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!