Way Back Wednesday

Way Back Wednesday is a feature FanCred does, I’ve mentioned them here before, click the tag to see the post. The theme for today is “Your favorite sports moment at your favorite sports venue”. This picture only partially fits, O.K., not at all since these are from the old Yankee Stadium and I go to the new Stadium. I never liked the old Stadium and yes I know Yankee fans see that as heresy. Deal with it.

These are tickets from last year, the game was rained out and I couldn’t go to the make-up game. I traded them in for this Saturday’s game, Sylvia will be there and it looks to be a fun time. I was smart this time and scanned them before I traded them in.

Elston Howard was the first African American player on the Yankees. He made his debut on April 14, 1955 and played most of his career for the Yankees. In his last year he was traded to the Red Sox but then came back to the Yankees as a coach. His number (32) was retired in 1984. He won the MVP award in 1963, the Babe Ruth award in 1958, has two gold gloves, World Series Champion 4 times and played in 12 All-star games. No I never saw him play, how old do you think I am? I did watch a Yankeeography about him.

November 1, 2001 Scott Brosius hit a home run to tie game 5 of the World Series. It was a great moment, unfortunately the Yankees lost that World Series to the Diamondbacks, making them one of the teams that was able to take advantage of a human moment by Mariano Rivera. I didn’t see Scott Brosius play either, that was during my non-baseball years. I don’t know if there is a Yankeeography about him.

That’s it for my way-back Wednesday.

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Disappointment

They were so close, I was so excited. But it was not to be, I had to put away my broom for another series.

~~ D-backs 6, Yankees 2 ~~

Phil “Homerun” Hughes was on the mound today as the Yankees went for the sweep. It was not to be. To be fair, Phil actually pitched rather well only giving up two home runs and they were both single shots. The rest of the runs were given up by Phelps in the 12th inning. After the 4 runs the D-backs got the Yankees couldn’t come back to score.

In other news, Derek Jeter has had a setback, a cat scan showed another break in the location of the original break. His new expected date back is after the All-Star break. So more games with Nunez at short stop. He has also been playing very well there, no errors (well until tonight) so far. Since the Yankees have kept him at one position he has been doing better. We no longer hold our breath when the ball is hit to him. So he and Nix are sort of sharing SS duties.

Count my co-worker as another person who ‘never thought he would be rooting for Kevin Youkilis’. I have no problem rooting for him, in fact I kind of thank Mo for him. He can hit, he can take pitches, he can play 3rd and he can play 1st. He is the perfect man.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Game 14
Yankees 8-6 (0.571)

Still don’t know why they call him Pronk

C.C. was back on the mound today, gave up two runs in the first inning and immediately everyone lost their minds! Except for me I was doing laundry.

~~ Yankees 4, D-backs 3 ~~

After seeing Sarah off on the train, I planned to come home and do laundry, then watch the game in the evening. Instead I took a nap, I felt really good after, but I still had laundry to do. I come home to the Diamondbacks with a lead. Then in the seventh inning the lead started to unravel, with the bases loaded, their pitcher, Wade Miley, walked Jayson Nix which brought in Ben Francisco. It was either his pitch count or the fact that he walked Nix on 5 pitches that prompted the manager to replace him. The next pitcher had to face Brett Gardner, who brought in the next two runners tying the game at 3.

Then in the bottom of the eighth inning Travis Hafner pitch hit for Francisco and he slammed it over the fence. This prompted the D-Backs announcer to say they got ‘pronked’, and I still don’t know what that means or why he’s called that.

That’s all except for, Kevin Youkilis got hit by pitch, go figure.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Game 13
Yankees 8-5 (0.615)

First game attended

I finally got to a game. Kasey bought tickets for me and Sarah because she was coming to spend the night. Really was hoping for a great game experience.

~~ Yankees 4, D-backs 2 ~~

It didn’t exactly turn out that way. I got my usual hot sausage on a gluten free roll and Sarah got nachos. They were were kind of soggy and stale, although the cheese had a nice flavor. I finished them for her so she could get pizza. Which she did, after she got ice cream and we both had hot chocolate. You might think that after all that she would get a stomach ache, actually I was the one that ended up with a stomach ache. It was so bad we had to leave.

Nova was o.k., or at least better than the last time. Only gave up 2 runs, when we left during the middle of the 4th the Yankees hadn’t scored yet, Sarah had to visit the ladies room and I was keeping track of the game. That’s how I knew when Robinson Cano hit a home run it was a 3 run home run which put the Yankees in the lead.

