1995 Wildcard - Game 2!!
October 4th, 1995 - Yankees host the Mariners
The Leyritz home run game!
Handwriting is a little more sloppy on this scorecard, so I obviously found some time for pregame drinks, whereas I did not partake before game 1. But it is all highly legible, so I was coherent and lucid, unlike, say, game 6 of the 1996 World Series...but we'll get to that in due time.
The cynical bastards that we were, we were already joking about the bunting adorning the tiers. We were already tired of looking at it, and thinking about it now it was something we grew to completely take for granted. "Looks like Grandma sewed that fu*king stuff." someone said.
"Welcome to the fu*king show!" howled the burly Captain Bob, with both beefy arms held aloft. I remember when he got so excited about the Yankees even getting a sniff of first place during a regular season campaign...I have a picture at home of Captain Bob holding up a newspaper aloft in the street by the Stadium, with Jim Abbott pitching on the back cover, with the headline tag, "Hey,Abbott, Yankees are in first!" And there is Bob in the picture, with the biggest shit-eating grin ever, celebrating a first-place tie in the month of July...did not take much to please a Yankee fan in the dark days.
Phil Rizzuto threw out the first pitch, which caused people to yammer on and on about how much he was missed in the TV booth. There was a guy going topless on this cool, drizzly night, but knowing he was inviting trouble in his attempt to get on TV he had "I'm an asshole" painted in blue paint on his back. "What an asshole" we muttered, as he walked by.
While we settled in we discussed our pregame activities, which included a "God bless the bowling alley bathroom" from me. Hell, they just closed down that bowling alley this year of 2010, and I wanted to out there to light candles and hold vigil. There had been a guy walking around outside the Stadium beforehand, gladhanding and drinking out of a bag, dressed as the Pope with big Pope hat and everything. We looked around for him in the bleachers as he was last seen by the gate, but to no avail. "He must be in Stans, drinking out of the almighty chalice" someone speculated.
I gave a nod to the true old-schoolers who were on hand. From Captain Bob to our loud friend Kevin, Animal to Elder George, Queen Bee Tina to Cowbell King Ali, and a cast of thousands that "no one wants" - it was all for them. Tina was on seat patrol, and got into quite the spat over a corner seat that she would not relinquish. "What, is your name on that seat?" one guy snapped, to which Tina shot right back with "as a matter of fact, now that you mention it..."
I see where we were hung up over a bad call on the field for a while. It even got a "bull-fu*king-shit" out of someone named Joey three different times. Someone blamed it on us all standing up during the play. "Every time we stand up, something bad happens." he grumbled. Wish I could have introduced him to Junior years down the line, who would stand up at something as meaningless the appearance of a bird. Regarding the call on the field, someone shouted, "Ump, you couldnt lead Ray Charles through the forest! You asshole!"
We were keeping a running tab on bad umpire calls, and it reached 3. And, in quite the coincidence, Buck Showalter made 3 different appearances on the field to question calls on that cool October evening.
A fistfight actually broke out, and to no one's surprise our very own Animal was involved. I wrote down an abridged play by play - a guy was arguing over a seat, Animal told him to get to stepping, he went after Animal, and a third guy jumped in. Well, first guy and third guy gone, Animal gets to stay. Amazing how that worked in our own gated community out there.
"Bear Ass", my tagalong stuffed bear, was back on hand, with the Yankees record with him now on hand standing at 12-1. The unthinkable happened as he dissapeared at exactly 8:08, and I thought he was stolen and cut to shreds for shits and giggles, but he reappeared at 8:20. In a comic note, I handed him off to one of the old crew to "babysit." The babysitter on that night? Some fine chap named John Hughes. You know, the guy that was later "arrested for counterfeiting money." This was a story I made up years later to explain his sudden dissapearance. Of course years laster he shows back up, and everyone thinks he just got out of jail for counterfeiting money. Meanwhile, he was out getting an education.
He ended up autographing the scorecard (another bad gimmick bought back for the playoffs) as did Syphills Joe, who even added the tagline, "Syphillis....it all started with a simple kiss!"
This game went deep, into the 15th, and by the time I got to page 2 "The Pope" from outside reappeared. "Jesus Christ, the Pope is here!" someone howled, bemused. By then the ground beneath our feet was covered in a sea of empty beer cups and George, among others, proudly announced, "after we win, these cups are going that way" - pointing either to the field or to the people in front of us that annoyed us all night by standing up for all the wrong reasons.
