bergs
Royal Flush
After some reindeer loving Swede cluttered up Liftapint’s thread with frozen drivel verbal custard, he recommended I create this thread.
So, post your fondest baseball memories. Or, if you post something else, you can suck my balls.
Here’s mine:
***** Being at the old Yankee Stadium in the bottom of the 8th, Yankees up. It’s summer, I’m sweating but I’m slightly drunk and happy. “Enter Sandman” comes over the PA. The crowd starts to come to life. The bullpen door opens. #42 shuffles out and the best closer in the history of baseball starts his slow, deliberate jog to the mound. I’m finishing my last beer. It’s gonna be rowdy and loud on the crowded 100 year old ramps to the exits after Mo shuts this down with 94mph cutters.
***** Still at the old Stadium. I’m keeping the book and look down and realize that Pedro grooved that slider to Chili Davis in the 2nd, but he just got Jeter to bail out on a curveball that crossed over for an inside strike. Jeter looks back at the Yankees dugout and just laughs. Pedro simply isn’t hittable tonight. I start counting the Yankees hits. I start at 1 and don’t get any further. 15Ks and he’s still going. He’d end up with a complete game 1 hitter and 17K/Z Pedro is having the best game of his life on a hot September night. Yanks are going to lose but I don’t even care - this is special..
***** It’s 1999 and my buddy and I are at the Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix. The 32 oz beers are cheap by ballpark standards and they’re flowing like water. Our seats are directly behind the plate. We’re both keeping the book. We both drunken look at each other in the 6th. Randy Johnson is pitching a real gem - it’s a one hitter….but journeyman Jose Jimenez for St Louis is throwing a goddamn no-no. We’re both Cardinals fans now. Actually, we’re Jimenez fans. Even the Diamondback fans are Jimenez fans.
He closed it out. We go to a bar next to the ballpark and watch ourselves behind the plate on SportCenter. A band that either is Weezer or is the best Weezer cover band ever is unpacking their gear. We have a 6a tee time. We’re not leaving the bar.
***** I’m at Fenway. I’m playing in a charitable softball game. The softballs are all deadened because they’re having and could damage seats if we parked one with these aluminum bats, but I lay into one and one hop it off the venerable Green Monster. I can still hear the sound it made hitting the wall. I get thrown out at third on a headfirst slide. Doesn’t even matter. Later I just threw a ball off the Monster over and over again and fielded it and tried to hit a relay guy halfway between the Wall and third. Just an awesome experience.
***** Back at Fenway. It’s Patriot’s Day. It’s cold. It’s Boston Marathon day. Baseball starts at 11a. We have bleacher seats, and the Yankees are in town. I’m wearing an old and ratty #21 Paul Oneil jersey. Jason Giambi digs in - the crowd is drunk, I’m drunk, everyone is feeling a bit chippy.
Fans start chanting “STER-OIDS…STER-OIDS” at Giambi. He gets a good cut at a fastball up and over the plate and absolutely parks it. I stand up and face the entirety of BoSox Nation in the bleachers. My buddy goes “oh christ” under his breath and tries to shrink into the bleacher seat. I raise my arms and start screaming “DING DONG…DING DONG” as I wave my arms back and forth to commemorate the Giambi home and Yankees lead.
I sit back down. I get an open bottle of apple juice thrown at me. I turn to my buddy and he says “they don’t serve apple juice here”. Oh, fuck.
***** I’m 6 years old. My dad, who hates driving, makes the 3 hour trek down to Yankee Stadium for my first baseball game. I’ve got my glove, my jersey, my hat - I’m beyond excited.
We get to the Stadium. It’s Yankees/Sox. It’s also bat day. Every fan gets an 18 inch wooden commemorative bat.
This is the 70s. It’s the Bronx Zoo days.
By the end of the third, we’re leaving. Several people have been beaten and are bloodied. Fights have erupted everywhere.
I spend the next 3 years telling friends at school not to go to baseball games because they’re all violent and fans can beat each other like it’s the WWF. LOL.