After getting home I turned on the TV so I could at least see Mo pitch. So the evening wasn’t a total loss.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Game 12
Yankees 7-5 (0.583)

6/23 NY Yankees 6 @ Arizona Diamondbacks 5 ~ More proof that Mariano is …. well, Mariano

Another series win. I didn’t watch this game, in fact, I can’t remember the last full game I watched. I will shoot for this Friday since that is the first game against the Dodgers, a team I absolutely hate. OK hate is a strong word, but I really really really don’t like them.

Also it seems I have started typing one post per series instead of per game, that is also not intentional. Tonight I was so tired, and it was a late game. I set my alarm and laid down for a nap. My alarm went off, I snoozed it a couple times, then shut it off. I woke up around 12:30 or so (not sure of the time so don’t jump on me) and thought, the Yankees can win this without me. Then I looked at the score, NYY 4, Ari 5. I also remembered I still had my contacts in. So I got up to take out my contacts and sat down to watch the game.

It was the eighth inning, I got to see the Yankees tie the game up, Cervelli get called out on strikes and yell at the umpire. Curtis Granderson hit the game winning home run in the 10th inning. Then Mo came in to end it, well actually, he pitched the 9th so he was already in the game, he even batted. (All the while I was praying, Please don’t get hurt) Then in the bottom of the 10th a couple of D-Backs got hits, now also on my hate list, Arizona Diamondbacks. After an intentional walk it was bases loaded and no outs. I couldn’t breath, I couldn’t watch, anybody else … but it was Mo, and Mariano did what Mariano does best. Next 3 batters, 1, 2, 3. Game over, Yankees win.

6/22 @ ARI, W 9-3

6/21 @ ARI, L 4-10

~~and that’s all~~ she wrote

How pathetic am I

I was at the gym and looking through the TV channels to find something to watch when I came across a baseball game. I stopped and looked at the Yankees! But they didn’t have a game and they were playing at Yankee Stadium. And who was that pitching? He didn’t look familiar to me, then the announcer said, “El Duque, …. ” HuH? That was when I noticed the logo for “Yankees Classics” on the screen. I was happy to watch the game, in fact I was excited to watch a game from 8 years ago that I knew how it ended, sad and pathetic I know, although technically I didn’t know how this game ended, just how the series ended. 

And it wasn’t really ‘my boys’ playing, I mean I recognized the names, Scott Brosius, Tino Martinez, Paul O’Neill, Bernie Williams but I don’t really know them. Does that make me a ‘fake fan’ like my idiot co-worker says? Maybe it does, maybe I should stop writing this blog, nah …….

Course  my man Derek was shortstop and made a fabulous double play, tagging second and throwing the ball to first base where Mark …. no …. Tino tagged the runner out, Jorge was catching, made a beautiful catch of a popup foul ball, throwing his helmet down at the last minute, he looks so cool when he makes those catches, and I saw Andy Pettitte in the dugout along with Joe Torre (boo hiss) sitting with his back against the wall, scowling. 

When the Diamondbacks made their second run in the 8th inning I turned off the TV and left, well I kind of had just enough time to shower and change before they closed. So I missed Mariano (enter Sandman).

Below is a brief synopsis I copied from The Baseball Almanac, the link is at the bottom. It is a fantastic website. I love it.  

 

 Shutdown by the return of Schilling (on three days’ rest), the defending champions were staring at the possibility of a three-games-to-one deficit in Game 4. With one out, Paul O’Neill shot an opposite-field single in front of left fielder Luis Gonzalez and after Bernie Williams struck out, Tino Martinez hit the first pitch he saw from reliever Byung-Hyun Kim over the wall in right-center field. As the ball cleared the outfield barrier, the hometown crowd of 55,863 erupted as the invigorated Yankees spilled out of the dugout. The stadium that had fallen deadly silent after the Diamondbacks scored two runs (in the eighth) was deafening now and would not stop celebrating until Martinez came out on the deck for a curtain call. Rivera (1-0) cruised through the tenth and improved to 2-0 with five saves and a 0.71 ERA in nine postseason appearances. Derek Jeter completed the cycle in what had evolved into one of the most memorable games of all time by lining a 3-2 pitch over the right-field wall for the game-winner. 

 

2001 World Series Game 4 Line Score / Box Score
2001 World Series Game 4 Capsule
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	R	H	E
Arizona	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	3	6	0
New York	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	4	7	0
Arizona Pitcher(s)							New York Pitcher(s)
Curt Schilling    Byung-Hyun Kim (L, 8th)    –    –							Orlando Hernandez    Mike Stanton (7th)    Ramiro Mendoza (8th)    Mariano Rivera (W, 10th)
Arizona Home Runs							New York Home Runs
Mark Grace (4th) – –							Shane Spencer (3rd) Tino Martinez (9th) Derek Jeter (10th)

Baseball Almanac

~~and that’s all she wrote~~