Memories of Yankee Stadium

The Red Sox will play what is likely their last three games in Yankee Stadium this week. For a park that has been in existence for only 33 years, it has a lot of history.

SoSHer PortlandSoxFan began a thread on Monday morning -- "In the Belly of the Beast: Yankee Stadium Memories" -- and asked people to "share your favorite in-person memories".

I posted a few times. Here is most of what I wrote:

I was also at the Mel Hall game and the Greenwell/Guy on field game. In the latter, I had moved down to an aisle seat only a few rows from the field on the 3B side. The guy who ran on the field ran right past me. Shoulda tripped him.

My last time at the Toilet was the second game of the 2005 opening series. The game with the Tek and CI home runs. I was up in the right field upper deck, alone. I was getting up to leave after CI had won it and a bunch of shitheads a few rows down see my cap and start right in with the bullshit.

I say nothing. I just open my jacket to show off my brand-new 2004 Champs t-shirt. Their faces turned from delight to pure hatred in an instant. They looked like they were going to have a stroke. Probably good for me there were thousands of semi-normal people around.

Before a Yanks/Jays afternoon game many years ago, my wife and I were in the RF bleachers and I got up to get beers. Sox cap on. Bleachers were half-full maybe and at least 75% of them started in with chants of "asshole, asshole". That was kind of funny, actually.

For one O's/Yanks game, some guy in LF was standing up and threatening to drop his pants. Crowd egging him on, him teasing for about an inning. He finally does it and within 0.3 seconds, cops are there with the cuffs!

Was in the LF bleachers for Game 2 of the 1999 ALCS. Some MFY fans had taken a Sox fan's cap and lit it on fire in an aisle. Cop down aways just watching the scene, flames burning away, doing nothing. Only after the cap has completely burned and the fire is out does even move his fat ass. No one was ejected, obviously. Ahhh -- NY's finest.

Waited outside the park for a game in September 1999 for a guy to come up from midtown with tix. Fucker worked very late and without cell phones, we had no idea what had happened. We finally gave up and went home to watch on TV. Can't even remember if he showed up at all. ... Pedro's 17 K game. FUCK.

soxfaninyankeeland said: "When I started going there regularly, 1988-1992, attending Sox games at the Toilet was like going to Camden Yards for a Sox game today. Biggest crowds of the season, and mostly Red Sox fans." I replied:

Yep. I moved from Vermont to to Brooklyn in January 1987 and for years, we went to every single Sox game (it took years for the novelty to wear off). We could always get nice main reserved seats behind the dugouts on walk-up. Sox fans at the opening games of any series were always loud -- it did seem like 50-50.

My first game was in September 1986 -- before I moved. It was the game Rice went into the stands to get his cap. I missed that -- was out buying beer.

Turns out that was someone else's first game too! He was 11. (I was almost 23.)

And:

I'll say one thing -- there was nothing like walking down the ramps from the upper decks after a close loss to those dushbags. Especially before 2004. The "Boston Sucks" and "1918" chants were deafening.

I was decked out in Sox stuff for that 2005 game, but for a number of years, I just stopped wearing my Sox cap. I'd still clap and cheer for good things, even stand for HRs, but the hassle was just not worth it. I wanted to see a fucking game, that's all, not hear the same three taunts all day long.

I said I was at the Mel Hall game. We were near the back of the grandstand in the first level behind 3B. Sox get an early run and this loud, probably-drunk Red Sox fan, starts in yelling "ONE RUN! THAT'S ALL WE NEED!" over and over. Gets the usual response. He must have fallen asleep after the 3rd inning or so and woke up late in the game. Hall bangs his dong and my partner -- who was a Yankees fan then* -- dances over to him and starts pointing at him and laughing. (This was when they played "Shout!" after a win.) All around us, MFY fans are laughing and the guy just looks sheepish. What could he do? It was a shitty loss, but I always thought that whole scene was pretty funny.

* - A number of things soured her on the MFY and over the course of the first half of the 2003 season, she began to drift over to the Sox. For years, I would watch or listen to the Sox on the computer and she'd watch the Yanks on TV. She's on our side now. I love it, but honestly, it's still a little strange.

Also, 17 years later, I almost always say "There's our run! That's all we need!" when the Sox get a 1-0 lead.

I am amazed at the high number of SoSHers who were at any given game in New York, especially non-playoff games.

I was trying to think of my favourite game and I realized I have no idea. If nothing jumps out, maybe I don't have one. I would have to look at my scorecards, I guess.

One game I did not mention at SoSH was a game against Oakland at which fans in right field were throwing all kinds of shit at Jose Canseco (while he flexed his biceps at them). I saw him retrieve a full head of cabbage at one point. He also picked up a fully inflated blow-up doll from the field.

Also: At dinner last night, L reminded me of a game we saw in which Don Mattingly hit a grand slam. He hit six of them in his career, all of them in 1987. We saw #6 -- which set a major league record for one season -- off Bruce Hurst on September 29. Earlier in the season (July 8-18), he hit dongs in eight straight games, tying Dale Long's record (also matched by Ken Griffey Jr. in 1993). I said I thought the score was 6-0 -- I was right. L said that at the time I said I had never heard a crowd at a park be so loud.