When I remember in my head some of the funny lines over time and recount the simplicity of some of our wit and humor, this one always came to mind, and it was from this very night....a guy with a Gilligan hat was one of those people standing up and blocking our view at all the wrong times, and finally fed up with it someone shouted, "Down in front, Little Buddy!"
Its amazing at how, even during a playoff game, we could find time to argue about something dumb, or wonder about stupid minutia that has nothing to do with the task at hand. After a couple of innings of seeking out the answer we finally learned that the song that "Dancing Homer" did his thing to was in fact called "The Baby Elephant Dance."
I went through both sides of the scorecard during this extra inning tilt, and Page 2 has the 11th through the 15th innings, and even that late we were still grousing about the umps. "The ump needs to get out of here early, he has to get up in the morning for umpire school." someone reasoned. "Even the OJ jury would not find those umps innocent of killing us" someone chirped in. "This is a tragedy...a debaucle" someone surmised.
But all is well that ends well. I dont remember exactly what happened, but leading into Leyritz' home run apparently the Yankees got handed an "even-up call." "I can hear the ump now" someone said just before Leyritz laid into one. "Games over, Yankees win, go home."
You always get some of these...I had to comment on the spate of people that actually got up, collected their coats, and left with a 4-4 playoff game in front of them. I understand the game ended up at 1:20 in the morning, but come on now...
And after that ending, one of the moments out there that will stay with me FOREVER, maybe the first one I experienced of dozens of magical moments the next few years. 10 minutes of celebrating in the rain, singing to New York New York, hugs and handshakes, dancing on the benches, slipping off and falling down, only to clamber up again. Someone passed around a flask, and we struggled to light soggy cigars. But that singing....I will never forget the Stadium singing in unison, and our high hopes for the rest of the playoffs. And it was incredible to spend it with that crew that was out there on that night, in that fashion. Good times, good times...
I'll make this quick. You dont need a recap from me on a playoff game, and this is long already. Here are your starting lineups for posterity...the Yankees marched out 3B Boggs, CF BW, RF O'Neill, DH Sierra (a few "where's Strawberry"s were uttered despite Sierra's monster spurts), 1B Mattingly, LF Dion James (lol), C Leyritz, SS Fernandez, and 2B Velarde. Your Yankee hurlers on the night were Pettitte, Wickman, Wetteland, and Rivera, who went 3.1 innings of scoreless ball to notch the W just a day after I had written down that he was not eligible for the playoff roster.
And Sierra did it AGAIN. Another home run, and for the second time in a matter of weeks a home run right to our little gaggle out there in Section 39. Don Mattingly, in the middle of his last stand, followed that with a home run of his own, there to lead off the 6th, and put the crowd all agog.
The Mariners countered with LF Coleman, SS Sojo, CF Griffey, DH E Martinez, RF Buhner, 3B Blowers, 1B Tino, C Wilson, and 2B Cora. That pesky bastard. On the hill we saw Andy Benes, Bill Risley, Charlton, Jeff Nelson, and of course, Timothy Belcher, who belched up the winning HR.
5 hours and 12 minutes to play. Yes, 5 hours and 12 minutes. 57,126 on hand, with no less than 678,203 claiming they were there that night currently. Your umpires on hand were none other than Dale Scott, Jim McKean, Larry McCoy, Rich Garcia, Mike Reilly, and the ever-popular Jim Joyce.
And THAT puts a wrap on the playoffs of 1995. And what comes next but 1996.....the jokes will become more biting, the characters the more vivid, the beer even better.
See you soon with your first installments of the wild ride that was 1996!!!!!!!!
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
PLAYOFFS! 10/3/95 - Yankees / Mariners Game 1!
PLAYOFFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 3rd, 1995 - Yankees host Seattle
GAME 1 - Wild Card 1995
"check him out, getting high on the handy horn."
Its ironic, I actually flipped on a Yankeeography the other night (I generally avoid them, i like my pancakes with not so much 'syrup') and the subject was Don Mattingly, and they went into depth about the crowd reaction when he took the field on this fateful night. I remembered all of that but it was nice to watch it again. I do remember a lot of things regarding that game...it was only in later playoff games in later playoff runs where I would get sloshed.
