The longest game

Not the longest game ever, but —->

At 5 hours, 43 minutes, this was the #Yankees‘ longest ballgame since battling the Twins for 5 hours, 45 minutes in 2002.

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 23, 2012

The last game I had tickets for was to be played on Tuesday, September 18, however it was rained out. Kasey was coming up to go with me but fortunately the game was called before she left, early the next day she got on the train, we had big plans for the day. Unfortunately I was sick and we ended up watching the game in my apartment.

Part of the reason I was so upset was this was Andy Pettitte’s first day back from the D.L. I really wanted to see him pitch, instead I had to settle for watching him on the little screen. At least the Yankees beat the Blue Jays.

Later in the week Tom sent me a message asking if I wanted to go to the game Saturday, I said that since I had missed the game Wednesday, of course we all know I would have gone regardless. Kasey was in the city and made her request for me to text her game highlights. I took my phone but didn’t bother with my charger since, I was just going to a game, wouldn’t need my charger.

~~ Yankees 10, Athletics 9 ~~

As the saying goes, famous last words. We get to our seats, which actually weren’t our seats. For a Saturday day game the stadium was rather empty. Tom and Mike were in the right section, but not in the right row, well all right, I can be flexible. Tom is busy scouting out new seats for next season’s tickets. He still wants the Audi Club and Mohegan Sun Sports Bar, and I think he is staying in the Grandstand, but he wants seats closer to home plate. We sat in those seats for a while. It didn’t seem like long, but longer then Nova stayed in the game. Stephen Drew hit a home run in the third inning and Nova’s day was done. It didn’t seem too bad, after all the Yankees were still a run ahead, but the A’s were continuing to hit and the Yankees were not, by the 4th inning the game was tied. Then the Yankees broke the tie, then the A’s tied it again. After testing out the seats in section 419, which Tom liked the section but not the row he picked, we went to the Audi club. Because the game had gone on so long they had stopped serving beer in the concession stands, I was still texting Kasey, my text read, “Tied game, again.” Kasey’s reply was, “I hate Oakland!” We get to the 9th inning, still tied. Then the 10th, the 11th, Tom and Mike left for Yonkers. I stayed. I was looking out from the windows across to the bleachers and the right field seats, it looked like a steady exodus of people from the stadium.

Top of the 13th, Freddy was in his 3rd inning and boom, boom, boom, 3 home runs by Oakland scoring 4 runs. Some Oakland fans started cheering, Michael Kay and Tino and Ken started talking about what this loss would mean to the Yankees during the middle of the inning. Then the Yankees came up to bat.

Ichiro starts off with a single, then Alex hits a single, then Robbie takes his turn and also hits a single. A’s bring in a new pitcher, who promptly throws the ball to the wall behind home plate and home comes Ichiro. Nunez brings Alex home with a sacrifice fly, that’s two runs and 1 out. Raul comes up to bat, the same Raul that has been slumping, that some people are saying is too old to play everyday, the same Raul that broke the tie in the 5th with a home run and I thought they were were showing a replay of that home run, I thought they were continuously showing it, but the Audi club was getting loud, and the A’s fans were rather quiet. Home run #17 for Raul Ibanez to tie the game again. Cory Wade comes in and pitched a 1-2-3 top of the 14th.

Chavez get on first and is replaced by Pinch-runner Melky Mesa, he was brought up for his speed so this makes sense. It is his major league debut. Jeter bunts, and then Ichiro is walked. I hit the table and snarled, “Cowards!” The girls next to me just laughed. Oh and by this time my phone was dead as the Red Sox’s chance of going to the post season, so much for not needing my charger. The summary from MLB.com says

Alex Rodriguez singles on a line drive to center fielder Yoenis Cespedes. Melky Mesa to 3rd. Ichiro Suzuki to 2nd.

What this rather dry sentence does not tell you is the reason Melky Mesa went to third and didn’t score was because he missed the base. He ran right over it and never touched it. Someone said, ‘Rookie mistake’, uh duh! He is a rookie, but a worse mistake would have been for him to go home and been called out. So he went back to third, looking very dejected, and the next play he was out at home. I felt really bad for him, as they showed him dragging his feet across to the dugout. No high fives for him, he might get a base in his locker and he will always be remembered as the runner who missed 3rd base.

