August 21st, 1993
"Felix Jose has beehive hair"
Not much happening here, aside from the fact the inimitable Mike Magnante got the start for the Royals. Again, I identified them as the BORE-les on the scorecard, which is even less funny the next times you see it. Under date I wrote "later...I swear!" and it was played at...how gay is this - "double fist heaven" - obviously an ode to our drinking, beers lovingly cradled in each palm.
This was a Saturday game, and since it was in the days before I recruited all kinds of help in scoring these things and logging jokes, the fact that the card was practically devoid of anything amusing can be attributed to the hard drinking I would do at a Saturday game, taking me out of the picture. The Yankees headed into the days affair 1 1/2 games out of first.
"Blow your Dad, kid!" was the heading of the scorecard, which was not nice. Elsewhere on the card it was noted that a "Dad" was "being harrassed" - I wonder if this was that same Dad who was peppered with that slam. I sort of hope so, I mean how many Dads were under attack?
Someone called Mike Stanley a "ding dong" for God knows what reason. I pointed out in the right margin that there was an "asshole in the upper deck."
Walkman John - can you find out if Bernie Williams had a nice hitting streak going on around then? Cause I wrote a vague "BW - 19 games" on the scorecard, and Bernie doubled in the 6th. Leafing back a couple of pages, he tacked hits in those games too, but remember from previous diatribes I missed like 10 home games in a row, which has never been explained.
Speaking of missing games, one "John Nabs" autographed the card with "I'm going to skool tonight...I'll be back for the Sox series." What kind of nickname is John Nabs?? It was also noted that this character had a "smiley face tatoo." I am sure he was a hit at school. A gent who signed "Joe Pagano" signed "My birthday was rough....today I'll drink Coke!" Bless the man!
We noted that Felix Jose, who is all over these scorecards, has "beehive hair."
You guys remember my Knight hand puppet, procured from The Renaissaince Faire? I called him "Neon Knight" after a song from German metal mavens ACCEPT. I know, "Neon" was a dumb name even before Deion tacked it before his. I used him to say things I couldnt, to curse and scream obsceneties, and I would get away with it, defying all sorts of logic and good taste. I am sure I will do a whole post one day on Neon Knight and his antics, up to and including scaring children, but for now I used this insult to someone who must have been dressed stupidly...."I'm dressed better, and I'm a fuckin' puppet!"
I noted sports bags suck. I must have been in a bad mood. I also noted we "tried to" sing "Take Me Out To The Ocean" in the 7th....by saying "tried" and not "did" it means it was not successful (perhaps the fact we were playing the Royals and not the Indians was one problem)
There is what I bet is a great "Missing Joke" here...I wrote "I had a Jordan breakfast today" and underneath it is a totally illegible sentence written in drunken hand...all you can make out is "his Dad" and "milk" - whatever it was it was funny once...
Even though I was drunk I managed to write a bunch of game observations, with little arrows attached to plays leading into the margin with remarks like "catchable" and "he was really out" and "stupid."
Thats pretty much it. The Yankees pulled a squeaker, 3-2, with Steve Farr notching the save (even after entering to more "lock the bullpen gate!" howls) - Scott Kamienieki actually pitched a good game (I think I was at all 3 of them) going 8 innings, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits and a walk. Mike Stanley homered in the 2nd and was hit by Magnante in the 4th...why he did not charge the mound is beyond me. Mike Gallego went 3-4 for the good guys.
Magnante took the loss, and among the other luminaries that pawed the rubber for the Royals were former and future starter Mark Gubicza (who was used out of the bullpen all year for the only season in his career) and Stan Belinda.
The game went 2:45, and your arbiters were once again Tim Welke, Drew Coble, the late Durwood Merrill, and John Hirschbeck. 41,543 saw fit to come to the Stadium to watch the proceedings.
Thats a wrap - thanks for reading!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
August 20, 1993 - F U K C!
AUGUST 20th, 1993 - Yankees host the Royals
F U K C!
Somehow it looks like I am missing TEN HOME GAMES IN A ROW FROM THE STADIUM. I have NO idea what would have happened here. Along that course, I missed a series against our forever foes, the Red Sox. Maybe I took time off from scoring games, maybe some scorecards are missing from my filing system.....who knows....maybe I was drunk in a ditch somwhere, but something seems awry.
That said, I was in house on the 20th against the "Bore-ls" as named on the scorecard. A stretch at making fun of the Royals name, yes, but you work with what you got.
The "F U K C!" chant was in full form. Under date I scrawled "who needs one?" and the game was played at "storm central" so I figure rain was in the forecast. None other than Domingo Jean was starting for the Yankees, against our good buddy Tom Gordon, ID'd on the card as "Flash" but the way he had been pitching, maybe it should have been "Flush."
Before the game Wade Boggs received a "defensive player of the month" award. No one cared, it got a "?????" on the scorecard. There was the normal run of quips, like "Hey, Winnie the Pooh wants his shirt back" and "You realize your bow tie is causing all this anxiety?" to some schmoe in, yes, a bow tie.
Brian McRae was in centerfield. Sometime earlier in the season he was hit with a pitch and instead of rushing the mound he dropped his bat and charged the opposing manager in the dugout. I THINK it was Tony LaRussa, but I may be wrong. But, needless to say, he was absolutely pulverized when he got there. We took this occassion to chant "charge the bleachers!" at him. His buddy Felix Jose out in right was hearing a resounding "Way To K Jose!" chant all night, as he led off the game with the big whiff. He also clocked a home run later, but what the Hell.
Another quote I am not sure on, but sounds funny is "you cant curse them, but you can marry 4 of their women." I was not good at explaining jokes those days, but they sure look like they could be funny, so I wrote them down.
Ah, noting here "storm central" was right on the money, as there was rain. At least, I am seeing a note in the 3rd that the "rain stopped." As to any delays or the like, nothing. Dont ask me.
I was called a "pen expert" cause I already was very finnicky about my pens. Anyone out there who has tried to lend me a pen knows exactly what I am talking about without me going into great detail here.
Ah, the game autographs. Here is a good one...."I love women, but I would make love to Don Mattingly" - signed "The Animal." Damn, how can you not miss this guy. Another guy named Joe Rucci (?) signed, framing it with a neat 8/20/93. I should look for this guy on Facebook.
The rest of the quips involved some storied ex-members of the Yankee bullpen, which back in the day was scarier than a Halloween hayride. "Thanks for 3 great years, Cadaret!" someone hollered. "Every Yankee fans dream...Cadaret and Habyan on the same night!" made the top of the scorecard. Habyan was booed heavily on the way in, that much is noted. I called it a "good boo." Its funny, Billy Brewer finished things off for the Royals, and I simply called this then neophyte "the unknown soldier" not realizing this rookie would go on to have a pretty pedestrian career for himself.
Some girl stole my cigar. Lit it, didnt get to smoke it, she took it and that was that. Smoked it herself, apparently. And poor Syphillis Joe almost got into a fight, everyone turned on the guy he was exchanging pleasantries with and got him tossed out of there. I dont have any reasons for this exchange, but Joe was known to mix it up here and there with the verbal banter.
Your musical entertainment, courtesy of the Bleacher Creatures, was the dirty romp "Barnicle Bill The Sailor." Syphillis Joe surely had a hand in that.
"Left field assholes!" was chanted, and broken up by Ali and his ill-timed cowbell. Ali was a major bucket of water on any fiery flareups up there....if he did not like what was going on chantwise, he would start clanking the bell and that was that. I guess the Blue Jays were still in first place, cause a "Blue Jays suck!" chant made the scorecard.
I see instead of writing the standard "mo's" for mystery outs, I used Phil Rizzuto's famous "ww" for "wasnt watching." There was only one, with Matt Nokes closing out the 8th for the Yankees. Shit, are there some crazy "mo" and "ww" amounts coming up in the future...
Out on the field Mr Jean had a nice evening for himself, hurling 7 innings of 2 run ball as the Yankees costed to a 7-2 win. Gordon was tattered, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits and 4 walks in 5 innings of work before our buddies Cadaret and Habyan marched out to the mound. Danny Tartabull smacked a home run for the Yankees while going 2-3 with 2 runs and 2 RBIs, and Mattingly and Mike Gallego each tossed in 2 RBIs of their own. Paul Assenmacher actually hurled 2 innings of hitless ball to end the Royals evening with grim tidings.
I see Mike McFarlane batted cleanup for the Royals...thats kind of funny. So was his passed ball he was charged with. George Brett was still hanging around, racking up a 1-4 evening with 2 Ks. Tony Gwynn's brother Chris was in left for the Royals, and took some heat for basically not being his brother.
A crowd of 29,758 came out on this Friday night....I am surprised this scorecard was so legible (and devoid of really funny stuff, too) considering it was a Friday, and even then those games had quite the rep. Your umpires for this affair were the late Durwood Merrill, John Hirschbeck, Tim Welke, and Drew Coble.
Thanks for reading!
F U K C!
