm if this was indeed the first direct Justin reference on my cards, back there in August of 1994.
To show how stupid the idea of going out on strike was, and a tip and a nod towards Rizzuto, there was an incredibly whopping 50,000 plus on hand for a Tuesday night game. The Yankees dropped this game, but left the Stadium with an 8 game lead on the second place O's. Lots of good it did em!
Its fitting that Jim Abbott started, its long been a joke on here that every time I went to a game it seemed like he was on the mound. He pitched 5.2 sluggish innings, giving up 6 runs in that time, enough to tag the L on the Yankee ledger. The main foe was "Brady's a Lady" Anderson, who went 3-5 with 2 runs and 2 RBIs from the leadoff position. Cal Ripken Jr and Chris Hoiles also had a couple of hits for the birds from Baltimore. The O's proffered up a lineup of RF Anderson, LF Hammonds, 1B Raffy Palmiero, SS Ripken, 3B Leo Gomez, C Hoiles, DH Lonnie Smith (lol), and 2B Mark McLemore.
For the Yankees, they outhit the O's 10-9, with Bernie, Boggs, O'Neill and Stanley (the top 4 hitters) all getting 2 hits. Boggs connected for his 11th home run, off of starter Jamie Moyer, who still hasnt taken the hint and has not yet left the party. In some tragic irony Lee Smith, who cameoed for the Yankees the year before, nailed down the save for the bad guys after Moyer pitched 8 innings, giving up 5 runs. Moyer upped to 5-7, Abbott dropped to 9-8.
The final Yankee lineup for 1995 as far as I was concerned (there were still a couple of games left on the ledger) was CF BW, 3B Boggs, RF O'Neill, C Stanley, 1B Mattingly, DH Leyritz, LF GW, SS Gallego, and 2B Kelly. This card featured THIRTEEN mystery outs - too many to name them all - what a fu*king mess this is - this includes 3 straight mystery outs in the bottom of the Yankees second. What the Hell were we doing??
As mentioned, there were a whopping 50,070 on hand, to see a game that went a slogging 3:31. Your umpires on hand were Larry McCoy, Jim Evans, Derryl Cousins, and Rick Reed.
What the Hell, lets roll one last profile for 1994. Lets go with Leo Gomez, who came into baseball with such promise, but I believe ended up making most of his mark overseas when he fizzled out. A tenure that lasted from 1990-1996, he played in 611 games and could not nudge his lifetime average above .243. He did go yard 79 times, plating 259 runs. He finished his career with 4 stolen bases and 10 caught stealings, a pungent and apalling stat. In 1916 at-bats, he stuck out 399 times, and walked 255. Born in 1966, this Puerto Ricano was signed by the O's as an amateur free agent in 1995. Without researching, I believe he went on to Japan after one year with the Cubs and ended up hitting many a home run over there. I am happy to have seen him!
Hey, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed 1994. I think you know what is set to come in 1995...the regulars start appearing, some of them have still not left, and the "humor" steps up a notch. I also believe the material is even more "salty" as we tended to work blue. As for 1994, it was fun, unofficially I scored 28 games, finishing with a 16-12 record.
Cheers and beers!
Monday, September 27, 2010
July 26th, 1994! The Morning After, and the Strike Beckons!
July 26th, 1994...Yankees host the Red Sox
"what the fu*k you want, you Brady Bunch asshole!"
Ah, the day after my 26th birthday. Do the math. By my shaky scrawl on here, and the fact I wrote "the day after" in dramatic fashion, this is one of those days I would have been better off staying home, but showed up just to show everyone I was indeed still alive and survived another birthday. And every time I did, someone lost money.
As we settled in for the night we saw what appeared to be a bodybuilder sort from the box seats arging with someone in bleacher section 37. When the banter got heated and we were really egging it on, the guy pulled offf his shirt and started making Hulk Hogan poses out in box seat. Um..he was no bodybuilder. "How bout that." someone said. "Muscular to fat in seconds."
Speaking of fat, Fat Daddy Chico was peddling his sketchy home run and attendance pools when he was officially noted by a representive from our section, "Chico, you have just been declared the 6th borough of New York City. Congratulations."
Around this time Chico was under heavy artillery fire for all his scamming. It usually revolved around his collecting for the home run pool, and not returning the money when there were no Yankee taters on the day. It was never actually explained but apparently that was part of the deal. On top of that, we speculated that his shady pools that kept him rolling in pizza dough went back to the Polo Grounds, when he would sucker middle aged men out of their derby hats. Even Queen Bee Tina was mad at him on this Tuesday night, grousing repeatedly. "Hey Chico, even Tartabull wants his money back from you!" someone that was shorted hollered.
But tonight the controversy stemmed from Chico once again winning his own attendance pool. He always managed to pull that one - its a wonder people simply did not take the list from him once he wrote it and monitor things their own selves or at least note Chico's pick, but the past is the past. After the attendance was announced and word of Chico's victory in his own pool made the rounds, it was on. "You fat thief!" someone screamed. "Give us your money back...you eat like a pig!" someone else hollered.
There were a few of the regular tally of dopes walking around on that evening. This was back in the day where Boston fans were ready and willing to fight us, as we did not have much of a gang out there and sometimes it was US that were outnumbered. In fact, when some thimble of a Yankee fan gave a Sox fan heat while he strolled up the steps, the Red Sox fan barked, "what the fu*k you want, you Brady Bunch asshole!"
Some girl was trying to eat a hot dog in peace and my friend Brian was watching in the perverted sense. "Oh yeah...eat that hot dog. Ohhh boy." he slobbered and gushed. While this was going on I observed "my beer smells."
Someone was wearing some sort of funny hat and I snapped off "nice hat" and this guy Dennis jumped in and added, "that's not a hat, that's a lamp." Dennis had come in late, while the Yankees were enjoying a 5 run first inning. Of course the second he walked in Pat Kelly grounded out to second to end it.
We were chatting about what else was going on around the sports world, such as the Cosmos (lol) winning something big and the Mets losing the day before, as they were wont to do. "I didnt even see the Mets score since the paper moved them to the classifieds" someone mused. We also ate up some time discussing a fistfight that recently sparked on Phil Donahue's show that was in the news. We also recalled that when the Yankees got that last out and finally won that 78 playoff game, they had 9 white guys on the actual field of play.
We heard it being bandied that it was some girls birthday out there and someone actually turned around to her and said loud enough for just about everyone to hear, "Happy birthday, dear fat girl." "Hey, check it out" someone pointed out, "the evil scientist from Bugs Bunny is here."
A Red Sox hat started flying around the section in the 5th....I missed it as I was in the bathroom getting rid of yet more beer. It ended up in some ejections. Security Saddam took the role of "upper deck spy" for the rest of the night, peering at us over the upper deck at regular intervals, chatting into his high-tech walkie-talkie as we laughed at him.
Through it all, only 2 "mos" - Ho-Mo Vaughn leading off the 5th inning, and Pat Kelly leading off the Yankees 6th. As you can see, getting back to business after the between-innings zany capers was the bane of my existence.
The game itself was pretty much a joke. The Yankees opened up a 5-0 lead after 1, but it was 5-4 by the time the bottom of the 4th rolled around. The Sox then threw up 4 of their own in the 6th, and another 2 in the 9th which rendered the Yankees own 2 in the bottom of that inning moot, and the final score was Boston 10, Yankees 7.
Jimmy Key was blasted again. He was sputtering around this point, 15-3 record and all. 11 hits in 5.1, 6 runs on the ledger. He also uncharacteristically walked 3. Xavier Hernandez came in "to close the 6th" and he was tattered. Everyones favorite, Joe Ausanio, came in to get racked around a bit, and it took that nerd Paul Gibson to stop the bleeding.
As for the bats, BW, Tartabull, Stanley and Leyritz all had 2 hits for the Yankees, and Gallego drove in 3 runs. Nokes had the only Yankee home run, a 2 run shot in the 9th off old friend Steve how "Farr" will they hit it. The Yankee lineup at the start read CF BW, 1B Mattingly, LF O'Neill, RF Tartball (who we called "cottage cheese arm" on this night) C Stanley, DH Leyritz, 3B Velarde (where the Hell was Boggs!!) SS Gallego, and 2B Kelly.
Vaughn went 4-5 for the Sox with 2 runs, 4 BI's, and a long jack off of X Hernandez. Tim Naehring (who went on to become a suit in various farm systems) hit a homer and drove in 2, and Damon Berryhill and Wes Chamberlin of all people also drove in a couple of runs. "Ugly Otis" Nixon played tablesetter in his pesky, annoying fashion, going 3-5 while hearing it from us all night. The Sox showed a lineup of CF Nixon, 2B Naehring, SS Valentin, 1B Vaughn, RF Brunansky, LF Greenwell, DH Chamberlin, 3B Scott Cooper, and C Berryhill.
Chris Nabholz actually started for Boston, and settled in after being torched for 5 in the first and got out of there after 5 with only those runs on the ledger. Following him on the Sox hill were one Chris Howard, Scotty Bankhead, Tony Fossas (who was 36 then and hung around forever afterwards), Steve Farr (in his last major league season) and Ken Ryan.
Ah, to profile. How bout Chris Howard? In 95 he actually got into 37 games, situational, managing 39 innings. Pitched well, marking down a 3.63 ERA in 95, and giving up no runs in a 1993 stint with the White Sox and a 1995 stint with the Rangers totalling another piddly 6 innings. All in all he threw 46 innings in the majors, to a sharp 3.13 ERA, walking 16 and striking out 22. I wonder what happened to him. I can tell you this - he was originally signed by the Yankees as an undrafted free agent in the year I graduated high school, 1986. On August 31st, 1995 he was swapped for a former "Scorecard Memory Profile" subject Jack Voight. Born in 65, he was a product of the University of Miami, who count Pat Burrell, Aubrey Huff, Mike Pagliarulo, and Jay Tessmer as some of their alum. Either way, I am proud to say I saw this guy pitch!
As for the night of the 26th (only one more card to go before the strike hit and 94 is in the books) 38,448 were on hand in the Bronx (Chico probably "came up with" 38,447 in the attendance pool) in a long 3:56 and your umpires on hand were the late Durwood Merrill, Mike Reilly, Tim Welke, and Joe Brinkman.
Thanks for reading yo!
"what the fu*k you want, you Brady Bunch asshole!"
Ah, the day after my 26th birthday. Do the math. By my shaky scrawl on here, and the fact I wrote "the day after" in dramatic fashion, this is one of those days I would have been better off staying home, but showed up just to show everyone I was indeed still alive and survived another birthday. And every time I did, someone lost money.
As we settled in for the night we saw what appeared to be a bodybuilder sort from the box seats arging with someone in bleacher section 37. When the banter got heated and we were really egging it on, the guy pulled offf his shirt and started making Hulk Hogan poses out in box seat. Um..he was no bodybuilder. "How bout that." someone said. "Muscular to fat in seconds."
Speaking of fat, Fat Daddy Chico was peddling his sketchy home run and attendance pools when he was officially noted by a representive from our section, "Chico, you have just been declared the 6th borough of New York City. Congratulations."
Around this time Chico was under heavy artillery fire for all his scamming. It usually revolved around his collecting for the home run pool, and not returning the money when there were no Yankee taters on the day. It was never actually explained but apparently that was part of the deal. On top of that, we speculated that his shady pools that kept him rolling in pizza dough went back to the Polo Grounds, when he would sucker middle aged men out of their derby hats. Even Queen Bee Tina was mad at him on this Tuesday night, grousing repeatedly. "Hey Chico, even Tartabull wants his money back from you!" someone that was shorted hollered.
But tonight the controversy stemmed from Chico once again winning his own attendance pool. He always managed to pull that one - its a wonder people simply did not take the list from him once he wrote it and monitor things their own selves or at least note Chico's pick, but the past is the past. After the attendance was announced and word of Chico's victory in his own pool made the rounds, it was on. "You fat thief!" someone screamed. "Give us your money back...you eat like a pig!" someone else hollered.
There were a few of the regular tally of dopes walking around on that evening. This was back in the day where Boston fans were ready and willing to fight us, as we did not have much of a gang out there and sometimes it was US that were outnumbered. In fact, when some thimble of a Yankee fan gave a Sox fan heat while he strolled up the steps, the Red Sox fan barked, "what the fu*k you want, you Brady Bunch asshole!"
Some girl was trying to eat a hot dog in peace and my friend Brian was watching in the perverted sense. "Oh yeah...eat that hot dog. Ohhh boy." he slobbered and gushed. While this was going on I observed "my beer smells."
Someone was wearing some sort of funny hat and I snapped off "nice hat" and this guy Dennis jumped in and added, "that's not a hat, that's a lamp." Dennis had come in late, while the Yankees were enjoying a 5 run first inning. Of course the second he walked in Pat Kelly grounded out to second to end it.
We were chatting about what else was going on around the sports world, such as the Cosmos (lol) winning something big and the Mets losing the day before, as they were wont to do. "I didnt even see the Mets score since the paper moved them to the classifieds" someone mused. We also ate up some time discussing a fistfight that recently sparked on Phil Donahue's show that was in the news. We also recalled that when the Yankees got that last out and finally won that 78 playoff game, they had 9 white guys on the actual field of play.
We heard it being bandied that it was some girls birthday out there and someone actually turned around to her and said loud enough for just about everyone to hear, "Happy birthday, dear fat girl." "Hey, check it out" someone pointed out, "the evil scientist from Bugs Bunny is here."
A Red Sox hat started flying around the section in the 5th....I missed it as I was in the bathroom getting rid of yet more beer. It ended up in some ejections. Security Saddam took the role of "upper deck spy" for the rest of the night, peering at us over the upper deck at regular intervals, chatting into his high-tech walkie-talkie as we laughed at him.
Through it all, only 2 "mos" - Ho-Mo Vaughn leading off the 5th inning, and Pat Kelly leading off the Yankees 6th. As you can see, getting back to business after the between-innings zany capers was the bane of my existence.
The game itself was pretty much a joke. The Yankees opened up a 5-0 lead after 1, but it was 5-4 by the time the bottom of the 4th rolled around. The Sox then threw up 4 of their own in the 6th, and another 2 in the 9th which rendered the Yankees own 2 in the bottom of that inning moot, and the final score was Boston 10, Yankees 7.
Jimmy Key was blasted again. He was sputtering around this point, 15-3 record and all. 11 hits in 5.1, 6 runs on the ledger. He also uncharacteristically walked 3. Xavier Hernandez came in "to close the 6th" and he was tattered. Everyones favorite, Joe Ausanio, came in to get racked around a bit, and it took that nerd Paul Gibson to stop the bleeding.
As for the bats, BW, Tartabull, Stanley and Leyritz all had 2 hits for the Yankees, and Gallego drove in 3 runs. Nokes had the only Yankee home run, a 2 run shot in the 9th off old friend Steve how "Farr" will they hit it. The Yankee lineup at the start read CF BW, 1B Mattingly, LF O'Neill, RF Tartball (who we called "cottage cheese arm" on this night) C Stanley, DH Leyritz, 3B Velarde (where the Hell was Boggs!!) SS Gallego, and 2B Kelly.
Vaughn went 4-5 for the Sox with 2 runs, 4 BI's, and a long jack off of X Hernandez. Tim Naehring (who went on to become a suit in various farm systems) hit a homer and drove in 2, and Damon Berryhill and Wes Chamberlin of all people also drove in a couple of runs. "Ugly Otis" Nixon played tablesetter in his pesky, annoying fashion, going 3-5 while hearing it from us all night. The Sox showed a lineup of CF Nixon, 2B Naehring, SS Valentin, 1B Vaughn, RF Brunansky, LF Greenwell, DH Chamberlin, 3B Scott Cooper, and C Berryhill.
Chris Nabholz actually started for Boston, and settled in after being torched for 5 in the first and got out of there after 5 with only those runs on the ledger. Following him on the Sox hill were one Chris Howard, Scotty Bankhead, Tony Fossas (who was 36 then and hung around forever afterwards), Steve Farr (in his last major league season) and Ken Ryan.
Ah, to profile. How bout Chris Howard? In 95 he actually got into 37 games, situational, managing 39 innings. Pitched well, marking down a 3.63 ERA in 95, and giving up no runs in a 1993 stint with the White Sox and a 1995 stint with the Rangers totalling another piddly 6 innings. All in all he threw 46 innings in the majors, to a sharp 3.13 ERA, walking 16 and striking out 22. I wonder what happened to him. I can tell you this - he was originally signed by the Yankees as an undrafted free agent in the year I graduated high school, 1986. On August 31st, 1995 he was swapped for a former "Scorecard Memory Profile" subject Jack Voight. Born in 65, he was a product of the University of Miami, who count Pat Burrell, Aubrey Huff, Mike Pagliarulo, and Jay Tessmer as some of their alum. Either way, I am proud to say I saw this guy pitch!
As for the night of the 26th (only one more card to go before the strike hit and 94 is in the books) 38,448 were on hand in the Bronx (Chico probably "came up with" 38,447 in the attendance pool) in a long 3:56 and your umpires on hand were the late Durwood Merrill, Mike Reilly, Tim Welke, and Joe Brinkman.
Thanks for reading yo!
Friday, September 24, 2010
July 8th, 1994 - Tom Tossed!
July 8th, 1994 - Yankees host the Angels
BFTs! $3.50 beers?
The idiot Angels were in town, and I was not long for this world. Yours truly got the boot for doing, well, not much of anything. More on that later.
Ah, another Friday night game. Security was in one of those moods from the get-go, and our barbs in their direction did not help quell matters. We had a penchant for making things worse. That evenings rent-a-cops looked particularly hapless during this particular evening, causing someone to ask aloud, "what, did WFAN run a contest to be a security guard for the night?" When security honcho Kathy, the woman that looked like TVs Roz the bailiff from TVs Night Court, strolled out shaking her head we chanted "Night Court! Night Court" at her and she stalked up the steps, waving her arms in menacing fashion while snarling, "start that again and I'll show you Night Court!"
