A double-dipper! End of regular season, bitch!
Contrary to popular belief, I was not 3 sheets to the wind on this day. I was 48 sheets to the wind. At one point on this scorecard someone blamed it on Gang Bang Steve and admonished, "Steve, why did you let him get SO drunk?"
This was an old trick of mine in which I am not proud, but years after the fact as I lounged at my computer table chattering with my daughter, who was drawing on her leap pad to my left as I first prepped this blog entry, I can laugh about it. I used to get bombed even before game one, and hear the inevitable, "um, you got 7 more hours to go, dude" as I was helped up the stairs. During one legendary doubleheader a couple of my cronies got tired of holding me up and walked me outside to "get some air." I ended up going to sleep on the sidewalk, where people shuffled around me for the next 30 minutes before I woke up in time for game 2.
But I digress, lets go to 9/23/95, shall we?
Top left margin was pretty clear cut, as Steve crytically penned, "Tom is seriously drunk." So this entire card was his baby, I did not even attempt to write the lineups, which I often did even under the influence, in comic fashion. Someone else who had taken one look at me said and transcribed for posterity "this is going to be an ugly day."
Ugly enough that early on a fan in the box seats, who was under verbal attack, snapped the finger at us and was booted for his efforts. This is the sort you hope came all the way in from Monticello for the day, only to get thrown out 3 innings into the first game of a doubleheader. What a tool. But it was even uglier before the game started as none other than Meatloaf sauntered onto the field to sing the National Anthem. "Meatloaf?" someone whined. "I'd rather have steak."
Steve was actually enough on point to mention my little bon mot about the Yankees being 9-1 with my teddy bear "Bear Ass" in attendance. By the end of this day they would make that 11-1, and the playoff possibilities were endless. But for the rest of the day Steve simply kept to the business at hand, the game, and did not really get into the bufoonery around us in the bleachers. With me essentially out of commission there may not have been much.
So I wont get too deep into Game 1, aside from telling you that the Yankees won 5-2 with David Cone besting Jose Lima (2-9 in his first year of regular work) John Wetteland notched save 28, striking out the side in the 9th, and Ruben Sierra hit a Yankee jack. Your Yankee lineup was 3B Boggs, CF BW, RF O'Neill, DH Sierra, LF James, 1B Mattingly, C Stanley, SS Velarde, and 2B Jughead. Tigers countered with CF Curtis, SS Gomez, 3B Fryman, DH Fielder, 1B Clark, RF rookie Bobby Higginson, LF Phil Nevin, C John Flaherty, and 2B Steve Rodriguez. (lol) - Lima was followed on the mound by Greg Gohr, Dwayne Henry, and Ben Blomdahl. I mean, why even bother showing up if thats what you are going to parade out there?
GAME 2
I seem to have come around a bit, although Steve wrote "Tom's still piss drunk." For some reason this game was scored on yellow paper. I had some cool scoresheets I had run through and i had taken to photocopying more, but for some reason I went with the mustard hue. To celebrate the last regular season game I would attend in 95? Who the Hell knows, but it does look ghastly.
I actually managed to pick up the pen during game 2, but added nothing, really. I wrote "Curtis sucks" and "Sweep!" I also mentioned we started a "Central Park Killers!" chant at a band of brigands hanging around the railing. We were in the mood to compare fans with criminals I see, as there was also a Unabomber chant.
Other notes of interest - Steve sang a "good" Gang Bang, a man was walking around with a sticker on his back, Curtis "looked at us", and a stringent observation by Steve that "there's an asshole born every day." The old even then line of "Higginson, you suck so bad you aren't even in the video game" was dusted off.
At one point, with yet another beer in hand, I lifted it up for a toast, waving Bear Ass around in my other hand, and announced (or I should say slurred) "this is the best $6 I spent this year."
Yankees won this too, notching Bear Ass's mark in attendance to a cool 11-1. This was a 3-1 win, behind Scott Kamienieki of all people. He evened up his season mark to a middling 6-6. Wetteland fanned 2 in the 9th for his 29th save, so he pitched a perfect 2 on the day, fanning 5 of the 6 men that came up to face him. Then again, this WAS the Tigers..
For the Tigers Felipe Lira was the hardluck loser, and he had the ignomity of being followed by Brian Bohanon, Brian Maxcy, and Mike Meyers. Lira especially had a fun day, throwing two wild pitches and plunking Jughead Kelly. The Yankee lineup facing the Bengal arms in game 2 was 3B Boggs, CF BW, LF O'Neill, DH Sierra, a rare appearance by Strawberry in RF, 1B Mattingly, C Leyritz, SS Velarde, and 2B Jughead Kelly. The Tigers "countered" with CF Curtis, SS the aged Allan Trammel, 3B Fryman, DH Fielder, 1B rookie Tony Clark, RF Higginson, LF Phil Nevin, 2B Scott Fletcher, and C Ron Tingley.
Sad day for the city of Detroit, 9/23/95, cause not only were their Tigers getting swept in New York, but fabled Tiger alum Lance Parrish was wrapping up his great career in a Toronto Blue Gay uniform, out at Fenway on this Saturday.
I was not going to do a profile, but seeing Ron Tingley's name made me laugh, so he it is. A good old "backup catcher" that managed only one seasons worth of ABs (563) in only 278 games over parts of NINE seasons of mlb baseball. First appeared in 1982 (!) in 8 games for the Padres of all teams, then dissapeared until showing up for the Angels in 1988 (where he stuck around till 93) - he split 94 between Florida and the Chisox, and closed the curtain in 1995 for the Tigers, where he batted .226 in his second-largest amount of ABs in his career (124)
Overall he left the game with a lifetime .195 average - holy fu*k! - with 10 homers and 55 RBIs. Walked 54 times and fanned 165, a ridiculous number. Stole 2 bases over time, and was nailed 5 times. What the Hell was he doing running? This is the kind of guy that was always fun to watch. 10th round draft pick in 1977 by the Padres, he was born in 1959 in that baseball hotbed of Maine. Baseballreference.com page had 1,613 hits as of 11/22/2010. Goodnight Mr. Tinsley, wherever you are!
There were an announced 36,248 on hand for this twinbill, with game 1 being played in 2:44 and game 2 being played in a hyper 2:38. I dont think the Tigers wanted to be there...your umpires on the day were none other than Rich Garcia, Dale Ford, Larry Young, and Mike Reilly.
Thanks for reading, and the regular season on 1995 is a freakin' wrap! Stick around for playoff action!
RON TINGLEY!
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