Somehow it looks like I am missing TEN HOME GAMES IN A ROW FROM THE STADIUM. I have NO idea what would have happened here. Along that course, I missed a series against our forever foes, the Red Sox. Maybe I took time off from scoring games, maybe some scorecards are missing from my filing system.....who knows....maybe I was drunk in a ditch somwhere, but something seems awry.
That said, I was in house on the 20th against the "Bore-ls" as named on the scorecard. A stretch at making fun of the Royals name, yes, but you work with what you got.
The "F U K C!" chant was in full form. Under date I scrawled "who needs one?" and the game was played at "storm central" so I figure rain was in the forecast. None other than Domingo Jean was starting for the Yankees, against our good buddy Tom Gordon, ID'd on the card as "Flash" but the way he had been pitching, maybe it should have been "Flush."
Before the game Wade Boggs received a "defensive player of the month" award. No one cared, it got a "?????" on the scorecard. There was the normal run of quips, like "Hey, Winnie the Pooh wants his shirt back" and "You realize your bow tie is causing all this anxiety?" to some schmoe in, yes, a bow tie.
Brian McRae was in centerfield. Sometime earlier in the season he was hit with a pitch and instead of rushing the mound he dropped his bat and charged the opposing manager in the dugout. I THINK it was Tony LaRussa, but I may be wrong. But, needless to say, he was absolutely pulverized when he got there. We took this occassion to chant "charge the bleachers!" at him. His buddy Felix Jose out in right was hearing a resounding "Way To K Jose!" chant all night, as he led off the game with the big whiff. He also clocked a home run later, but what the Hell.
Another quote I am not sure on, but sounds funny is "you cant curse them, but you can marry 4 of their women." I was not good at explaining jokes those days, but they sure look like they could be funny, so I wrote them down.
Ah, noting here "storm central" was right on the money, as there was rain. At least, I am seeing a note in the 3rd that the "rain stopped." As to any delays or the like, nothing. Dont ask me.
I was called a "pen expert" cause I already was very finnicky about my pens. Anyone out there who has tried to lend me a pen knows exactly what I am talking about without me going into great detail here.
Ah, the game autographs. Here is a good one...."I love women, but I would make love to Don Mattingly" - signed "The Animal." Damn, how can you not miss this guy. Another guy named Joe Rucci (?) signed, framing it with a neat 8/20/93. I should look for this guy on Facebook.
The rest of the quips involved some storied ex-members of the Yankee bullpen, which back in the day was scarier than a Halloween hayride. "Thanks for 3 great years, Cadaret!" someone hollered. "Every Yankee fans dream...Cadaret and Habyan on the same night!" made the top of the scorecard. Habyan was booed heavily on the way in, that much is noted. I called it a "good boo." Its funny, Billy Brewer finished things off for the Royals, and I simply called this then neophyte "the unknown soldier" not realizing this rookie would go on to have a pretty pedestrian career for himself.
Some girl stole my cigar. Lit it, didnt get to smoke it, she took it and that was that. Smoked it herself, apparently. And poor Syphillis Joe almost got into a fight, everyone turned on the guy he was exchanging pleasantries with and got him tossed out of there. I dont have any reasons for this exchange, but Joe was known to mix it up here and there with the verbal banter.
Your musical entertainment, courtesy of the Bleacher Creatures, was the dirty romp "Barnicle Bill The Sailor." Syphillis Joe surely had a hand in that.
"Left field assholes!" was chanted, and broken up by Ali and his ill-timed cowbell. Ali was a major bucket of water on any fiery flareups up there....if he did not like what was going on chantwise, he would start clanking the bell and that was that. I guess the Blue Jays were still in first place, cause a "Blue Jays suck!" chant made the scorecard.
I see instead of writing the standard "mo's" for mystery outs, I used Phil Rizzuto's famous "ww" for "wasnt watching." There was only one, with Matt Nokes closing out the 8th for the Yankees. Shit, are there some crazy "mo" and "ww" amounts coming up in the future...
Out on the field Mr Jean had a nice evening for himself, hurling 7 innings of 2 run ball as the Yankees costed to a 7-2 win. Gordon was tattered, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits and 4 walks in 5 innings of work before our buddies Cadaret and Habyan marched out to the mound. Danny Tartabull smacked a home run for the Yankees while going 2-3 with 2 runs and 2 RBIs, and Mattingly and Mike Gallego each tossed in 2 RBIs of their own. Paul Assenmacher actually hurled 2 innings of hitless ball to end the Royals evening with grim tidings.
I see Mike McFarlane batted cleanup for the Royals...thats kind of funny. So was his passed ball he was charged with. George Brett was still hanging around, racking up a 1-4 evening with 2 Ks. Tony Gwynn's brother Chris was in left for the Royals, and took some heat for basically not being his brother.
A crowd of 29,758 came out on this Friday night....I am surprised this scorecard was so legible (and devoid of really funny stuff, too) considering it was a Friday, and even then those games had quite the rep. Your umpires for this affair were the late Durwood Merrill, John Hirschbeck, Tim Welke, and Drew Coble.
Thanks for reading!
Friday, August 6, 2010
August 5th, 1993 "Fists Amidst A Colorful Melange"
August 5th, 1993 - Yankees host Toronto
KIDDY DAY - "A COLORFUL MELANGE"
Time to put a wrap on this frenetic Yankee/Blue Jay series from the summer of 1993. This was around the time as someone newly settled into Section 39, Yankee Stadium Bleachers, that I had to wonder, "what the Hell did I get myself into? I cant wait to come back tomorrow!"
With a win the night before, the Yankees pulled within 2 of the frontrunning Jays. It was still an ugly scene out there, with the Canadian Anthem becoming public enemy #1, and fisticuffs flaring out in the bleachers, the likes of which as I had not seen to that point, and really never saw again.
Ah yes, this was a day game. Getaway day...a number of us to this day look back at these days and cards and are not sure why we were there and not at work...the heading is "Kiddy Day" with a nod to the colors of the various groups, "a colorful melange." The kids had no idea what their camp counselers got them into. As early as 12:18 a "Boston sucks!" chant echoed loudly through the bleachers.
Next to date on the card I scrawled, "what date?" and next to played at I used our new bleacher mantra, "the Animal House that Ruth built" .
The surly fans booed the Canadian anthem again, even though all the media and the baseball universe were pretty much begging us not to. I chided us on the scorecard, admitting "we're bad...we booed anthem again. We have no class."
On the way in an "Officer Bernstein" kicked me out of the line. Thinking back, I have no idea of the transgression, but if I must guess I got caught cutting, and he sent me to the back. That happened here and there. The cops outside and the security inside were taking things quite seriously, as one guard inside yelled at a patch of kids to "sit down" and one of them broke into tears. Duly, and gleefully, noted on the scorecard.
I nailed a Fat Daddy Chico autograph on the card, taking up fully 20% of it, too. "Big Fat Daddy Chico 8/5/93" is there for all the glory. I can pawn this thing on Ebay now. Inexplicably I wrote "(chico)" next to this as an identifier to explain to someone reading who signed it, even though the signature is perfectly legible.
Amazingly enough, there was no Queen Bee Tina at the game. I found that noteworthy enough to mark this. "Animal" Dave was a no-show as well. Geez, I hope one day over my bleacher stint someone once remarked on a scorecard that I no-showed a game. On the other side of the spectrum I remarked that "Devil fan Billy" made his arrival in the top of the 6th inning, which was meant with universal apathy.
"Your whistle blows, how about you!" we screamed at someone with a whistle...a cop? A camp counseler? Some of this stuff is just vague. According to my top 40 song countdown scawl, we did not sing "Horses Ass" one time. A big zero....I wonder if we were banned from such on this day with all the camp kids about, although that sure didnt stop the fighting. We did belt out "Joe Carter Is A Horse's Ass" 5 times, though. And Ali played his cadence on the cowbell FOURTEEN times! Thats a lot of "hoooooos!"
Beer was being thrown. I see that noted a couple of times actually. There was a major altercation in the bleachers in the bottom of the 6th, when a guy in a Rutgers sweatshirt "fucked 2 guys up." Rutgers guy ended up losing his ring during the fight, no note here that it was eventually found. Sucks to be him.
And that was not the only fight that day. In the top of the 2nd there was a "hat disturbance" which was a nice way of saying someone got their hat ripped off and thrown around. Punches eventually flew. There also appears to have been a fight due to a "beer drop" early in the game. So either someone got wet from it and aggravated, or someone dropped beer, was laughed at, and went after someone. Its noted that an entire group left in the 2nd inning, reasons unclear. A Blow Jays fan also got the boot at some point, serenaded with the old "hey, hey, hey, goodbye" as he was escorted off the premises, pleading his hapless case to security.
At some point somone yelled "you drunken fool!!" seemingly right in my ear and when I looked up they said "not you, you're ok."
I was drunk, though. You can tell by my writing and the number of curse words on the card. My verbiage was more blue when drinks were imbibed.
I noted the Ventura/Ryan battle from the night before, in a place of honor on the scorecard. The crosstown NY Mutts were a point of entertainment over the course of the day, watching the out of town scoreboard....they had a 9-1 lead at one point, which over the course of the afternoon morphed into 9-9 .....checking retrosheet now, 11 years later as i first outlined this in 2004, I sadly see the Mutts ended up winning the damn game 12-9, in 13 innings.
