A’s/Yankees Series; Game 1:
On my first night of the three game Oakland A’s/New York Yankees series, I was a little skeptical heading to The Stadium. The Yankees have been slumping, heading into tonight’s game in a 3 game funk. The A’s, were also in a funk just being swept by the Texas Rangers…handedly. The A’s pitching hasn’t been up to par lately, but neither have the Yankees. Zito was taking the hill, going into combat against Carl Pavano. Pavano hasn’t exactly been stellar this season, but neither has Zito, although Zito did pitch effectively in his last outing pitching 7 innings, allowing only 2 runs on 5 hits.
When I arrived to The Stadium, I headed over to Billy’s where I could meet my buddies, all Yankee fans (unfortunately), and get myself a $6 bottle of Yeungling, as opposed to the $7.25 miller light inside. I knew I would get bashed and harassed, because it is Yankee Stadium and these are Yankee fans. They are the most cocky and most vocal fans in the country, and rightfully so. (Although I’ve heard many stories and rumors that Philly fans are worse.)
I walk into Billy’s and grab myself a bottle of Yuengling. I braced myself for the worst. But there wasn’t too much more new things or sayings or any kind of harassment to endure that I haven’t already. That’s just part of the territory that comes with being a fan of the away team. So I got the normal barrage of “Oakland Sucks” “Go back west” “You’re a fag”, you know, the usual. But I was in good company. As soon as I walk in and start hearing all the comments, someone comes up to me and tells me he’s from the west coast and a big time Oakland fan. He did secretatively. It was like I was the new kid in school and some of the cool kids came up to me and told me their deep dark secret about enjoying something that is kind of looked down upon, but they were trying to tell me to remain low key, and nothing will happen. I don’t know, I don’t mind showing my colors. So I waited for my boys, well, foes on this night, at the bar for about 45 minutes. Nothing but the stink eye being thrown in my direction along with the “F U Oakland fan” comments. It was almost like I was a Chinaman living in the U.S. during World War II.
My friend J finally shows his face in the bar. I don’t look like such a loser anymore at this time. Finally someone to have a beer with and not look like the “creepy guy that shows up to the baseball game by himself, brings his glove and takes all the stats, all at the same time wearing his headphones which are hooked up to a 1964 transistor radio”.
Granted, maybe in the later days of my life I could be like that. But I mean, hey, not yet. I’m still young and vibrant and not quite a “loser” just yet. I’m expecting that title once I hit 30---the end all, be all age.
At the bar, J and myself chugged our last brew-ha-has so that we could make the first pitch of the game. We get into The Stadium, and once again I hear all the jabs at me for wearing my Tim Hudson jersey. As we walk up to our seats I hear more jabs from my boy CK and Mr. B. Nothing but “Oakland Sucks” “F Oakland” “Stop living in the past, Hudson’s with Atlanta now”. But it’s fine with me because as soon as we get to our seats they give me hi-fives.
The game starts off with the A’s top 3 hitters going down in order. Zito comes out to the hill hoping to continue his performance from last game. He gets Jeter to fly out to left, then allows a single to Womak. He strikesout Sheff, but then lets up a shot to deep left-center field to Matsui, which just nicks off Kotsay’s glove. That scores Womak and the “speedy” Matsui chugs his way to third. Not looking good. Lots of finger pointing in my direction, my head just dropping down in disappointment, especially since I was talking back smack to the Yankee fans who were harassing me, i.e. J, CK and Mr. B. But I was still fine with it because I knew that Pavano was on the hill.
The A’s bats were still silent in the 2nd, but Zito regained control of the game, which was a sigh of relief. In the top of the 3rd, Eric Byrnes led off the inning with a laser shot to center. Right before that I was talking about how much of a slump Byrnes is in since he isn’t playing regularly and about the rumors of him being traded to St. Louis for Reggie Sanders. Well, that shut me up. Irishman Bobby Kielty came up to bat in the 4th and hit a two run homerun to right field, again, I got shut up because I haven’t been too highly on Kielty of late.
As I went down to the concession in the bottom of the 4th inning to get myself and J two Premio Sausages (the absolute best…screw Fenway’s sausages) I had to watch the next few innings on the T.V. screen while also avoiding getting harassed once again and watching someone spill mustard all over 2 people’s clothes. Zito retired 11 in a row from the 1st inning to the bottom of the 5th. But Zito was able to recover from allowing the double to Andy Phillips, which was about 3 feet from being a homerun. Needless to say, I was nervous.
