"Sit down, you big booty bitch!"
A Friday night at the Stadium, with the wildcard there for the taking. Lets get on with it.
I must make immediate note of one of the funnier little ditties we came up with out there, a nod to nondescript Yankee reliever Rob MacDonald. Sung to the tune of, what else, Old McDonald Had a Farm. Here goes...
"Rob MacDonald has no arm" (alternated with "Rob MacDonald gave up a bomb") with the tagline chorus being "with an oh, fu*k here, and an oh shit there" -pretty solid stuff from amatuer songsmiths such as ourselves!
Before the game Orlando Cepeda of all people was on the field getting some sort of award or gushing over some cause, and he never seemed to leave. "What, did he take up residence on the field?" someone finallly snarled. A fan was out there with one of those party bags of potato chips, selling the chips in there for $1.75 a bag. He sold his chips, but took a lot of grief while doing so. Some tart then marched out on the field and butchered the national anthem, causing us to wait for the announcement of, as someone groused, "another moment of silence, to mourn the passing of our National Anthem."
How times have changed....someone ticked off the names of the Yankee starting pitchers of Cone, McDowell, Pettitte, Key and Hitchcock and bitched they were making "20 million." Damn, these days that would have only paid for one of them. A few people were pissed off at Key, and someone actually was clamoring for his "release" out there. Stunning.
The law was in full force out there in Section 39 that night. First two kids who had to be around 16 or 17 years old were busted for drinking beer right in front of the security guards. There is something to be said for "act like you belong there or should be doing it and you may get away with it" but, Jesus Christ, these kids did not look old enough to get into a rated R movie, yet alone drink beer. Someone up by us (name withheld or never tabbed at the time) was busted "smoking pot" which caused Sandy the Latina to go bezerk, so it was probably one of the vanful of people she bought along with her. Another in that group, her young daughter Christina, stole my teddy bear "Bear Ass" that night, and held him hostage most of the game.
Our gangly friend Bird was making messes, first knocking over someones beer and then talking the ear off of a security guy against the rail, which bought a heavy downpour of "sit the fu*k downs!" and "fly away, Bird!" 's. Even old Ali the Keeper of the Cowbell got into it, turning to us and snarling, "Bird makes me sick."
Speaking of Ali, already, in 1995, there was talk about what to do with the bell once Ali was no longer around. Although it sadly turns out that he was merely 7 months from his passing, one would not know it as he was a walking party in a ballroom. Queen Bee Tina went so far as to describe a "ceremony" to pass the bell when the time ever came. Mmm, dont remember it transitioning so formally when "Mo Love" Milton took over the important duties that carry to this day.
An Asian fellow was bitching about us and our boisterous behavior to anyone who would listen, and even took a trip to the rail himself to rat us out. For all I know, he could have been the one that pegged the marijuana smoker. People mocked him, of course, he being an easy target Asian and all. "This is a Ramily Section" we smirked. "Rit down."
One funny crack was directed to a busty Latina that was dancing on the seats between innings. "Sit down, you big booty bitch!" someone shouted, adding "you take it up the ass!" Soon enough, though, people were clamoring for her to stand up, with her exotic dances that many of us had seemingly never been privvy to. After Shawn Green doubled in the 9th to make the Yankee lead tenous someone was able to see the bright side of things, as the ball skipped into the corner and bounced around. "Well, at least that got her to stand up again."
After the game ended people were watching her gather her things, getting ready to go, mentioning how they felt they just had a free showing of a "latin porn." As she passed old school Elder George on the way down the steps he sincerely told her, "thanks for not charging us."
Lots of mentions of a security guard named Harold out there, especially on a night like this when things seemed out of control to a point. I actually noted on here that at this point in late 1995 he honestly did not know who Derek Jeter was, although he worked the Stadium. Well, what did we expect, as we noted that he seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with Sandy's daughter Christina. Unhealthy as in I am not even sure she was in double figures in age...we were watching a lovely Latina dance around and here was Harold, feeding Christina potato chips and having a pretend conversation with my stuffed animal "Bear Ass", who was firmly in her grip. Christina herself was very funny, at one point marching up to Tina and saying, "you bleacher bimbo." Someone coached her well.
