6/29 vs. The A's - back in the win column

First of all, I attended this game with my friend Bobby. Why is that significant? Well, he has been to around 6 games now this year. I have been to 10. Nick2Slick (co-contributor on this blog)? He has been to around 3 or 4. So, that begs the question - who is more of a Stadium Insider?

Well, truthfully, none of us are. The real Stadium Insider is that security guard who sits in the expensive Rudy Giulianni seats right outside of the Yankees dugout with the really tight curly hair. I swear he has been sitting there in every on-deck circle camera shot since the early 90's. And he never ages.

Anyway, on the to game. My friend Bobby and I had a scary realization around halfway through the game that it was hard to enjoy a game without alcohol. I tried to disagree because I tend to accuse him of being an alcoholic, and not myself, but I have to admit, it was kind of boring for most of the time. I think it had to do with the fact that it was a low-scoring game and that the Yankees haven't exactly been playing well as of late. The crowd seemed VERY hesitant to really get behind this team that continues to let us down.

The place went wild when Mo came in for the last out of the 8th inning and was pretty wild from then until the end. It is great to see Mo running in from the bullpen - so comforting. The interesting thing about Mo's entrance was that it was a home game and Mo was entering the game at 9:22 PM on a Friday night. I don't go to weekend games, so I'm not used to there being THAT many fans still left in the stadium when he comes into the game (there are a lot of beat-the-traffickers even in close games). Of course, it sounds like that at playoff home games when he comes in, but those, again, are rare. So, the place went wild.

The downfall of there being so many fans left at the end of the game was the long trek down from the Upper Deck. I have a system where I make my way down to the Tier Box seats and then cut across the aisles all the way to left field and then head into the tiny Yankee Stadium corridors to try to exit along with the thousands of other upper deck dwellers. Of course the crowd bottlenecks in the stinky, sticky, smelly Yankee Stadium corridors. People visiting Yankee stadium for the first time may call it charming and part of the experience. I call it the main reason why I can't wait until they knock that place down. It took around 20 minutes to get out of the stadium from the Upper Deck. It should take around 5.

There is onne item that I have been meaning to mention for a while, but always forget to when I am typing up my latest blog entry. There is a woman in the Upper Deck who sits a row in front of me who is probably in her 50's or 60's. She comes to EVERY game alone and keeps score of the game. She doesn't do it with the apparently lame scorecard that comes in the Yankee program (or she obviously doesn't want to buy the program every night), but she brings her own scorebook. She writes the lineups in green pen and then keeps score with an erasable black pen. It seems like she doesn't miss a thing.

I have nicknamed her Kate Smith. Sounds anonymous enough. Amazingly I wasn't drunk when I nicknamed her that, but it was right after the 7th inning stretch last night and God Bless America was played so you can figure out why scorekeeper woman got that nickname. There are so many questions I want to ask this hardcore Yankee scorekeeper woman. First of all, what is her reasoning behind it? Does it help her to enjoy the game? How long has she been doing it for? Does she keep detailed records of every game she has been to at home? For road games, does she score along with the game while watching it on TV? Is she the person Michael Kay is talking to when he goes over the in-game box score for "those of you scoring at home"? These are just SOME of the questions I want to ask her. I have been thinking about one day, before the game starts, "interviewing" her and putting it up on this blog. I'm sure it would be amusing in some ways without obviously making fun of this seemingly lonely lady.

One funny story regarding scorekeeper woman. Last night in the 7th inning, there was a double play that ricohchetted off of Mike Mussina, right to Cano, who threw to Jeter and then on to Phillips for the highly uncommon 1-4-6-3 doubleplay. I leaned down into the row in front of me and attempted to playfully ask the woman if she had that scored correctly. No response whatsoever. It was as if I didn't exist. Maybe she is deaf and I don't even know it. Most likely she was in her scorekeeping zone that nobody can understand but her. There is so much mystery involving this scorekeeping woman. Usually she scores the game and is very intent and stoic while doing so. Last night she kicked back a bit and had one beer. Strangely, she was clapping when Mo had two strikes on Cust in the 8th inning. Amazingly in the 9th inning, when Mo had two strikes on the final batter. She stood up along with the rest of the crowd and clapped Mo on to victory. I guess at that point, she saw the finish line in sight for another successful Yankees game scored and she just wanted to enjoy the moment.

Who can blame her?