Zito continued to pitch lights out until the top of the 8th, but the A’s bats were silenced during that time as well. In the top of the 8th, Zito started off the inning walking catcher John Flaherty. How do you walk John Flaherty of all people? Just throw him strikes. This is what gets me annoyed, Ken Macha does not know how to manage a team and he defiantly does not know how to manage a pitching staff. He does not understand that after 7 innings, Zito is usually done. So just take him out. Macha, who looks like a weird character as it is because he looks like hes in his late 30’s, but has grey hair like a 80 year old man, needs to understand this. I don’t get it.
So Flaherty walks, rookie “sensation” Robison Cano hits into a fielder choice to Zito, Flaherty advances to second. Jeter comes up to bat, hits a scorcher to Chavez at third, and Chavez made a spectacular diving play (Brooks Robinson would have been proud, and yes A-Rod, that’s why Chavez is a gold glover), he throws it to first but Scott Hatteberg fails to come up with the play. That allows Cano to advance to 3B.
So here’s the situation: Cano on 3B, Jeter on 1B and 1 out.
Posada comes in to pinch hit for Tony Womak, and hits a seeing-eye RBI single to right which scores Cano, Jeter moves to 2B. Now Macha finally decides to make a pitching change, but because he is such a brilliant manager, he decides to have Dotel come in and try to get the 5 out save. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID! Bring in Huston Street. I braced myself for the worst case scenario, because I knew they were in eminent danger.
Dotel comes in to face Gary Sheffield. Jeter and Posada decide to pull off a double steal on the 1-1 pitch and steal the bases safely, while Dotel throws ball 2. So what does Macha decide to do? He decides to keep pitching to Sheffield. Is he out of his mind? Hideki Matsui who is in a major slump, is on deck. Why not walk Shef, load the bases and try to get Matsui to ground into the inning ending double play? I don’t get it.
They pitch to Shef, he grounds out to Scutaro at Short, Jeter scores and Posada remains at 2B. Matsui comes to the plate and then Macha continues this trend of bad decisions by Intentionally Walking Matsui to get to the hottest hitter on the team, A-Rod. I’m not even going to ask why because I’m sure you, the reader, are too. Absolutly Insane. I felt like a wounded horse watching this. All I wanted was to be shot and let it be over with. I couldn’t take it.
So the situation is 3-3 tie, 2 out, Posada on 2B, Matsui on 1B and A-Rod at the plate with Dotel still pitching (Hasn’t Macha learned yet that Dotel is not a good closer?) It’s the 2-1 pitch and the pitch gets away from Kendall, but luckily for the Kendall and the A’s, Posada thought he had the speed of Womak and decided to go to 3B. He is easily thrown out. There goes the Yankee’s chances of winning the game with A-Rod at the plate.
Top 9, Tino goes in to play 1B and Mo’ comes into the game. Mo’ sits down the A’s in order. Yanks come up to bat, with Dotel still in the game, and luckily he shuts the Yanks down 1, 2, 3.
Top 10 was a fun inning for me as an A’s fan, for this is when it all came crumbling down, but all the while giving me a heart attack. Watching this was like watching an episode of American Idol. Just couldn’t stand it.
Mo’ walks the leadoff man, Marco Scutaro (never a good sign). Kotsay comes up to the plate and Macha makes a good decision; have Kotsay bunt Scutaro over to 2B and put him in scoring position. One problem: Kotsay can’t get the bunt down. If you are a major league ballplayer, you better be able to bunt. I don’t care if you’re a power hitter or a singles hitter, everyone should know how to bunt. So Kotsay fails at his bunt attempt, ends up striking out, looking no less. Kendall comes to the plate and gets hit with the pitch, and it looked like he made no attempt to get out of the way for the pitch. I like that. Way to take one for the team. Chavez comes up to hit, hits the ball the whole where Jeter makes a fine play, but can’t get the throw off. Bases loaded for Scott Hatteberg. He hits the pitch to Tino at 1B, but he bobbles the ball then throws it away while trying to throw Scutaro out at home, which also allowed Kendall to score. And to think, they put him in for defensive purposes. A-Rod made another error later in the inning which allowed one more run to cross the plate and gave the A’s the 6-3 victory.