Moving back to the business at hand, I remarked on Kevin Elster's demotion, waxing poetic by saying "Kevin Elster...you won. And the prize is a trip to Albany."
I dont really remember $3.50 beers, but I mentioned them on here twice. I said "paid $3.50 for a shot of beer" and "I bought a little $3.50 beer." Was this inside the Stadium? On sale for legal public consumption? Was it after I was tossed that I got these gems someone outside the Stadium walls? Or did I buy it out of a bathroom stall downstairs from some shifty sort like I used to buy my mini liquor bottles? How wacky is this. A bunch of us had O'Neill dartboard target signs and O'Neill actually hit a home run right into our cluster, and none of us had our signs up at the time. "I told you to keep the friggin' sign up" someone muttered in grumpy fashion, and I duly noted such.
It was a Friday and beer was flowing and our Yankees were playing but we still found the time to wonder why the subscription price to Yankee Magazine was the odd number of "$14.97." What the fu*k was with the .97?
Someone, dont ask me why, came up with the term "BFT." It appears more than once on here. We called Jim Edmonds a "BFT." We called Chad Curtis a "BFT" as well. I was sitting here wondering what the Hell that meant, and there it is in the lower left corner of the scorecard....BFT means "Butt Fu*king Team." Nice. We were also breaking out the old "Edmonds does Curtis, then pees on Snow!" gag for Jim, Chad, and JT.
Even back then we were asking elderly Asian men "don't you own the Mariners?" At some point Animal started belting out the Horses Ass ditty, but flubbed it. I gave myself credit for "picking it up" in mid-verse and saving the day.
Some sort of hokey contest went on where a fan of the game was announced, and they won a set of binoculars. First they showed the binoculars on the screen, and the fans booed. Then they showed the winner, and they booed louder.
Got to see Russ Davis' first major league hit, a single to center in the 2nd off of Brian Anderson. He was then promptly doubled off when he got caught wandering when Pat Kelly lined out to third. We even got to see Al Leiter's brother Mark make an appearance, always a treat. You have to hand it to me, by marking this it shows I knew what was important, and what was not. Fat Daddy Chico won his own home run pool, which was a common happening out there. The scammer!
Animal was "on" that night, not only butchering the simple stanzas of Friend of Mine, but partaking in a verbal altercation with "Night Court" Roz in the 8th, that led to me and others getting the boot along with him. She came storming up that inning with a scowl, and was obviously looking for someone. Animal pushed things along by standing up and asking "what, did Security Saddam send you?" That was all for him. She beckoned him over and out.
Then she started randomly chucking a few of us out. With another very scant crowd I had nothing but leg and elbow room. My Yankees duffel bag was taking up 2 seats to one side and I was on my own little island out there. I chuckled as she pointed at someone and said, "you, you're out." She swerved left and with another point said, "you....come on down. You're out of here." Then she looked right up at me, and I was doing absolutely nothing, cept maybe smirking. And she was like, "you, come on. You're gone."
I looked behind me and there was no one there. I could not understand what she was doing and why I was involved in it, but I went anyway. Wasn't my first time, and sure as Hell would not be my last time getting thrown out. I passed off the scorecard to someone who took care of the most of the rest of the game and bungled it pretty bad, and watched the end across the street in the comfortable surroundings of Greek Steve's eatery across the street.
Four mystery outs on here before my ejection in the 8th, one atrributed to a "discussion of the small crowds." Amazing I would take my eyes off the field for that. These "mo's" came for Mark Delesandro and Gary DiSarcina leading off the 8th for Cali, Randy Velarde in the Yankee 1st, and Stanley leading off the Yankee 2nd. Oh well.
As for the field of play, The Yankees squeaked out a 4-3 decision, with most of the action coming in the 9th when I was outside chugging a Fosters oil can at the Yankee Eatery. Going into the 9th the Yankees had a 2-0 lead, then Melido Perez, who had been absolutely sailed along, got into serious trouble. When he left and Steve Howe was done it was 3-2 Angels, with all the runs tacked on to Perez' ledger. The Yankees, however, came back for two runs and a walk-off victory on four hits off of Joe Grahe in the bottom of the frame and that was that. No pie thought. Bob Wickman got the gift victory after throwing .1 of an inning in the 9th, while giving up a hit of his own.
The Angels mustered a mere 6 hits on the night, offering up a lineup of CF Curtis, LF Rex Hudler (way to get busted with marijuana traveling as an Angel broadcaster down the line) RF Edmonds, DH Chili Davis, C Greg Myers, 2B Easley, 1B Snow, 3B Delesandro, and the SS DiSarcina. On the mound we saw Anderson, one Scott Lewis, Bob Patterson, Mark Leiter (for a third of an inning, anway) and the aforementioned Mr. Grahe. What a tickety-tack pitching crew.
The Yankees had Bernie leading off in CF, SS Velarde, 3B Boggs, DH Tartabull, C Stanley, RF O'Neill, 3B Russ Davis, 2B Kelly, and batting 9th the leftfielder Gerald Williams. O'Neill had 3 hits, including the home run, and BW had a pair. On the night the Yankees racked up 11 of them.
Lets hit up a profile, shall we? Mark Dalesandro seems as good a place to go as any. This is one of those guys that even after I read the name and check his stats, I dont really remember. An 18th round draft pick in 1990, his playing career stretched from 94-2001, with large holes in place of a few of those years.
He managed to see action in 5 different seasons in those 8 years. Just 79 games, and 129 at-bats. Way to represent! 3 homers, 17 RBIs, a .240 lifetime batting average. Actually stole a base in 1999 with Toronto, and walked only 3 times in his career. This guy, despite the fact that he caught, played third and the outfield, was as nondescript as they come. Born in 1968, he is my age, and a product of the U of Illinois, which also bought us Darrin Fletcher, Tom Haller (who is now dead), Scott Spezio, and Pope Don Pall! He actually got to play in ONE game as recently as 2001 for the White Sox, but did not even bat. Good evening, Mr. Dalesandro, wherever you are today!
As for the 8th of July, only 23,770 were on hand to see the Yankees, who were still rolling merrily along. Your umpires on hand for this 2:55 game were the honorable Mike Reilly, Tim Welke, Joe Brinkman, and the late Durwood Merrill.
Thanks for reading! Only 2 more games for 1994, and another year of scorecard memories is in the book! So stay on board, the best of the worst is yet to come.
BFTs! $3.50 beers?
The idiot Angels were in town, and I was not long for this world. Yours truly got the boot for doing, well, not much of anything. More on that later.
Ah, another Friday night game. Security was in one of those moods from the get-go, and our barbs in their direction did not help quell matters. We had a penchant for making things worse. That evenings rent-a-cops looked particularly hapless during this particular evening, causing someone to ask aloud, "what, did WFAN run a contest to be a security guard for the night?" When security honcho Kathy, the woman that looked like TVs Roz the bailiff from TVs Night Court, strolled out shaking her head we chanted "Night Court! Night Court" at her and she stalked up the steps, waving her arms in menacing fashion while snarling, "start that again and I'll show you Night Court!"
Moving back to the business at hand, I remarked on Kevin Elster's demotion, waxing poetic by saying "Kevin Elster...you won. And the prize is a trip to Albany."
I dont really remember $3.50 beers, but I mentioned them on here twice. I said "paid $3.50 for a shot of beer" and "I bought a little $3.50 beer." Was this inside the Stadium? On sale for legal public consumption? Was it after I was tossed that I got these gems someone outside the Stadium walls? Or did I buy it out of a bathroom stall downstairs from some shifty sort like I used to buy my mini liquor bottles? How wacky is this. A bunch of us had O'Neill dartboard target signs and O'Neill actually hit a home run right into our cluster, and none of us had our signs up at the time. "I told you to keep the friggin' sign up" someone muttered in grumpy fashion, and I duly noted such.
It was a Friday and beer was flowing and our Yankees were playing but we still found the time to wonder why the subscription price to Yankee Magazine was the odd number of "$14.97." What the fu*k was with the .97?
Someone, dont ask me why, came up with the term "BFT." It appears more than once on here. We called Jim Edmonds a "BFT." We called Chad Curtis a "BFT" as well. I was sitting here wondering what the Hell that meant, and there it is in the lower left corner of the scorecard....BFT means "Butt Fu*king Team." Nice. We were also breaking out the old "Edmonds does Curtis, then pees on Snow!" gag for Jim, Chad, and JT.
Even back then we were asking elderly Asian men "don't you own the Mariners?" At some point Animal started belting out the Horses Ass ditty, but flubbed it. I gave myself credit for "picking it up" in mid-verse and saving the day.
Some sort of hokey contest went on where a fan of the game was announced, and they won a set of binoculars. First they showed the binoculars on the screen, and the fans booed. Then they showed the winner, and they booed louder.
Got to see Russ Davis' first major league hit, a single to center in the 2nd off of Brian Anderson. He was then promptly doubled off when he got caught wandering when Pat Kelly lined out to third. We even got to see Al Leiter's brother Mark make an appearance, always a treat. You have to hand it to me, by marking this it shows I knew what was important, and what was not. Fat Daddy Chico won his own home run pool, which was a common happening out there. The scammer!
Animal was "on" that night, not only butchering the simple stanzas of Friend of Mine, but partaking in a verbal altercation with "Night Court" Roz in the 8th, that led to me and others getting the boot along with him. She came storming up that inning with a scowl, and was obviously looking for someone. Animal pushed things along by standing up and asking "what, did Security Saddam send you?" That was all for him. She beckoned him over and out.
Then she started randomly chucking a few of us out. With another very scant crowd I had nothing but leg and elbow room. My Yankees duffel bag was taking up 2 seats to one side and I was on my own little island out there. I chuckled as she pointed at someone and said, "you, you're out." She swerved left and with another point said, "you....come on down. You're out of here." Then she looked right up at me, and I was doing absolutely nothing, cept maybe smirking. And she was like, "you, come on. You're gone."
I looked behind me and there was no one there. I could not understand what she was doing and why I was involved in it, but I went anyway. Wasn't my first time, and sure as Hell would not be my last time getting thrown out. I passed off the scorecard to someone who took care of the most of the rest of the game and bungled it pretty bad, and watched the end across the street in the comfortable surroundings of Greek Steve's eatery across the street.
Four mystery outs on here before my ejection in the 8th, one atrributed to a "discussion of the small crowds." Amazing I would take my eyes off the field for that. These "mo's" came for Mark Delesandro and Gary DiSarcina leading off the 8th for Cali, Randy Velarde in the Yankee 1st, and Stanley leading off the Yankee 2nd. Oh well.
As for the field of play, The Yankees squeaked out a 4-3 decision, with most of the action coming in the 9th when I was outside chugging a Fosters oil can at the Yankee Eatery. Going into the 9th the Yankees had a 2-0 lead, then Melido Perez, who had been absolutely sailed along, got into serious trouble. When he left and Steve Howe was done it was 3-2 Angels, with all the runs tacked on to Perez' ledger. The Yankees, however, came back for two runs and a walk-off victory on four hits off of Joe Grahe in the bottom of the frame and that was that. No pie thought. Bob Wickman got the gift victory after throwing .1 of an inning in the 9th, while giving up a hit of his own.
The Angels mustered a mere 6 hits on the night, offering up a lineup of CF Curtis, LF Rex Hudler (way to get busted with marijuana traveling as an Angel broadcaster down the line) RF Edmonds, DH Chili Davis, C Greg Myers, 2B Easley, 1B Snow, 3B Delesandro, and the SS DiSarcina. On the mound we saw Anderson, one Scott Lewis, Bob Patterson, Mark Leiter (for a third of an inning, anway) and the aforementioned Mr. Grahe. What a tickety-tack pitching crew.
The Yankees had Bernie leading off in CF, SS Velarde, 3B Boggs, DH Tartabull, C Stanley, RF O'Neill, 3B Russ Davis, 2B Kelly, and batting 9th the leftfielder Gerald Williams. O'Neill had 3 hits, including the home run, and BW had a pair. On the night the Yankees racked up 11 of them.
Lets hit up a profile, shall we? Mark Dalesandro seems as good a place to go as any. This is one of those guys that even after I read the name and check his stats, I dont really remember. An 18th round draft pick in 1990, his playing career stretched from 94-2001, with large holes in place of a few of those years.
He managed to see action in 5 different seasons in those 8 years. Just 79 games, and 129 at-bats. Way to represent! 3 homers, 17 RBIs, a .240 lifetime batting average. Actually stole a base in 1999 with Toronto, and walked only 3 times in his career. This guy, despite the fact that he caught, played third and the outfield, was as nondescript as they come. Born in 1968, he is my age, and a product of the U of Illinois, which also bought us Darrin Fletcher, Tom Haller (who is now dead), Scott Spezio, and Pope Don Pall! He actually got to play in ONE game as recently as 2001 for the White Sox, but did not even bat. Good evening, Mr. Dalesandro, wherever you are today!
As for the 8th of July, only 23,770 were on hand to see the Yankees, who were still rolling merrily along. Your umpires on hand for this 2:55 game were the honorable Mike Reilly, Tim Welke, Joe Brinkman, and the late Durwood Merrill.
Thanks for reading! Only 2 more games for 1994, and another year of scorecard memories is in the book! So stay on board, the best of the worst is yet to come.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
July 6th, 1994 - Welcome Russ Davis!
July 6th, 1994 - Yankees host the A's
Yankees welcome 3000 kids! Lucky us!
One legend moves onward for the year in Kevin Elster, and another one comes in, in the form of Russ Davis, making his MLB debut on this day. My 26th game of 1994, and I was carrying a 14-11 record. It was fuc*ing hot and with the remnants of July 4th not to far in the rear-view mirror, it was painful to be out there. "Its hot as Hell...the Devil is positively evil." someone groused. "The sun is beating the crap out of us." someone else whined. And while this was going on, somewhere my future wife, unbeknowenst to me, celebrated a birthday.
I actually was there with a guy (Phillipe) and a girl (Lisa) from my employer at the time, a French mannequin company - this same Lisa ended up getting me fired not long after this by ratting on me after I threw plastic bricks from a window display in her direction during a work-related altercation.
Lisa especially was really dumb, it was her first baseball game ever - watching live, seeing in passing, or even hearing an account of. I know, unbelievable in a "Michael Kay has never eaten a condiment" sort of way. She watched Ali the original cowbell King riffing away on his bell and asked loud enough for everyone to hear, "when he dies, are they going to pass on the bell?" It was absurd. Sadly enough, Ali passed away less than 2 years later and yes, the bell did pass on to your friend and mine, "Mo Love" Milton.
There was announcement before the game that the Yankees were hosting THREE THOUSAND kids who won some sort of award. I remarked that that those 3000 were "about all that is here." We also noted that there were camps all over the place out there, like "30,000 of them." It never failed when someone was out there for the first time, it was all kids and camps and self-imposed G-rated humor and not THE "bleacher experience" at all.
It was such a cutesy crowd that on one trip up the steps Crapman the vendor actually sold THREE stuffed bears. I dont think he had sold 3 bears before, or has done so since. This whole transaction actually provoked a mystery out as I could not really believe I was seeing it. Later in the game he sold ANOTHER STUFFED BEAR, and a bat to boot. He was really raking it in, much to his surprise and ours.
There were the usual sights to see. Some yoke was wearing a Yankees shirt and an Orioles cap. Some idiot from a supermarket threw out the first pitch, and was booed. People were still bitching about the Gay Games being held at Yankee Stadium, with Animal bellowing "I dont want them here. Or Pink Floyd either!" I mentioned that some old people were just walking around aimlessly, unable to find their seats if they were even looking for them in the first place, or just being nosy old people.
As the game unfolded we were keeping a Kevin Elster watch. He came in 0-18 as a Yankee. He whiffed in the 3rd off of his old NY Mutt buddy Ron Darling, and was now 0-19. He then flied out to cap his 1994 Yankee campaign at 0-20. He was demoted shortly after only to return in 1995 to go 2-17 before being mercifully cut loose once and for all. Buck Showalter, keeping with the Mets Suck theme of the evening, sent Darryl Boston up to pinch-hit for him against Darling. In Darling, Elster, and Boston, talk about Dumb, Dumber, and Dumberest.
Not too much else on here. I figure I was hung over, and don't forget I was teaching baseball to a couple of people who forgot everything I said once we left and never thought of the game again. I mentioned that Matt Nokes "runs like a statue." I remarked that someone hit a "single off the wall" but did not divulge who or exactly how that unfolded. And when a fan ran onto the field at 9:59 I happened to be looking out towards the rightfield line for God knows what reason and actually saw him hop over the fence and begin his trek.
Only ONE mystery out on here! Fuckin A...stupid Crapman...it was his fault. It happened with Terry Steinbach up in the 4th.
Jim Abbott was on the mound again - he always was when I was in attendance, it seemed. He hurled a complete game but got an L hung on him (moving him to 7-6) as the A's waltzed out with a 4-2 decision. Darling (7-9) was the beneficiary, with help from Dave Leiper, Jim Acre, and the save from Dennis "Upper-Deck-ersly."
There was some funny business during the game. Rickey Henderson vehemently argued a called strike in the 3rd and was met with a crescendo of boos. Henderson later scored from first on a rip from Troy Neel in the 5th, smashing into Mike Stanley at the plate and knocking him out the game. The rest of the game saw a nice exchange of pleasantries from the bleacher denizens and the aforementioned Mr. Henderson. He was no longer welcome here.
The A's had home runs from Scott Brosius and Neel, who went 2-4 with 2 scored and 2 batted in. The A's only managed 5 hits off of Abbott but that was enough with those jacks thrown in. The A's proffered a lineup of CF Henderson, DH Neel, LF Berroa, RF Sierra, 1B McGwire, C Steinbach, 3B Brosius, SS Bordick, and Scott Hemond, usually a catcher, now playing 2B. Why they were moving a guy who just could not hit around the field was beyond me, and still is.
