Friday Night's Post - Damn Yankees

Date: May 4, 2007 (backdated)
Time: 23:59
Place: Home from Yankee Stadium

My nephew called Friday afternoon with some tickets for the Yankee game. These were some spectacular seats. I think we were about 6 rows off the field and less than ten yards beyond the Yankee dugout. This was going to be a chance to see a good game up close.

It was not a good game. The final score was 15-11. The Yankees were up 8-6 in the 5th when ny nephew and I headed for the Stadium club to catch the end of the Rangers-Sabres playoff game. We kept glancing over at the Yankee game and as the Mariners pulled ahead 12-8. The inning lasted as long as half a hockey period and the overtime. The hockey game was exciting, the Rangers breaking a scoreless tie with less than three minutes left with a wrist shot the likes of which I haven't seen since Mike Bossy. The Sabres tied it with 7 seconds left (power play on a ticky tacky penalty) and won in overtime.

We went back to the seats. Normally with really good seats like this, I like to heckle the first base coach, whose only job during the game is to pat other men on the butt, like some kind of greeter at the Ramrod. The first base coach for the Mariners name was Goff, so I figured he'd heard the "Whats' your first name, Jack?" line several times so I let him slide. The Mariners pushed the limit by bringing in a pitcher named Putz. You can't come into a city with a big Jewish population and trot out a pitcher named Putz. I had to announce in a comical Yiddish accent, "Putz? What, did Schmuck pull a hamstring?"