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!