The Yankees had 11 hits and lost the game with their chintzy 1 run. O'Neill had 3 hits, and Polonia, Boggs, and Bernie all had 2. The Yankee lineup was Polonia, Boggs, O'Neill, Tartabull, Nokes 1B-C, BW, Stanley, Velarde, and Elster. With Nokes moving from first to catcher, Boggs moved across the diamond to play first base, and Russ Davis made his major league debut at third. He ended up going 0-3 with a whiff. I am happy I was there, and seeing Boggs man the first-sack was fun. Add Davis' debut to the list of Yankee major league debuts I was on hand for, from Sam Miletello to Mark Hutton, to Deion Sanders to Hideki Irabu....it goes on and on.
Here is your personal profile from this game. Lets go with strapping A's DH/1B Troy Neel. I liked Troy Neel. This was his swansong in the league, he only stuck around for 3 seasons (92-94) It sort of baffled me....he managed a .280 lifetime batting average, with 37 career home runs in 758 career at-bats. He did whiff a lot (177 times) and had little speed (5 lifetime steals) but he could hit and play first or the outfield, and I remember big things were projected for him. I have no idea what went wrong. Born in September of 65, he was a product of Texas A& M, a school that also bought us Chuck Knoblauch (who just threw one over your head), Casey Fossum, and speedy Jason Tyner.
As for the 6th of July, there were 26,211 on hand, and the game was played in 2:55. The umpires on hand were Matthew Winans, Jim McKean, Jim Joyce, and Ed Hickox.
Thanks for reading!
Yankees welcome 3000 kids! Lucky us!
One legend moves onward for the year in Kevin Elster, and another one comes in, in the form of Russ Davis, making his MLB debut on this day. My 26th game of 1994, and I was carrying a 14-11 record. It was fuc*ing hot and with the remnants of July 4th not to far in the rear-view mirror, it was painful to be out there. "Its hot as Hell...the Devil is positively evil." someone groused. "The sun is beating the crap out of us." someone else whined. And while this was going on, somewhere my future wife, unbeknowenst to me, celebrated a birthday.
I actually was there with a guy (Phillipe) and a girl (Lisa) from my employer at the time, a French mannequin company - this same Lisa ended up getting me fired not long after this by ratting on me after I threw plastic bricks from a window display in her direction during a work-related altercation.
Lisa especially was really dumb, it was her first baseball game ever - watching live, seeing in passing, or even hearing an account of. I know, unbelievable in a "Michael Kay has never eaten a condiment" sort of way. She watched Ali the original cowbell King riffing away on his bell and asked loud enough for everyone to hear, "when he dies, are they going to pass on the bell?" It was absurd. Sadly enough, Ali passed away less than 2 years later and yes, the bell did pass on to your friend and mine, "Mo Love" Milton.
There was announcement before the game that the Yankees were hosting THREE THOUSAND kids who won some sort of award. I remarked that that those 3000 were "about all that is here." We also noted that there were camps all over the place out there, like "30,000 of them." It never failed when someone was out there for the first time, it was all kids and camps and self-imposed G-rated humor and not THE "bleacher experience" at all.
It was such a cutesy crowd that on one trip up the steps Crapman the vendor actually sold THREE stuffed bears. I dont think he had sold 3 bears before, or has done so since. This whole transaction actually provoked a mystery out as I could not really believe I was seeing it. Later in the game he sold ANOTHER STUFFED BEAR, and a bat to boot. He was really raking it in, much to his surprise and ours.
There were the usual sights to see. Some yoke was wearing a Yankees shirt and an Orioles cap. Some idiot from a supermarket threw out the first pitch, and was booed. People were still bitching about the Gay Games being held at Yankee Stadium, with Animal bellowing "I dont want them here. Or Pink Floyd either!" I mentioned that some old people were just walking around aimlessly, unable to find their seats if they were even looking for them in the first place, or just being nosy old people.
As the game unfolded we were keeping a Kevin Elster watch. He came in 0-18 as a Yankee. He whiffed in the 3rd off of his old NY Mutt buddy Ron Darling, and was now 0-19. He then flied out to cap his 1994 Yankee campaign at 0-20. He was demoted shortly after only to return in 1995 to go 2-17 before being mercifully cut loose once and for all. Buck Showalter, keeping with the Mets Suck theme of the evening, sent Darryl Boston up to pinch-hit for him against Darling. In Darling, Elster, and Boston, talk about Dumb, Dumber, and Dumberest.
Not too much else on here. I figure I was hung over, and don't forget I was teaching baseball to a couple of people who forgot everything I said once we left and never thought of the game again. I mentioned that Matt Nokes "runs like a statue." I remarked that someone hit a "single off the wall" but did not divulge who or exactly how that unfolded. And when a fan ran onto the field at 9:59 I happened to be looking out towards the rightfield line for God knows what reason and actually saw him hop over the fence and begin his trek.
Only ONE mystery out on here! Fuckin A...stupid Crapman...it was his fault. It happened with Terry Steinbach up in the 4th.
Jim Abbott was on the mound again - he always was when I was in attendance, it seemed. He hurled a complete game but got an L hung on him (moving him to 7-6) as the A's waltzed out with a 4-2 decision. Darling (7-9) was the beneficiary, with help from Dave Leiper, Jim Acre, and the save from Dennis "Upper-Deck-ersly."
There was some funny business during the game. Rickey Henderson vehemently argued a called strike in the 3rd and was met with a crescendo of boos. Henderson later scored from first on a rip from Troy Neel in the 5th, smashing into Mike Stanley at the plate and knocking him out the game. The rest of the game saw a nice exchange of pleasantries from the bleacher denizens and the aforementioned Mr. Henderson. He was no longer welcome here.
The A's had home runs from Scott Brosius and Neel, who went 2-4 with 2 scored and 2 batted in. The A's only managed 5 hits off of Abbott but that was enough with those jacks thrown in. The A's proffered a lineup of CF Henderson, DH Neel, LF Berroa, RF Sierra, 1B McGwire, C Steinbach, 3B Brosius, SS Bordick, and Scott Hemond, usually a catcher, now playing 2B. Why they were moving a guy who just could not hit around the field was beyond me, and still is.
The Yankees had 11 hits and lost the game with their chintzy 1 run. O'Neill had 3 hits, and Polonia, Boggs, and Bernie all had 2. The Yankee lineup was Polonia, Boggs, O'Neill, Tartabull, Nokes 1B-C, BW, Stanley, Velarde, and Elster. With Nokes moving from first to catcher, Boggs moved across the diamond to play first base, and Russ Davis made his major league debut at third. He ended up going 0-3 with a whiff. I am happy I was there, and seeing Boggs man the first-sack was fun. Add Davis' debut to the list of Yankee major league debuts I was on hand for, from Sam Miletello to Mark Hutton, to Deion Sanders to Hideki Irabu....it goes on and on.
Here is your personal profile from this game. Lets go with strapping A's DH/1B Troy Neel. I liked Troy Neel. This was his swansong in the league, he only stuck around for 3 seasons (92-94) It sort of baffled me....he managed a .280 lifetime batting average, with 37 career home runs in 758 career at-bats. He did whiff a lot (177 times) and had little speed (5 lifetime steals) but he could hit and play first or the outfield, and I remember big things were projected for him. I have no idea what went wrong. Born in September of 65, he was a product of Texas A& M, a school that also bought us Chuck Knoblauch (who just threw one over your head), Casey Fossum, and speedy Jason Tyner.
As for the 6th of July, there were 26,211 on hand, and the game was played in 2:55. The umpires on hand were Matthew Winans, Jim McKean, Jim Joyce, and Ed Hickox.
Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
July 4th, 1994 - "It doesnt take a bloodhound to smell a scam"
Monday, July 4th, 1994 - Yankees host the A's
"Happy Birthday George Steinbrenner! Oh, and USA too!"
This was funny, and I can get the intro out of it. The day I first put together this Scorecard Memory, while shopping at Target with our daughter Emma, Dana got me a Beckett Baseball Card collectors tin. It contained 250 random baseball cards from all brands and any of the last 20 or so years for $20. It included a random MLB autographed card, a signed prospect card, and a "Graded 10 STAR" card (which turned out to be a special Greg Maddux card, numbered 4 of 6 - I rule)
Reason I bring this up is that oddly enough, as I pulled out this crinkly scorecard to continue forever onward on my scorecard memories, the winning pitcher that day was Oakland A-hole Steve Ontiveros, and the autographed major league card in my box that I opened up minutes before I set to work on this was...a 1987 Steve Ontiveros. As Mel Allen would say....how bout that!
Moving on from that...I used my old "more people at a 1928 high school reunion than here" gag at the top of this scorecard. The Yankees never drew on these July 4th games, despite all the fanfaronade surrounding the day. Under date, keeping with the theme, I wrote "beat the British", and perhaps thinking wistfully of where I would probably have seen more action then on another slow afternoon at the Stadium which saw the Yankees shut out, under 'played at' I put...the beach. The scant showing actually stirred me to call the overly-optimistically announced attendance of 22,021 "pathetic" and added that "no one's here but us."
That could not stop Robert Merrill, who was in a boisterous enough mood to preface his version of God Bless America with a sweeping wave of the arm and an "Everybody!" invite to join in before he started singing. "Nice to see him come out of his shell." I noted.
Fat Daddy Chico was working the small crowd, shilling his home run and attendance pools, and not having much luck. Howard the Lawyer aka Howard the "anti-comic" explained this away by saying, "It doesn't take a bloodhound to smell a scam." As he shuffled his way in front of the bleachers with a goofy grin on his face someone stood up, cupped their hands over their mouth and shouted "Chico's a crook!"
For some reason Ali, the old cowbell King, was sitting on his hands, I dont think the empty seats thrilled him so he was in no mood to clank tin. It got bad enough to where as he sat there in stoic fashion he was bombarded with a chant of "Ring the God-Damned bell! Ring the God-damned bell!" When that failed to stir him a pack of lads started hitting him with an "Ali's a Mets fan!" chant instead. At this Queen Bee Tina hopped up and snarled, "You want the bell? Shove it up your ass!"
The old-school Creatures were not in the mood for any nonsense. When a beachball started bouncing around in the 8th old hangdog Jeff grabbed it and put the poppin' to it, almost causing a riot. Some guy actually wanted to beat him up. 2 innings later, as the game was wrapping up in the 9th, Jeff was at it again. I mean, this guy could not beat an egg, and here he was raising dukes, causing my final mystery out of the afternoon. While all this was going on, an outraged Tina was hollering at a lot of the nitwits out there, and one of them barked back with the schoolyard favorite "Can I have some cheese with that whine?"
Seems I just hung out, kept out of it, and drank by all the crooked letters on this thing. I spent my time wisely, putting little cracks next to the A's player names on the card. Next to Stan Javier I snidely remarked "Julian was better!" (you old baseball fans getting that?) Next to McGwire I wrote "hit him in the ankle!". I also mentioned that Tina dismissed Brent Gates (who played 135 games the year before and was established as the A's starting second baseman by now) by waving her arm in disgust, giving him the old "pshaw" and snarling, "I've never heard of him."
There was a group of kids huddled together wearing purple shirts...looking at this now I suppose it was some camp or little league team or something. Whatever they were they were welcomed with a good old rousing "Purple takes it up the ass, doo-da, doo-da" serenade.
The highlight of the day for me was seeing Yankee Stadium stalwarts Fat Daddy Chico and Freddie Sez sharing the same table at Steve's Greek eatery across the street after the game, having a bite to eat, and not acknowledging one another in the least bit.
The Yankees did not escape the scorecard wisecracks either...after Elster flied out harmlessly to right in the 5th I remarked "thats as good as Elster's gonna be." Seeing he went 0-20 as a Yankee in 1994, I was not too far off, huh?
My mind was drifting. I actually missed a Troy Neel home run off the bat cause I was reading Joey Adams' column in the New York Post. I ended up with 5 "mo's" - all of them with the A's up at bat, so at least I was paying attention with the Yankees swinging the bats. If you can call getting shutout 4-0 "swinging the bats." Walkman John, here were my 5 mo's...Sierra in the 3rd, Bordick in the 4th, Gates in the 5th, Neel in the 8th, and Michelin Man McGwire to lead off the 9th.
Not much more here worth salvaging. I apologize. I just dont get some of the jokes...as I mentioned the Yankees put up the donut, getting shut out by the 35-45 Jokeland A's. The aforementioned Steve Ontiveros started and handled the first 6.1 before giving way to a cavalcade of relief help. Marc Acre, Dave Leiper, that yutz Billy Taylor, and Ed Vosberg finished the job. The Yankees ended up with a piddling 4 hits, and only Paul O'Neill worked out a walk. Nothing much happening on the pinstripe side of things...
The anemic display was put on by LF Polonia, 2B Velarde, 3B Boggs, DH Tartabull, RF O'Neill, C Matt Nokes, CF BW, first baseman Mike Stanley (lol - first base), and the aforementioned Kevin Elster at short. Dave Silvestri, who in time we found out went to his prom with MSG/FNC anchor Deb Kaufman as his date, pinch-hit and struck out for his efforts.
The A's banged out 11 hits, with Neel and McGwire hitting skyshots. Those two were also the only Oakland hitters to have 2 hits in the game. Scott Kamienieki started and was roughed up, before making way for Xavier Hernandez in the 7th (so much for the closing role), that nerd Paul Gibson, and none other than Greg Harris, making one of his only three appearances as a Yankee. He had been released by the Sox on June 27th, and only signed by the Yankees the day before. He worked an uneventful 1.1 innings. Good job, deek!
The A's fielded a lineup of LF Rickey Henderson, CF Javier, DH Neel, RF Ruben Sierra (taking LOTS of abuse from us), 1B McGwire, C Steinbach, 2B Gates ("Ive never heard of him!"), SS Mike Bored-dick, and usual catcher Scott Hemond at third. (he could not hit there either)
I suppose we will go with Mr. Ontiveros as our profile, autographed card and everything.... Logged time from 1985-2000, with a bunch of holes in there...he did not pitch on the major league level in 91, 92, or 96-99. I know he had some sick arm injuries along the way...but thats his problem, not ours, I suppose.
He pitched in 211 games in his career, 200 in the American League, mostly for Oakland, but he also had short stints in Seattle and Boston. He hurled in 11 games for Philadelphia in the National League in 89/90. Finished with a winning 34-31 mark and an impressive 3.67 ERA. Too good to be profiled in my jokey profiles, but the baseball card commanded it! He started 73 games, walking 207 and striking out 382 in 661 career innings. A 2nd round draft pick, he came out of the University of Michigan, a school that also bought us Jim Abbott, Steve Howe, Chris Sabo, and his foe on the mound that day, Scott Kamienieki. I will never forget him!
I mentioned the pittance of a crowd already...you would have thought that at least the game went by quickly so we could go on with whatever else we had planned that day - um, no...it took an Austin 3:16 to play this one, and your umpires on hand were Jim Joyce, Terry Craft, Ed Hickox, and Jim McKean.
Thanks for reading, yo!
"Happy Birthday George Steinbrenner! Oh, and USA too!"
This was funny, and I can get the intro out of it. The day I first put together this Scorecard Memory, while shopping at Target with our daughter Emma, Dana got me a Beckett Baseball Card collectors tin. It contained 250 random baseball cards from all brands and any of the last 20 or so years for $20. It included a random MLB autographed card, a signed prospect card, and a "Graded 10 STAR" card (which turned out to be a special Greg Maddux card, numbered 4 of 6 - I rule)
Reason I bring this up is that oddly enough, as I pulled out this crinkly scorecard to continue forever onward on my scorecard memories, the winning pitcher that day was Oakland A-hole Steve Ontiveros, and the autographed major league card in my box that I opened up minutes before I set to work on this was...a 1987 Steve Ontiveros. As Mel Allen would say....how bout that!
Moving on from that...I used my old "more people at a 1928 high school reunion than here" gag at the top of this scorecard. The Yankees never drew on these July 4th games, despite all the fanfaronade surrounding the day. Under date, keeping with the theme, I wrote "beat the British", and perhaps thinking wistfully of where I would probably have seen more action then on another slow afternoon at the Stadium which saw the Yankees shut out, under 'played at' I put...the beach. The scant showing actually stirred me to call the overly-optimistically announced attendance of 22,021 "pathetic" and added that "no one's here but us."
That could not stop Robert Merrill, who was in a boisterous enough mood to preface his version of God Bless America with a sweeping wave of the arm and an "Everybody!" invite to join in before he started singing. "Nice to see him come out of his shell." I noted.
Fat Daddy Chico was working the small crowd, shilling his home run and attendance pools, and not having much luck. Howard the Lawyer aka Howard the "anti-comic" explained this away by saying, "It doesn't take a bloodhound to smell a scam." As he shuffled his way in front of the bleachers with a goofy grin on his face someone stood up, cupped their hands over their mouth and shouted "Chico's a crook!"
For some reason Ali, the old cowbell King, was sitting on his hands, I dont think the empty seats thrilled him so he was in no mood to clank tin. It got bad enough to where as he sat there in stoic fashion he was bombarded with a chant of "Ring the God-Damned bell! Ring the God-damned bell!" When that failed to stir him a pack of lads started hitting him with an "Ali's a Mets fan!" chant instead. At this Queen Bee Tina hopped up and snarled, "You want the bell? Shove it up your ass!"
