The Girl Who Loved Andy Pettitte » yankee stadium

Scenes From A Game

leokitty — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:03:34 +0000

A bunch of pigeons were hanging around in Center Field for the first couple of innings.

The Mariners vs CC Sabathia: Nope

Bye-bye tarp

Fries left behind in the rain. Soggy but perhaps still edible?

The Times, They Are Different

leokitty — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 21:08:45 +0000

Fans leaving the last game at Yankee Stadium, 1973 (from the NY Times)

Police lining up on the field, 2008.

A Brief Nostalgia Moment

leokitty — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:25:52 +0000

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.

My Last Picture From Yankee Stadium

leokitty — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 01:11:08 +0000

Called strike 3 for Mariano Rivera.

September 17th and 18th – Yankees vs White Sox

leokitty — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 20:48:03 +0000

Pictures from the last two games, September 17th and 18th.

September 15th, 2008 – Yankees vs White Sox

leokitty — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:52:11 +0000

Last night was my last game in the Box 670 seats I’ve had this season (it was the Holiday Pack with the $5/seat tickets and I wasn’t going to pass that up). These seats are okay even though you can’t really see the left fielder (which I have considered to be an advantage for my sanity this year) because there is a perfect view of the bullpens that I absolutely love.

Here are the pictures from my fourth-to-last game at Old New Yankee Stadium:

Oh This Is Hilarious

leokitty — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:41:40 +0000

Today I received my Relocation Program Guide for the New Yankee Stadium. This is cool and all, but the survey (that you could only fill out online) was due yesterday. The letter enclosed still has the old due date of September 10th, but the postmark is for after that. I filled mine out pretty much as soon as I saw it on the website (I poke around yankees.com a lot, what can I say) and they sent out an email last week so I am sure the vast majority of people knew about it. That doesn’t stop me from being preemptively sad for the one old man who has had his season tickets for 50 years and has no idea about this. I expect a story to appear in the Post or Daily News about him next month when nothing New York baseball related is going on.

All Things Come To An End

leokitty — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:13:17 +0000

The Yankees are down to the final final games at Yankee Stadium and I am personally down to my final four. I’ll be attending tonight, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I’ve been going to games at the Stadium since 1990 when George Steinbrenner was “banned for life” (my mom had some sort of personal Anti-Steinbrenner protest going on before then). I remember when you could walk up to any given game and get field level tickets that did not cost $320 (day of game price) and nobody yelled at you for putting up Ks in the outfield. So yeah, I’ve seen a lot of things and with the Yankees not being very good this year it’s nostalgia time for a week before I go back to being angry.

I have been to blowouts (on both sides), seen amazing pitchers like Melido Perez and watched as the crowd gradually shifted from being a somewhat large number of people who really care about baseball to large groups of “fans” who are willing to start fights over God Bless America. (it’s important to be as patriotic as possible when at a baseball game, and don’t you forget it!!!)

Here’s some memories from this current season in particular. You may notice from these that I am a slightly cantankerous person.

I have seen people forget that Scott Brosius was somewhat competent but not really that good.
I have hit people (gently) for booing Phil Hughes because he isn’t 1986 Roger Clemens
I have yelled at college girls wearing sparkly pink Yankees hats for holding up giant “JOBA MARRY ME!!!!!!” signs during games because they block my view of the action completely.
I went absolutely ballistic on some people who kept trying to start up a wave in front of me while the Yankees were in a tight game with runners on base.
I have seen Carl Pavano pitch. Twice.

Andy Is Pitching The Last Game At Yankee Stadium

leokitty — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 14:00:48 +0000

Bernie is coming back for the FINAL GAME(TM) and Andy is pitching it. The pregame ceremony should be awesome and there is nobody I would rather have pitching it on this team than Andy but it would break my heart if Good Andy doesn’t show up for the game.

I really desperately want him to do well for obvious reasons, but between the atrocious defense he’s had behind him (check out his BABIP!) and his breaking pitches starting to wane as he’s getting tired (apparently he didn’t get his normal workout in this year, which makes sense when you consider he was seriously contemplating retirement) it just makes me very nervous. At the end of the day, I still believe in him but it’s getting hard. His k/9 is actually up this year so he must be doing something right.

***

In farm system news, Scranton are kings of the International League. They absolutely murdered Pawtucket 20-2. Some kid named Phil Hughes pitched 5 innings, allowed 4 hits, walked 4 and had one earned run. He also struck out 12. The four walks is pretty terrible on the one hand, on the other hand that is still a 3:1 ratio so I’ll forgive it for one night. The kid is getting his stuff together and hopefully next year he’ll be able to bring it to the next level and not come down with any horrible freak injuries.

There Are Still Ten Games Left

leokitty — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 03:03:50 +0000

I (hopefully) dodged the Sidney Ponson bullet tonight, as the game was rained out. Of course, it wasn’t rained out until they made everyone sit around for a very long time. They had to have known the game was going to be canceled long before that as the weather forecast said there would be rain all night but it’s to be expected that the team tries to squeeze out as much concession money as possible. They did the same thing on Opening Day. It works, of course, because if the game is somehow not postponed you don’t get your money back. I mean, it’s why I stay every time. Had the game tomorrow been at 4 instead of 1 I think they would have made people wait longer or done something terrible like started it at 10.

In lieu of actual baseball commentary, here are some pictures from tonight: