June 10th, 1995 - Booin' the marching band!

June 10th, 1995 - Yankees host the Mariners
Sheriff Tom vs Bobby Ayala - the feud lives!

A Saturday afternoon. Some of you may remember this sweet girl Jamie that was inexplicably friends with me around then. She got married on this day to a Soldier she met while working at West Point, a good old Southern boy, and I lauded it on this scorecard. We lost contact so many years ago...wonder if they made it. I enjoyed many a cigar and cold beer on their porch out there around West Point. I also once wandered drunkenly out of their house one time and ended up walking into the wrong house after a spell, sitting down to watch tv until I noticed a friendly dog that I realized they did not own. But thats another story.

This was also the infamous day where my brother David and I, along with thousands of others, booed our local high school marching band, the Deer Park Falcons, who were trying valiantly to entertain the crowd before the game. My brother was particularly harsh, harsh enough to where our cousin Kristin, who was in the band, broke down in tears visibly on the field. I remember back then Filip Bondy from the NY Daily Snooze sniffing around and asking my brother why he would boo a member of the family like that and he simply said, "I had to. And I would do it again, every time."

Another funny thing that happened on this day was Randy Johnson getting dropped off by a cab right in front of the general admission bleacher line, which was snaking down the sidewalk as it always did the morning of a Saturday game. One of our more observant few saw Johnson in the back of the cab settling the fare before he got out, and was able to muster the troops for his inevitable exit. Johnson clambered out of the cab kind of sort of in front of where Steve's old Greek Eatery was, and started his saunter around the Stadium. He had to know what he was in for. Everything from "nice back you got there!" and "Hey, whats up Big Bird" and "You're a dickhead!" rang his ears. The guy then promptly went out and K'd 12 Yankees in 7 innings. I remember thinking back then, watch - this guy will end up on the Yankees soon enough. Well, we know how this story ends.

Wow, was this an eventful weekend. I mentioned that a guy was killed at the Rock Ridge Saloon the night before, with me in attendance about 40 feet away. What happened was this - I was upstairs in the area with the dance floor talking - or I should say slurring - to some girl when all of a sudden she literally threw me to the ground. I remember being pissed as I hardly knew this girl and had not even said anything offensive yet, until I noticed people running around and heard one last pop. Turns out someone tossed from the bar earlier in the night returned, this time with a gun in hand. He sought out the bouncer who tossed him, found him upstairs in the mens bathroom, and shot him in the head. For those of you who dont remember the infamous Rock Ridge, it later became the infamous Culture Club on Houston and Varick, and I bet it is haunted by this restless soul.

What a deal we had back then at Rock Ridge. On Friday nights it was $5 all you could drink draft, from 5PM through 10PM - a dollar an hour. And just before 10 Dean the barkeep would let up load up 10 or so cups each to keep on drinking until we left, were pulled out, or thrown out. This shooting was the beginning of the end for this place. Stupid people and their guns, I hate them!

Queen Bee Tina was grumpy at the Mariner fan contingent on hand, snarling "I dont think there are this many Seattle fans in Seattle." She spent the better part of the day chasing them out of the section.

I was too drunk too keep score on this Saturday so you are not getting much there. Nothing is legible beyond what I discussed, pretty much. I did mention that one of the "guest scorekeepers" was someone who dropped a stinkbomb down in the concourse area which I found funny. If that happened these days, they would evacuate the Stadium.

A very early Blue Lou appearance on the card...I mentioned on here how he complimented my "Overkill shirt" - for years he used to call me "Overkill" - and this was the start of that, apparently.

I do see a crack about Fat Daddy Chico's weight on here, comparing him to a blimp (like that joke has not been on here before) and a mention that a guy that was openly booing Tartabull was called "a Met fan" by another fellow, almost causing the two of them to come to blows. Despite the prodding of many for them to flash dukes, cooler heads prevailed.

Hey, speaking of Johnson anyone else remember this "tall" tale? He had a running fued of sorts going on with Jimmy Leyritz, after a beanball and some heated words during a previous affair. We all came to the Stadium on this day wondering if we would see any fireworks, maybe even a grandoise bench-clearing brawl. Well, first thing I heard was scuttlebutt on how a bunch of folks had heard on the radio that "to clear the air" Leyritz had actually picked Johnson up at the airport to give him a private ride into the city. The story has never been confirmed or denied to my knowledge, but I remember it was all over the place that day and we were pretty chagrined about it. Looking back on it so many years later, I smell malarky on this story.

Whatever the case may be, Johnson had the last laugh on Leyritz on this afternoon, whiffing him a couple of times. On top of Johnsons 12 strikeouts my arch-enemy Bobby Ayala (who used to openly curse at and HECKLE me from the field during BP) struck out another pair to toss up 14 strikouts on the day by the Yankee swingers. Jeff Nelson got the win in the 3-2 affair, and that idiot Ayala notched the save. For the good guys, Sterling Hitchcock actually pitched 7 very strong innings for naught, giving up only 1 run on 4 hits. Wickman and Howe each gave up single runs to swing the game to the Mariners, and John Wetteland mopped up.

A very uneventful game - no home runs, only 13 hits between the 2 teams, no standout days at the plate. Here are your lineups - Seattle offered up RF Amaral, CF Alex Diaz, DH Edgar Martinez, LF Newfield, 3B Blowers, 1B Pirkl, 2B Fermin, C Wilson, and SS A-Rod in his sophomore year, and probably 50th or so game in the majors. The Yankees countered with CF BW, 3B Velarde, C Leyritz, DH Stanley, RF Tartabull, LF G Williams, 1B Silvestri (no, that is not a missprint), 2B Fernandez, and SS Jeter.

Ah, the profile. Why not go with Bobby Ayala? What a sourpuss. This guy did not like us at all, and he fu*king hated me. We had a running feud. Before the games he would wander out in right, looking for me. "Wheres that fuc*in' dickhead?" he would ask. When he would find me he would say such wonderful things like "go to the dentist, you dickhead" or "fu*k you" or "your mother sucked my dick." It was alright, I was going right back at him, and I was honored that whenever Seattle was in town and he would spot me out there he would wave me down to exchange pleasantries. In one memorable moment in his career he missed some time as it was reported that he punched his fist through a hotel room window while he was drunk. When I casually mentioned this incident to him he said "nah, thats not what happened. What really happened was I had my finger in your mothers twat, and she liked it so much she kicked out her leg and kicked it through the window."

A charming fellow, and i miss him.

He had some good seasons on the hill, but flamed out fast. His career stretched from 92-99, with tenures for the Reds, M's, and a final season split between the Expos and the Cubs. He left the game with an ERA of 4.78, but he mixed some nice years in there. In 97 he went 10-5 out of the pen, only to follow that up in 98 with a 1-10 mark. He had a lifetime mark of 37-44 in 406 games (14 starts), walking 245 and fanning 541 in 576 innings. He had 59 lifetime saves to his ledger. Born in 69, he was an undrafted free agent by the Reds and known for being a John Franco lookalike, somewhat. I shouuld sponsor his page on Baseballreference.com. Despite the words we exchanged, I am glad I saw this dick pitch!

As far as the 10th goes, only 25,279 came out on a Saturday afternoon to see the game, which was played in 3:03, and arbitrated by Jim Evans, John Hirschbeck, Rick Reed, and Larry McCoy.

Thanks for reading!