Tom and I met Jason at the Strand before heading uptown for the game because, really, what says baseball more than used books? We got to the stadium a little early and walked up and up and up to our seats. I was only at the old Yankee stadium once and had nothing really to reference, but even I could appreciate the coolness of the set up and the fact that we could see the field great from way up in the nosebleeds. There were all these people walking around the stadium with "How may I help you?" signs and matching shirts, leading to Tom's observation that things have changed considerably since his first Yankee game when he saw some kid get mugged for his ice cream.
The Yankees were playing the Mets after being swept by Boston earlier in the week. There were a fair share of Mets fans at the game and a fair share of taunting on both sides, but I have to say that the Met fans were stupid and wore stupid hats and stupid jerseys and were more stupidly loud. Like they were dorky resident assistants in the college dorms of baseball. So I happily cheered for the Yankees, the team I love to hate, though when one of the stupidest Met fans was removed from the game by 8 police officers, apparently for SWEARING, I was tempted to switch sides. The Disneyland attitude that cleaned the surface of Times Square made its way to the Bronx -- keeping it shiny on the surface is paramount. If they could show Derek Jeeter in a white suit on the jumbotron saying, "Smiles everyone, smiles!," it would complete the quasi-illusion.
Toward the end of the game we headed down to the lower level to watch the game from that perspective and the security guard let me go down to the front to watch an inning from seats right between home and first. That was very cool and I took photos, though it was a very fast inning and I didn't get a lot of opportunity to take too many.
At the beginning of the 9th we left the stadium and went to the iconic bar across from the old stadium called Stan's because the Yankees were trailing and we were craving cheaper beers. Walking in, I almost turned back because the baseball hat to overweight and red-faced ratio was a bit too close for my claustrophobic comfort. But I got over my phobia and was rewarded with a booth open to the street on one side and with a clear view of the television on the other. It was truly kismet, as we watched the Mets go to the bottom of the ninth with a one run lead and two outs as Alex Rodriguez came to bat. There was a pop up and the crowd all groaned because it was an easy out and easy end to the game. But Castillo dropped. the. ball. And then threw to second! It was mayhem as two Yankees scored and they won the game. There was screaming. There was jumping up and down. There was high fiving. This film sums up the moment nicely:
We kept our seats by the windows as people streamed out of the stadium and the taunting commenced on the streets. An hour later, there were still yelling and hugging out there and Tom said it was like the Yankees won a playoff game. I just laughed and laughed and laughed, egging people on and grinning like a fool. The next time someone criticizes the USA, I may punch them in the face. Not really...but it was so nice to be there, enjoying the fun and ease and absence of existential angst. Sometimes a baseball hat is just a baseball hat!
The night ended late, with me getting my photo taken with New York's finest and a subway ride back down to the Village, where Tom got me a 2am BLT and I fell asleep a Yankee convert.
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