Some of the kids out there endeared themselves to us forever, starting a "Mets suck!" chant. A girl had the gall to wear a Mets shirt, and she was hammered relentlessly. This may have been where security had told these rowdy kids to sit down. Not much else seems to be on here, besides the fact that a few of us spent an entire inning talking in "Bob Sheppard" voices.
On the field the Yankees won another key game, 5-4. Pops must have been in attendance, cause his favorite Jimmy Key was on the hill and beer was being sold, and he went the full 9, giving up the 4 runs on 6 hits and just 1 walk. He struck out 6. Juan Guzman was the starter for the Jays, and current Yankee / MLB broadcaster Al Leiter (in relief) picked up the loss with a shaky 7th, breaking a 4-4 deadlock. Pitching a scoreless 8th for the Blue Jays was none other than Woody Williams, who was torched last night in Game 1 of the World Series, the dick. This was his rookie campaign...though none are noted, I am sure we had a few laughs at the name "Woody."
Dion James went 3-4 and scored twice, and Don Mattingly (3 RBIs on the day) and Paul O'Neill homered for the Yankees. As O'Neill's home run was in flight, a beer guy was in the middle of yelling "last call beer!" so there was some perfect symmetry there.
A whopping 52,493 were on hand (with a few dozen of them ejected from the bleachers over the course of the day) and your umpires were once again Tim McClelland, Joe Brinkman, Derryl Cousins, and Rick Reed.
The win bought the Yankees to one game behind the Jays in the fight for the division crown.
Thanks for reading!
KIDDY DAY - "A COLORFUL MELANGE"
Time to put a wrap on this frenetic Yankee/Blue Jay series from the summer of 1993. This was around the time as someone newly settled into Section 39, Yankee Stadium Bleachers, that I had to wonder, "what the Hell did I get myself into? I cant wait to come back tomorrow!"
With a win the night before, the Yankees pulled within 2 of the frontrunning Jays. It was still an ugly scene out there, with the Canadian Anthem becoming public enemy #1, and fisticuffs flaring out in the bleachers, the likes of which as I had not seen to that point, and really never saw again.
Ah yes, this was a day game. Getaway day...a number of us to this day look back at these days and cards and are not sure why we were there and not at work...the heading is "Kiddy Day" with a nod to the colors of the various groups, "a colorful melange." The kids had no idea what their camp counselers got them into. As early as 12:18 a "Boston sucks!" chant echoed loudly through the bleachers.
Next to date on the card I scrawled, "what date?" and next to played at I used our new bleacher mantra, "the Animal House that Ruth built" .
The surly fans booed the Canadian anthem again, even though all the media and the baseball universe were pretty much begging us not to. I chided us on the scorecard, admitting "we're bad...we booed anthem again. We have no class."
On the way in an "Officer Bernstein" kicked me out of the line. Thinking back, I have no idea of the transgression, but if I must guess I got caught cutting, and he sent me to the back. That happened here and there. The cops outside and the security inside were taking things quite seriously, as one guard inside yelled at a patch of kids to "sit down" and one of them broke into tears. Duly, and gleefully, noted on the scorecard.
I nailed a Fat Daddy Chico autograph on the card, taking up fully 20% of it, too. "Big Fat Daddy Chico 8/5/93" is there for all the glory. I can pawn this thing on Ebay now. Inexplicably I wrote "(chico)" next to this as an identifier to explain to someone reading who signed it, even though the signature is perfectly legible.
Amazingly enough, there was no Queen Bee Tina at the game. I found that noteworthy enough to mark this. "Animal" Dave was a no-show as well. Geez, I hope one day over my bleacher stint someone once remarked on a scorecard that I no-showed a game. On the other side of the spectrum I remarked that "Devil fan Billy" made his arrival in the top of the 6th inning, which was meant with universal apathy.
"Your whistle blows, how about you!" we screamed at someone with a whistle...a cop? A camp counseler? Some of this stuff is just vague. According to my top 40 song countdown scawl, we did not sing "Horses Ass" one time. A big zero....I wonder if we were banned from such on this day with all the camp kids about, although that sure didnt stop the fighting. We did belt out "Joe Carter Is A Horse's Ass" 5 times, though. And Ali played his cadence on the cowbell FOURTEEN times! Thats a lot of "hoooooos!"
Beer was being thrown. I see that noted a couple of times actually. There was a major altercation in the bleachers in the bottom of the 6th, when a guy in a Rutgers sweatshirt "fucked 2 guys up." Rutgers guy ended up losing his ring during the fight, no note here that it was eventually found. Sucks to be him.
And that was not the only fight that day. In the top of the 2nd there was a "hat disturbance" which was a nice way of saying someone got their hat ripped off and thrown around. Punches eventually flew. There also appears to have been a fight due to a "beer drop" early in the game. So either someone got wet from it and aggravated, or someone dropped beer, was laughed at, and went after someone. Its noted that an entire group left in the 2nd inning, reasons unclear. A Blow Jays fan also got the boot at some point, serenaded with the old "hey, hey, hey, goodbye" as he was escorted off the premises, pleading his hapless case to security.
At some point somone yelled "you drunken fool!!" seemingly right in my ear and when I looked up they said "not you, you're ok."
I was drunk, though. You can tell by my writing and the number of curse words on the card. My verbiage was more blue when drinks were imbibed.
I noted the Ventura/Ryan battle from the night before, in a place of honor on the scorecard. The crosstown NY Mutts were a point of entertainment over the course of the day, watching the out of town scoreboard....they had a 9-1 lead at one point, which over the course of the afternoon morphed into 9-9 .....checking retrosheet now, 11 years later as i first outlined this in 2004, I sadly see the Mutts ended up winning the damn game 12-9, in 13 innings.
Some of the kids out there endeared themselves to us forever, starting a "Mets suck!" chant. A girl had the gall to wear a Mets shirt, and she was hammered relentlessly. This may have been where security had told these rowdy kids to sit down. Not much else seems to be on here, besides the fact that a few of us spent an entire inning talking in "Bob Sheppard" voices.
On the field the Yankees won another key game, 5-4. Pops must have been in attendance, cause his favorite Jimmy Key was on the hill and beer was being sold, and he went the full 9, giving up the 4 runs on 6 hits and just 1 walk. He struck out 6. Juan Guzman was the starter for the Jays, and current Yankee / MLB broadcaster Al Leiter (in relief) picked up the loss with a shaky 7th, breaking a 4-4 deadlock. Pitching a scoreless 8th for the Blue Jays was none other than Woody Williams, who was torched last night in Game 1 of the World Series, the dick. This was his rookie campaign...though none are noted, I am sure we had a few laughs at the name "Woody."
Dion James went 3-4 and scored twice, and Don Mattingly (3 RBIs on the day) and Paul O'Neill homered for the Yankees. As O'Neill's home run was in flight, a beer guy was in the middle of yelling "last call beer!" so there was some perfect symmetry there.
A whopping 52,493 were on hand (with a few dozen of them ejected from the bleachers over the course of the day) and your umpires were once again Tim McClelland, Joe Brinkman, Derryl Cousins, and Rick Reed.
The win bought the Yankees to one game behind the Jays in the fight for the division crown.
Thanks for reading!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
August 4th, 1993 - "The Animal House that Ruth Built"
August 4th, 1993 - Yankees host Toronto
"THE ANIMAL HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT"
Well, I had mentioned that things were starting to get out of hand during this Yankee/Jays series, with the Yankees so close to first place, and the anti-Canadian sentiment running high so many years before the South Park movie.
This night, August 4th, 1993, also goes down in history for another baseball milestone...in Texas, Chicago's Robin Ventura was plunked by Nolan Ryan and charged the mound. As we all know by now, Ryan put him in a headlock and started churning punches to the head, in windmill fashion. But lets get back to New York and the calamity set to unfold....
A couple of days before the NY Post had a backpage headline "The Animal House That Ruth Built" with a pic of some crazy fans on the back. This was spurred by the booing of the anthem, some fans taking a skip and a jaunt on the field, and a number of fisticuffs in the seats. I taped that back page on to my closet and it remained there for a couple of years before I redecorated by putting up different stupid pictures.
At the time of this game, the Yankees had moved from a tie for first, to a full 3 games behind the rampaging Jays. Things were tense, indeed.
Despite public pleas to stop, the Canadian Anthem was booed lustily again. This had all spurred Toronto's Joe Carter to proclaim it made him "embarrassed to be an American." Of couse the Stadium, and the bleachers in particular, were eager to make him pay for such sentiment. A common refrain was, "well, that makes us even...Joe Carter makes me embarrassed to be an American."
My priorities were different back then. I even marked on the scorecard that my friend Chris paid me back some money he owed me. How I had money to lend anyone at the time beats me....
If people remember the scorecards I used, they had a little space for you to fill in "Date" and "Played At" - I used to scrawl in little chuckles. Like, under date you would not be surprised to see something like "wish I had one!" or "with 5000 other drunks" and under "played at" you would see "1st Place Place" or "a slow pace."
