Tagged: aaron hill
Blue Jays at Yankees 8/3/2010
It was time to take in my first game at the new place in the Bronx, the new Yankee Stadium. I had only been to one game at the old stadium and that was in 2002. The Yanks were going up against the Blue Jays tonight, and A-Rod had 599 career home runs, so olbviously, it was going to be a huge crowd tonight. We had bought LF bleacher tickets the night before, and were bringing my brothers friend and my dads friend (both Yankee fans) along with us 3. Due to some traffic on Rt. 17 and 4, my dad predicted we wouldn’t arrive until 5:30, but the traffic cleared up, and we were passing by the stadium at 4:35. By time we got parked into a garage by Gate 8 (CF), it was 4:45. We found out my dad would have to wait until 5:05 to pay, so he let me go in on my own. Since everything was so jam-packed, I couldn’t get a picture of the gate, but here was a look back at the jam crazy blob of a line.
(It goes much farther back)
Since it was such a blob, I was able to get pretty close to the front.
The line was taking long to move though, and when I asked for directions on how to get to the seats, I was acciedentally directed to the bleachers, so by time I fond the RF seats, there was already a good crowd in there. Here was my first view at Yankee Stadium. 
I had a custom made Yankees shirt (which looked real). The Yankees were hitting some into the seats, and tossing a couple up, but I came nowhere close to snagging any of them. So for those approx. 25 mins, I was empty handed.
Towards the end of Yankees BP, I headed to the Blue Jays dugout, as they were out stretching and waiting for their BP to start.
Once it started, a coach Omar Malave was playing catch out in front of the dugout with someone (I had a Blue Jays hat). I called out his name, and he gave me a wave. When he finished, he tossed me my first ball at the new Yankee Stadium!
It was nice and new, and I liked it a lot. This ball also set my snagging streak at 10.
After I decided to go behind to Blue Jays as the were throwing in LF.
I ended up not getting a warm-up toss, as the Blue Jays only tossed two of the warmups into the crowd. Though a couple of minutes later, I got an unknown Blue Jay to toss me a ball that was hit to him, and it was my second ball.
Since it was about 5:45, I decided to go to my general seating area, thinking the ushers would be checking tickets. Here’s what it was like up there.
This actually is a horrible place to snag baseballs. Not only were the Blue Jays not hitting any there, but that net covering the bullpens basically prevented them from tossing any up there.
I decided I would fare better in the normal LF seats, and there was no guard blocking the staircase. It was pretty empty where I was, though it was crowed towards the pole. I came close on a couple of Lyle Overbay opposite field shots but one landed a row in front of me after I moved for it and was picked up by a man. And then he hit a ground rule double that I misjudged from the front row, and guess where it landed? The exact 5th row seat I had been in most of the time.
Though after a ball was hit up against the bullpen wall, I called out Shawn Camp’s name, and he threw me my third ball. This ball marked the first time that I snagged 3 balls in a game in NYC.
Most of you know stories about the strict Yankee security, and how they are very tight on where you are. I wanted to try to get to the Jays dugout as they ran. I went through rows down the LF line, and without a word said, I found myself down at the dugout (wow). I was all setup to to get a toss up as they ran in, except they only tossed one, and I was nowhere close to it.
I met up with everyone else, and then we went to the main concourse to get some food, and the pizza that I had was amazing. I would later have some of meat from my dad’s steak sandwich from the butcher shop, and it was even more amazing. We then got to our seats, here was the view from my seat.
Tonights pitching matchup was Dustin Mosely for the Yanks, who I had never heard of, and Ricky Romero for the Blue Jays, who I saw pitch at Rangers Ballpark in April. Just like in Texas, I tried to get Ricky’s warmup ball, but just like in Texas, he tossed it to someone else.
On the first pitch of the game, Fred Lewis grounded out. Mosely got two more ground outs for a 1-2-3 first.
Derek Jeter lead off with a walk, and with one out, Mark Texiera hit a 2-run HR to left, making it two nothing Yankees.
Up next cam A-Rod, sitting on 599…
… but he’d strike out swinging.
Romero would get dominant from there as he’d allow one more baserunner, a infield single to Marcus Thames.
In the top of the second, Toronto would get a run on single by Tavis Snider scoring Adam Lind, 2-1 Yankees.
Nothing happened in the third, but in the fourth, Mosely had two out and
no one on. He hit Aaron Hill, then John Buck hit a double down the LF line. The cut-off throw went to Jeter, who made one of the worst throws I have ever seen to home, so the game was tied at 2. Then on the next pitch, Travis Snider hit a 2-run homer into the Yankee bullpen, giving The Blue Jays a 4-2 lead.
no one on. He hit Aaron Hill, then John Buck hit a double down the LF line. The cut-off throw went to Jeter, who made one of the worst throws I have ever seen to home, so the game was tied at 2. Then on the next pitch, Travis Snider hit a 2-run homer into the Yankee bullpen, giving The Blue Jays a 4-2 lead.
A-Rod came up in the 4th, but lined out.
During the fifth, we decided to check out the Yankees Museum. From there, we had a nice view of the Great Hall and Gate 6.
Here is part of the huge ball wall.
A model of the stadium.
Info about the Yankees 2009 27th championship season.
The first ball pitched at the stadium.
The 3 of us with the 2009 WS trophy. (Sorry that it’s sideways)
And some info about the subway series.
The museum is a cool place.
We then went to the glorious great hall.
Citi and Yankee are both beautiful in their own way. I don’t know which one is nicer.
We then got a Yankee ice cream helmet…
… and watched A-Rod line out to center in the 7th.
I wanted to watch the end of the game from our seats because I was hoping to get a ball from the bullpen after the game.
On our way back, Vernon Wells hit his 22nd homer to make it 5-2 Jays. Then two batters later, Aaron Hill hit his 16th homer of the year, making it 6-2.
This was by far the worst I had ever seen the Yankees play.
Then with two outs in the 9th, Jose Bautista hit his 33rd homer of the year, a two run shot making it 8-2. The Yankee fan couldn’t take it.
The Yanks came up in the ninth. Mark Texiera was up with two outs and A-Rod was on deck. Most of you know that A-Rod would hit 600 in his next AB. Unfortunately, that was the next day, as Tex grounded out to end a 2 hit CG gem by Ricky Romero.
I was hoping to get the Blue Jays to toss me a ball, but the only ball they tossed was closer to their exit, so I got nothing there. But here is a picture of me, my brother and dad after the game.
Since they hadn’t got a ball, I gave my brother my second ball and his friend my third ball.
Until next year, goodbye Yankee Stadium!
Stats:
3 balls today (3 thrown, and only 1 shown because I gave my second to my brother and third to his friend)
23 balls in 6 games this year = 3.83 BPG
10 consecutive games with a ball snagged
33 career baseball
Autos:
0 autos today
6 autos in 6 game this year = 1 APG
17 career MLB autos
In my next entry, I will briefly describe an Independent League game I attended. I may be attending a NY Penn League game also, and will may go to a Mets-Pirates game in Sepetember. Feel free to leave a comment. Thanks for reading.
Mike
Baseball Adventures 