There are definitely a lot of people out there who have been to Yankee Stadium a lot more than me and have more interesting things to wax nostalgic about but here are a few of the moments that stick out to me. No dates, because I am absolutely terrible at remembering them.
1992 – My first Yankees game, I don’t remember why my mom decided to take me. I was 11, and I had probably asked. We walked up to the game day ticket window and got seats in the Main Boxes that are in the short porch in Right Field. Danny Tartabull was starting in RF and I really hated him in that way that people who want to see their teams blown up and rebuilt from scratch do. Looking back at things, he was pretty awesome and I feel bad.
Old Timer’s Day, 1994 – It was really hot, Don Mattingly was hurt and not in the game and the Yankees were playing really badly. It turned out to be the last Old Timer’s Day Mickey Mantle was alive for. Our seats were in the third base side of Tier Reserve, so the sun was really beating down but to alleviate the boredom and anger for a while everyone was passing around a pair of opera glasses to check out Mattingly in the Yankees dugout. Eventually, a water fight broke out in the Tier with people filling their souvenir cups at the bathrooms and fountains and just throwing water at each other.
1995 – My mom and I went to some random game on a Saturday where the giveaway was a replica of the contract that sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees. I still have it somewhere in her house, buried under mounds of stuff.
June 2nd, 1995 – I remember this game because it was the first time I saw Andy Pettitte pitch. He wasn’t great but threw a complete game (loss) as the Yankees managed only four hits against the immortal Chuck Finley. When I got home and my mom asked me who was pitched for New York I told her “some guy with too many ts in his name”.
May 17th, 1998 – This one makes the list because it was the worst possible game my mom chose not to go to at the last minute. We had tickets, we were about to leave the house, when my mom’s computer went on the fritz and she declared we were not going. The heavens showed they did not agree with her decision and punished her by having her favorite pitcher toss a perfect game. I still tease her about this.
July 18th, 1999 – It was Yogi Berra Day and I told my mom we had to go. So we left a bit early as we were mildly concerned the game would be sold out (it wasn’t), picked up tickets for the Field Box in left and watched David Cone achieve “baseball immortality”. Yogi came out in a Cadillac and drove around the field, coming right by our seats and everyone got fake newspapers celebrating Yogi Berra Day upon arrival. My mom went to the bathroom and when she got back, I told her Cone had walked someone while she was gone. At the end of the game, she hit me.
May 17th, 1998 – Look at our awesome lineup. Also, for posting that, go fuck yourself.
you totally miss latroy hawkins as a starting pitcher.