Early in April, I received an e-mail from the Yankees. Since I'm a
long time Yankee season ticket holder, they invited me & a guest to
come to a special Photo Day before the game between the Yankees &
the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday, May 3rd at 1:05PM. I knew the King
wouldn't be interested. With that being said, I tried to ask other
Yankee fans I knew if they wanted to take part in this unique
opportunity. Unfortunately they all said no. Instead of missing out
completely, I decided to ask my Cousin Andy if he wanted to go with me
since I had gotten him a ticket for that particular game. He said sure.
So I put in the request at the last minute. Ten days later, I got two
passes in the mail. I told Andy & he was all excited. As a result,
we needed to show up at the Stadium by 10:15AM that morning.
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| Photo Day at Yankee Stadium |
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| Me on field next to scoreboard on the fence |
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| CC Sabathia passing by us |
The
night before I went to the game which ended just before 1AM as the
Yankees lost to the Rays, 10-5 in 14 innings. That's just what I needed
knowing I had to get up earlier than usual Saturday morning. It worked
out as I did meet Andy shortly after 10AM at the Stadium. When arrived
the line to go inside was around the corner. Thankfully it was organized
well so we were able to get inside in a timely fashion. We wound up
standing on the warning track which was roped off. Shortly thereafter,
all the Yankees players eventually passed by us as they walked out from
the dugout. Some actually stopped along the way to take pictures with
the fans. Those included Alfonso Soriano & Carlos Beltran to name a
select few. Most of them like CC Sabathia waved hello and/or scooted on
by. Not surprisingly, most of them really didn't care one way or the
another. It's was an obligation for them. As for Andy & I, we
couldn't get any really good pictures of them because they were moving
too fast. It was cool to see them close up though. In addition, it was also
really neat to stand on the actual playing field too. After the players
finished walking around, we walked back into the seating area.
Since
we had a few hours to kill before the game started, Andy & I
decided to do something different. Believe it or not, I had never been
to Monument Park before here at the New Yankee Stadium or at the Old
Stadium. The reason being I usually come from work so I arrive shortly
before game time. On the weekends, I usually like to catch up on lost
sleep. With that being said, I never made the time to get to the Stadium
early enough to line up to experience it. For that matter, neither did
Andy.
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| Monument Park |
They only allow fans into Monument Park which is located behind the center field fence
up until 45 minutes before the game starts. We got on line & shortly
thereafter we got inside. We walked around reading the plagues of
Yankee Legends who have either had their uniform number retired and/or
warranted a special place in Yankee lore. Here's a sample of those who
reside there. They are as follows: #1Billy Martin #3 Babe Ruth #4 Lou
Gehrig #5 Joe DiMaggio #7 Mickey Mantle #8 Yogi Berra #9 Roger Maris #10
Phil Rizzuto #15 Thurman Munson #16 Whitey Ford #23 Don Mattingly #42
Mariano Rivera #44 Reggie Jackson & #49 Ron Guidry among a handful
of others. They also had a special plague for owner George Steinbrenner,
PA announcer Bob Sheppard, Nelson Mandela & Pope John Paul who visited
& one to remember those who lost their lives on 9/11. All in all, it was a
moving experience to read about these all time great ballplayers &
influential people over the history of time.
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| The Late George Steinbrenner |
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| Yankees remember 9/11/01 |
Once
we finished our tour, we walked around the concourse as we headed
upstairs to our seats in section 420B. When we got up there we saw my
pal Michael Abrams, a long time Yankee fan. That day was a personal
milestone for him as he saw his 1,000th consecutive Yankee home game
that was played in the Bronx. Among the people we know he's an iron man
fan. He lives & dies with the pinstripes.
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| My Cousin Andy & I |
In addition, the King & our pals Bryan Gilligan & Phil Butleman were present & accounted for as well that day.
As
for the game we saw, the Yankees fell behind 3-0 as Desmond Jennings
hit a solo homer off of starter Masahiro Tanaka in the first inning then
Wil Myers added a solo shot in the fourth inning. The Yankees got a two run
blast from Mark Teixeira in the bottom of the fourth inning to slice the lead
to 3-2. In the fifth inning, they got even thanks to a run scoring
double by Jacoby Ellsbury to knot the score at three. In the sixth
inning, Kelly Johnson hit a solo homer to give them the lead, 4-3. They
tacked on two more in the seventh & three more in the eighth as they
went on to beat the Rays, 9-3. Tanaka went seven innings, he allowed
the three runs & he struck out five as he won another game.
After
the game, I said good bye to Andy. I wound up going to Philadelphia
with Bryan who drove the King, Phil & I there. We saw the Phillies
host the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park that night.
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| Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia |
We
wound up meeting people we know who live down there. I'm referring to
Phil Bruskin who was there with his brother Danny along with his son
Benjamin. It was nice to see them all again.
As
for the game we saw, the Phillies got a three run homer from Ryan
Howard in the first inning off of Nationals' starter Tanner Roark which
set the tone. Cody Asche added a solo homer in the second inning as the
Phillies cruised to a 7-2 victory. They got a quality start from starter
A.J. Burnett who allowed one run in six innings to earn the win while
Tanner Roark suffered the loss giving up four runs in seven innings.
Stay
tuned for a special post that will go into detail about this year's
installment of the Subway Series between the Mets & the Yankees.
Thank you for reading & following along.
Yours truly,
Gary Herman
