2001-08-01 - 11:42 a.m.

~ The energy in the stands

~ Hot dogs, and watered down beer, and cotton candy

~ Being outside on clear, warm night with a breeze. Hard to believe it's the Bronx

~ Seeing the subway passing behind the scoreboard. Can you see that on TV?

~ Excited little kids with banners and baseball gloves, hoping for a foul ball.

~ The bright lights, and the excitement of a close game.

~ The fact that it is the only public place I've ever been to where the line is longer for the mens' room than it is for the ladies.

~ Uh, the men. From now on, when my single friends complain and wonder where all the men in NYC are, I'm sending them to the stadium. Seriously. Man Parade.

Things I hate about going to the game:

~ People heckling the players. I don't get this. I mean, I can see booing or whatever, but some of these morons are out there yelling all kinds of horrible shit at a particular player. It's a game, frat boy. No need to get personal.

~ The asshole guy who sits behind us and alternates between ignoring and yelling at his son, who can't be more than 8 years old. I almost said something, seriously.

~ The J(e)ter girls. My God - it's like a teen heartthrob concert. Girls screaming, lifting their shirts, holding giant signs that say witty things like "I heart you J(e)ter" or "Yankee future wives club" with a drawing of a big engagement ring. Yikes. Also, as the stadium emptied out (clearly it was going to be a loss, so people start leaving by the 7th inning), people kept moving up, to be closer to the shortstop,apparently. So by the end of the game, we had 3 screeching Hispanic girls next to us, screaming unintelligible things and jumping up and down in fits of hysteria.

~ The mid-game field sweep. Can someone please explain to me why they make the field sweepers do that stupid YMCA thing? I so don't get it.

So it was fun, but not as exciting as last time, when they were playing Boston and the fans were rabid. I mean it - there was a little knot of Boston fans in our section, and the few times they tried to dis NY, the crazed fans pounced on them until they were cowering in their chairs. Some poor girl (Boston fan) tried to stand up to the NY fans - they were selling shirts that said Boston Sucks - so she bought one, and tried to be funny by writing on it, with a pen, BUT NY SWALLOS. Yep, just like that. Swallows. Without the W. The poor thing - the hard cores turned on her in a pack and tore her up - they spent the rest of the game making fun of her, and by the end she was hanging her head. You know things are bad when drunken moronic Bronx baseball fans are making fun of your spelling.

Anyway, it was fun, and we stayed till the end, and came back and had a beer at my (formerly) favorite dive bar in my neighborhood, which seems to be overrun with NYU students these days. Dammit. Was home by midnight, in bed by 10 after.

Oh, and for the record...... no hot water again. I can't even think about it, or I'm going to burst a blood vessel.

last - next