Ten years ago this week - April 9, 1996, to be exact - I went, as I almost always did in those days, to Opening Day at Yankee Stadium.
I went with Allan and our buddy Matt. I used to be Matt's nanny, and had taken him to his first Yankees game many years earlier. Now he was in high school, and he scored us tickets to Opening Day.
I know the three of us will never forget sitting in the upper deck, watching Andy Pettitte pitch -- in the snow. We sat shivering as snow covered the field and melted the numbers on Allan's scorecard. The Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 7-3.
In the late innings, it was announced that fans who were still in the Stadium could get free tickets to another game. You just had to go to a ticket window and choose from one of three dates. Matt and I did that, picking one of the three dates at random.
When Allan and I got home, I looked at my calendar and saw that we had tickets to something the same day as our free game. Knowing I wouldn't see Matt before then, I put the tickets in an envelope and mailed them to him.
Matt went to that game with two other friends.
It was May 14, 1996, the day Dwight Gooden pitched a no-hitter.
We had tickets to a no-hitter and didn't go.
It's impossible to explain to a non-fan what that means. For people like Allan and me, the no-hitter is in the back of our minds at every game. If the game goes more than a few innings without a hit, we're starting to think, never saying the words out loud (in keeping with tradition), but noting the zeros lining up, not daring to hope... It's something neither of us have ever seen in person, and can only hope one day we do.
We didn't even go the event we had tickets to. We just missed the no-hitter for nothing.
It was Joe Torre's first year as manager. Improbable as it may seem, the Yankees were underdogs then, and they went on to a gutsy season of improbabilities, topped off by dropping the first two games of the World Series at home, then winning three in a row in Atlanta, before coming home to win their first championship in 18 years in the Bronx.
5 comments:
Whenever the Blue Jays give up a hit on the first pitch, I can't resist commenting, "There goes the no-hitter."
I think I got that from my mother, who got it from her mother.
The closest Lori & I ever got was (IIRC) a one-hitter in the 11th inning. I think it was a complete game, too.
Whenever the Blue Jays give up a hit on the first pitch, I can't resist commenting, "There goes the no-hitter."
That's so funny - my friend Matt does the same thing, but with any hit in the 1st inning. A good tradition.
A one-hitter in the 11th - that's exciting!
Someday I will see a baseball game. I believe good hot dogs and a nice stadium will be key. A no-hitter, like a perfect game in bowling or a hole in one, is too much to hope for.
And allow me to brighten a sick day with
what may be the ultimate blog post/thread.
(via Making Light)
I believe good hot dogs and a nice stadium will be key.
The major league park closest to you, Safeco in Seattle, is a beautiful park - with amazing food. (Actually good food, not just good ballpark food.) I highly recommend it.
Now for this thread...
Oh my god. This deserves closer inspection.
(And to top it all off, a border collie!)
Thanks for the tip, Wrye. :)
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