On this day the date was "another night I would not see a Yankee no-hitter" (oh, that would change in a couple of years) and the game was played at "an Un-American place." Well, now when I mention these increasingly unfunny quips in those spaces in the future, you will know what they are about.
The scorecards I used were from a baseball board game, and they had something called a "reduction" which you could use in addition to the player cards. So there was the word "reduction" in boldface over the pitchers names on my scorecards, and of couse being the wit I was back then I wrote the word "Breast" in front of it.
Many of you old-schoolers would remember a fellow named Dave, better known as "Animal". He was the loud and brash one out there those days, helped along by a healthy dose of alcohol. Back then in 1993 he already had the "drink for a while and come in late" thing down, that took me almost another 8 years to finally master. By 2010 I have moved on to the "drink outside for so long dont even make it inside at all" thing.
Well, being he came in late and we were doing anything to entertain ourselves, we started a poll on "what time will Animal come walking in." For a 7:30 start I wagered 8:04, Dennis picked 8:12, an Ian went with 8:25, and a John said an hour late, at 8:30. I scored the win as he came sauntering up the ramp, yelling at Joe Carter, at 7:55.
Back then Ali would ring the bell well before the game started, just to prep the crowd and get everyone singing and dancing in the aisles. First pitch this night was not until 7:37, but Ali's first cowbell serenade was at 7:05. As I was already inside, beer were obviously still being sold inside the bleachers. Once they banned it from our seats, pregame was used more wisely to get in as many beers as we could outside.
I kept the Horses Ass and "....Takes It Up The Ass" song tallies again....that would not last much longer. Horses Ass was belted out only 4 times, and "Takes It up the ass" was sung 3. Looks like people were too busy fighting out there to sing.
For some reason beachballs were flying. And, undoubtedly, getting popped. Rickey Henderson was out in centerfield, and he saw fit to give us the finger. Of course we gave it right back, and then some.
In one of my favorite lines to date, we went with the Canadian theme and shouted "Carter MOUNTIES Alomar!!" Heh, heh, thats a good one.
There must have been someone that looked like Elvis back then that sat in the bleachers. Cause this is not the first scorecard as I am going through these were I see the line "Elvis has left the bleachers" on them.
Looking over the scorecard someone ruminated that "Pat Kelly is among the Yankee stolen base leaders....he has 1." Just under that quip is a notation that some guy was facing the bleachers and posing like "Mr. America" for absolutely no reason. Maybe thats where i stole it from.
I am seeing fights noted here and there. I ended up dubbing this "Fight Night" - the first scrum broke out in the top of the 3rd, at exactly 8:22. So, at that point, Animal had been in the house for 27 minutes.
Remember I mentioned my Toronto Blow Jays pin that people would confuse for a, well, BLUE JAY pin? Well, it happened again. I mentioned that the pin got me in trouble with Paul Molitor at the plate in the 4th. Some drunk walking up the stairs started haranguing me for wearing a "Blue Jay pin." Although I did not mark it down, I must have taken it off at this point, and it was soon retired for good.
"First projectile thrown" also came in the 4th. I did not mark where it came from, but the entire Stadium was in a frisky mood. I marked down at some point that Dennis was my "3rd pinch-scorer" and that means I made 3 beer runs......hurray me!
There were stupid conversations even then. I made up a story that Wang Chungs "Everyone have fun tonight" song was voted "most innovative song ever" on a Long Island radio station. This spurned an argument that went on through the entire 7th inning, and even involved yelling. People were so gullible back then.
In another amusing note, none other than weak-stick Yankee Jim Mason (he of the .203 lifetime batting average) actually made a Yankee Quiz on the scorboard. Upon mention, his name was greeted with boos all those years later.
NOT ONE mystery out on the whole scorecard. Holy fuck, did things deteriorate from there.
Things looked good for a while on the field, with the Yankees building a 6-0 lead after 7, behind the inexplicable solid pitching of Scott Kamienieki. That Eddie Munster lookalike Mike Gallego of all people had a home run for the Yankees, and Paul O'Neill was 2-4 with 3 RBIs.
Things got a little worrisome in the 8th, as the Jays ended up plating 2. "Lock the bullpen gate!!!!" went up the hue and cry. After Rich Monteleone and Paul Assenmacher somehow managed to put a stop to things, Steve Farr came out to cringes, shudders, boos, and swears in the 9th and somehow locked it down. 6-2 final or no, this was another "sweat out a 6 run lead" type of game.
In a nice capper to Blue Jay woe, Henderson was nailed trying to steal in the 7th, and the crowd rejoiced.
Another big, and raucous crowd in the Bronx with 48,250 paying their way in. Your umpires on this Wednesday night were Rick Reed, Tim McClelland, Joe Brinkman, and Derryl Cousins.
Thanks for reading!
"THE ANIMAL HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT"
Well, I had mentioned that things were starting to get out of hand during this Yankee/Jays series, with the Yankees so close to first place, and the anti-Canadian sentiment running high so many years before the South Park movie.
This night, August 4th, 1993, also goes down in history for another baseball milestone...in Texas, Chicago's Robin Ventura was plunked by Nolan Ryan and charged the mound. As we all know by now, Ryan put him in a headlock and started churning punches to the head, in windmill fashion. But lets get back to New York and the calamity set to unfold....
A couple of days before the NY Post had a backpage headline "The Animal House That Ruth Built" with a pic of some crazy fans on the back. This was spurred by the booing of the anthem, some fans taking a skip and a jaunt on the field, and a number of fisticuffs in the seats. I taped that back page on to my closet and it remained there for a couple of years before I redecorated by putting up different stupid pictures.
At the time of this game, the Yankees had moved from a tie for first, to a full 3 games behind the rampaging Jays. Things were tense, indeed.
Despite public pleas to stop, the Canadian Anthem was booed lustily again. This had all spurred Toronto's Joe Carter to proclaim it made him "embarrassed to be an American." Of couse the Stadium, and the bleachers in particular, were eager to make him pay for such sentiment. A common refrain was, "well, that makes us even...Joe Carter makes me embarrassed to be an American."
My priorities were different back then. I even marked on the scorecard that my friend Chris paid me back some money he owed me. How I had money to lend anyone at the time beats me....
If people remember the scorecards I used, they had a little space for you to fill in "Date" and "Played At" - I used to scrawl in little chuckles. Like, under date you would not be surprised to see something like "wish I had one!" or "with 5000 other drunks" and under "played at" you would see "1st Place Place" or "a slow pace."
On this day the date was "another night I would not see a Yankee no-hitter" (oh, that would change in a couple of years) and the game was played at "an Un-American place." Well, now when I mention these increasingly unfunny quips in those spaces in the future, you will know what they are about.
The scorecards I used were from a baseball board game, and they had something called a "reduction" which you could use in addition to the player cards. So there was the word "reduction" in boldface over the pitchers names on my scorecards, and of couse being the wit I was back then I wrote the word "Breast" in front of it.
Many of you old-schoolers would remember a fellow named Dave, better known as "Animal". He was the loud and brash one out there those days, helped along by a healthy dose of alcohol. Back then in 1993 he already had the "drink for a while and come in late" thing down, that took me almost another 8 years to finally master. By 2010 I have moved on to the "drink outside for so long dont even make it inside at all" thing.
Well, being he came in late and we were doing anything to entertain ourselves, we started a poll on "what time will Animal come walking in." For a 7:30 start I wagered 8:04, Dennis picked 8:12, an Ian went with 8:25, and a John said an hour late, at 8:30. I scored the win as he came sauntering up the ramp, yelling at Joe Carter, at 7:55.
Back then Ali would ring the bell well before the game started, just to prep the crowd and get everyone singing and dancing in the aisles. First pitch this night was not until 7:37, but Ali's first cowbell serenade was at 7:05. As I was already inside, beer were obviously still being sold inside the bleachers. Once they banned it from our seats, pregame was used more wisely to get in as many beers as we could outside.
I kept the Horses Ass and "....Takes It Up The Ass" song tallies again....that would not last much longer. Horses Ass was belted out only 4 times, and "Takes It up the ass" was sung 3. Looks like people were too busy fighting out there to sing.
For some reason beachballs were flying. And, undoubtedly, getting popped. Rickey Henderson was out in centerfield, and he saw fit to give us the finger. Of course we gave it right back, and then some.
In one of my favorite lines to date, we went with the Canadian theme and shouted "Carter MOUNTIES Alomar!!" Heh, heh, thats a good one.
There must have been someone that looked like Elvis back then that sat in the bleachers. Cause this is not the first scorecard as I am going through these were I see the line "Elvis has left the bleachers" on them.
Looking over the scorecard someone ruminated that "Pat Kelly is among the Yankee stolen base leaders....he has 1." Just under that quip is a notation that some guy was facing the bleachers and posing like "Mr. America" for absolutely no reason. Maybe thats where i stole it from.
I am seeing fights noted here and there. I ended up dubbing this "Fight Night" - the first scrum broke out in the top of the 3rd, at exactly 8:22. So, at that point, Animal had been in the house for 27 minutes.