And then, Eduardo Nunez reaches on a fielding error by first baseman Brandon Moss. Ichiro Suzuki scores. An error, the first baseman dropped the ball and Ichiro ran in and scored the winning run. He was very happy, had a big grin and hugged, whoever was at the base when he ran in. Probably Nick. Nick likes to be in the middle of everything. Make an error against the Yankees and you will pay, in this case it was with the game. Yankees win, everybody is happy.

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

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Rain, Rain, GO AWAY

Another rain delay, this time I was not in the Audi club, I was walking around the stadium with Sarah and not finding any place to sit. I don’t know how Andy and P. dwelt with it. Our seats were also in the bleachers which meant they were wet. We had these beach mats (promotional) and the kids put one down to sit on. However, they did not dry the seats first so we got wet butts. I would have preferred to go to Tuesday’s game, the almost no-hitter, but didn’t have tickets.

~~ Yankees 3, Rangers 2 ~~

The Yankees scored all three runs in the 3rd inning, no home runs, not that I’m counting or anything. When Josh Hamilton hit his home run in the 4th inning the guys behind me complained about Freddy. Oh excuse me, a solo shot by Josh Hamilton, who has hit 30 home runs this season and you are blaming Freddy? Then when Hamilton hit his second home run in the 6th inning, they cursed out Freddy. I almost punched them. He hits home runs, those two runs were the only runs Texas got that night, and you’re calling Freddy names? How about the fact that he didn’t let anyone get on base before the home run? How about the fact that the Yankees WERE NOT HITTING THE BALL? Idiots like that make me rage.

As it turned out, the Yankees didn’t need anymore than 3 runs thanks to Boone, David and Rafael not giving up any runs. And now Josh can say, “Hey, I finally hit a home run in Yankee Stadium! Two in fact.” The kids left early, they had to catch a train home before midnight. I stayed until the last out, with my wet butt and got to take a wet beach thingy home.

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

Catching up

Once again I am behind, I was going to write about the game I went to, by myself which the Yankees won (yay!) but I forgot, then the Yankees came back from a 9-0 game against the Red Sox which I had a great post written (in my head), which never made it to my fingertips. So just going to pick up with Saturday’s game against the Tigers.

~~ Tigers 7, Yankees 5 ~~

Tom invited me and it was him, me, his sister and nephew. Joe and Joan were also there, but he has different seats this season. They both still have tickets to the Audi Club and Mohegan Sun Sports Bar.

Freddy was pitching, he was pretty bad. He lasted less then 2 innings and 6 runs. Tigers were hitting him hard, even the outs were hard hit balls. The balls were going in the corner in right field where Swish couldn’t get them and he was scrambling after them Rapada, then Phelps and Eppley ended the game. Eppley gave up a home run. The Yankees came back to score 5 runs, it wasn’t enough. Garcia is going to the bullpen, Phelps is going to get a chance to start.

Still had fun, I like it when I’m at the game, and even in the Clubs I scream loud, like when Swish gets a home run, he hit two and Curtis hit one. And the ticket I got has Don Mattingly on it and “EIGHT game record tying home run streak begins July 8, 1987”. Little bit of trivia for you. I also got roped into invited to a barbecue at Tom’s next weekend. Kasey will be in the city, but D will be with her since it’s their anniversary. I couldn’t come up with a reason to say no, other then I despise barbecue …… more on that later.

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

Bits and pieces, awards and football

Report: Yu Darvish bid tops Dice-K I’m not quite sure how this works, like a lot of things in the business end of baseball, as I understand it, this pitcher, Yu Darvish wants to come to play in the MLB. So the MLB teams that want him have to bid for him. Then his team (the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters) decides if they’ll accept the bid, then the team who made the bid gets to ‘talk’ to the player, to see if they can reach a deal. I don’t know if then the team has to pay MORE money to the player. I can’t find that out. However, the bidding has closed and the highest bid is a lot of money.

Greatness in Baseball Yearly Awards (GIBBYs) were announced on Friday night as the final word on Major League Baseball’s awards season. The Yankees had three: Derek Jeter for Performance of the Year, David Robertson for Setup Man and Robinson Cano for Wow Factor. Jose Valverde of the Tigers won Closer of the Year, which I was going to cry about, but it’s just for the year, and his numbers were better then Mo’s this year. However, Mo is still the greatest of all time. Speaking of Mo ….