The old-school Creatures were not in the mood for any nonsense. When a beachball started bouncing around in the 8th old hangdog Jeff grabbed it and put the poppin' to it, almost causing a riot. Some guy actually wanted to beat him up. 2 innings later, as the game was wrapping up in the 9th, Jeff was at it again. I mean, this guy could not beat an egg, and here he was raising dukes, causing my final mystery out of the afternoon. While all this was going on, an outraged Tina was hollering at a lot of the nitwits out there, and one of them barked back with the schoolyard favorite "Can I have some cheese with that whine?"
Seems I just hung out, kept out of it, and drank by all the crooked letters on this thing. I spent my time wisely, putting little cracks next to the A's player names on the card. Next to Stan Javier I snidely remarked "Julian was better!" (you old baseball fans getting that?) Next to McGwire I wrote "hit him in the ankle!". I also mentioned that Tina dismissed Brent Gates (who played 135 games the year before and was established as the A's starting second baseman by now) by waving her arm in disgust, giving him the old "pshaw" and snarling, "I've never heard of him."
There was a group of kids huddled together wearing purple shirts...looking at this now I suppose it was some camp or little league team or something. Whatever they were they were welcomed with a good old rousing "Purple takes it up the ass, doo-da, doo-da" serenade.
The highlight of the day for me was seeing Yankee Stadium stalwarts Fat Daddy Chico and Freddie Sez sharing the same table at Steve's Greek eatery across the street after the game, having a bite to eat, and not acknowledging one another in the least bit.
The Yankees did not escape the scorecard wisecracks either...after Elster flied out harmlessly to right in the 5th I remarked "thats as good as Elster's gonna be." Seeing he went 0-20 as a Yankee in 1994, I was not too far off, huh?
My mind was drifting. I actually missed a Troy Neel home run off the bat cause I was reading Joey Adams' column in the New York Post. I ended up with 5 "mo's" - all of them with the A's up at bat, so at least I was paying attention with the Yankees swinging the bats. If you can call getting shutout 4-0 "swinging the bats." Walkman John, here were my 5 mo's...Sierra in the 3rd, Bordick in the 4th, Gates in the 5th, Neel in the 8th, and Michelin Man McGwire to lead off the 9th.
Not much more here worth salvaging. I apologize. I just dont get some of the jokes...as I mentioned the Yankees put up the donut, getting shut out by the 35-45 Jokeland A's. The aforementioned Steve Ontiveros started and handled the first 6.1 before giving way to a cavalcade of relief help. Marc Acre, Dave Leiper, that yutz Billy Taylor, and Ed Vosberg finished the job. The Yankees ended up with a piddling 4 hits, and only Paul O'Neill worked out a walk. Nothing much happening on the pinstripe side of things...
The anemic display was put on by LF Polonia, 2B Velarde, 3B Boggs, DH Tartabull, RF O'Neill, C Matt Nokes, CF BW, first baseman Mike Stanley (lol - first base), and the aforementioned Kevin Elster at short. Dave Silvestri, who in time we found out went to his prom with MSG/FNC anchor Deb Kaufman as his date, pinch-hit and struck out for his efforts.
The A's banged out 11 hits, with Neel and McGwire hitting skyshots. Those two were also the only Oakland hitters to have 2 hits in the game. Scott Kamienieki started and was roughed up, before making way for Xavier Hernandez in the 7th (so much for the closing role), that nerd Paul Gibson, and none other than Greg Harris, making one of his only three appearances as a Yankee. He had been released by the Sox on June 27th, and only signed by the Yankees the day before. He worked an uneventful 1.1 innings. Good job, deek!
The A's fielded a lineup of LF Rickey Henderson, CF Javier, DH Neel, RF Ruben Sierra (taking LOTS of abuse from us), 1B McGwire, C Steinbach, 2B Gates ("Ive never heard of him!"), SS Mike Bored-dick, and usual catcher Scott Hemond at third. (he could not hit there either)
I suppose we will go with Mr. Ontiveros as our profile, autographed card and everything.... Logged time from 1985-2000, with a bunch of holes in there...he did not pitch on the major league level in 91, 92, or 96-99. I know he had some sick arm injuries along the way...but thats his problem, not ours, I suppose.
He pitched in 211 games in his career, 200 in the American League, mostly for Oakland, but he also had short stints in Seattle and Boston. He hurled in 11 games for Philadelphia in the National League in 89/90. Finished with a winning 34-31 mark and an impressive 3.67 ERA. Too good to be profiled in my jokey profiles, but the baseball card commanded it! He started 73 games, walking 207 and striking out 382 in 661 career innings. A 2nd round draft pick, he came out of the University of Michigan, a school that also bought us Jim Abbott, Steve Howe, Chris Sabo, and his foe on the mound that day, Scott Kamienieki. I will never forget him!
I mentioned the pittance of a crowd already...you would have thought that at least the game went by quickly so we could go on with whatever else we had planned that day - um, no...it took an Austin 3:16 to play this one, and your umpires on hand were Jim Joyce, Terry Craft, Ed Hickox, and Jim McKean.
Thanks for reading, yo!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
July 2nd, 1994 - Oh God was I drunk...and hello, Kevin Elster!
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Monday, September 20, 2010
June 21st, 1994 - The Stanley Cup is on hand!
Wednesday, June 21st, 1994
A rare Bob Sheppard blooper!
Ah, the Twins were in town. Having a nice time of it, 37-30 at this time, a decent enough campaign. But the Yankees were pretty much running the table there in 94, and there I was enconsed on Stadium grounds for the 21st time in 1994, with a 13-7 mark to my name.
The main topic of conversation coming in was the stupid Rangers winning the Stanley Cup. "Wel, it IS the Rangers...they may lose on the replay." someone chided. In a nod of deference, I scrawled "the house of the cup" in the 'played at' slot. Mark Messier and Brian Leetch threw out the first pitch, and Nick Kypreos of all people talked someone into letting him throw one out too. Even though the guys were announced by the voice of God himself in Bob Sheppard, and the Ranger fans on hand knew exactly who they were and were vouching for them, Queen Bee Tina was arguing with anyone who would (or wouldnt) listen that it was actually Mike Richter out there (it wasnt), and not "any Nick whatever his name is!"
While all that was going on someone was out there pleading for us to "root against the Knicks and help keep the cable bill down."
While all this was going on, I took a crack at the Red Sox by noting their AL flag was at half mast on this night. But Boston had the last laugh, as concurrently to all this they notched a 10 spot in the first in Toronto, and had a 12 run lead after 2 innings while we argued about what Rangers had been on the field. Not to get off track, but some idiot Scott Brow managed to walk 6 guys in an innings worth of work out there...and give up 5 hits to boot! I mean, holy fu*k! Someone shoot that horse!
Devil Fan Billy was at it again. Not only was he suggesting Graig Nettles would be a worthy Hall of Fame candidate, he swore that if he was inducted "he would draw a larger crowd than Reggie Jackson." Um....
Not much going on out there in the bleachers. These Tuesday night after Monday night games were a grind. I even saw fit to mention such trifling stuff as AC/DC being blared between innings, which we found cool. I also noted that unlike the night before Bob Wickmans name was spelled right on the scoreboard. That said, in retrospect, did this guy pitch every day or what?
Check this out - I played Fat Daddy Chico's Home Run pool before the game, and drew "LF." Well, Gerald Williams was out there in left to start and he bounced into a double play and struck out for me. Way to go! O'Neill came in for him and actually logged some time in left, but he did not hit a home run either. Actually, no Yankees did. And these were the nights Chico would magically disappear with all the money, and not everyone had the balls to bother him to get it back the next game. He had quite the pizza pie money racket going on.
Stupid me entered the wrong pool that night, too. I had long since abandoned ever partaking in the rigged attendance pool he had going, but turns out we guessed out there amongst ourselves anyway for laughs here and there and I ended up 28 fans off. Funny thing, though, is that would not guarantee a win in Chico's below-board pools. Chico would try and have me believe someone else who would never be identified was 12fans off in their count, costing me the monies.
Even though the scoreboard operator got things right in terms of spelling, we got a Bob Sheppard blooper of all things as Pat Meares came to bat for the Twins. "The second baseman.....the shortstop, Pat Meares." How bout that!
I made mention of a White Sox brawl on here, but there are no further details. Nolan Ryan had kicked Robin Ventura's ass the year before, so that wasn't it. I did mention that an Aunt Jemimah lookalike was playing the role of Crapman on the night, and when a pretty girl came out selling ice cream someone sheepishly asked the group to "find out if thats the old hot dog girl and if we should call her Ice Cream Girl now" and Tina snapped back, "Well, she IS selling ice cream!" Some of you longtime readers may remember the "Hot Dog Girl" saga in a past scorecard memory. Ah, the old "show us your buns!" vendor.
I had some cracks regarding some of the players on this night. After a Gallego double I scrawled "first time I have seen him on second without a glove." After Dave Winfield struck out and sent his bat sailing in the 3rd inning I remarked, "Throws bat...thats the Dave we know and love." And I identified the starter for the Twins, one Carlos Pulido, as "The Shadow" which was a nice and creative way for us to say "who the fu*k is that?" Pulido was an enigma, he pitched in part of 2 years in the majors, in 1994....and 2003. Nice 8 year break ya took there!
The Yankees took this one in a long dragged out muddle of a ballgame. At the top I had written "another 2 1/2 hour...no, 3 hour...no 3 1/2 hour affair..." Jimmy Key was on the mound for the Yankees against the aforementioned Shadow, and while he got the win to up his mark to an awesome 11-1 he was average, giving up 4 runs on 7 hits and a couple of walks in 6.1. Wickman came in with another 2 hitless innings, and Steve Howe stopped sniffing the baselines long enough to notch his 6th save.
Bernie Williams led off the for the good guys on this night, and went 2-5 with 3 runs batted in. O'Neill, coming in for GW went 1-2 and scored a run, driving in 2 of his own, and Gallego also scored twice. The Yankees offered up a lineup of BW, 3B Boggs, 1B Mattingly,RF Tartabull, C Stanley, DH Leyritz, SS Velarde, LF GW, and SS Gallego.
As for the Twinkies, who dropped the 6-4 decision, the loss was tacked to one Brett "not so merry" Merriman. The Twins offered up one of the most amusing pitching crews I have seen on a scorecard with Pulido, Merriman, and the esteemable Larry Casian. As for the bat side of things, Jeff Reboluet was playing first (not exactly Kent Hrbek, huh) and had a 2-4 evening, with a walk. Shane Mack and Pat Meares also had 2 hits. The Twins offered up 2B Knoblauch, 1B Reboulet, RF Puckett, CF Mack, DH Winfield, 3B Leius, LF McCarty, C Derek Parks (lol) and SS Pat Meares.
Fu*kin A - between Pulido, Merriman, and Parks it was hard to pick a profile, but I drew beer bottle caps and I am going with Merriman. How can I go wrong! On top of that, he DID get the loss that night, one of 2 for his career...along with 1 win. In 2 seasons (93 and 94) he saw action in 34 games and pitched to the tune of an 8.39 ERA. Thats some work. He hurled 44 innings, getting torched for 54 hits and 37 walks. He also hit 7 guys, and threw 2 wild pitches in his tenure. That night against the Yankees he gave up 3 runs in ZERO innings, walking Velarde, giving up a single to O'Neill, and hitting Gallego before they got him out of there so Casian could give up a double to Bernie to clear the bases. In other interesting Brett Merriman news, he was a product of Grand Canyon University, which also bought us Chad Curtis and Tim Salmon.
As for the game there on the 21st, it clocked in at 3:24 and was played before 27,972 (again, I was 28 off!) mostly appreciative fans. Your umpires on the evening were once again Dan Morrison, Larry Barnett, Greg Kosc, and Al Clark.
Thanks for reading!
A rare Bob Sheppard blooper!
Ah, the Twins were in town. Having a nice time of it, 37-30 at this time, a decent enough campaign. But the Yankees were pretty much running the table there in 94, and there I was enconsed on Stadium grounds for the 21st time in 1994, with a 13-7 mark to my name.
The main topic of conversation coming in was the stupid Rangers winning the Stanley Cup. "Wel, it IS the Rangers...they may lose on the replay." someone chided. In a nod of deference, I scrawled "the house of the cup" in the 'played at' slot. Mark Messier and Brian Leetch threw out the first pitch, and Nick Kypreos of all people talked someone into letting him throw one out too. Even though the guys were announced by the voice of God himself in Bob Sheppard, and the Ranger fans on hand knew exactly who they were and were vouching for them, Queen Bee Tina was arguing with anyone who would (or wouldnt) listen that it was actually Mike Richter out there (it wasnt), and not "any Nick whatever his name is!"
While all that was going on someone was out there pleading for us to "root against the Knicks and help keep the cable bill down."
While all this was going on, I took a crack at the Red Sox by noting their AL flag was at half mast on this night. But Boston had the last laugh, as concurrently to all this they notched a 10 spot in the first in Toronto, and had a 12 run lead after 2 innings while we argued about what Rangers had been on the field. Not to get off track, but some idiot Scott Brow managed to walk 6 guys in an innings worth of work out there...and give up 5 hits to boot! I mean, holy fu*k! Someone shoot that horse!
Devil Fan Billy was at it again. Not only was he suggesting Graig Nettles would be a worthy Hall of Fame candidate, he swore that if he was inducted "he would draw a larger crowd than Reggie Jackson." Um....
Not much going on out there in the bleachers. These Tuesday night after Monday night games were a grind. I even saw fit to mention such trifling stuff as AC/DC being blared between innings, which we found cool. I also noted that unlike the night before Bob Wickmans name was spelled right on the scoreboard. That said, in retrospect, did this guy pitch every day or what?
Check this out - I played Fat Daddy Chico's Home Run pool before the game, and drew "LF." Well, Gerald Williams was out there in left to start and he bounced into a double play and struck out for me. Way to go! O'Neill came in for him and actually logged some time in left, but he did not hit a home run either. Actually, no Yankees did. And these were the nights Chico would magically disappear with all the money, and not everyone had the balls to bother him to get it back the next game. He had quite the pizza pie money racket going on.
Stupid me entered the wrong pool that night, too. I had long since abandoned ever partaking in the rigged attendance pool he had going, but turns out we guessed out there amongst ourselves anyway for laughs here and there and I ended up 28 fans off. Funny thing, though, is that would not guarantee a win in Chico's below-board pools. Chico would try and have me believe someone else who would never be identified was 12fans off in their count, costing me the monies.
Even though the scoreboard operator got things right in terms of spelling, we got a Bob Sheppard blooper of all things as Pat Meares came to bat for the Twins. "The second baseman.....the shortstop, Pat Meares." How bout that!
I made mention of a White Sox brawl on here, but there are no further details. Nolan Ryan had kicked Robin Ventura's ass the year before, so that wasn't it. I did mention that an Aunt Jemimah lookalike was playing the role of Crapman on the night, and when a pretty girl came out selling ice cream someone sheepishly asked the group to "find out if thats the old hot dog girl and if we should call her Ice Cream Girl now" and Tina snapped back, "Well, she IS selling ice cream!" Some of you longtime readers may remember the "Hot Dog Girl" saga in a past scorecard memory. Ah, the old "show us your buns!" vendor.
I had some cracks regarding some of the players on this night. After a Gallego double I scrawled "first time I have seen him on second without a glove." After Dave Winfield struck out and sent his bat sailing in the 3rd inning I remarked, "Throws bat...thats the Dave we know and love." And I identified the starter for the Twins, one Carlos Pulido, as "The Shadow" which was a nice and creative way for us to say "who the fu*k is that?" Pulido was an enigma, he pitched in part of 2 years in the majors, in 1994....and 2003. Nice 8 year break ya took there!
The Yankees took this one in a long dragged out muddle of a ballgame. At the top I had written "another 2 1/2 hour...no, 3 hour...no 3 1/2 hour affair..." Jimmy Key was on the mound for the Yankees against the aforementioned Shadow, and while he got the win to up his mark to an awesome 11-1 he was average, giving up 4 runs on 7 hits and a couple of walks in 6.1. Wickman came in with another 2 hitless innings, and Steve Howe stopped sniffing the baselines long enough to notch his 6th save.
Bernie Williams led off the for the good guys on this night, and went 2-5 with 3 runs batted in. O'Neill, coming in for GW went 1-2 and scored a run, driving in 2 of his own, and Gallego also scored twice. The Yankees offered up a lineup of BW, 3B Boggs, 1B Mattingly,RF Tartabull, C Stanley, DH Leyritz, SS Velarde, LF GW, and SS Gallego.
As for the Twinkies, who dropped the 6-4 decision, the loss was tacked to one Brett "not so merry" Merriman. The Twins offered up one of the most amusing pitching crews I have seen on a scorecard with Pulido, Merriman, and the esteemable Larry Casian. As for the bat side of things, Jeff Reboluet was playing first (not exactly Kent Hrbek, huh) and had a 2-4 evening, with a walk. Shane Mack and Pat Meares also had 2 hits. The Twins offered up 2B Knoblauch, 1B Reboulet, RF Puckett, CF Mack, DH Winfield, 3B Leius, LF McCarty, C Derek Parks (lol) and SS Pat Meares.
Fu*kin A - between Pulido, Merriman, and Parks it was hard to pick a profile, but I drew beer bottle caps and I am going with Merriman. How can I go wrong! On top of that, he DID get the loss that night, one of 2 for his career...along with 1 win. In 2 seasons (93 and 94) he saw action in 34 games and pitched to the tune of an 8.39 ERA. Thats some work. He hurled 44 innings, getting torched for 54 hits and 37 walks. He also hit 7 guys, and threw 2 wild pitches in his tenure. That night against the Yankees he gave up 3 runs in ZERO innings, walking Velarde, giving up a single to O'Neill, and hitting Gallego before they got him out of there so Casian could give up a double to Bernie to clear the bases. In other interesting Brett Merriman news, he was a product of Grand Canyon University, which also bought us Chad Curtis and Tim Salmon.