In a prophetic note I wrote "Beginning of a Run" in the "Date" section, and oh, was it ever the beginning of a run, for the Yankees and we fans that merrily followed along.
I was very cogent of my surroundings on this night, as although the scorecard is full it is legible (attributed to little to no drinking) and therefore not the funniest card I had seen. There was business at hand! In the intro section on the card I also remarked on the "bunting" we would get to know so well in future years, and that I forgot my friend, the little stuffed bear "Bear Ass", an inexcusable faux pas, as the Yankees were 11-1 with my furry friend on hand.
This was a year where we had our tickets taken care of us beforehand, as during the last game of the season elder George and Queen Bee Tina had gone up to the Yankee offices with $600 or so, cash money, and secured our ducats. This was a wonderful and pretty much exclusive privelage which died in later years, mainly cause some of us could not keep our fu*king mouths shut.
Before the game a "mystery guy" in a Seattle uniform was down and hurt on the warning track. Took a BP fly off the noodle, apparently. We later learned who it was, but it never made the scorecard, and its now lost to time.
They actually carted out what was then an 11 year old to sing the Anthem, which bought snickers and some groans. I mean, really, this was the best they could do? Joe DiMaggio threw out the first pitch, and we all remarked how nice it was to see the Yankee Clipper. I tagged on the names not eligible for this rounds go-around, including - lol - Jeter, Mariano, Melido Perez, Jimmy Key, and the other Joltin' Joe, Mr. Ausanio. I noted one thing from the introductions, the fact that Steve Howe was "booed." Of course, by this point whenever he entered a game someone would invariably mutter, "Howe big a disaster is this?"
We were letting all of our friends and familiars nudge in with us no matter where their ticket was, and the seats were packed, but you guys all know that well. Nothing new. I actually kept my headphones on that night, and listened to the WABC-Radio feed during the game, which bought me a lot of little bon mots and pearls of wisdom that I added to the card. It also screwed up the normal run of jokes I would have heard and later shared.
For one thing, if I marked this correctly, the Yankees were 10-15 on the season if Randy Velarde was not in the starting lineup. Who woulda knew? During much of the game you could hear a lone voice chirping up in favor of Seattle over the radio feed, causing John Sterling to muse, "99.9% of those on hand are rooting for the Yankees...the other .1% is right here next to me." I got to hear the always smarmy Michael Kay, then Sterlings running buddy in the booth, refer to someone as a "dolt", as he broke that one out when a fan ran onto the field during the evenings proceedings.
People were ID'ing me across the board, with one fan telling me I looked like Don Mattingly, and another fan mistaking me for "Cousin Brewski." "Got the night off?" he asked, patting me on the back. In a little hilarity old Cowbell King Ali swiped Fat Daddy Chico's walker and hid it up by us, shrugging and explaining, "Chico can roll his ass out of here."
Your regular quips were flying from 39. After a call that did not go our way someone moaned, "all this money you got, Steinbrenner, and you can't buy the ump?" I mentioned that the Mayor was taking what was soon to be the obligatory trip to the radio booth, which raised a, "thats why the city sucks." Someone even found the time to mention that Gloria Estafan was "accident-prone."
I happened to be sitting behind the tallest guy in the whole place...I am sure many of you have been there. I actually looked around, all the way down the rows in front of me, and could not find anyone even remotely as tall as the guy that was sitting directly in front of me. And of course the fact that fans filed into the seats little by little, all the way to and above the 5th or 6th inning of play, was mentioned ,with a surly scrawl.
There were few Seattle fans out there in the bleachers, but they were there. One of them completely "ran the gauntlet" as he took the stairs all the way up to the top, and heard it from the rowdy mob step by step. Another Seattle fan was greeted with a "Seattle jerkoff" tag, and told to "step on a mine." I later remarked that "Seattle hats flying all over" so there must have been more of them out there than I implied, and by the end of the night they were lid-less.
"Fu*k you, Buhner!" was an epitaph that got through, as I remarked on a remarkable lack of security out there. There were innings at a time where there was stone-cold NONE. Of course, that would change in later years. Vince Coleman was met with a loud, "shoulda stayed with the Mets, you fu*king prick!" Tina gleefully added, "you fu*king National League piece of shit!" Ken Griffey Jr was also "ripped" just so he would not feel left out.