Rivera recovering well after surgery on throat He had polyps removed from his vocal cords. We haven’t heard the results of the testing on the polyps, but this is one area where bad news usually travels faster then good news. Pretty sure he’ll be fine.

Yankees take two players in Rule 5 Draft Left-handed reliever Cesar Cabral, so if I understand this right, he was with the Red Sox, then the Royals picked him in the draft, then the Yankees paid the Royals for him (sounds a little bit like a slave auction, hmmm). So was he a Royals, or a Red Sox? The other player is a right-handed pitcher Brad Meyers, who was a starter with the Nationals.

The Yankees are keeping Hector Noesi as a starter and released Greg Golson. Good-bye Greg, I’ll never forget that throw you made from right field, it was a beauty.

Freddy Garcia will be a Yankee next year, they offered him a one year deal and he accepted. He likes playing in Pinstripes.

All eligible Yankees tendered contracts Joba, Phil, David, Brett, Boone (Boom-Boom-Boone) and Russell (HI! Russell) are all coming back next year. Russell even tweeted it. If it wasn’t so late I would find it and post a link.

Cano and Swisher are coming back, of course Cano is a no-doubter (as is Swisher in my mind). There is talk that the Yankees might use Swisher for trade, but I doubt it. If you trade Swisher, who’s going to play right field? Not only that but he can relieve Mark at first and he is good for 30 home runs a year and contributes to the clubhouse moral. Not only that, he loves New York and would cry if he had to leave.

The biggest news of all (pun intended) is that CC is coming back. So we will have our Ace, our Big Stoppa, our Great Devourer of Innings. He also let the fans know, he posted a video saying he wanted to let the fans know himself, he is coming back to New York.

However, the Yankees are not the only ones busy acquiring things during the off-season, I got these two beautiful pins.

On the subject of football, I’m not really a football fan, but I’ve been trying to keep myself occupied instead of just moping about waiting for baseball to start again. I have been a Bills fan since I lived in Buffalo, it wasn’t that hard to abandon the Bucs when I left Florida, and I still am. However, I decided I can root for two teams. I picked the Ravens for 3 reason. One is they beat the Steelers (TWICE!) and I hate the Steelers. Two is their uniforms are purple (pretty!). Third is the quarterback is a real cutie (his wife is pregnant with their first baby, how presh is that!). So I bought some cute purple stuff, a t-shirt, some fuzzy socks and a dog tag (it has an engraveable back, I don’t know what I would put there but if I ever do, ….. So I am hoping they make it to the superbowl. If not them, maybe the Giants, I can root for the Giants, they are almost a New York team.

2 down, still 10 wins to go

~~ Tigers 5, Yankees 3 ~~

This is not right, my very first post-season game ever and the Yankees lose! It’s not supposed to be this way. Not at all. Kasey and I are blaming it on Gersh and his Brave fandom genes bringing bad vibes to the stadium.

The Yankees rallied, a home run in the 8th and a home run in the 9th, it was too little too late. So now they go to Detroit tied. I would have preferred it 2-0, but it is what it is. Poor Garcia has to take the loss when he really didn’t pitch that bad.

On to the Motor City.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ Sunday, October 2, 2011 ~ ALDS Game 2 😛

Red Sox are slip sliding away

~~ Yankees 9, Red Sox 1 ~~

This is probably the last regular season game I will be at. I have tickets for Game 2 of the ALDS, so I am hoping the Yankees get home field advantage.

Garcia pitched 6 innings of shut-out baseball. This was such a fun game to be at. I always worry when I go to Yankees vs Red Sox because my record is not good. More games lost by the Yankees then won. In fact, this might be the first win thus breaking my streak. Raul Valdes gave up the only run and when he did, the Red Sox fans cheered like it was the go ahead run. People, they are still down 8 runs.

Going into the bottom of the second the Red Sox had 0 runs, 1 hit. When Cano got a single I thought, Oh good we’re even now. Then the next two batters got on, all of a sudden it was bases loaded, one out. Jesus Montero comes up to bat. I wondered if he would get his first major league grand slam, he didn’t, he did get a RBI, the first of the game. Russell Martin then hits a single to left field, Carl Crawford bobbles it, the ball kind of just popped out of his glove, 2 more runs. Then the Captain comes up to bat, my man the captain, hits home run number 6, to bring the total of runs in the inning to 6. Mark struck out, but the Yankee bats were not done. In the bottom of the third Jesus Montero hit a two run double and Jon Lester was done. Jesus Montero >> Jon Lester

The Yankees last run of the game was a home run, hit by Jesus Montero.