Baseball can be a slow sport to watch sometimes, but there is nothing like taking in a good game live on a hot day with a cold beverage.
So, post your fondest baseball memories. Or, if you post something else, you can suck my balls.
Here’s mine:
***** Being at the old Yankee Stadium in the bottom of the 8th, Yankees up. It’s summer, I’m sweating but I’m slightly drunk and happy. “Enter Sandman” comes over the PA. The crowd starts to come to life. The bullpen door opens. #42 shuffles out and the best closer in the history of baseball starts his slow, deliberate jog to the mound. I’m finishing my last beer. It’s gonna be rowdy and loud on the crowded 100 year old ramps to the exits after Mo shuts this down with 94mph cutters.
***** Still at the old Stadium. I’m keeping the book and look down and realize that Pedro grooved that slider to Chili Davis in the 2nd, but he just got Jeter to bail out on a curveball that crossed over for an inside strike. Jeter looks back at the Yankees dugout and just laughs. Pedro simply isn’t hittable tonight. I start counting the Yankees hits. I start at 1 and don’t get any further. 15Ks and he’s still going. He’d end up with a complete game 1 hitter and 17K/Z Pedro is having the best game of his life on a hot September night. Yanks are going to lose but I don’t even care - this is special..
***** It’s 1999 and my buddy and I are at the Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix. The 32 oz beers are cheap by ballpark standards and they’re flowing like water. Our seats are directly behind the plate. We’re both keeping the book. We both drunken look at each other in the 6th. Randy Johnson is pitching a real gem - it’s a one hitter….but journeyman Jose Jimenez for St Louis is throwing a goddamn no-no. We’re both Cardinals fans now. Actually, we’re Jimenez fans. Even the Diamondback fans are Jimenez fans.
He closed it out. We go to a bar next to the ballpark and watch ourselves behind the plate on SportCenter. A band that either is Weezer or is the best Weezer cover band ever is unpacking their gear. We have a 6a tee time. We’re not leaving the bar.
***** I’m at Fenway. I’m playing in a charitable softball game. The softballs are all deadened because they’re having and could damage seats if we parked one with these aluminum bats, but I lay into one and one hop it off the venerable Green Monster. I can still hear the sound it made hitting the wall. I get thrown out at third on a headfirst slide. Doesn’t even matter. Later I just threw a ball off the Monster over and over again and fielded it and tried to hit a relay guy halfway between the Wall and third. Just an awesome experience.
***** Back at Fenway. It’s Patriot’s Day. It’s cold. It’s Boston Marathon day. Baseball starts at 11a. We have bleacher seats, and the Yankees are in town. I’m wearing an old and ratty #21 Paul Oneil jersey. Jason Giambi digs in - the crowd is drunk, I’m drunk, everyone is feeling a bit chippy.
Fans start chanting “STER-OIDS…STER-OIDS” at Giambi. He gets a good cut at a fastball up and over the plate and absolutely parks it. I stand up and face the entirety of BoSox Nation in the bleachers. My buddy goes “oh christ” under his breath and tries to shrink into the bleacher seat. I raise my arms and start screaming “DING DONG…DING DONG” as I wave my arms back and forth to commemorate the Giambi home and Yankees lead.
I sit back down. I get an open bottle of apple juice thrown at me. I turn to my buddy and he says “they don’t serve apple juice here”. Oh, fuck.
***** I’m 6 years old. My dad, who hates driving, makes the 3 hour trek down to Yankee Stadium for my first baseball game. I’ve got my glove, my jersey, my hat - I’m beyond excited.
We get to the Stadium. It’s Yankees/Sox. It’s also bat day. Every fan gets an 18 inch wooden commemorative bat.
This is the 70s. It’s the Bronx Zoo days.
By the end of the third, we’re leaving. Several people have been beaten and are bloodied. Fights have erupted everywhere.
I spend the next 3 years telling friends at school not to go to baseball games because they’re all violent and fans can beat each other like it’s the WWF. LOL.
Baseball can be a slow sport to watch sometimes, but there is nothing like taking in a good game live on a hot day with a cold beverage.