Not the prettiest game, but I’ll take it and that should shut the Yankee fans up for a while.
When I arrived to The Stadium, I headed over to Billy’s where I could meet my buddies, all Yankee fans (unfortunately), and get myself a $6 bottle of Yeungling, as opposed to the $7.25 miller light inside. I knew I would get bashed and harassed, because it is Yankee Stadium and these are Yankee fans. They are the most cocky and most vocal fans in the country, and rightfully so. (Although I’ve heard many stories and rumors that Philly fans are worse.)
I walk into Billy’s and grab myself a bottle of Yuengling. I braced myself for the worst. But there wasn’t too much more new things or sayings or any kind of harassment to endure that I haven’t already. That’s just part of the territory that comes with being a fan of the away team. So I got the normal barrage of “Oakland Sucks” “Go back west” “You’re a fag”, you know, the usual. But I was in good company. As soon as I walk in and start hearing all the comments, someone comes up to me and tells me he’s from the west coast and a big time Oakland fan. He did secretatively. It was like I was the new kid in school and some of the cool kids came up to me and told me their deep dark secret about enjoying something that is kind of looked down upon, but they were trying to tell me to remain low key, and nothing will happen. I don’t know, I don’t mind showing my colors. So I waited for my boys, well, foes on this night, at the bar for about 45 minutes. Nothing but the stink eye being thrown in my direction along with the “F U Oakland fan” comments. It was almost like I was a Chinaman living in the U.S. during World War II.
My friend J finally shows his face in the bar. I don’t look like such a loser anymore at this time. Finally someone to have a beer with and not look like the “creepy guy that shows up to the baseball game by himself, brings his glove and takes all the stats, all at the same time wearing his headphones which are hooked up to a 1964 transistor radio”.
Granted, maybe in the later days of my life I could be like that. But I mean, hey, not yet. I’m still young and vibrant and not quite a “loser” just yet. I’m expecting that title once I hit 30---the end all, be all age.
At the bar, J and myself chugged our last brew-ha-has so that we could make the first pitch of the game. We get into The Stadium, and once again I hear all the jabs at me for wearing my Tim Hudson jersey. As we walk up to our seats I hear more jabs from my boy CK and Mr. B. Nothing but “Oakland Sucks” “F Oakland” “Stop living in the past, Hudson’s with Atlanta now”. But it’s fine with me because as soon as we get to our seats they give me hi-fives.
The game starts off with the A’s top 3 hitters going down in order. Zito comes out to the hill hoping to continue his performance from last game. He gets Jeter to fly out to left, then allows a single to Womak. He strikesout Sheff, but then lets up a shot to deep left-center field to Matsui, which just nicks off Kotsay’s glove. That scores Womak and the “speedy” Matsui chugs his way to third. Not looking good. Lots of finger pointing in my direction, my head just dropping down in disappointment, especially since I was talking back smack to the Yankee fans who were harassing me, i.e. J, CK and Mr. B. But I was still fine with it because I knew that Pavano was on the hill.
The A’s bats were still silent in the 2nd, but Zito regained control of the game, which was a sigh of relief. In the top of the 3rd, Eric Byrnes led off the inning with a laser shot to center. Right before that I was talking about how much of a slump Byrnes is in since he isn’t playing regularly and about the rumors of him being traded to St. Louis for Reggie Sanders. Well, that shut me up. Irishman Bobby Kielty came up to bat in the 4th and hit a two run homerun to right field, again, I got shut up because I haven’t been too highly on Kielty of late.
As I went down to the concession in the bottom of the 4th inning to get myself and J two Premio Sausages (the absolute best…screw Fenway’s sausages) I had to watch the next few innings on the T.V. screen while also avoiding getting harassed once again and watching someone spill mustard all over 2 people’s clothes. Zito retired 11 in a row from the 1st inning to the bottom of the 5th. But Zito was able to recover from allowing the double to Andy Phillips, which was about 3 feet from being a homerun. Needless to say, I was nervous.