As for the game there on the 21st, it clocked in at 3:24 and was played before 27,972 (again, I was 28 off!) mostly appreciative fans. Your umpires on the evening were once again Dan Morrison, Larry Barnett, Greg Kosc, and Al Clark.
Thanks for reading!
Friday, September 17, 2010
June 20th, 1994 - "Women know nothing about baseball"
Monday, June 20th, Yankees host the Twinkies
"May the power of Thurman compel you"
A Monday night! Check me out, making Monday games. From 1996-2004, when we did not play as much anyway, I probably made 1 or 2 total, mainly thanks to my Monday night pro wrestling addiction. But here I was on a "bad night for a balllgame" as I deemed the locale "a sauna" in the scorecard "played at" column. Perfect night for a 3 hour game, huh?
We were warned going in by "Security Saddam" (yes, a dead ringer for the Iraqi Dictator), "No more bleacher wave!" Of course the bleacher wave was our own version of the pesky wave, which included upraised middle fingers. Not taken seriously, I'm sure, but I marked down in the 8th there was "an aborted bleacher wave" and Ali the cowbell King of all people was warned by security to stop partaking. As old and genial as he could be, Ali was known to wave the middle finger around out there.
We had the pleasure of seeing future Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett in front of us in right (so Shane Mack could play center) and we heaped him with all kinds of abuse worthy of his station in the game. Elder George cracked, "he might hit a homer if you hit him with a pitch in the stomach." Someone else pondered aloud, "who else has a body like that??" and another old-timer, Big Willie answered "Fat Daddy Chico!"
From then on people started hollering, "Chico, get off the field!" - our Chico would respond with a wave and a grin...between bites, that is. "Round Round Big and Round...He's Big and Round!" we sang to the tune of the Beach Boys "I Get Around" and of course all the fat guy one-liners were being parlayed towards the field. "Hey, Kirby, did you order a pizza?" someone screamed from the rail. "Get some peanuts, Dumbo is hungry!" another chimed in.
Someone was hanging K's off the loge (stupid thing when Jim Abbott was on the mound in the first place, he was no Randy Johnson) and as we discussed what a waste of time that was someone pretended to be "the K crew" and cracked, "I put the K's up...people like me!"
I mentioned our good buddy Dennis was missing this as he was attending live Monday Night Raw wrestling action. Among other things he saw on that night, In "The King's Court," Jerry Lawler insisted Duke the Dumpster stay outside the ring because he stinks. After receiving a barrage of insults, Duke did indeed leave the ringside area. The devious Lawler slunk out of the ring and caught him from behind and bashed him with a garbage can...I missed this to be at a Yankee game??
Ah, a rare scoreboard error. This was the night where the scoreboard read "Bob WICKAMN" when Wickman came in to pitch late in the game. "Who typed that, Abbott?" we asked. For the rest of the year when we would see Wickman roaming the grass during BP we'd salute him with a, "how you doin, Wickamn"
"McCarty has no Knob-lauch!" was hollered out with glee. Good one. When Mike Stanley was batting with 2 on in the 4th he was spurred on with a "May the power of Thurman compel you!" but he whiffed.
I had mentioned in an earlier scorecard memory that we had started to hear ruminations of the "1994 Gay Games" coming to New York, and among other venues - Yankee Stadium. It was a reality now. "Shit, there are going to be two guys having sex in your seat" someone grumbled. "This gives a whole new reason to the term 'pole vault.' was another. How about this one - "as an insult at the Gay Games people chant "You DON'T suck!" Sigh.
George, showing ambition, said "I am going to write Gay Games suck on every seat....all 54,000 of them."
At one point Alex Cole, who came in for Mack late in the game, made the mistake of tossing us up a ball, and, as I wrote for posterity, "back it goes."
Abbott was absolutely shelled, and was booed zestily for his efforts. That got us to talking about the subject of booing the Yankees. George calmly reasoned, "I won't boo Perez, Key, or Pope Don Pall. Everyone else sucks." As Polonia misplayed an out into a hit from his perch in left, someone spat "where is Dave Collins when you need him?" But while this was going on an old man had the "audacity to say" that, on this pitching staff, "Hernandez and Mulholland are the best." Sure, at this stage they were throwing lights out, but we all know how that film ended...even Queen Bee Tina went on a "pitching diatribe" on this muggy Monday night, shredding our staff.
"Women know nothing about baseball" Animal spouted at some point, sparking another round of debate.
Four "mo's" on here, including Polonia leading off the game for the Yankees (we were busy insulting Puckett) - the others, for Walkman John's perusal and correction were Mack leading off the second (goofing off), Mack again in the 6th (I must have really hated Shane Mack to keep missing his at-bats), and Tartabull leading off the Yankee 6th. Looks like most of my "mos" were leading off innings, so after all the hoopla between innings (which included good lounge and lobby music on this night) I had trouble putting my game face back on.
The affair on the field turned into a bitch-slap fest, and the Yankees ended up sneaking out with a 7-5 win, upping my season mark to 12-7 and more importantly upping the Yankees mark to 40-27. No wonder people were still in love with our pitching.
For the Yankees it started with the top third of the order. Polonia went 2-5, scoring twice and driving in a run. Boggs was on all 4 times, walking and going 3-3 with a triple, a run, and an RBI. Mattingly had 2 hits and and drove in a deuce. Darryl Boston, pinch-hitting for Gallego in the 9th, hit a 3-run shot that essentially won the Yankees the game, with Wickman getting a vulture W. The Yankee starting lineup was Polonia, Boggs, Mattingly, Stanley, O'Neill, Tartabull (moved down in the order), BW, Velarde at short, and Gallego at second. Abbott (12 hits in 5.1 innings), Pope Don Pall, and Bob WICKMAN saw mound time for the Yankees, with the latter two hurling 3.2 hitless innings to lock and load things.
The Twins managed 12 hits of their own, but came up short on the run tally. Bobby Munoz went 3-3, and our old friend Dave Winfield went 2-4 with a couple of runs scored. He jacked a homer, as did Puckett (and no, it was not off his stomach). We aplty dubbed Puckett's blast "a big, fat home run." The stupid Twins had a 5-2 lead into the 7th when Roger Erickson imploded (with help from Mark Guthrie and Carl Willis). Well, that was their problem, not ours. The Twins blessed us with a lineup of 2B Knoblauch, SS Jeff Reboluet, RF Puckett, CF Mack, DH Winfield, LF Munoz, 3B Scott Leius, 1B McCarty, and C Matt Walbeck.
If you were lucky enough to be there on that night, you got to see none other than Chip Hale pinch-hit for Reboluet in the 9th. He bounced back to the mound, but we pointed out that it was "almost a home run." Mr. Hale saw time from 1989-1997 (sans 92 and 93) and managed to sneak into 333 games in that time. He did manage a respectable .277 lifetime average but with minimal power - 7 home runs and 78 RBIs in 575 at bats. Check it out, a seasons worth of at-bats in seven campaigns. He did not even steal bases, with only 2 in his career. He was once traded for Craig Shipley. He did manage to play first, second, third, and all the outfield positions, but for fu*ks sake, I dont know what he was doing out there either, but I am happy to have seen him!
There were only 20,566 on hand to see the ultra-hot Yankee machine, and the game slogged on for 2:56. Your arbiters for this affair were Al Clark, Dan Morrison, Larry Barnett, and Gregory Kosc.
Thanks for reading!
"May the power of Thurman compel you"
A Monday night! Check me out, making Monday games. From 1996-2004, when we did not play as much anyway, I probably made 1 or 2 total, mainly thanks to my Monday night pro wrestling addiction. But here I was on a "bad night for a balllgame" as I deemed the locale "a sauna" in the scorecard "played at" column. Perfect night for a 3 hour game, huh?
We were warned going in by "Security Saddam" (yes, a dead ringer for the Iraqi Dictator), "No more bleacher wave!" Of course the bleacher wave was our own version of the pesky wave, which included upraised middle fingers. Not taken seriously, I'm sure, but I marked down in the 8th there was "an aborted bleacher wave" and Ali the cowbell King of all people was warned by security to stop partaking. As old and genial as he could be, Ali was known to wave the middle finger around out there.
We had the pleasure of seeing future Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett in front of us in right (so Shane Mack could play center) and we heaped him with all kinds of abuse worthy of his station in the game. Elder George cracked, "he might hit a homer if you hit him with a pitch in the stomach." Someone else pondered aloud, "who else has a body like that??" and another old-timer, Big Willie answered "Fat Daddy Chico!"
From then on people started hollering, "Chico, get off the field!" - our Chico would respond with a wave and a grin...between bites, that is. "Round Round Big and Round...He's Big and Round!" we sang to the tune of the Beach Boys "I Get Around" and of course all the fat guy one-liners were being parlayed towards the field. "Hey, Kirby, did you order a pizza?" someone screamed from the rail. "Get some peanuts, Dumbo is hungry!" another chimed in.
Someone was hanging K's off the loge (stupid thing when Jim Abbott was on the mound in the first place, he was no Randy Johnson) and as we discussed what a waste of time that was someone pretended to be "the K crew" and cracked, "I put the K's up...people like me!"
I mentioned our good buddy Dennis was missing this as he was attending live Monday Night Raw wrestling action. Among other things he saw on that night, In "The King's Court," Jerry Lawler insisted Duke the Dumpster stay outside the ring because he stinks. After receiving a barrage of insults, Duke did indeed leave the ringside area. The devious Lawler slunk out of the ring and caught him from behind and bashed him with a garbage can...I missed this to be at a Yankee game??
Ah, a rare scoreboard error. This was the night where the scoreboard read "Bob WICKAMN" when Wickman came in to pitch late in the game. "Who typed that, Abbott?" we asked. For the rest of the year when we would see Wickman roaming the grass during BP we'd salute him with a, "how you doin, Wickamn"
"McCarty has no Knob-lauch!" was hollered out with glee. Good one. When Mike Stanley was batting with 2 on in the 4th he was spurred on with a "May the power of Thurman compel you!" but he whiffed.
I had mentioned in an earlier scorecard memory that we had started to hear ruminations of the "1994 Gay Games" coming to New York, and among other venues - Yankee Stadium. It was a reality now. "Shit, there are going to be two guys having sex in your seat" someone grumbled. "This gives a whole new reason to the term 'pole vault.' was another. How about this one - "as an insult at the Gay Games people chant "You DON'T suck!" Sigh.
George, showing ambition, said "I am going to write Gay Games suck on every seat....all 54,000 of them."
At one point Alex Cole, who came in for Mack late in the game, made the mistake of tossing us up a ball, and, as I wrote for posterity, "back it goes."
Abbott was absolutely shelled, and was booed zestily for his efforts. That got us to talking about the subject of booing the Yankees. George calmly reasoned, "I won't boo Perez, Key, or Pope Don Pall. Everyone else sucks." As Polonia misplayed an out into a hit from his perch in left, someone spat "where is Dave Collins when you need him?" But while this was going on an old man had the "audacity to say" that, on this pitching staff, "Hernandez and Mulholland are the best." Sure, at this stage they were throwing lights out, but we all know how that film ended...even Queen Bee Tina went on a "pitching diatribe" on this muggy Monday night, shredding our staff.
"Women know nothing about baseball" Animal spouted at some point, sparking another round of debate.
Four "mo's" on here, including Polonia leading off the game for the Yankees (we were busy insulting Puckett) - the others, for Walkman John's perusal and correction were Mack leading off the second (goofing off), Mack again in the 6th (I must have really hated Shane Mack to keep missing his at-bats), and Tartabull leading off the Yankee 6th. Looks like most of my "mos" were leading off innings, so after all the hoopla between innings (which included good lounge and lobby music on this night) I had trouble putting my game face back on.
The affair on the field turned into a bitch-slap fest, and the Yankees ended up sneaking out with a 7-5 win, upping my season mark to 12-7 and more importantly upping the Yankees mark to 40-27. No wonder people were still in love with our pitching.
For the Yankees it started with the top third of the order. Polonia went 2-5, scoring twice and driving in a run. Boggs was on all 4 times, walking and going 3-3 with a triple, a run, and an RBI. Mattingly had 2 hits and and drove in a deuce. Darryl Boston, pinch-hitting for Gallego in the 9th, hit a 3-run shot that essentially won the Yankees the game, with Wickman getting a vulture W. The Yankee starting lineup was Polonia, Boggs, Mattingly, Stanley, O'Neill, Tartabull (moved down in the order), BW, Velarde at short, and Gallego at second. Abbott (12 hits in 5.1 innings), Pope Don Pall, and Bob WICKMAN saw mound time for the Yankees, with the latter two hurling 3.2 hitless innings to lock and load things.
The Twins managed 12 hits of their own, but came up short on the run tally. Bobby Munoz went 3-3, and our old friend Dave Winfield went 2-4 with a couple of runs scored. He jacked a homer, as did Puckett (and no, it was not off his stomach). We aplty dubbed Puckett's blast "a big, fat home run." The stupid Twins had a 5-2 lead into the 7th when Roger Erickson imploded (with help from Mark Guthrie and Carl Willis). Well, that was their problem, not ours. The Twins blessed us with a lineup of 2B Knoblauch, SS Jeff Reboluet, RF Puckett, CF Mack, DH Winfield, LF Munoz, 3B Scott Leius, 1B McCarty, and C Matt Walbeck.
If you were lucky enough to be there on that night, you got to see none other than Chip Hale pinch-hit for Reboluet in the 9th. He bounced back to the mound, but we pointed out that it was "almost a home run." Mr. Hale saw time from 1989-1997 (sans 92 and 93) and managed to sneak into 333 games in that time. He did manage a respectable .277 lifetime average but with minimal power - 7 home runs and 78 RBIs in 575 at bats. Check it out, a seasons worth of at-bats in seven campaigns. He did not even steal bases, with only 2 in his career. He was once traded for Craig Shipley. He did manage to play first, second, third, and all the outfield positions, but for fu*ks sake, I dont know what he was doing out there either, but I am happy to have seen him!
There were only 20,566 on hand to see the ultra-hot Yankee machine, and the game slogged on for 2:56. Your arbiters for this affair were Al Clark, Dan Morrison, Larry Barnett, and Gregory Kosc.
Thanks for reading!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
June 4th, 1994 - "F U K C"
Saturday, June 4th - Yankees host the Royals
"Are you saying hello to the girl, or the beer?"
Ah, a nice Saturday afternoon in the Bronx. While I was at the game I noted that 2 cousins and one of their husbands were "lost in NYC." Well, if they came with me to the game in the first place, that would not have happened now, would it.
Lots of these cards blend together...I understand it is some slow going for some of these games where the comments are either not there, or just not funny. But this is the harsh reality of the bleachers. We could not be "on" every night. The life of a bleacher improv group is not an easy one. So stick with me through the bumps in the road and you will find some gems coming up. I am on a mission to recap every single game I have scored, for better or worse, and even I cant breathe life into some of these things.
I saw fit to mention a plane interrupted the National Anthem, and next to the "passed balls" category on my scorecard I wrote "none by Mcrae...he never passes up balls!" I know, groan.
So this was not one of my better days. On top of having family lost in Metropolis, and leaving them hanging on a payphone in the Stadium runways to get upstairs in time for the Anthem and first pitch, I had to pay back beers to both "Chris and Dan" for whatever reason. In those days we were always kicking over one anothers beers. It was one of the worst hazards of drinking $6 beers up there, and this may have been buybacks for kicked beers.
I remember one time I purchased a warm brew up there, and as soon as I went to pull it back from the vendor I dropped it. Everyone laughed but me. I promptly ordered another one, and actually was able to put this on the ground under my seat where no one could kick it over. Well...no one but me, apparently, as I kicked it over. That was two, in a span of ten seconds. I actually had to buy a third, and it was all on me. The vendor could do nothing but shrug and sell me another one. What amounted to an $18 cup of warm beer, before the tips that insured they come back.
Anyhoo....speaking of vendors and vending on this night we had "Spike Lee" was pushing soda. "Hey, Spike, do the right thing and get the beer guy up here!!" was a common refrain. "Knicks suck!" was another. When Terry Shumpert homered in the Royal 3rd as "Spike Lee" was handing out syrupy sodas we promptly blamed him for it. And, how is this for irony, Shumpert (who had no business hitting two home runs in a season, yet alone a game) clanked another one off the foul pole in the 8th as, you guessed it, "Spike Lee" was out there once again in our midst shouting "last call soda!"
"Vend elsewhere" became our mantra for the day in terms of that idiot.
Its funny, this guy Dennis was mentioning how the Showalter-era Yankees had a penchant for getting into dust-ups....well, this game almost featured a first inning brawl as Polonia was dusted by Mark "my last name is an eye chart" Gubicza and made a motion towards the mound. This followed Brian McRae being plunked by Terry Mulholland in the top of the frame. The teams slinked onto the field a few feet but nothing else developed, even though we were all trying to incite it from the rightfield bleachers. "Fight! Fight!" we yelled merrily.
This was one of those Saturday night games...God bless them. At least I think so by my notation of "Animal arrives 7:14" - thing is Retrosheet shows this a day game. Maybe it was a 4PM game and Animal showed up for the 9th inning. I dont know what the Hell is going on here.
And even then Saturday late afternoon/night games could get ugly, for example I noted that a few people were yelling at what appeared to be a mentally handicapped individual. Even Fat Daddy Chico was getting some heat from his fixed home run and attendance pools. These were the days of the attendance pools where you would pick 23,938, the attendance would be 23,959, and you would lose cause "someone" would have had 23,947. Yet people would still play and pad Chico's pockets game after game, and then holler "get the fu*k out of here and take your pool with you, ya fu*k!" at Chico the next game, as someone apparently did on this night.
There was actually a fife and drum band out on the field before the game, and I never recall seeing this before but a few of them found their way into the bleachers for the game. I proudly noted on here that I shared a few ales and a few tales with them. They could really drink, and that made us happy.
