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!