Remember I mentioned my Toronto Blow Jays pin that people would confuse for a, well, BLUE JAY pin? Well, it happened again. I mentioned that the pin got me in trouble with Paul Molitor at the plate in the 4th. Some drunk walking up the stairs started haranguing me for wearing a "Blue Jay pin." Although I did not mark it down, I must have taken it off at this point, and it was soon retired for good.
"First projectile thrown" also came in the 4th. I did not mark where it came from, but the entire Stadium was in a frisky mood. I marked down at some point that Dennis was my "3rd pinch-scorer" and that means I made 3 beer runs......hurray me!
There were stupid conversations even then. I made up a story that Wang Chungs "Everyone have fun tonight" song was voted "most innovative song ever" on a Long Island radio station. This spurned an argument that went on through the entire 7th inning, and even involved yelling. People were so gullible back then.
In another amusing note, none other than weak-stick Yankee Jim Mason (he of the .203 lifetime batting average) actually made a Yankee Quiz on the scorboard. Upon mention, his name was greeted with boos all those years later.
NOT ONE mystery out on the whole scorecard. Holy fuck, did things deteriorate from there.
Things looked good for a while on the field, with the Yankees building a 6-0 lead after 7, behind the inexplicable solid pitching of Scott Kamienieki. That Eddie Munster lookalike Mike Gallego of all people had a home run for the Yankees, and Paul O'Neill was 2-4 with 3 RBIs.
Things got a little worrisome in the 8th, as the Jays ended up plating 2. "Lock the bullpen gate!!!!" went up the hue and cry. After Rich Monteleone and Paul Assenmacher somehow managed to put a stop to things, Steve Farr came out to cringes, shudders, boos, and swears in the 9th and somehow locked it down. 6-2 final or no, this was another "sweat out a 6 run lead" type of game.
In a nice capper to Blue Jay woe, Henderson was nailed trying to steal in the 7th, and the crowd rejoiced.
Another big, and raucous crowd in the Bronx with 48,250 paying their way in. Your umpires on this Wednesday night were Rick Reed, Tim McClelland, Joe Brinkman, and Derryl Cousins.
Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
August 2nd, 1993 - Toronto Blow Jays!
AUGUST 2nd, 1993 - Toronto at Yankees
Tensions rise between US and Canada!
Moving onward, we are now at August 2nd, 1993. The "Blow Jays" as we called them, were in town. I used to have a pin with a Blue Jay cartoon head on it, with the words "Toronto Blow Jays" around it. Problem was, when I would wear it, people could not read the writing from afar and thought for whatever reason I was wearing a Blue Jay pin. So, Yankee hat or shirt or not, I got too much heat and left the pin tacked up in the cube at work. Instead, as accoutrement to my dandy attire, Id wear my button with the cartoon pic of the Met logo turned sidways and stuck in a pile of poop.
I wish I could tack some wacky photos i have buried in an album here with just a wiggle of the nose - this particular shot from this day has me, Big Nose George, my friend Jamie from upstate who fell from the face of the Earth, and some other crazy guy that was out there whose name I could not recall nor do i particularly wish to.....one of them (George, methinks, he always seemed to have too much time on his hands) printed out these long computer paper streams that read "Blow Jays" on them, and we wore them draped over our clothes....we looked absolutely ridiculous. Sort of like when wind blows pages from a newspaper over a branch and they just wave around in the breeze, stuck there until the next gust comes by. The neon green shirt I was wearing underneath just added to the stunning melange.
To the scorecard! Well, this was a sad anniversary, of course. The Captain, Thurman Munson, passed away on that date 14 years before. I will never forget the very day he died, my Mom took me in a room and sat me down, explaining it to me like a family member left us. What a legacy he left. The Stadium did a nice video tribute to him that evening, which was duly noted. When I went to retrosheet.org for scoring info as I prepped this years later I noticed Munson was nicknamed "Tugboat, Squatty Body, and The Wall." I have only been able to confirm Tugboat, a name hoisted on him by Graig Nettles. I learned to check nicknames on retrosheet after current bleacher stalwart ViolentA started using "Willow" to identify Windmill-ie Randolph.
The fans certainly showed respect to Thurman, but not the Canadian National Anthem. This was the year deafening boos were ringing across country lines in regards to the Anthems. The Canadian Anthem was booed lustily, which resulted in measures and comments you will see in the next couple of scorecard installments. All Hell broke loose later on this homestand, stay tuned.
Thats not where it ended with Canada. "Kids In The Hall Suck!" was bandied about as well.
There seemed to be a lot of animosity in the air. Maybe hovering around first place was getting to us. BOX SEATS SUCK (DICK!) someone wrote. At 7:10 I noted that I "lit my first cigar" so I was a multiple cigar burner a game man back then. A "1st asshole alert" was posted on the card at 7:11PM, with no mention of the transgression to elicit the tag. 11 minutes later someone wrote "We got a party!" with a 7:22 attached. Devon White, in center, got a "Devo sucks, and he knows it!"
Not all sat well with the crowd. It was a total sausage factory out there, as someone wrote "saw more guys asses than Yankee runs" with a frowny face on the card. The infamous "Crapman" song, which is a favorite to this day, was sang lustily in the top of the 5th. This was simply the Batman song with Crapman superimposed, sung lustily whenever the vendor selling the big balloon bats and other gaudy distractions came ambling up.
Even with this there were moments of joy outside of the game action. "Eddie Layton playin' some bitchin' tunes" someone wrote. The sentiment seems to have turned, though, cause right under that someone wrote "shut the fucking music off!"
Seeing how many comments from others were on here (and a total lack of funny ones) I have to believe that I must have been deep into my cups. I did manage to write on the card that the D train won the Great Subway Race....was I so starved for material that i was scoring a cartoon race off the Stadium scoreboard?
No less than FIVE people got the boot from the box seats together in a mass ejection at some point. That was duly noted with some glee. There was yet another broken souveiner bat, there seemed to be one every day at this point, as someone named "John" broke his "already" in the bottom of the first. These broken bats only stopped when we were summarily told to not bring them in.
Kept a running tally on how many times we heard certain chants and ditties...."Horses Ass" was belted out 8 times over the course of the night, and ".....Takes It Up The Ass" tied things up late in the game, with 8 renditions of its own. Your lucky beneficiary of this fun song was one Joe Carter, who had plenty to say about the Yankee fans booing the Canadian anthem in the next couple of days. Carter also got a heartfelt "Fuck you, Carter.....fuck you!" from a rowdy patron.
I see "a non-midget would have had that one" written on here, and seeing Pat Kelly made the only error of the the game, yeah, it was probably directed at him.
Jim Abbott was on the mound for the Yankees, facing the fiery Todd Stottlemyre. A pitching duel, with an unhappy ending. The Jays took a 2-0 lead in the top of the 6th on a two-run homer from our friend Devon White, and upped it to an insurmountable 4-0 with 2 more in the top of the 9th before Abbott got the hook and Paul Assenmacher, making his second Yankee appearance after coming over from the Cubs, stopped the bleeding. Our other nemesis on the night, Joe Carter, had the two run dinger in the 9th, so the two guys we yelled at all night put one over on us in the end.
Stottlemyre hurled 7 scoreless innings before Danny Cox (written, of course, Cocks in the pitching line) came in to shut the door and notch a save. Did you know Cox was born in Northhampton, England? Nor did I.
Other luminaries in the Toronto lineup included Ed Sprague (who shares my birthday of July 25th) John Olerud, Tony Fernandez, and Pat Borders. Roberto Alomar started at second, but came out of the game in the first inning after striking out....as he was back in the lineup the next day I am figuring he must have been ejected for arguing the call (sure hope he did not spit at anyone) although there is no real explanation on the card.
The Yankees wasted 9 hits in getting shut out, with Boggs, Dion James, and Bernie all going 2-4. The Yankees started the first with back to back singles by Boggs and James but got nothing for thier efforts. Mike Stanley threw out Borders stealing.....no, I dont know why Borders was running either.
A VERY nice crowd for a Monday (43,304) and your umpires on the field were Joe Brinkman, Derryl Cousins, Rick Reed, and Drew Coble.
Thanks for reading!
Tensions rise between US and Canada!
Moving onward, we are now at August 2nd, 1993. The "Blow Jays" as we called them, were in town. I used to have a pin with a Blue Jay cartoon head on it, with the words "Toronto Blow Jays" around it. Problem was, when I would wear it, people could not read the writing from afar and thought for whatever reason I was wearing a Blue Jay pin. So, Yankee hat or shirt or not, I got too much heat and left the pin tacked up in the cube at work. Instead, as accoutrement to my dandy attire, Id wear my button with the cartoon pic of the Met logo turned sidways and stuck in a pile of poop.
I wish I could tack some wacky photos i have buried in an album here with just a wiggle of the nose - this particular shot from this day has me, Big Nose George, my friend Jamie from upstate who fell from the face of the Earth, and some other crazy guy that was out there whose name I could not recall nor do i particularly wish to.....one of them (George, methinks, he always seemed to have too much time on his hands) printed out these long computer paper streams that read "Blow Jays" on them, and we wore them draped over our clothes....we looked absolutely ridiculous. Sort of like when wind blows pages from a newspaper over a branch and they just wave around in the breeze, stuck there until the next gust comes by. The neon green shirt I was wearing underneath just added to the stunning melange.