Some yoke was hanging around, wearing a football jersey with the # 85 on it, and he had to hear the old, "what's 85, the last time you got laid?" Someone than chirped, "nah, thats what he paid for it."
This was one of the very few occassions I was on hand for a homer that dropped in a 2 or 3 seat radius of where I happened to be. It was off the bat of Ruben Sierra, a 3-run bomb in the 8th that basically put it in the books for the Yankees. I remember watching it off the bat, muttering, "looks like it is coming this way.....coming right here....holy shit, thats coming to me." Well, I did not get it, I was knocked down by the wave reaching for it, but I still remember that shot for sure.
Looking at the scorecard I see we played with the names in the lineups again, a little. Ed Sprague was "Ocean" Sprague, and Shawn Green was "Queen" Green. Of course Oleruds name came with a "nice helmet ya got there!" attached to it. Funny moment on the REAL scoreboard, as when Green batted for the first time Roberto Alomar's sketchy looking visage smiled down on us next to Greens stats in err.
I used to have real chops back then, and screamed Mattingly's name a few times during the game. This was pre-roll call, but I got Mattingly to turn around and give a little wave. But even as he was doing that, a ton of people were turning to one another out there and shaking their heads, talking about "Mattingly's last stand." We knew it was done for him.
Yankees pulled this one out, 6-4, behind a litany of pitchers. Jack McDowell started and was beaten about a bit before he left in the 5th. MacDonald came on, and despite our mocking song, caused no harm. Wickman, Howe, and Wetteland finished up, with Howe notching the W and Wetteland the save. For the bats, the Yankees had 11 hits, with Boggs, Sierra and Velarde having 2. The big hit was Sierra's 3-run gift to us in right. Your Yankee lineup was 3B Boggs, CF BW, RF O'Neill, DH Sierra, LF James, 1B Mattingly, C Stanley, SS Velarde, and 2B Jughead Kelly.
Paul Menhart (lol) started for the Jays, and went 7, giving up 10 hits and leaving the hardluck loser. Mike Timlin, a longtime bleacher nemesis, wrapped up for Toronto. The Jays mustered 9 hits of thier own, and Green had 3 of them. Alomar and Olerud also had multi-hit games, with Olerud driving in 3. The Jay lineup was 2B Alomar, DH Molitor, CF Carter (in center!), 1B Olerud, 3B Sprague, RF Green, LF Delgado (lol - Delgado in LEFT!), C Sandy Martinez, and SS Tomas Perez.
For our profile lets go with the esteemable Mr. Menhart. Did not stick around long, but played the vagabond. A year in Toronto, a year in Seattle, and a year in San Diego. It all added up to 41 games (23 in starts) and a lifetime tally of 5-9. A sickly 5.47 ERA, thanks to his 100 earned runs allowed in 164 plus innings of work. In that time he was lit up for 169 hits, and walked 85 to 90 strikeouts. It all started so promising, he was a 9th round draft choice by Toronto in 1990 out of Western Carolina University, a school that bought us the likes of Wayne Tolleson. 95 was indeed his rookie campaign, and Mehnart can always say he was involved in a trade for Miguel Cairo, in December 95. His page on Baseballreference.com has only had 1,455. I bet 1,200 are from people with the last name Menhart. I am happy to have seen him work!!
As for the 21st, the Thursday night game was played in 3:03, in front of only 17,766 fans. Considering the Yankees were clawing for a playoff spot, that is pathetic. No wonder Mattingly was able to hear me at first. Your umpires on the evening were Dan Morrison, Al Clark, Larry Barnett, Greg Kosc.
Thanks for reading!!
PAUL MENHART! GIVE HIM A HAND!
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