It was a little disheartening to see The infamous "Wave" making its way around the Stadium during a playoff game. And humiliating, no way for a Yankee fan to behave. I am shocked and appalled. To top all of this off, there was a smattering of rain throughout the game, dunking the 57,178 on hand.
I heard a great quip regarding the quick shot off a weedy one-hitter, as someone said, "check him out getting high on the handy horn."
One of our friends who carted beer let us know that once this season finally wrapped up, he would not longer be around. "Don't retire" we pleaded in earnest. "We're already short beer guys." Playoff game or no, Crazy Devil Fan Billy was regaling us with his tales of visiting the Dawg Pound in Cleveland, and how he had a picture at home where fully half of them were giving him the finger. When we said that was nothing special cause we did the same thing to him he added, "the other half were throwing shit at me."
Yankees won this one 9-6, of course, with David Cone pitching 8 before John Wetteland made it interesting in a bad way in his one inning of work, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits and a walk. It got so bad that when Wetteland ran up 2 strikes on someone one of our fellow fans snarled, "one more, dickhead!"
Yankees had home runs from Wade Boggs and Ruben Sierra, with Boggs, Sierra, and Bernie each driving in 2. Chris Bosio started and was rocked by the Yankees, and was followed by Jolly Jeff Nelson, my archnemesis Bobby Ayala, Bill Risley, and Bob Wells, a complete facial clone of Ayala.
The Yankee lineup for this first playoff game in eons was 3B Boggs, CF BW, RF O'Neill, DH Sierra, 1B Mattingly, LF James, C Stanley, SS Fernandez, 2B Velarde. The Mariners countered with LF Coleman, 2B Cora, CF Griffey, DH E Martinez, 1B Tino, RF Buhner, 3B Blowers, C Wilson, and SS, our friend, Luis Sojo.
Game slogged along, played in 3:38, and your umpires on hand were Mike Reilly, Dale Scott, Jim McKean, Larry McCoy, Jim Joyce, and Rich Garcia.
Thanks for reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 3rd, 1995 - Yankees host Seattle
GAME 1 - Wild Card 1995
"check him out, getting high on the handy horn."
Its ironic, I actually flipped on a Yankeeography the other night (I generally avoid them, i like my pancakes with not so much 'syrup') and the subject was Don Mattingly, and they went into depth about the crowd reaction when he took the field on this fateful night. I remembered all of that but it was nice to watch it again. I do remember a lot of things regarding that game...it was only in later playoff games in later playoff runs where I would get sloshed.
In a prophetic note I wrote "Beginning of a Run" in the "Date" section, and oh, was it ever the beginning of a run, for the Yankees and we fans that merrily followed along.
I was very cogent of my surroundings on this night, as although the scorecard is full it is legible (attributed to little to no drinking) and therefore not the funniest card I had seen. There was business at hand! In the intro section on the card I also remarked on the "bunting" we would get to know so well in future years, and that I forgot my friend, the little stuffed bear "Bear Ass", an inexcusable faux pas, as the Yankees were 11-1 with my furry friend on hand.
This was a year where we had our tickets taken care of us beforehand, as during the last game of the season elder George and Queen Bee Tina had gone up to the Yankee offices with $600 or so, cash money, and secured our ducats. This was a wonderful and pretty much exclusive privelage which died in later years, mainly cause some of us could not keep our fu*king mouths shut.
Before the game a "mystery guy" in a Seattle uniform was down and hurt on the warning track. Took a BP fly off the noodle, apparently. We later learned who it was, but it never made the scorecard, and its now lost to time.
They actually carted out what was then an 11 year old to sing the Anthem, which bought snickers and some groans. I mean, really, this was the best they could do? Joe DiMaggio threw out the first pitch, and we all remarked how nice it was to see the Yankee Clipper. I tagged on the names not eligible for this rounds go-around, including - lol - Jeter, Mariano, Melido Perez, Jimmy Key, and the other Joltin' Joe, Mr. Ausanio. I noted one thing from the introductions, the fact that Steve Howe was "booed." Of course, by this point whenever he entered a game someone would invariably mutter, "Howe big a disaster is this?"
We were letting all of our friends and familiars nudge in with us no matter where their ticket was, and the seats were packed, but you guys all know that well. Nothing new. I actually kept my headphones on that night, and listened to the WABC-Radio feed during the game, which bought me a lot of little bon mots and pearls of wisdom that I added to the card. It also screwed up the normal run of jokes I would have heard and later shared.