Some skirt came up peddling beer, causing Animal to jump up and shout a merry "Hello!" along with an exaggerated wave of greeting. "Are you saying hello to the girl, or the beer?" someone asked.
Between the 4th and 5th inning something that sounded like porno music blared out of the Stadium speakers, and two guys started dry humping. It did not go over well. I understand their attempt at humor, but it would have helped if there were any girls out there at all and they did not have to rely on one another. Actually, considering soon enough I spent a decade doing an exaggerated humping motion on top of the benches later on just cause a staccato drum started playing, who am I to talk.
Some oldtimer with a big nose was out there, bringing on both Jimmy Durante and generic "old man" jokes. One of us put on a fuax old man voice and mimicked the guy with the old, "since when are the monuments off the playing field?" line.
A little African American kid was hopping up the stairs, and someone stopped him to point out that "the Con-Ed seats are that way."
I am catching 4 "mo's" on here and I have reasons for missing the plays attributed to 3 of them. "Reading the NY Post" for Greg Gagne in the top 3rd, "telling jokes" for Gary Gaetti in the 9th, "Ali's bell" with Bernie up in the Yankee 2nd, and sadly no reason cited for Polonia leading off the Yankee 8th.
Remember how I mentioned Mulholland ended up having a crap year for the Yankees? Well, regardless of that fact he pitched his second complete game in a row with me in attendance, although he got hooked with the loss in this one. The Royals eked out a 4-3 win, even though the Yankees made it a cliffhanger with 2 in the 9th off of Royal closer Jeff Montgomery.
Shumpert was public enemy #1 on this night, with his 2 home runs and 3 RBIs. The other Royal tally came off the bat of that relic Dave Henderson, who homered in the 4th to put the Royals up 2-1. On the Yankee side of things Jim Leyritz jacked the 2 run homer in the 9th off of Montgomery to plate O'Neill and make it interesting, but Bernie whiffed to end the game immediatly following. O'Neill ended up with 3 hits on the evening, but only a "run" to show for it in the other columns.
The Royals tossed up a lineup of LF Coleman, 1B Joyner, CF McRae, RF Henderson, C McFarlane, 3B Gaetti, DH Hubie Brooks of all people, SS Gagne, and 2B Shumpert. The Yankees countered with LF Polonia, 3B Boggs, 1B Mattingly, DH Tartabull, RF O'Neill, C Leyritz, CF BW, SS Velarde, and 2B Patrick Kelly. While Mulholland went the full 9 for NY the Royals countered with Gubicza, Hipolito Pichardo, that dope Billy Brewer, and Montgomery.
As for the every unpopular "profile" feature, lets go with Mr. Shumpert. He managed 8 homers in 64 games in 94, and we saw 2 of them here. Mr. Shumpert enjoyed a 14 year career, never batting more than 364 times in a season. His lifetime batting average of .252, with 49 home runs and 223 RBIs makes him the most accomplished hitter I have profiled so far. After 5 years with KC he plied his trade with the Red Sux (21 games in 1995), the Cubs (27 games in 1996) the Padres (13 games in 1997), then 5 seasons of work with the Rockies before finishing up for now with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in a heralded return to the American League in 2003. During his storied body of work he saw time in the outfield, 2B, SS, 3B, and first. Cheers, Mr. Shumpert!!
As for the particulars of June 4th, 1994, 30,693 were out at the vaunted ballyard in the Bronx to see a game that went off in a lightning fast 2:09 (no wonder there is nothing on here of note...who had time?) - the umpires who rushed us through this one were Jim McKean, Jim Joyce, Matthew Winans, and Ed Hickox.
Hey, I said "ckox" heh heh.
Thanks for reading!
"Are you saying hello to the girl, or the beer?"
Ah, a nice Saturday afternoon in the Bronx. While I was at the game I noted that 2 cousins and one of their husbands were "lost in NYC." Well, if they came with me to the game in the first place, that would not have happened now, would it.
Lots of these cards blend together...I understand it is some slow going for some of these games where the comments are either not there, or just not funny. But this is the harsh reality of the bleachers. We could not be "on" every night. The life of a bleacher improv group is not an easy one. So stick with me through the bumps in the road and you will find some gems coming up. I am on a mission to recap every single game I have scored, for better or worse, and even I cant breathe life into some of these things.
I saw fit to mention a plane interrupted the National Anthem, and next to the "passed balls" category on my scorecard I wrote "none by Mcrae...he never passes up balls!" I know, groan.
So this was not one of my better days. On top of having family lost in Metropolis, and leaving them hanging on a payphone in the Stadium runways to get upstairs in time for the Anthem and first pitch, I had to pay back beers to both "Chris and Dan" for whatever reason. In those days we were always kicking over one anothers beers. It was one of the worst hazards of drinking $6 beers up there, and this may have been buybacks for kicked beers.
I remember one time I purchased a warm brew up there, and as soon as I went to pull it back from the vendor I dropped it. Everyone laughed but me. I promptly ordered another one, and actually was able to put this on the ground under my seat where no one could kick it over. Well...no one but me, apparently, as I kicked it over. That was two, in a span of ten seconds. I actually had to buy a third, and it was all on me. The vendor could do nothing but shrug and sell me another one. What amounted to an $18 cup of warm beer, before the tips that insured they come back.
Anyhoo....speaking of vendors and vending on this night we had "Spike Lee" was pushing soda. "Hey, Spike, do the right thing and get the beer guy up here!!" was a common refrain. "Knicks suck!" was another. When Terry Shumpert homered in the Royal 3rd as "Spike Lee" was handing out syrupy sodas we promptly blamed him for it. And, how is this for irony, Shumpert (who had no business hitting two home runs in a season, yet alone a game) clanked another one off the foul pole in the 8th as, you guessed it, "Spike Lee" was out there once again in our midst shouting "last call soda!"
"Vend elsewhere" became our mantra for the day in terms of that idiot.
Its funny, this guy Dennis was mentioning how the Showalter-era Yankees had a penchant for getting into dust-ups....well, this game almost featured a first inning brawl as Polonia was dusted by Mark "my last name is an eye chart" Gubicza and made a motion towards the mound. This followed Brian McRae being plunked by Terry Mulholland in the top of the frame. The teams slinked onto the field a few feet but nothing else developed, even though we were all trying to incite it from the rightfield bleachers. "Fight! Fight!" we yelled merrily.
This was one of those Saturday night games...God bless them. At least I think so by my notation of "Animal arrives 7:14" - thing is Retrosheet shows this a day game. Maybe it was a 4PM game and Animal showed up for the 9th inning. I dont know what the Hell is going on here.
And even then Saturday late afternoon/night games could get ugly, for example I noted that a few people were yelling at what appeared to be a mentally handicapped individual. Even Fat Daddy Chico was getting some heat from his fixed home run and attendance pools. These were the days of the attendance pools where you would pick 23,938, the attendance would be 23,959, and you would lose cause "someone" would have had 23,947. Yet people would still play and pad Chico's pockets game after game, and then holler "get the fu*k out of here and take your pool with you, ya fu*k!" at Chico the next game, as someone apparently did on this night.
There was actually a fife and drum band out on the field before the game, and I never recall seeing this before but a few of them found their way into the bleachers for the game. I proudly noted on here that I shared a few ales and a few tales with them. They could really drink, and that made us happy.
Some skirt came up peddling beer, causing Animal to jump up and shout a merry "Hello!" along with an exaggerated wave of greeting. "Are you saying hello to the girl, or the beer?" someone asked.
Between the 4th and 5th inning something that sounded like porno music blared out of the Stadium speakers, and two guys started dry humping. It did not go over well. I understand their attempt at humor, but it would have helped if there were any girls out there at all and they did not have to rely on one another. Actually, considering soon enough I spent a decade doing an exaggerated humping motion on top of the benches later on just cause a staccato drum started playing, who am I to talk.
Some oldtimer with a big nose was out there, bringing on both Jimmy Durante and generic "old man" jokes. One of us put on a fuax old man voice and mimicked the guy with the old, "since when are the monuments off the playing field?" line.
A little African American kid was hopping up the stairs, and someone stopped him to point out that "the Con-Ed seats are that way."
I am catching 4 "mo's" on here and I have reasons for missing the plays attributed to 3 of them. "Reading the NY Post" for Greg Gagne in the top 3rd, "telling jokes" for Gary Gaetti in the 9th, "Ali's bell" with Bernie up in the Yankee 2nd, and sadly no reason cited for Polonia leading off the Yankee 8th.
Remember how I mentioned Mulholland ended up having a crap year for the Yankees? Well, regardless of that fact he pitched his second complete game in a row with me in attendance, although he got hooked with the loss in this one. The Royals eked out a 4-3 win, even though the Yankees made it a cliffhanger with 2 in the 9th off of Royal closer Jeff Montgomery.
Shumpert was public enemy #1 on this night, with his 2 home runs and 3 RBIs. The other Royal tally came off the bat of that relic Dave Henderson, who homered in the 4th to put the Royals up 2-1. On the Yankee side of things Jim Leyritz jacked the 2 run homer in the 9th off of Montgomery to plate O'Neill and make it interesting, but Bernie whiffed to end the game immediatly following. O'Neill ended up with 3 hits on the evening, but only a "run" to show for it in the other columns.
The Royals tossed up a lineup of LF Coleman, 1B Joyner, CF McRae, RF Henderson, C McFarlane, 3B Gaetti, DH Hubie Brooks of all people, SS Gagne, and 2B Shumpert. The Yankees countered with LF Polonia, 3B Boggs, 1B Mattingly, DH Tartabull, RF O'Neill, C Leyritz, CF BW, SS Velarde, and 2B Patrick Kelly. While Mulholland went the full 9 for NY the Royals countered with Gubicza, Hipolito Pichardo, that dope Billy Brewer, and Montgomery.
As for the every unpopular "profile" feature, lets go with Mr. Shumpert. He managed 8 homers in 64 games in 94, and we saw 2 of them here. Mr. Shumpert enjoyed a 14 year career, never batting more than 364 times in a season. His lifetime batting average of .252, with 49 home runs and 223 RBIs makes him the most accomplished hitter I have profiled so far. After 5 years with KC he plied his trade with the Red Sux (21 games in 1995), the Cubs (27 games in 1996) the Padres (13 games in 1997), then 5 seasons of work with the Rockies before finishing up for now with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in a heralded return to the American League in 2003. During his storied body of work he saw time in the outfield, 2B, SS, 3B, and first. Cheers, Mr. Shumpert!!
As for the particulars of June 4th, 1994, 30,693 were out at the vaunted ballyard in the Bronx to see a game that went off in a lightning fast 2:09 (no wonder there is nothing on here of note...who had time?) - the umpires who rushed us through this one were Jim McKean, Jim Joyce, Matthew Winans, and Ed Hickox.
Hey, I said "ckox" heh heh.
Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
June 3rd, 1994 - Tina on a rampage!
June 3rd, 1994 - Yankees host the KC Royals
"You all dont care about the game...you're just here to do ballads!"
Ah, a Friday night...I love Friday nights! And the Royals in town...how could you go wrong!
I see this Dennis' birthday - happy birthday, Dennis, although you are lost to time! I also see he was not there to celebrate, and neither was our mutual friend Jamie who was always good for a cake or some cookies on our birthdays. Hmm, its been 16 years, but this seems suspicious, both of them missing...ah, what the Hell, yay sex!
For whatever reason Queen Bee Tina called elder George "a Met fan in disguise." It must have been his overhype of Scott Kamienieki, which had us all disgusted. Fat Daddy Chico waddled in late so I figure the fixed attendance and home run pools did not go off as scheduled...he hobbled up with no less than our friend "Security Elvis" at 8:46PM. "Security Elvis" was joined on faux celebrity security by "Security Sancho Panza", who I am assuming was just another short and portly Mexican guy with a bandito mustache.
This was one of those nights where the sun was in our face for the first couple of innings. "Put the fu*king sun down!" was a battle cry in the bleachers. I finally noted that the "sun is gone" at 7:22 in the top of the 2nd, but was still "trying to make reemergence through slit." At 7:23 I noted "it does." However, by 7:27 it was "finally gone." See what we were relegated to doing in those early days? Material was lacking. Following the fu*king sun. And how dirty does "reemergence through slit" sound? Heh heh.
"Whatever happened to night games?" someone groused, waving a fist at the sun.
Vince Coleman was in left, and we gave him a nice hand simply cause he was specifically told "you will never wear the Mets uniform again!" after they unloaded him after the infamous fireworks incident. Hell, anyone lucky enough to hear those words is good folk by us! And who doesn't love someone who tosses lit fireworks in the direction of children?
Even with all this revelry at times Tina was not a fan of the sideshow we had going on. If she only knew, considering what she is putting up with to this day! As a matter of fact at one point on this night she snapped "you all dont care about the game...you're just hear to do ballads!" Already, back in 1994, Tina was fighting with the "Mickey Rivers" guy, a shrivled old African American who walked all hunched over and as if in pain, although back then he was also called "Cab Calloway." On this night they exchanged harsh words and it was duly noted.
This was a bad night for Tina. A real humdinger. Along with our old black friend, she also had a running battle with some girl out there, and they actually headed downstairs together at one point in the 8th to "fight." The benches emptied so to speak as a dozen of us followed them down, unknowingly alerting security - and Fat Daddy Chico - who joined the parade and broke things up. Wow. Punches were going to fly. Tina ended up coming back up and crying in Chico's arm, this girl had her so angry and upset. But moments later she came storming back up and said, "things are going to change around here!" Oh, looking at the years to come did they ever.
And then next thing you know Tina was at it again, with some guy that was down there around Chico's enclave. Again a bunch of us scrambled out of our seats as nasty words were exchanged and it looked like she was going to hit him. But cooler heads prevailed, I am sorry to say.
"Who dressed you, Helen Keller?" was a question popped at some slovenly fellow. What was really funny is we spotted a Richie Cunningham lookalike, and not long after we laughed at him we spotted ANOTHER ONE, directly to his right and about 8 seats over and 3 rows down. "Its the battle of the Richie Cunninghams!" someone shouted.
This was one of those days where there were two "Last Calls" on beer. Some people used this as an excuse to chide the second "last call guy" to come up to the section, but I took it as a great time to buy more beer.
Holy shit, Tina was still not done. In the 9th some guy picked up Ali's bell, which was on the ground, and she went bezerk. I believe around this time I legit feared for my life around her. For such a sweet woman, who would do anything for "the family" and did, she sure had a nasty temper!
Remember "Stevie Wonder" aka Melle Mel? Rapper extraordinaire, member of the vaunted Furious Five. At this time I was giddy this famous rapper with real street cred sat out there with us. I had been telling people outside the Stadium it was Kurtis Blow, I had my rappers mixed up. What can I tell you, I did not have street cred and was not up on such things.
There are a few inside jokes here. A whole lockstep and barrel of them. They look funny but they dont make any sense and I am not going to bother even putting them on here, much to your relief.
There were cookies out there, I have no idea who bought them or why. Well, whoever it was also managed to "fumble them" and drop them on the ground, the idiot. Didnt stop people from "jumping up like seals" to grab at them afterwards, according to this scorecard.
9 mystery outs on this thing, for reasons varying from "buying beer" to "goin' for cookies." I rule!
Out on the field the Yankees dropped a 7-4 decision, dropping my season mark to 12-6. That nerd Paul Gibson notched the L and Billy Brewer of all people scored the win in relief. The score was a relatively calm 3-3 after 2 innings, and nothing changed until all kinds of hokum began in the 8th. Gibson and Xavier Hernandez, who came in for Melido Perez, were shelled, and although the Yankees choked out a run in the 9th they were done for the evening as Jeff Montgomery came in for the save.
For the Royals Greg "no, Im not the AWA wrestler" Gagne went 4-4 with 2 runs and 2 batted in, and he also poked 1 of 3 Royal home runs. But in a funny note he was thrown out stealing in the 5th "by 20 feet."
The other Royal jacks were off the bats of Brian McRae and Gary Gaetti. 8 of the starting 9 for KC notched a hit, with only Coleman going goose-egg, probably cause we were having fun with him for being kicked out of the Met organization and chucking fireworks at children. The whole "reverse psychology" thing. Don Mattingly homered for the Yankees off of the inimitable Bob Milacki while going 2-4 with 3 batted in. And Mike Gallego kept up with Gagne by going 4-4 himself, with only a lonely "R" showing in his other offensive columns.
Your KC lineup consisted of LF Coleman, CF McRae, 1B Wally Joyner, DH and cleanup hitter Bob Hamelin (who I called Bob Ham Lick), Gaetti, our old nemesis Felix Jose in right, C Brett Mayne, SS Gagne, and 2B Jose "Chico" Lind. And if you paid attention Dave Henderson came in to pinch-hit!
The Yankees combatted with Polonia, Boggs, Mattingly, Tartabull, O'Neill, Darryl Boston in CF, Stanley, Velarde, and Gallego. The Royal mound parade was Milacki (who gave up 3 runs in 6 plus, walking 2 and striking out 2), Brewer, Stan Belinda, and Montgomery, and for the Yankees on this night we saw the efforts of Melido, Gibson, Sterling Hitchcock, and Pope Don Pall.
Hitchcock had one of those "zero lines" - no innings pitched, no hits, no runs, no walks, and no strikeouts. The card is enough of a mess that I dont know what happened. Pickoff? Taken out with a 3-1 count? What? Now Im mad.
In our profile tonight lets look at Mr. Milacki. Things were winding down for him. After 4 full seasons with Baltimore he was plying his trade in KC, and not well. He lasted 10 starts in 1994, going 0-5 with a 6.14 ERA. After this campaign he did not appear back on a major league mound again till 96 with Seattle when he was shelled again and ushered out of the major leagues for good. As for 94, when we were lucky enough to see him on this day, he ended up hurling only 55 innings, walking 20 and striking out 17. Love when they walk more than they K. He finished his career at 39-47 with a 4.38 ERA.....I'm happy to have seen him! I hope he is doing well.