To the scorecard! Well, this was a sad anniversary, of course. The Captain, Thurman Munson, passed away on that date 14 years before. I will never forget the very day he died, my Mom took me in a room and sat me down, explaining it to me like a family member left us. What a legacy he left. The Stadium did a nice video tribute to him that evening, which was duly noted. When I went to retrosheet.org for scoring info as I prepped this years later I noticed Munson was nicknamed "Tugboat, Squatty Body, and The Wall." I have only been able to confirm Tugboat, a name hoisted on him by Graig Nettles. I learned to check nicknames on retrosheet after current bleacher stalwart ViolentA started using "Willow" to identify Windmill-ie Randolph.
The fans certainly showed respect to Thurman, but not the Canadian National Anthem. This was the year deafening boos were ringing across country lines in regards to the Anthems. The Canadian Anthem was booed lustily, which resulted in measures and comments you will see in the next couple of scorecard installments. All Hell broke loose later on this homestand, stay tuned.
Thats not where it ended with Canada. "Kids In The Hall Suck!" was bandied about as well.
There seemed to be a lot of animosity in the air. Maybe hovering around first place was getting to us. BOX SEATS SUCK (DICK!) someone wrote. At 7:10 I noted that I "lit my first cigar" so I was a multiple cigar burner a game man back then. A "1st asshole alert" was posted on the card at 7:11PM, with no mention of the transgression to elicit the tag. 11 minutes later someone wrote "We got a party!" with a 7:22 attached. Devon White, in center, got a "Devo sucks, and he knows it!"
Not all sat well with the crowd. It was a total sausage factory out there, as someone wrote "saw more guys asses than Yankee runs" with a frowny face on the card. The infamous "Crapman" song, which is a favorite to this day, was sang lustily in the top of the 5th. This was simply the Batman song with Crapman superimposed, sung lustily whenever the vendor selling the big balloon bats and other gaudy distractions came ambling up.
Even with this there were moments of joy outside of the game action. "Eddie Layton playin' some bitchin' tunes" someone wrote. The sentiment seems to have turned, though, cause right under that someone wrote "shut the fucking music off!"
Seeing how many comments from others were on here (and a total lack of funny ones) I have to believe that I must have been deep into my cups. I did manage to write on the card that the D train won the Great Subway Race....was I so starved for material that i was scoring a cartoon race off the Stadium scoreboard?
No less than FIVE people got the boot from the box seats together in a mass ejection at some point. That was duly noted with some glee. There was yet another broken souveiner bat, there seemed to be one every day at this point, as someone named "John" broke his "already" in the bottom of the first. These broken bats only stopped when we were summarily told to not bring them in.
Kept a running tally on how many times we heard certain chants and ditties...."Horses Ass" was belted out 8 times over the course of the night, and ".....Takes It Up The Ass" tied things up late in the game, with 8 renditions of its own. Your lucky beneficiary of this fun song was one Joe Carter, who had plenty to say about the Yankee fans booing the Canadian anthem in the next couple of days. Carter also got a heartfelt "Fuck you, Carter.....fuck you!" from a rowdy patron.
I see "a non-midget would have had that one" written on here, and seeing Pat Kelly made the only error of the the game, yeah, it was probably directed at him.
Jim Abbott was on the mound for the Yankees, facing the fiery Todd Stottlemyre. A pitching duel, with an unhappy ending. The Jays took a 2-0 lead in the top of the 6th on a two-run homer from our friend Devon White, and upped it to an insurmountable 4-0 with 2 more in the top of the 9th before Abbott got the hook and Paul Assenmacher, making his second Yankee appearance after coming over from the Cubs, stopped the bleeding. Our other nemesis on the night, Joe Carter, had the two run dinger in the 9th, so the two guys we yelled at all night put one over on us in the end.
Stottlemyre hurled 7 scoreless innings before Danny Cox (written, of course, Cocks in the pitching line) came in to shut the door and notch a save. Did you know Cox was born in Northhampton, England? Nor did I.
Other luminaries in the Toronto lineup included Ed Sprague (who shares my birthday of July 25th) John Olerud, Tony Fernandez, and Pat Borders. Roberto Alomar started at second, but came out of the game in the first inning after striking out....as he was back in the lineup the next day I am figuring he must have been ejected for arguing the call (sure hope he did not spit at anyone) although there is no real explanation on the card.
The Yankees wasted 9 hits in getting shut out, with Boggs, Dion James, and Bernie all going 2-4. The Yankees started the first with back to back singles by Boggs and James but got nothing for thier efforts. Mike Stanley threw out Borders stealing.....no, I dont know why Borders was running either.
A VERY nice crowd for a Monday (43,304) and your umpires on the field were Joe Brinkman, Derryl Cousins, Rick Reed, and Drew Coble.
Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
July 31st, 1993 "Ninth Inning Dramatica!"
July 31st, 1993
First place? I ate a bug!
July 31st, 1993. The Brewers were still in town, bringing down the property values. Yanks went in tied for first base, and as I snuck a mention to before, back then that was a huge deal. Large Marge large. I have a pic in a crumbling photo album from around this time of bearded Captain Bob on the sidewalk outside the bleachers holding up a NY Post back page with Jim Abbott in full motion, and the heading "Hey Abbott! We're In First!" And Captain Bob has his mouth agape as if in the throes of ecstacy, joyfully screaming.....I swear, you dont usually see faces that excited when the World Series is won. And all this newspaper was trumpeting was a freakin' tie for first place in July.
Jimmy Key started for the Yankees, so old punk rocker Pops, an avowed Jimmy Key fan, was probably at the game. We also played a team nicknamed "the Brew Crew" so yes, Pops was probably in attendance and slamming suds. This was a wild one, with the Yankees winning it in the bottom of the 9th, culminating in a bunch of us falling down on top of one another while we hopped around on the seats like pigs on pogos.
I was there with the crew I used to hit the OBI on Long Island with back in the day before id pass out at the bar - - my cronies Joe, John, and Kerry (a dead ringer for Jesus Christ, but thinner) True to form, apparently they were late to this party, and I cheekily noted this on the heading of the scorecard. Upon arrival Joe took a look at a group of ugly girls sitting in 37, made a sour face, and deemed the whole area "Jur-ass-lick Park"
A nosy fan, child cradled in arm, leaned over the loge railing to our left, prompting a "throw us the kid!!!" chant. I was VERY drunk this whole game. This is when a scorecard scan would really enhance the mood, as my writing is all over the place and you can see I was having problems putting words together. Therefore, there are very few funny jokes cause when I was in that sort of condition, it was hard enough to write in the plays yet alone to enunciate a joke to anyone, or remember one hurled my way.
At one point I pointed to some tough guy Italian looking fellow skulking about, and asked aloud "hey, is that Guido Jones?" and Joe replied, "No, thats Fag Bag Meyer." I then ate a bug, which was always a possibility when I was deep into my cups and it didnt look like Id be kissing a girl that day. I would imagine it was a small bug on my shirt, that I plucked off when it was called to my attention, and popped into my mouth. Cause again, being drunk, how was I going to catch a bug?
Somehow over the course of things I found out that Phil Rizzuto hollered NINE "Holy Cows!!" earlier in the week for my birthday game when the Yankees, trailing 8-0, came back to beat the Angels 9-8 in the ninth. I covered this a few days ago, scroll down! I have no idea how that information about Rizzuto's remarks was compiled or attributed, but it made the scorecard cause someone proffered said info.
One lucky fan autographed the scorecard, with the tagline "I gave U chips!" So I guess I was allowing people to whore themselves out on the scorecard in return for giving me free potato chips. This would probably explain the bug as well, as I would imagine chip crumbs all over a drunk would attract bugs bumming a meal.
"Drop dead like Drysdale!!" was hurled to an unlucky fan just minding his own business. Poor Don had died earlier in the month, on July 3rd, and now his legacy in Section 39 was merely as insult fodder.
An "argument about beer" started in the 5th, and was still going on in the 7th. I know this cause "Beer argument still going on" is written in unsteady hand 2 innings after I wrote "Arguing about beer." Knowing the guys I was with, it was probably an argument over who owed the next round. My friend Joe was all excited to hear the infamous "Gang Bang" song, but alas, he was in line for beer when Captain Bob broke it out that day, as rightly or wrongly we convinced him it was his round. Ah, tragic irony.
With as much as I was drinking DURING the games that day, I am amazed at the total lack of mystery outs, especially as I seem to have handled the whole game myself. There were only 3 in this entire game, all while the Yankees were at the dish. I guess as the years went on and there were more characters out there to distract me, the mystery outs flowed like water. Or, considering this is a bleacher column, I should say flowed like beer. Believe me, I will be recounting nights with as many as FIFTEEN or more mystery outs on them.