Since last nights game was rained out tomorrow is a day night double header. I’ll see you then.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ Saturday, September 24, 2011 😛

Another corny title

~~ Blue Jays 3, Yankees 0 ~~

This has been a subject in my blog before, I know how hard it is to come up with interesting titles, but these guys are professionals!

Blue Jays take to the air, fly by Yanks in finale

So no sweep for the Yankees, Garcia only lasted 4.2 innings and gave up all three runs. The rest of the pitchers, Laffey, Ayala, Proctor, Valdes, and Kontos kept the Jays to the three, unfortunately the Yankees didn’t score any runs.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ Sunday, September 18, 2011 😛

Hit hard

~~ Yankees 11, Orioles 10 ~~

Labor day, a holiday for most, not for ball players. And certainly not for the starting pitchers. Both got hit hard. It was an “aww Freddy” kind of game. I don’t know what Orioles fans say when their pitchers stink (no I’m not going to go there). The Yankees used 7 pitchers, I hope none of those pitchers got too worn out, because we might need some when Hughes pitches, (yes I went THERE) and A.J. (inAJwetrust). Its a good thing the roster expanded and we got some extra arms.

One of the new guys, (Sarah calls them new guys until they hit a home run, “They don’t have a name until they hit a home run!”) earned his name in this game, with 2 home runs, he got 3 RBI. The guy everyone has been wanting to come up, who when 0-4 in his first game, Jesus Montero. I’m not getting into the home run calls and jokes.

Yankees needed those runs since the Orioles kept scoring runs, and scoring, and scoring, inching within 1 run of tying in the 9th inning. Mo came through with save #38 for the year, #597 for his career.

Since it was a holiday, I was up at my old place and since the game was going on so long went up to the store. I had my iPhone and was listening to the broadcast. When this game was over I switched to the Red Sox vs. Blue Jays game which was in the 10th inning and scoreless. I was actually rooting for Jose to hit home run #41. He didn’t, but another Jay did and now the Red Sox are 2.5 games behind us. SWEET!

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ Monday, September 5, 2011 😛

It’s a split ~ Monday, August 29, 2011

~~ Yankees 3, Orioles 2 ~~

Not exactly what I was hoping from a series with the Orioles, but after two games lost it was either a split or a loss, I’ll take the split. So what can I say about this game that you don’t already know? That I was impressed with Freddy’s pitching, except for the ball that whats-his-name hit out of the park. I can’t really say that Michael and Ken jinxed Robertson, they didn’t say how many innings it had been seen he had given up a run, but it was a long time until tonight. So he give up the home run, he walks a batter, the batter steals second, the pressure is on, Dave will be fine. I called that one.

Then Mo comes in and one, two, three, Yankees win. Of course the whole time he is pitching, Michael and Ken are talking about how many saves IN A ROW Mariano has blown at Camden Yards. They were totally pissing me off, then I thought, maybe they will reverse jinx him. Of course I don’t really believe in jinxes.

During the game I was texting little bits of it to a friend who couldn’t watch it because she had lost power during the hurricane. I didn’t text a lot because I wasn’t sure how much she would want me too, but she never told me to stop so I kept going. I don’t know if Kasey was watching or still working on her basement. They didn’t lose power but the basement got flooded, there was approximately 10″ of water and everything had to be tossed, now the drywall and everything has to be torn out. I am kind of bummed because I had left a couple boxes of books I was planning to take to the Strand and sell. Ah well, these things happen when you live in a hurricane zone. Wait.

Swisher hit home run #21. A 2 run shot and Mark got his 100 RBI for the season. Next up, Boston.

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

New York Yankees at Boston ~ Sunday, August 7, 2011

~~ Red Sox 3, Yankees 2 ~~

Yankees were ahead, granted it was one run, but Mo came in and …. Mo? MO! You pick now to be human!! And then that nasty Garden Gnome has to hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game, off my Mo. **sticks pin in Pedroia doll**

So free baseball in Fenway, then Hughes gives up the winning run. Tough loss. Yankees also kind of ran through the bullpen, now the only thing to do is move forward.

At least the Boston pitchers held true to form and hit Jeter.

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