This game was played in front of 26,617 and took 2:58 to play. Your umpires on hand were none other than Ed Hickox, Jim McKean, your friend and mine Jim Joyce, and Matthew Winans. Um....who the Hell is Matthew Winans?
Thanks for reading!
"You all dont care about the game...you're just here to do ballads!"
Ah, a Friday night...I love Friday nights! And the Royals in town...how could you go wrong!
I see this Dennis' birthday - happy birthday, Dennis, although you are lost to time! I also see he was not there to celebrate, and neither was our mutual friend Jamie who was always good for a cake or some cookies on our birthdays. Hmm, its been 16 years, but this seems suspicious, both of them missing...ah, what the Hell, yay sex!
For whatever reason Queen Bee Tina called elder George "a Met fan in disguise." It must have been his overhype of Scott Kamienieki, which had us all disgusted. Fat Daddy Chico waddled in late so I figure the fixed attendance and home run pools did not go off as scheduled...he hobbled up with no less than our friend "Security Elvis" at 8:46PM. "Security Elvis" was joined on faux celebrity security by "Security Sancho Panza", who I am assuming was just another short and portly Mexican guy with a bandito mustache.
This was one of those nights where the sun was in our face for the first couple of innings. "Put the fu*king sun down!" was a battle cry in the bleachers. I finally noted that the "sun is gone" at 7:22 in the top of the 2nd, but was still "trying to make reemergence through slit." At 7:23 I noted "it does." However, by 7:27 it was "finally gone." See what we were relegated to doing in those early days? Material was lacking. Following the fu*king sun. And how dirty does "reemergence through slit" sound? Heh heh.
"Whatever happened to night games?" someone groused, waving a fist at the sun.
Vince Coleman was in left, and we gave him a nice hand simply cause he was specifically told "you will never wear the Mets uniform again!" after they unloaded him after the infamous fireworks incident. Hell, anyone lucky enough to hear those words is good folk by us! And who doesn't love someone who tosses lit fireworks in the direction of children?
Even with all this revelry at times Tina was not a fan of the sideshow we had going on. If she only knew, considering what she is putting up with to this day! As a matter of fact at one point on this night she snapped "you all dont care about the game...you're just hear to do ballads!" Already, back in 1994, Tina was fighting with the "Mickey Rivers" guy, a shrivled old African American who walked all hunched over and as if in pain, although back then he was also called "Cab Calloway." On this night they exchanged harsh words and it was duly noted.
This was a bad night for Tina. A real humdinger. Along with our old black friend, she also had a running battle with some girl out there, and they actually headed downstairs together at one point in the 8th to "fight." The benches emptied so to speak as a dozen of us followed them down, unknowingly alerting security - and Fat Daddy Chico - who joined the parade and broke things up. Wow. Punches were going to fly. Tina ended up coming back up and crying in Chico's arm, this girl had her so angry and upset. But moments later she came storming back up and said, "things are going to change around here!" Oh, looking at the years to come did they ever.
And then next thing you know Tina was at it again, with some guy that was down there around Chico's enclave. Again a bunch of us scrambled out of our seats as nasty words were exchanged and it looked like she was going to hit him. But cooler heads prevailed, I am sorry to say.
"Who dressed you, Helen Keller?" was a question popped at some slovenly fellow. What was really funny is we spotted a Richie Cunningham lookalike, and not long after we laughed at him we spotted ANOTHER ONE, directly to his right and about 8 seats over and 3 rows down. "Its the battle of the Richie Cunninghams!" someone shouted.
This was one of those days where there were two "Last Calls" on beer. Some people used this as an excuse to chide the second "last call guy" to come up to the section, but I took it as a great time to buy more beer.
Holy shit, Tina was still not done. In the 9th some guy picked up Ali's bell, which was on the ground, and she went bezerk. I believe around this time I legit feared for my life around her. For such a sweet woman, who would do anything for "the family" and did, she sure had a nasty temper!
Remember "Stevie Wonder" aka Melle Mel? Rapper extraordinaire, member of the vaunted Furious Five. At this time I was giddy this famous rapper with real street cred sat out there with us. I had been telling people outside the Stadium it was Kurtis Blow, I had my rappers mixed up. What can I tell you, I did not have street cred and was not up on such things.
There are a few inside jokes here. A whole lockstep and barrel of them. They look funny but they dont make any sense and I am not going to bother even putting them on here, much to your relief.
There were cookies out there, I have no idea who bought them or why. Well, whoever it was also managed to "fumble them" and drop them on the ground, the idiot. Didnt stop people from "jumping up like seals" to grab at them afterwards, according to this scorecard.
9 mystery outs on this thing, for reasons varying from "buying beer" to "goin' for cookies." I rule!
Out on the field the Yankees dropped a 7-4 decision, dropping my season mark to 12-6. That nerd Paul Gibson notched the L and Billy Brewer of all people scored the win in relief. The score was a relatively calm 3-3 after 2 innings, and nothing changed until all kinds of hokum began in the 8th. Gibson and Xavier Hernandez, who came in for Melido Perez, were shelled, and although the Yankees choked out a run in the 9th they were done for the evening as Jeff Montgomery came in for the save.
For the Royals Greg "no, Im not the AWA wrestler" Gagne went 4-4 with 2 runs and 2 batted in, and he also poked 1 of 3 Royal home runs. But in a funny note he was thrown out stealing in the 5th "by 20 feet."
The other Royal jacks were off the bats of Brian McRae and Gary Gaetti. 8 of the starting 9 for KC notched a hit, with only Coleman going goose-egg, probably cause we were having fun with him for being kicked out of the Met organization and chucking fireworks at children. The whole "reverse psychology" thing. Don Mattingly homered for the Yankees off of the inimitable Bob Milacki while going 2-4 with 3 batted in. And Mike Gallego kept up with Gagne by going 4-4 himself, with only a lonely "R" showing in his other offensive columns.
Your KC lineup consisted of LF Coleman, CF McRae, 1B Wally Joyner, DH and cleanup hitter Bob Hamelin (who I called Bob Ham Lick), Gaetti, our old nemesis Felix Jose in right, C Brett Mayne, SS Gagne, and 2B Jose "Chico" Lind. And if you paid attention Dave Henderson came in to pinch-hit!
The Yankees combatted with Polonia, Boggs, Mattingly, Tartabull, O'Neill, Darryl Boston in CF, Stanley, Velarde, and Gallego. The Royal mound parade was Milacki (who gave up 3 runs in 6 plus, walking 2 and striking out 2), Brewer, Stan Belinda, and Montgomery, and for the Yankees on this night we saw the efforts of Melido, Gibson, Sterling Hitchcock, and Pope Don Pall.
Hitchcock had one of those "zero lines" - no innings pitched, no hits, no runs, no walks, and no strikeouts. The card is enough of a mess that I dont know what happened. Pickoff? Taken out with a 3-1 count? What? Now Im mad.
In our profile tonight lets look at Mr. Milacki. Things were winding down for him. After 4 full seasons with Baltimore he was plying his trade in KC, and not well. He lasted 10 starts in 1994, going 0-5 with a 6.14 ERA. After this campaign he did not appear back on a major league mound again till 96 with Seattle when he was shelled again and ushered out of the major leagues for good. As for 94, when we were lucky enough to see him on this day, he ended up hurling only 55 innings, walking 20 and striking out 17. Love when they walk more than they K. He finished his career at 39-47 with a 4.38 ERA.....I'm happy to have seen him! I hope he is doing well.
This game was played in front of 26,617 and took 2:58 to play. Your umpires on hand were none other than Ed Hickox, Jim McKean, your friend and mine Jim Joyce, and Matthew Winans. Um....who the Hell is Matthew Winans?
Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
June 1st, 1994 - "Get out of here, you pecker!"
June 1st, 1994 - Yankees host the White Sox
"Just give Kamienieki the ball every 5 days...he'd win 20, easy"
A Wednesday night in June, and we had quite the pitching duel coming in. Wilson Alvarez, who was 8-0 for the Palehose, facing off against Jimmy Key and his sterling 7-1 mark. Of course, as fates would have it, neither ended up being around to see the end of the game. At the end under "Win" I put "not Alvarez" and under "Loss" I put "not Key."
Even with Key on the mound our own elder George, big nose and all, was out there choosing to stroke off Scott Kamienieki, insisting if he was just given the ball every 5 days "he would win 20, easy." Um...security!
I wrote a "memory" on the top, so even then we were looking back in wonder at what had gone on around us. Even though he had nothing to do with this game, Jim Eisenreich was a topic of discussion. We were ruminating how he once moved from RF to LF in the middle of a game at the Stadium for absolutely no other reason outside of growing weary of, and not being able to handle, our insults. Those were the days when we could chase outfielders around pretty much around the field with our barbs, and keep Jose Canseco rooted at DH.
Poor Animal was actually escorted out during the National Anthem. No reason cited on here, but I do remember uniformed security ignoring the solemnity of the moment to usher him on out of there. We were able to keep his memory alive later in the game by chanting "Animals girlfriend!" at some drunk woman who kept standing up and waving her arms like a bird, sloshing beer over the sides of her cup, while talking gibberish like any good woman does. "What is she doing, bringing in planes?" someone asked as she made her genuflecting whirlybird gestures.
ESPN was on hand, I guess this was new for us as this appears to be quite the topic of conversation on the card. The yokels with the ESPN signs were catching a blitz of heat. George, making up for his ridiculous Kamienieki comment wryly remarked to one putz holding up a sign, "Good for you, now someone will know you when you go to a restaurant...they'll be like 'hey, you're the asshole I saw on TV.'"
Someone else sarcastically chided in, "ESPN will be like, Wow! l
Look at this guy, he has friends!" In some poetic justice an ESPN sign that someone had actually jimmied to the wire fence behind the bleachers fell while we happened to be shouting at the people standing next to it, and that got one of the louder ovations of the night. Maybe it was "pushed" by one of the Stadium ghosts. Because of ESPN the gametime was pushed back a half hour, and even though that gave us an extra 30 minutes of drinking cheap beer outside, we griped and groaned, cause thats what we did. What can I say, we didn't like change.
A Blue Jay fan must have got lost and wandered into our midst, as one of us caught sight of him in his Toronto cap and snapped, "get out of here, you pecker!" He had quite the set of balls on him, considering I remarked on here that Toronto had just been swept by the Jokeland A's and now had last place to themselves. A Wall Street type who smirked through it all was snapped out of his cloud of glee with a "hey, no ties allowed!"
It was one of those rare nights when the Mutts were also in town, playing Colorado out at that dump Shea. There was an intimate gathering of a crowd at Yankee Stadium once again despite the fact the Yankees were lighting it up, and that was attributed to the fact that "everyone is at the big Rockie-Met series." In actuality, the Yankees did manage to outdraw the Mutts, 26,131 to 17,099. So the Mets were in the midst of drawing 1993 Yankee crowds! On this same night, the Knicks and Pacers were squaring off in a Game 5....wonder if they outdrew the Mutts as well.
Ah, this hurts my heart. There is a neat "1940 Forever" mantra scrawled on here. Rangers suck!
I actually remarked that security caught someone in our section with their own cache of alcohol, and "swiped it." The bastards. They apparently did a better job with that then they did with an "old man" who ran onto the field....its recorded here that it took 10 security guards to rope him in, and get him out of there. Again, I must ask...what the fu*k was going on with people running on the field? Its all over these scorecards, its amazing that they managed to get the games in through all of these idiots running back and forth across the field.
We gave a nod and a tip of the cap to our own "All-Star" Paul O'Neill, who was the 2nd runner-up in the All-Star balloting write-in category, says here so it must be true. O'Neill also won some sort of "Stroke of Brilliance Award" and had to come out and collect it before the game...was that given out by a roll-on deodorant sponsor or something? Its funny, as O'Neill collected his chintzy award someone grumbled, "and Gallego gets screwed again."
We were having our fun, breaking out the old bleacher wave (I cant believe that goes back to at least 1994) where we would rise in rythmic fashion, middle fingers extended into the air, and chuckling while Queen Bee Tina (remarkably recovered from her appendicitis when Toronto was in town) berated someone out there we had dubbed Pee-Wee. One of the greatest segues in bleacher history flowed out there as "The Chicken Dance" began blaring out of the Stadium speakers just as Syphillis Joe finished singing a rousing version of, well, "Syphillis" and was in the midst of taking his bow.
This guy Dennis was bitching that with the game on the line the Yankees, in Paul O'Neill "we have the best arm in baseball, and he is on the bench!" And why? Gerald Williams came in for defensive purposes to spell Tartabull, while O'Neill was on the bench. Ah, memories of gripes gone by.
Ah, sad to say we must head to the field sometime. I earmarked this evening as a "bullpen disaster." Yeah, the bullpen choked it up. I fu*king hated that sort of thing and saw it way too often back then. Yankees were holding a 4-2 lead in the 9th when the funny business started. Thanks Bob Wickman! Wickman had thrown 2 scoreless innings after picking up for Key in the 7th, but his luck ran out and he was torched for 3 runs in the 9th, with a little help from Steve Howe. Roberto Hernandez then sauntered out to lock and load it for Chicago, and that was it for the Yankees, dipping my record in attendi during 1994 to 12-5.
In that 9th inning the Yankees not only went down 1-2-3 but it was the good old racist inning - K K K. Polonia (batting for G Williams), O'Neill (batting for Leyritz), and Darryl friggin' Boston (batting for Mike Stanley...why??) all pinch-hit in the 9th, and they all struck out.
On the Yankee side of things Danny Tartabull had a nice evening, going 2-4 with 3 RBIs and a 2-run jack. Randy Velarde led off and went 2-5 with a RBI and a run. The Yankee lineup looked like this - Velarde, Boggs, Mattingly, Tartabull, Leyritz, Stanley, BW, Gallego, and Patrick Kelly. The White Sox served up leadoff hitter Tim "Rock" Raines, 2B Norberto Martin, 1B Frank Thomas, DH Julio Franco, 3B Robin Ventura, RF Darrin Jackson, CF Lance Johnson, C Ron Karkovice (one of the ugliest baseball players ever, looked like his face was carved from stone) and SS Ozzie "The Manager" Guillen. Working the hill for the Sox behind Alvarez were one Dane Johnson (in his rookie campaign!), followed by that Texas cokehead Dennis Cook (who actually stole the win) and the aforementioned Mr. Hernandez.
We had a nice laugh at the expense of Mr. Lance Johnson, who managed to get picked off with no one out after he led off the 2nd with a walk from Key. Key uncharacteristically walked 5 in his 6 innings of work, prompting his hasty retreat. He also managed to make an error, throwing away a pickoff attempt with the lumbering Frank Thomas on base as if he was going anywhere, capping off a Hell of a night.
Time for the educational portion of this offering - another player we saw and may have forgotten about...probably by choice. How about 2B Norberto Martin? Career epitaph -1993-1999-. Never played more than 79 games in a season, and escaped with a nifty .278 lifetime batting average. In 880 lifetime at-bats he hit a paltry 7 jacks, and drove in 89. Stole 23 bases too. Yet another product of the "baseball factory" known as San Pedro De Macarais, in the Dominican Republic. A lifetime White Sox, in 1994 he made $112,000 with the team. Toast one to his memory!
The umpires who had the pleasure to work this game were Derryl Cousins, Rick Reed, Ted Barrett, and Jim Evans, and this tough loss took 3:20 to play.
"Just give Kamienieki the ball every 5 days...he'd win 20, easy"
A Wednesday night in June, and we had quite the pitching duel coming in. Wilson Alvarez, who was 8-0 for the Palehose, facing off against Jimmy Key and his sterling 7-1 mark. Of course, as fates would have it, neither ended up being around to see the end of the game. At the end under "Win" I put "not Alvarez" and under "Loss" I put "not Key."
Even with Key on the mound our own elder George, big nose and all, was out there choosing to stroke off Scott Kamienieki, insisting if he was just given the ball every 5 days "he would win 20, easy." Um...security!
I wrote a "memory" on the top, so even then we were looking back in wonder at what had gone on around us. Even though he had nothing to do with this game, Jim Eisenreich was a topic of discussion. We were ruminating how he once moved from RF to LF in the middle of a game at the Stadium for absolutely no other reason outside of growing weary of, and not being able to handle, our insults. Those were the days when we could chase outfielders around pretty much around the field with our barbs, and keep Jose Canseco rooted at DH.
Poor Animal was actually escorted out during the National Anthem. No reason cited on here, but I do remember uniformed security ignoring the solemnity of the moment to usher him on out of there. We were able to keep his memory alive later in the game by chanting "Animals girlfriend!" at some drunk woman who kept standing up and waving her arms like a bird, sloshing beer over the sides of her cup, while talking gibberish like any good woman does. "What is she doing, bringing in planes?" someone asked as she made her genuflecting whirlybird gestures.
ESPN was on hand, I guess this was new for us as this appears to be quite the topic of conversation on the card. The yokels with the ESPN signs were catching a blitz of heat. George, making up for his ridiculous Kamienieki comment wryly remarked to one putz holding up a sign, "Good for you, now someone will know you when you go to a restaurant...they'll be like 'hey, you're the asshole I saw on TV.'"
Someone else sarcastically chided in, "ESPN will be like, Wow! l
Look at this guy, he has friends!" In some poetic justice an ESPN sign that someone had actually jimmied to the wire fence behind the bleachers fell while we happened to be shouting at the people standing next to it, and that got one of the louder ovations of the night. Maybe it was "pushed" by one of the Stadium ghosts. Because of ESPN the gametime was pushed back a half hour, and even though that gave us an extra 30 minutes of drinking cheap beer outside, we griped and groaned, cause thats what we did. What can I say, we didn't like change.