As for the game, we hit the 9th inning tied at 4. All four of the Yankee runs were notched off of one Rafael Novoa, who I had forgotten ever existed. This was his second, and final, major league season. He was relieved by Mr. Matt Maysey, a Canadian who also had a sterling 2 year career, and was going "aboot" his final campaign in 1993. I mistakenly wrote him in as "Lacy (?)" on the card, so my knowledge of prospects was no means as good as it is today. Either that or I was thinking of a stripper. Finally our old friend Graeme Lloyd sauntered in, completing an all-Australian battery with Dave Nilsson, behind the dish for Milwaukee. I myself liked Lloyd better when he was throwing punches in brawls against the Orioles.
In the 9th Mike "Eddie Munster" Gallego won the game for the good guys, plating Spike Owen with a single off of Doug Henry, in front of 30,140 on a Saturday....night? Day? We used to play a lot of Saturday night games back then. "9th inning dramatica" was the way the ending was described. Very theatric. Not only did a whole bunch of us tumble off the seats, old Ali apparently was ringing the tin the whole inning, trying to end the game and send us off in style.
Mike Stanley drove in 3 runs. He was ALL OVER these early scorecards. Holy shit, was he hitting. Jim Leyritz actually started in right, with Paul O'Neill coming in as a pinch-hitter/replacement later in the game. After Key pitched a solid 7 innings, giving up 2 runs, Bobby Munoz came in and imploded, allowing the Brewers to tie things up at 4 in the 8th, then Paul Assenmacher came in and gave up a hit before Bob Wickman came in to stop the bleeding. Wickman ended up with the win, bringing his record up to 10-3.
Your umpires were once again Dale Ford, Larry Young, Chuck Meriwether, and Rich Garcia.
Thanks for reading!
First place? I ate a bug!
July 31st, 1993. The Brewers were still in town, bringing down the property values. Yanks went in tied for first base, and as I snuck a mention to before, back then that was a huge deal. Large Marge large. I have a pic in a crumbling photo album from around this time of bearded Captain Bob on the sidewalk outside the bleachers holding up a NY Post back page with Jim Abbott in full motion, and the heading "Hey Abbott! We're In First!" And Captain Bob has his mouth agape as if in the throes of ecstacy, joyfully screaming.....I swear, you dont usually see faces that excited when the World Series is won. And all this newspaper was trumpeting was a freakin' tie for first place in July.
Jimmy Key started for the Yankees, so old punk rocker Pops, an avowed Jimmy Key fan, was probably at the game. We also played a team nicknamed "the Brew Crew" so yes, Pops was probably in attendance and slamming suds. This was a wild one, with the Yankees winning it in the bottom of the 9th, culminating in a bunch of us falling down on top of one another while we hopped around on the seats like pigs on pogos.
I was there with the crew I used to hit the OBI on Long Island with back in the day before id pass out at the bar - - my cronies Joe, John, and Kerry (a dead ringer for Jesus Christ, but thinner) True to form, apparently they were late to this party, and I cheekily noted this on the heading of the scorecard. Upon arrival Joe took a look at a group of ugly girls sitting in 37, made a sour face, and deemed the whole area "Jur-ass-lick Park"
A nosy fan, child cradled in arm, leaned over the loge railing to our left, prompting a "throw us the kid!!!" chant. I was VERY drunk this whole game. This is when a scorecard scan would really enhance the mood, as my writing is all over the place and you can see I was having problems putting words together. Therefore, there are very few funny jokes cause when I was in that sort of condition, it was hard enough to write in the plays yet alone to enunciate a joke to anyone, or remember one hurled my way.
At one point I pointed to some tough guy Italian looking fellow skulking about, and asked aloud "hey, is that Guido Jones?" and Joe replied, "No, thats Fag Bag Meyer." I then ate a bug, which was always a possibility when I was deep into my cups and it didnt look like Id be kissing a girl that day. I would imagine it was a small bug on my shirt, that I plucked off when it was called to my attention, and popped into my mouth. Cause again, being drunk, how was I going to catch a bug?
Somehow over the course of things I found out that Phil Rizzuto hollered NINE "Holy Cows!!" earlier in the week for my birthday game when the Yankees, trailing 8-0, came back to beat the Angels 9-8 in the ninth. I covered this a few days ago, scroll down! I have no idea how that information about Rizzuto's remarks was compiled or attributed, but it made the scorecard cause someone proffered said info.
One lucky fan autographed the scorecard, with the tagline "I gave U chips!" So I guess I was allowing people to whore themselves out on the scorecard in return for giving me free potato chips. This would probably explain the bug as well, as I would imagine chip crumbs all over a drunk would attract bugs bumming a meal.
"Drop dead like Drysdale!!" was hurled to an unlucky fan just minding his own business. Poor Don had died earlier in the month, on July 3rd, and now his legacy in Section 39 was merely as insult fodder.
An "argument about beer" started in the 5th, and was still going on in the 7th. I know this cause "Beer argument still going on" is written in unsteady hand 2 innings after I wrote "Arguing about beer." Knowing the guys I was with, it was probably an argument over who owed the next round. My friend Joe was all excited to hear the infamous "Gang Bang" song, but alas, he was in line for beer when Captain Bob broke it out that day, as rightly or wrongly we convinced him it was his round. Ah, tragic irony.
With as much as I was drinking DURING the games that day, I am amazed at the total lack of mystery outs, especially as I seem to have handled the whole game myself. There were only 3 in this entire game, all while the Yankees were at the dish. I guess as the years went on and there were more characters out there to distract me, the mystery outs flowed like water. Or, considering this is a bleacher column, I should say flowed like beer. Believe me, I will be recounting nights with as many as FIFTEEN or more mystery outs on them.
As for the game, we hit the 9th inning tied at 4. All four of the Yankee runs were notched off of one Rafael Novoa, who I had forgotten ever existed. This was his second, and final, major league season. He was relieved by Mr. Matt Maysey, a Canadian who also had a sterling 2 year career, and was going "aboot" his final campaign in 1993. I mistakenly wrote him in as "Lacy (?)" on the card, so my knowledge of prospects was no means as good as it is today. Either that or I was thinking of a stripper. Finally our old friend Graeme Lloyd sauntered in, completing an all-Australian battery with Dave Nilsson, behind the dish for Milwaukee. I myself liked Lloyd better when he was throwing punches in brawls against the Orioles.
In the 9th Mike "Eddie Munster" Gallego won the game for the good guys, plating Spike Owen with a single off of Doug Henry, in front of 30,140 on a Saturday....night? Day? We used to play a lot of Saturday night games back then. "9th inning dramatica" was the way the ending was described. Very theatric. Not only did a whole bunch of us tumble off the seats, old Ali apparently was ringing the tin the whole inning, trying to end the game and send us off in style.
Mike Stanley drove in 3 runs. He was ALL OVER these early scorecards. Holy shit, was he hitting. Jim Leyritz actually started in right, with Paul O'Neill coming in as a pinch-hitter/replacement later in the game. After Key pitched a solid 7 innings, giving up 2 runs, Bobby Munoz came in and imploded, allowing the Brewers to tie things up at 4 in the 8th, then Paul Assenmacher came in and gave up a hit before Bob Wickman came in to stop the bleeding. Wickman ended up with the win, bringing his record up to 10-3.
Your umpires were once again Dale Ford, Larry Young, Chuck Meriwether, and Rich Garcia.
Thanks for reading!
Monday, August 2, 2010
July 30th, 1993 - Look, a Brewers hat!
July 30th, 1993
Yankees battle The Brew Crew
Lets sail back to July 30th, 1993. Our foes on that day were the Brewers. I know a heap of the old-schoolers remember way back when we used to sit out there and recall seeing every opposing team cap make an appearance out there, but never a Brewers cap. They just never found their way to Section 39. I remember the day we first saw a Brewer cap out there, so many years later. We could not even boo or heckle the guy, we were too busy slapping 5's for finally seeing a hat from the Brew Crew.
A Yankee win - 8-5, behind the efforts of one Scott Kamienieki, who had the lame nickname of "Kamelot" on the scorecard. I dont know whats worse, someone out there came up with it or I subsequently wrote it down. Steve Howe actually put down the pipe and pitched a scoreless 2 1/3 to close it out. But I get ahead of myself.
Anyone remember Jeff? Ended up working with the Stadium or some photographers that covered the place in some capacity. Back then he was just a shifty looking guy. Actually, after he got his job he was still a shifty looking guy. He wished me a Happy Birthday on the card, a mere 5 days late. Someone named "H.G Thomas" also autographed the card, and identified themselves as "Bleacher Buddha Belly" - holy Hell, can that name fit about two dozen of us now.
We started the game but 1 game out, behind the Blow Jays. In those days, this was a big accomplishment, worthy of noting on the scorecard. As was noting "even Mike Gallego is batting .299" At the same time the Brewers were "the worst team in the AL" with a 41-60 record. That days starter, the venerable Cal Eldred had 11 of those wins (and by the end of this day 11 of those losses)
The legendary Ali Ramirez was all over the cowbell that day, with 3 seperate cadences in the 7th inning alone, apparently (and the Yankees did not score 1 run for all his efforts) By this time I had developed a coding system to mark on the card where exactly we did the "Horses Ass" song and the " -insert RF here - takes it up the ass, doo da, doo da" songs, as we did them multiple times a game at this point. I coded "Horses Ass" by making a little dot in the box for the batter up at the time, and used a cross for the "takes it up the ass song" - sorry, Lord!