For one thing, if I marked this correctly, the Yankees were 10-15 on the season if Randy Velarde was not in the starting lineup. Who woulda knew? During much of the game you could hear a lone voice chirping up in favor of Seattle over the radio feed, causing John Sterling to muse, "99.9% of those on hand are rooting for the Yankees...the other .1% is right here next to me." I got to hear the always smarmy Michael Kay, then Sterlings running buddy in the booth, refer to someone as a "dolt", as he broke that one out when a fan ran onto the field during the evenings proceedings.
People were ID'ing me across the board, with one fan telling me I looked like Don Mattingly, and another fan mistaking me for "Cousin Brewski." "Got the night off?" he asked, patting me on the back. In a little hilarity old Cowbell King Ali swiped Fat Daddy Chico's walker and hid it up by us, shrugging and explaining, "Chico can roll his ass out of here."
Your regular quips were flying from 39. After a call that did not go our way someone moaned, "all this money you got, Steinbrenner, and you can't buy the ump?" I mentioned that the Mayor was taking what was soon to be the obligatory trip to the radio booth, which raised a, "thats why the city sucks." Someone even found the time to mention that Gloria Estafan was "accident-prone."
I happened to be sitting behind the tallest guy in the whole place...I am sure many of you have been there. I actually looked around, all the way down the rows in front of me, and could not find anyone even remotely as tall as the guy that was sitting directly in front of me. And of course the fact that fans filed into the seats little by little, all the way to and above the 5th or 6th inning of play, was mentioned ,with a surly scrawl.
There were few Seattle fans out there in the bleachers, but they were there. One of them completely "ran the gauntlet" as he took the stairs all the way up to the top, and heard it from the rowdy mob step by step. Another Seattle fan was greeted with a "Seattle jerkoff" tag, and told to "step on a mine." I later remarked that "Seattle hats flying all over" so there must have been more of them out there than I implied, and by the end of the night they were lid-less.
"Fu*k you, Buhner!" was an epitaph that got through, as I remarked on a remarkable lack of security out there. There were innings at a time where there was stone-cold NONE. Of course, that would change in later years. Vince Coleman was met with a loud, "shoulda stayed with the Mets, you fu*king prick!" Tina gleefully added, "you fu*king National League piece of shit!" Ken Griffey Jr was also "ripped" just so he would not feel left out.
It was a little disheartening to see The infamous "Wave" making its way around the Stadium during a playoff game. And humiliating, no way for a Yankee fan to behave. I am shocked and appalled. To top all of this off, there was a smattering of rain throughout the game, dunking the 57,178 on hand.
I heard a great quip regarding the quick shot off a weedy one-hitter, as someone said, "check him out getting high on the handy horn."
One of our friends who carted beer let us know that once this season finally wrapped up, he would not longer be around. "Don't retire" we pleaded in earnest. "We're already short beer guys." Playoff game or no, Crazy Devil Fan Billy was regaling us with his tales of visiting the Dawg Pound in Cleveland, and how he had a picture at home where fully half of them were giving him the finger. When we said that was nothing special cause we did the same thing to him he added, "the other half were throwing shit at me."
Yankees won this one 9-6, of course, with David Cone pitching 8 before John Wetteland made it interesting in a bad way in his one inning of work, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits and a walk. It got so bad that when Wetteland ran up 2 strikes on someone one of our fellow fans snarled, "one more, dickhead!"
Yankees had home runs from Wade Boggs and Ruben Sierra, with Boggs, Sierra, and Bernie each driving in 2. Chris Bosio started and was rocked by the Yankees, and was followed by Jolly Jeff Nelson, my archnemesis Bobby Ayala, Bill Risley, and Bob Wells, a complete facial clone of Ayala.
The Yankee lineup for this first playoff game in eons was 3B Boggs, CF BW, RF O'Neill, DH Sierra, 1B Mattingly, LF James, C Stanley, SS Fernandez, 2B Velarde. The Mariners countered with LF Coleman, 2B Cora, CF Griffey, DH E Martinez, 1B Tino, RF Buhner, 3B Blowers, C Wilson, and SS, our friend, Luis Sojo.
Game slogged along, played in 3:38, and your umpires on hand were Mike Reilly, Dale Scott, Jim McKean, Larry McCoy, Jim Joyce, and Rich Garcia.
Thanks for reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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