A Blue Jay fan must have got lost and wandered into our midst, as one of us caught sight of him in his Toronto cap and snapped, "get out of here, you pecker!" He had quite the set of balls on him, considering I remarked on here that Toronto had just been swept by the Jokeland A's and now had last place to themselves. A Wall Street type who smirked through it all was snapped out of his cloud of glee with a "hey, no ties allowed!"
It was one of those rare nights when the Mutts were also in town, playing Colorado out at that dump Shea. There was an intimate gathering of a crowd at Yankee Stadium once again despite the fact the Yankees were lighting it up, and that was attributed to the fact that "everyone is at the big Rockie-Met series." In actuality, the Yankees did manage to outdraw the Mutts, 26,131 to 17,099. So the Mets were in the midst of drawing 1993 Yankee crowds! On this same night, the Knicks and Pacers were squaring off in a Game 5....wonder if they outdrew the Mutts as well.
Ah, this hurts my heart. There is a neat "1940 Forever" mantra scrawled on here. Rangers suck!
I actually remarked that security caught someone in our section with their own cache of alcohol, and "swiped it." The bastards. They apparently did a better job with that then they did with an "old man" who ran onto the field....its recorded here that it took 10 security guards to rope him in, and get him out of there. Again, I must ask...what the fu*k was going on with people running on the field? Its all over these scorecards, its amazing that they managed to get the games in through all of these idiots running back and forth across the field.
We gave a nod and a tip of the cap to our own "All-Star" Paul O'Neill, who was the 2nd runner-up in the All-Star balloting write-in category, says here so it must be true. O'Neill also won some sort of "Stroke of Brilliance Award" and had to come out and collect it before the game...was that given out by a roll-on deodorant sponsor or something? Its funny, as O'Neill collected his chintzy award someone grumbled, "and Gallego gets screwed again."
We were having our fun, breaking out the old bleacher wave (I cant believe that goes back to at least 1994) where we would rise in rythmic fashion, middle fingers extended into the air, and chuckling while Queen Bee Tina (remarkably recovered from her appendicitis when Toronto was in town) berated someone out there we had dubbed Pee-Wee. One of the greatest segues in bleacher history flowed out there as "The Chicken Dance" began blaring out of the Stadium speakers just as Syphillis Joe finished singing a rousing version of, well, "Syphillis" and was in the midst of taking his bow.
This guy Dennis was bitching that with the game on the line the Yankees, in Paul O'Neill "we have the best arm in baseball, and he is on the bench!" And why? Gerald Williams came in for defensive purposes to spell Tartabull, while O'Neill was on the bench. Ah, memories of gripes gone by.
Ah, sad to say we must head to the field sometime. I earmarked this evening as a "bullpen disaster." Yeah, the bullpen choked it up. I fu*king hated that sort of thing and saw it way too often back then. Yankees were holding a 4-2 lead in the 9th when the funny business started. Thanks Bob Wickman! Wickman had thrown 2 scoreless innings after picking up for Key in the 7th, but his luck ran out and he was torched for 3 runs in the 9th, with a little help from Steve Howe. Roberto Hernandez then sauntered out to lock and load it for Chicago, and that was it for the Yankees, dipping my record in attendi during 1994 to 12-5.
In that 9th inning the Yankees not only went down 1-2-3 but it was the good old racist inning - K K K. Polonia (batting for G Williams), O'Neill (batting for Leyritz), and Darryl friggin' Boston (batting for Mike Stanley...why??) all pinch-hit in the 9th, and they all struck out.
On the Yankee side of things Danny Tartabull had a nice evening, going 2-4 with 3 RBIs and a 2-run jack. Randy Velarde led off and went 2-5 with a RBI and a run. The Yankee lineup looked like this - Velarde, Boggs, Mattingly, Tartabull, Leyritz, Stanley, BW, Gallego, and Patrick Kelly. The White Sox served up leadoff hitter Tim "Rock" Raines, 2B Norberto Martin, 1B Frank Thomas, DH Julio Franco, 3B Robin Ventura, RF Darrin Jackson, CF Lance Johnson, C Ron Karkovice (one of the ugliest baseball players ever, looked like his face was carved from stone) and SS Ozzie "The Manager" Guillen. Working the hill for the Sox behind Alvarez were one Dane Johnson (in his rookie campaign!), followed by that Texas cokehead Dennis Cook (who actually stole the win) and the aforementioned Mr. Hernandez.
We had a nice laugh at the expense of Mr. Lance Johnson, who managed to get picked off with no one out after he led off the 2nd with a walk from Key. Key uncharacteristically walked 5 in his 6 innings of work, prompting his hasty retreat. He also managed to make an error, throwing away a pickoff attempt with the lumbering Frank Thomas on base as if he was going anywhere, capping off a Hell of a night.
Time for the educational portion of this offering - another player we saw and may have forgotten about...probably by choice. How about 2B Norberto Martin? Career epitaph -1993-1999-. Never played more than 79 games in a season, and escaped with a nifty .278 lifetime batting average. In 880 lifetime at-bats he hit a paltry 7 jacks, and drove in 89. Stole 23 bases too. Yet another product of the "baseball factory" known as San Pedro De Macarais, in the Dominican Republic. A lifetime White Sox, in 1994 he made $112,000 with the team. Toast one to his memory!
The umpires who had the pleasure to work this game were Derryl Cousins, Rick Reed, Ted Barrett, and Jim Evans, and this tough loss took 3:20 to play.
Monday, September 13, 2010
May 25th, 1994 - "I cheer her illness"
May 25th, 1994 - Yankees host Toronto
"Rain Rain Go Away!"
Not much going on on this one, as it was a rainy night and I had to hide the pen regularly to keep it from sopping out. From what I did write, I could see that I was somewhat drunk. How out of character! Yankees were 11-3 on the season at this point, and I was looking at a 55-33 all-time record coming in with me in attendance, so I was truly a lucky fan. Never did see much losing at the Stadium, and we're not even up to the Championship Runs yet.
This game featured a benches clearing scrum at the very end, but I forget why...anyone? Anyone? 16 years later I never went back to research. I remember that happening once before when Jim Leyritz, playing first, got crossed up with Scott Fletcher of the Brewers who was huffing down the line, and they threw elbows on the game-concluding play at first. Both teams ended up coming together on the field as "We're Not Going To Take It" by Twisted Sister blared throughout the Stadium as it always did after a Yankee win back then. The scuffling teams with that song as a backdrop gets 6 beers on the 6-pack scale from me!
But this particular game-ending ruckus is lost to memory...I dont think there were any beanball incidents, with Jim Abbott and Pat Hentgen on the mound, and no one was hit on the night. But there it is, right at the end of the 9th, connected from the margin with an arrow in big excited loops and no less than six exclamation points....."Fight! Benches empty!!!!!!"
As we move on in time (if you stick with me against your better judgement, that is) it will be good to have help on hand to fill in the blanks like Dennis has been doing for some of these old-school cards. Cause 93-95 is still pre-most of the zany characters we all grew to know and love and love now and I have drank lots of these memories away.
Its funny, part of the scorecard is folded over itself in the sleeve, and when I went to pull it out to document the first time, it was cracking and crumbling like an ancient museum relic. It was soaked that night, and has not aged well. I could smell the rain - and the beer on it too! At least I hope thats beer!
I noted that elder George, who at that time was not paying to get in (and soon I was not either), could not get a free ticket for one reason for another and he was griping about it in front of everyone like an entitled doof. For those of us who paid to get in every game, we could have gave a shit about his travails. I also mentioned Ali came in late with his cowbell, regretfully missing the National Anthem cause he was lollygagging in the lobby cause he "thought it was the Canadian one."
Devil Fan Billy was at the center of the storm on this evening. He always said and did the dumbest things. Queen Bee Tina, never in the mood, snarled "how can you wear a Yankee shirt one day, and a Devil shirt the next....you're an embarrassment." Justin, you should demand answers on that one.
Billy wasn't through....he actually got into a fight with someone named "Eric", and yes, it was a physical fight...I dont really remember much of this outside of the scorecard mention, but I am sure it was funny, and it started cause "Billy got hit on the leg." With what, by who, or how, who knows. Apparently I did not jump into this one.
In other Creature capers on the evening, Fat Daddy Chico actually took his shirt off at 7:13 and was strolling around topless. And this was before the rain came.
In Tina's defense of her lambasement of Billy, she was "representing NY" as on that night I scrawled the Rangers beat the Devils to force a Game 7 in NHL Playoff Action. Outside of that, it was a bad night for Tina. "Her appendicitis" was acting up (at least that was the diagnosis then) and she was in pain all night. And letting us know about it, constantly and consistently. Little did she know that Syphillis Joe was laughing about it from his perch a few rows up, and actually said "I cheer her illness."
Someone came over and mentioned they were a doctor but no one believed him so he went away. By the 7th inning Tina was doubled over and taking away the fun of a 5-1 Yankee lead. At 10:59 (the game featured a 90 minute rain delay) Tina got up and said she was going to the hospital. Concern shrouded the Creatures, and even Syphillis Joe stopped smirking. At 11:12.....Tina came back...and stayed the rest of the game. On the way out Syphillis Joe once again mentioned - and questioned - her medical woes and said, "I'm just glad I was here to witness it." Wow...things were not so hunky-dory between the old-schoolers back in 1994, were they?
There is literally nothing else on here outside of a few invectives yelled at people who popped some umbrellas during the rain delay, like "put that tent down, asshole!" There were 5 documented "mo's" (that seemed to be my average) and a missing inning (most of the bottom of the 7th, which I attribute to the rain, most likely, as the markings around then are faded and rainish. If "rainish" is indeed a word)
Even with the long rain delay Jim Abbott pitched a complete game for the Yankees, upping his mark to 6-2, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks. That said, Jesus Christ, did I ever see anyone pitch for the Yankees but him?? He was backed up by 3 Yankee home runs, 2 rung up against Hentgen off the bat of Wade Boggs and another by Danny Tartabull, off your friend and mine, Greg Caderet.
Its a joke, the Yankees managed to score just 5 runs on SIXTEEN hits. The first 5 guys in the order were a collective 14-22.....for Christs sake, Hentgen himself gave up 12 hits in 6 innings, but only 4 runs. Sketchy.
The Jays mustered 6 hits, 2 each coming off the bats of Joe Carter and our arch-nemesis Devon White, who was carrying on a running feud with the Bleacher Creatures. The Jays proffered a lineup of White, Alomar, Molitor, Carter, Olerud, Ed Sprague, Mike Huff (lol), Randy Knorr, and Schofield. The Yankees countered with Polonia, Boggs, Mattingly, Tartabull, O'Neill, Leyritz, BW, Gallego, and Patrick Kelly.
Time for the educational portion of my offering - the guys you probably forgot (or never cared) that you got to see ply their trade in front of us. Todays profile is Toronto catcher Randy Knorr.
Mr Knorr saw action in 11 different major league campaigns (1991 - 2001) but only played in 253 games. He batted 676 times, which is a season and a couple of weeks worth for your average regular, and it took him a decade to do so. He finished up with a career batting average of .226 and a whopping .278 on-base percentage. Its funny, he did have a modicum of power, slugging 26 home runs in those 600 plus at-bats, while driving in 88. But he also struck out a whopping 161 times. He was a catcher by trade, but managed to play 12 innings at first during his major league career. His last major league game was on 9/9/2001 in a Montreal Expo uniform - we all know what happened 2 days later. All said, I'm glad to have seen him play!
For this Yankee victory there were 23,250 announced (but I am sure the bulk either no-showed or left early) and the game, sans delays, ran on for 2:37. Your umpires on hand were the late Durwood Merrill, Mike Reilly, Tim Welke, and Joe Brinkman.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment or complain!
"Rain Rain Go Away!"
Not much going on on this one, as it was a rainy night and I had to hide the pen regularly to keep it from sopping out. From what I did write, I could see that I was somewhat drunk. How out of character! Yankees were 11-3 on the season at this point, and I was looking at a 55-33 all-time record coming in with me in attendance, so I was truly a lucky fan. Never did see much losing at the Stadium, and we're not even up to the Championship Runs yet.
This game featured a benches clearing scrum at the very end, but I forget why...anyone? Anyone? 16 years later I never went back to research. I remember that happening once before when Jim Leyritz, playing first, got crossed up with Scott Fletcher of the Brewers who was huffing down the line, and they threw elbows on the game-concluding play at first. Both teams ended up coming together on the field as "We're Not Going To Take It" by Twisted Sister blared throughout the Stadium as it always did after a Yankee win back then. The scuffling teams with that song as a backdrop gets 6 beers on the 6-pack scale from me!
But this particular game-ending ruckus is lost to memory...I dont think there were any beanball incidents, with Jim Abbott and Pat Hentgen on the mound, and no one was hit on the night. But there it is, right at the end of the 9th, connected from the margin with an arrow in big excited loops and no less than six exclamation points....."Fight! Benches empty!!!!!!"
As we move on in time (if you stick with me against your better judgement, that is) it will be good to have help on hand to fill in the blanks like Dennis has been doing for some of these old-school cards. Cause 93-95 is still pre-most of the zany characters we all grew to know and love and love now and I have drank lots of these memories away.
Its funny, part of the scorecard is folded over itself in the sleeve, and when I went to pull it out to document the first time, it was cracking and crumbling like an ancient museum relic. It was soaked that night, and has not aged well. I could smell the rain - and the beer on it too! At least I hope thats beer!
I noted that elder George, who at that time was not paying to get in (and soon I was not either), could not get a free ticket for one reason for another and he was griping about it in front of everyone like an entitled doof. For those of us who paid to get in every game, we could have gave a shit about his travails. I also mentioned Ali came in late with his cowbell, regretfully missing the National Anthem cause he was lollygagging in the lobby cause he "thought it was the Canadian one."
Devil Fan Billy was at the center of the storm on this evening. He always said and did the dumbest things. Queen Bee Tina, never in the mood, snarled "how can you wear a Yankee shirt one day, and a Devil shirt the next....you're an embarrassment." Justin, you should demand answers on that one.
Billy wasn't through....he actually got into a fight with someone named "Eric", and yes, it was a physical fight...I dont really remember much of this outside of the scorecard mention, but I am sure it was funny, and it started cause "Billy got hit on the leg." With what, by who, or how, who knows. Apparently I did not jump into this one.
In other Creature capers on the evening, Fat Daddy Chico actually took his shirt off at 7:13 and was strolling around topless. And this was before the rain came.
In Tina's defense of her lambasement of Billy, she was "representing NY" as on that night I scrawled the Rangers beat the Devils to force a Game 7 in NHL Playoff Action. Outside of that, it was a bad night for Tina. "Her appendicitis" was acting up (at least that was the diagnosis then) and she was in pain all night. And letting us know about it, constantly and consistently. Little did she know that Syphillis Joe was laughing about it from his perch a few rows up, and actually said "I cheer her illness."
Someone came over and mentioned they were a doctor but no one believed him so he went away. By the 7th inning Tina was doubled over and taking away the fun of a 5-1 Yankee lead. At 10:59 (the game featured a 90 minute rain delay) Tina got up and said she was going to the hospital. Concern shrouded the Creatures, and even Syphillis Joe stopped smirking. At 11:12.....Tina came back...and stayed the rest of the game. On the way out Syphillis Joe once again mentioned - and questioned - her medical woes and said, "I'm just glad I was here to witness it." Wow...things were not so hunky-dory between the old-schoolers back in 1994, were they?
There is literally nothing else on here outside of a few invectives yelled at people who popped some umbrellas during the rain delay, like "put that tent down, asshole!" There were 5 documented "mo's" (that seemed to be my average) and a missing inning (most of the bottom of the 7th, which I attribute to the rain, most likely, as the markings around then are faded and rainish. If "rainish" is indeed a word)
Even with the long rain delay Jim Abbott pitched a complete game for the Yankees, upping his mark to 6-2, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks. That said, Jesus Christ, did I ever see anyone pitch for the Yankees but him?? He was backed up by 3 Yankee home runs, 2 rung up against Hentgen off the bat of Wade Boggs and another by Danny Tartabull, off your friend and mine, Greg Caderet.
Its a joke, the Yankees managed to score just 5 runs on SIXTEEN hits. The first 5 guys in the order were a collective 14-22.....for Christs sake, Hentgen himself gave up 12 hits in 6 innings, but only 4 runs. Sketchy.
The Jays mustered 6 hits, 2 each coming off the bats of Joe Carter and our arch-nemesis Devon White, who was carrying on a running feud with the Bleacher Creatures. The Jays proffered a lineup of White, Alomar, Molitor, Carter, Olerud, Ed Sprague, Mike Huff (lol), Randy Knorr, and Schofield. The Yankees countered with Polonia, Boggs, Mattingly, Tartabull, O'Neill, Leyritz, BW, Gallego, and Patrick Kelly.
Time for the educational portion of my offering - the guys you probably forgot (or never cared) that you got to see ply their trade in front of us. Todays profile is Toronto catcher Randy Knorr.
Mr Knorr saw action in 11 different major league campaigns (1991 - 2001) but only played in 253 games. He batted 676 times, which is a season and a couple of weeks worth for your average regular, and it took him a decade to do so. He finished up with a career batting average of .226 and a whopping .278 on-base percentage. Its funny, he did have a modicum of power, slugging 26 home runs in those 600 plus at-bats, while driving in 88. But he also struck out a whopping 161 times. He was a catcher by trade, but managed to play 12 innings at first during his major league career. His last major league game was on 9/9/2001 in a Montreal Expo uniform - we all know what happened 2 days later. All said, I'm glad to have seen him play!
For this Yankee victory there were 23,250 announced (but I am sure the bulk either no-showed or left early) and the game, sans delays, ran on for 2:37. Your umpires on hand were the late Durwood Merrill, Mike Reilly, Tim Welke, and Joe Brinkman.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment or complain!
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