At some point in the game someone yelled "sit down bitch!" at someone and Teena corrected that with "thats not a bitch, its a dude."
There was a guy with one of those old-school Guldens Mustard Yankee visors on. Someone else scored scorecard credit for walking up the steps with no less than 4 beers in hand. I have seen that many times since (actually, with soda replacing the beers from 97 for the next decade plus due to the bleacher beer ban) but considering how much money beer was, that is a risky thing to do, sort of like performing on a trapeze while on a unicycle.
Noted that someone named Joseph broke their seat...not sure if it was on purpose during a Yankee win, or if he was fat. Something else annoying I was doing back then was marking arrival times. I guess I thought some of these people were famous enough to warrent it (appearance marks were made for Captain Bob, Cousin Brewski, and Dave "Animal) - fact that I was marking this also showed they were arriving late...maybe that is where I learned this in my later years. Damn, I hope someone is marking my arrival times on scorecards somewhere. Oftentimes i come in so late I would walk by the people leaving early.
Speaking of old school flavor, Billy the Devil fan called a home run, which was noted. Billy, for the unitiated, was the dope that once said that the Twins Marty Cordova was on his way to becoming one of the "best leftfielders in the history of the game." The homer he predicted moments before it sailed was off the bat of Mike Stanley, a 3 run shot. Enough people call home runs, or get them wrong, where this sort of thing would never be added to the scorecard today. Its just hooey. I missed the same home run as I was "lighting my cigar" at the time. And, get this, I missed someone in the bleachers throwing back a Brewer home run by Darryl Hamilton as at the time I was "burning a hole in Joseph's scorecard" with that same cigar.
Ah, seems we had an appearance by the loon who used to light his own hair on fire. Well, he was thrown out of this game doing just that in the 8th inning. He got the old heave-ho. Apparently he went to the well one too many times, as he got away with it in the 6th. In recent years many sordid stories have come about regarding whatever happened to him. They sounded like a fate one would not doubt from someone who enjoyed lighting his hair on fire for fun.
Ali came up with a real zinger that I have used to this day, in regards to Fat Daddy Chico. He asked, "if Chico went to the zoo and saw the elephants, who would throw peanuts at who?"
There is a frantic "uh, oh, wave!" warning on here. The wave was running rampant all the way through the top of the 7th, and that is probably why Ali was going bezerk with his bell, trying to stop the damn thing. At some point in the game (2nd inning, I bet) the scoreboard actually read "2 0 2 2 2 2 2 "
For the record there is only ONE "MO" - mystery out - on the scorecard. Considering the way they appeared 5-15 times in later years, that is something. I seem to have kept score the entire game myself, so my days of whoring the thing out were not the norm yet.
As for the game itself, after Eldred had a routinely shaky outing we got to see that slob Mike Fetters, and the old even then Jesse Orosco finish up. The Brewer lineup featured such luminaries as John freaking Jaha, and Tom Brunansky, who looked stupid not dressed in Twins regalia.
For the Yankees we saw home runs from Danny Tartabull, the aforementioned Mike Stanley and Neon Dion James. Bernie Williams had a nice time of it, reaching base 4 times with a pair of hits, and a pair of walks. He also swiped a bag.
The attendance on this Friday night was a scant 23,385 (and I mentioned on the card there was a LONG row of nothing but blue seats to our right) and your arbiters were Rich Garcia, Dale Ford, Larry Young, and Chuck Meriwether.
Thanks for reading!
Yankees battle The Brew Crew
Lets sail back to July 30th, 1993. Our foes on that day were the Brewers. I know a heap of the old-schoolers remember way back when we used to sit out there and recall seeing every opposing team cap make an appearance out there, but never a Brewers cap. They just never found their way to Section 39. I remember the day we first saw a Brewer cap out there, so many years later. We could not even boo or heckle the guy, we were too busy slapping 5's for finally seeing a hat from the Brew Crew.
A Yankee win - 8-5, behind the efforts of one Scott Kamienieki, who had the lame nickname of "Kamelot" on the scorecard. I dont know whats worse, someone out there came up with it or I subsequently wrote it down. Steve Howe actually put down the pipe and pitched a scoreless 2 1/3 to close it out. But I get ahead of myself.
Anyone remember Jeff? Ended up working with the Stadium or some photographers that covered the place in some capacity. Back then he was just a shifty looking guy. Actually, after he got his job he was still a shifty looking guy. He wished me a Happy Birthday on the card, a mere 5 days late. Someone named "H.G Thomas" also autographed the card, and identified themselves as "Bleacher Buddha Belly" - holy Hell, can that name fit about two dozen of us now.
We started the game but 1 game out, behind the Blow Jays. In those days, this was a big accomplishment, worthy of noting on the scorecard. As was noting "even Mike Gallego is batting .299" At the same time the Brewers were "the worst team in the AL" with a 41-60 record. That days starter, the venerable Cal Eldred had 11 of those wins (and by the end of this day 11 of those losses)
The legendary Ali Ramirez was all over the cowbell that day, with 3 seperate cadences in the 7th inning alone, apparently (and the Yankees did not score 1 run for all his efforts) By this time I had developed a coding system to mark on the card where exactly we did the "Horses Ass" song and the " -insert RF here - takes it up the ass, doo da, doo da" songs, as we did them multiple times a game at this point. I coded "Horses Ass" by making a little dot in the box for the batter up at the time, and used a cross for the "takes it up the ass song" - sorry, Lord!
At some point in the game someone yelled "sit down bitch!" at someone and Teena corrected that with "thats not a bitch, its a dude."
There was a guy with one of those old-school Guldens Mustard Yankee visors on. Someone else scored scorecard credit for walking up the steps with no less than 4 beers in hand. I have seen that many times since (actually, with soda replacing the beers from 97 for the next decade plus due to the bleacher beer ban) but considering how much money beer was, that is a risky thing to do, sort of like performing on a trapeze while on a unicycle.
Noted that someone named Joseph broke their seat...not sure if it was on purpose during a Yankee win, or if he was fat. Something else annoying I was doing back then was marking arrival times. I guess I thought some of these people were famous enough to warrent it (appearance marks were made for Captain Bob, Cousin Brewski, and Dave "Animal) - fact that I was marking this also showed they were arriving late...maybe that is where I learned this in my later years. Damn, I hope someone is marking my arrival times on scorecards somewhere. Oftentimes i come in so late I would walk by the people leaving early.
Speaking of old school flavor, Billy the Devil fan called a home run, which was noted. Billy, for the unitiated, was the dope that once said that the Twins Marty Cordova was on his way to becoming one of the "best leftfielders in the history of the game." The homer he predicted moments before it sailed was off the bat of Mike Stanley, a 3 run shot. Enough people call home runs, or get them wrong, where this sort of thing would never be added to the scorecard today. Its just hooey. I missed the same home run as I was "lighting my cigar" at the time. And, get this, I missed someone in the bleachers throwing back a Brewer home run by Darryl Hamilton as at the time I was "burning a hole in Joseph's scorecard" with that same cigar.
Ah, seems we had an appearance by the loon who used to light his own hair on fire. Well, he was thrown out of this game doing just that in the 8th inning. He got the old heave-ho. Apparently he went to the well one too many times, as he got away with it in the 6th. In recent years many sordid stories have come about regarding whatever happened to him. They sounded like a fate one would not doubt from someone who enjoyed lighting his hair on fire for fun.
Ali came up with a real zinger that I have used to this day, in regards to Fat Daddy Chico. He asked, "if Chico went to the zoo and saw the elephants, who would throw peanuts at who?"
There is a frantic "uh, oh, wave!" warning on here. The wave was running rampant all the way through the top of the 7th, and that is probably why Ali was going bezerk with his bell, trying to stop the damn thing. At some point in the game (2nd inning, I bet) the scoreboard actually read "2 0 2 2 2 2 2 "
For the record there is only ONE "MO" - mystery out - on the scorecard. Considering the way they appeared 5-15 times in later years, that is something. I seem to have kept score the entire game myself, so my days of whoring the thing out were not the norm yet.
As for the game itself, after Eldred had a routinely shaky outing we got to see that slob Mike Fetters, and the old even then Jesse Orosco finish up. The Brewer lineup featured such luminaries as John freaking Jaha, and Tom Brunansky, who looked stupid not dressed in Twins regalia.
For the Yankees we saw home runs from Danny Tartabull, the aforementioned Mike Stanley and Neon Dion James. Bernie Williams had a nice time of it, reaching base 4 times with a pair of hits, and a pair of walks. He also swiped a bag.
The attendance on this Friday night was a scant 23,385 (and I mentioned on the card there was a LONG row of nothing but blue seats to our right) and your arbiters were Rich Garcia, Dale Ford, Larry Young, and Chuck Meriwether.
Thanks for reading!
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