A’s/Yankees Series; Game 3: Mother’s Day:

I woke up this morning hung over from the night before. I admit, I went out into the city, met up with my one buddy Nick and his friends, drank a lot, then at 3am, went over to this bar called Lunasa. Both places in the East Villiage. After getting back to my friend J’s apartment, I remember walking out around 4:30 or 5 and grabbing myself 3 slices of Greek pizza. I don’t know. I get hungry when I drink.

J woke me up around 10ish. It was time for me to get up and go to the game. But I had to go by myself because I couldn’t find any takers for the extra ticket I had for this game. Reason being: Mother’s Day.

Is it a bad thing that I kind of skipped out on Mother’s Day for an A’s/Yankee game? I don’t know. When I finally realized last week that the game fell on Mother’s Day, I had to break the news to my mom. She was understandably upset that I was going to the game, but I think that was primarily because she and my sisters were expecting me to cook. But I got out of it after I explained to her that it was the A’s, my team, in town. And this is the only time during the season that the A's are in town and I can’t pass it up. Not even on Mother’s Day. But, she’ll get over it.

So I take the subway from my buddies apartment to The Stadium. I get there at 11:04am. 2 hours and 1 minute before the first pitch. I go check my bag into the bowling alley across the street. Then I decide to just go into The Stadium and check out batting practice.

I get inside and see the Yankees are taking batting practice. I can’t remember the last time I watched batting practice, but I do remember distinctly the last I wanted to watch batting practice: August 24, 1998: My buddies Mike, Frank, Dave and myself were on our way to Shea to see a Cardinals/Mets double header. I couldn’t wait. McGwire, back in town. And all I wanted to do was go watch him take BP. Long story short, we miss the first train, so we had to wait about an hour for the next one. I’m all pissed because I’m going to miss BP. My buddies were ragging on me and telling me also that its just BP that we’re not missing anything. We get to Shea, get to our section and we over hear two guys talking. This is how the conversation went:

“Hey, did you see the batting practice?”
“No, I missed it.”
“Oh man, McGwire hit 12 out, and a bunch out of the stadium.”

This was my reaction, in my head:

“&*jdu&a;lkjf%2*^a;#"

Lots of cursing going on inside there.

So I check out the BP, see all the fake Oakland fans----meaning, these people who just became fans probably around the 1999-2001 season when they started winning again. I loved every minute of it.

Once the A’s and Yanks went back to their clubhouses to get ready for the start of the game, I went to go find myself a seat. Since I was alone, I figured I just sit in the bottom section and take some really good pictures, especially since this was going to be the first time I get to watch Rich Harden pitch live.

I had to move my seat a few times, since I taking a seat that belonged to someone. By the 3rd inning I was good. But it wasn’t looking promising for the A’s. In the 1st inning, the A’s were sat down in order. But 2nd inning, I thought the A’s were going to run away with the game. Brown started the inning by allowing a single up the middle to Hatteberg. Then he walked Bobby Kielty, then allowed another single to Erubiel Durazo, but Hattberg was unable to score. Situation: Bases Loaded, 0 outs. 6, 7, 8 hitters due up. Keith Ginter lined up out A-Rod, then Brown struck out Eric Byrnes and Marco Scutaro to end the inning. I was fuming.

The A’s bats were unproductive once again in this game. They totaled 7 hits in this game, and only 19 for the series. I felt like saying “19 hits, they got 19 G*ddamn hits”..almost like Bob Eucker says it in the movie Major League.

Harden pitched a pretty good game. The only thing I got upset over him about was that he walked Giambi twice. Twice! Just pitch to him. He can’t hit. Throw right at him and make him beat you, which he won’t. Just annoyed me.

Brown pitched flawless to team that can’t hit. But the crushing blow came in the 8th inning. A’s were still in the game, only down 2-0. I can live with that. Even if they are down 2-0, they can get to Mo’ like the did Friday night. But no. Macha, once again, proves why I should be managing the team. F’n Macha. So the situation was he took Harden out and replaced him with Kiko Calero. No problem with that, except Kiko has been having arm problems.

Kiko starts the inning off by walking Matsui (remember what happened Friday night when Mo’ started the inning off walking Scutaro?). Then he allows a single to A-Rod, which advances Matsui to 3B. Next up is Tino. A lefty. Since Kiko is struggling, why not put in the left handed specialist Ricardo Rincon? Especially since Posada is on deck, you can flip him around to the right side of the plate where he is less effective, and then keep him in to pitch to left handed Giambi. So you would have Rincon pitching to a Lefty, Righty, Lefty. But no, Macha leaves Kiko in. I knew exactly what was going to happen. This is what was going through my mind (Because I kept quiet this whole game):

“Macha you bum, put Rincon in. You’re going to blow this game….again. You no good manager. You should be on the unemployment line with Art Howe. You s*ck. Tino is going to hit a homerun.”

Sure enough, Tino hits a homerun. As soon as he does that, I get up and start to approach for the tunnel. As soon as I make my way to the walk area, I hear the crack of the bat again and the crowd going crazy. Upperdeck homerun for Jorge Posada. I called it. I knew it. Fire that b*stard. He doesn’t deserve to have a job.
So the A’s lost 6-0 and lost the series 2-1. I was bummed out. And now I’m going to have to hear from all Yankee fans for now on. Stupid Yankees always ruin my day.