Zito continued to pitch lights out until the top of the 8th, but the A’s bats were silenced during that time as well. In the top of the 8th, Zito started off the inning walking catcher John Flaherty. How do you walk John Flaherty of all people? Just throw him strikes. This is what gets me annoyed, Ken Macha does not know how to manage a team and he defiantly does not know how to manage a pitching staff. He does not understand that after 7 innings, Zito is usually done. So just take him out. Macha, who looks like a weird character as it is because he looks like hes in his late 30’s, but has grey hair like a 80 year old man, needs to understand this. I don’t get it.
So Flaherty walks, rookie “sensation” Robison Cano hits into a fielder choice to Zito, Flaherty advances to second. Jeter comes up to bat, hits a scorcher to Chavez at third, and Chavez made a spectacular diving play (Brooks Robinson would have been proud, and yes A-Rod, that’s why Chavez is a gold glover), he throws it to first but Scott Hatteberg fails to come up with the play. That allows Cano to advance to 3B.
So here’s the situation: Cano on 3B, Jeter on 1B and 1 out.
Posada comes in to pinch hit for Tony Womak, and hits a seeing-eye RBI single to right which scores Cano, Jeter moves to 2B. Now Macha finally decides to make a pitching change, but because he is such a brilliant manager, he decides to have Dotel come in and try to get the 5 out save. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID! Bring in Huston Street. I braced myself for the worst case scenario, because I knew they were in eminent danger.
Dotel comes in to face Gary Sheffield. Jeter and Posada decide to pull off a double steal on the 1-1 pitch and steal the bases safely, while Dotel throws ball 2. So what does Macha decide to do? He decides to keep pitching to Sheffield. Is he out of his mind? Hideki Matsui who is in a major slump, is on deck. Why not walk Shef, load the bases and try to get Matsui to ground into the inning ending double play? I don’t get it.
They pitch to Shef, he grounds out to Scutaro at Short, Jeter scores and Posada remains at 2B. Matsui comes to the plate and then Macha continues this trend of bad decisions by Intentionally Walking Matsui to get to the hottest hitter on the team, A-Rod. I’m not even going to ask why because I’m sure you, the reader, are too. Absolutly Insane. I felt like a wounded horse watching this. All I wanted was to be shot and let it be over with. I couldn’t take it.
So the situation is 3-3 tie, 2 out, Posada on 2B, Matsui on 1B and A-Rod at the plate with Dotel still pitching (Hasn’t Macha learned yet that Dotel is not a good closer?) It’s the 2-1 pitch and the pitch gets away from Kendall, but luckily for the Kendall and the A’s, Posada thought he had the speed of Womak and decided to go to 3B. He is easily thrown out. There goes the Yankee’s chances of winning the game with A-Rod at the plate.
Top 9, Tino goes in to play 1B and Mo’ comes into the game. Mo’ sits down the A’s in order. Yanks come up to bat, with Dotel still in the game, and luckily he shuts the Yanks down 1, 2, 3.
Top 10 was a fun inning for me as an A’s fan, for this is when it all came crumbling down, but all the while giving me a heart attack. Watching this was like watching an episode of American Idol. Just couldn’t stand it.
Mo’ walks the leadoff man, Marco Scutaro (never a good sign). Kotsay comes up to the plate and Macha makes a good decision; have Kotsay bunt Scutaro over to 2B and put him in scoring position. One problem: Kotsay can’t get the bunt down. If you are a major league ballplayer, you better be able to bunt. I don’t care if you’re a power hitter or a singles hitter, everyone should know how to bunt. So Kotsay fails at his bunt attempt, ends up striking out, looking no less. Kendall comes to the plate and gets hit with the pitch, and it looked like he made no attempt to get out of the way for the pitch. I like that. Way to take one for the team. Chavez comes up to hit, hits the ball the whole where Jeter makes a fine play, but can’t get the throw off. Bases loaded for Scott Hatteberg. He hits the pitch to Tino at 1B, but he bobbles the ball then throws it away while trying to throw Scutaro out at home, which also allowed Kendall to score. And to think, they put him in for defensive purposes. A-Rod made another error later in the inning which allowed one more run to cross the plate and gave the A’s the 6-3 victory.
Not the prettiest game, but I’ll take it and that should shut the Yankee fans up for a while.
posted by Mark D. Miller at 10:26 AM
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