Tom's Scorecard Memories! NEW ENTRY!

[$heriff Tom]

Welll, over the past couple of days I have made a landmark decision to, in some form or another, revive SCORECARD MEMORIES. A good amount of it is personal. I am a "pack rat" and the idea of getting a chronicle of my time in the bleachers all in one place appeals to me.

This is the end of the line, the Stadium goes after this year, and it will never be the same, no mater how people try to paint it.

I had abandoned the idea after an EZBOARD snafu deleted a good heap of my 96 tales, and I decided I did not want to redo them from scratch. There were also other factors that weighed in, mainly the grind of trying to do one a day.

This project will be more low-key, and sporadic. Not sure of the format, if its going to be the weighty chronicles I used to do, or an abridged version. Where I think people will be into these again is that we are reaching prime - years. Everyone loves to read about themselves.

I will be picking it up in the playoffs of 96. Just glancing over some of the cards, there is some HILARIOUS material in there. These cards would be nothing if not for my seatmates through the times.

So all in all I hope some of you are into this idea. If not, I have the chronicle I am looking to compile. Like it or not, I am one of the more renowned bleacher scribes, with certainly the most "material" in hand. Quite frankly, if I eventually see this through, I have probably over 300 more games to work my way through, capping off at the dawn of my own heydey, in 2002.

I may kick this up over the weekend. But its coming! Thanks to the few of you who have been asking....be careful for what you wish for!!!

I now open the floor for questions.

[MSBNYY]

You mention that 2002 was the dawn of your heyday, but that was really more of the end of your tenure. Did you not consider yourself a bleacher stalwart before 2002 (and thus a 1 year frontrunner leetching on to our reputations), or do you think it would be more accurate to refer to 2002 as the twilight of your heyday rather than the dawn?

[$heriff Tom]

For me parties end at dawn.

[$heriff Tom]

Wow, I slacked on this promise, huh? Anyway, there will be a return, THIS WEEK - who knows, maybe a one time only! And the occassion is the night of WALKMAN JOHNS FIRST BLEACHER GAME, out there with us in 39.

Folks, we are looking at August 8th, 1996, almost 13 years ago. Holy Hell. One thing we all remembered about that day when it came up over time was the staggering amount of "camp kids" on hand. In fact, for a time after this game I falsely remembered John himself making his appearance as one of the camp kids, and not as a young fan also looking to avoid them that day.

I pulled the scorecard, it is indeed messy, there are some jokes worth salvaging on here. As with all the old Scorecard Memories, I will also namedrop through the lineups, and some other bon mots from the day.

So there is your tease - oh, and if any of you have a date of a game you remember as a special occassion, and you think I may have been on hand, hit me up. I will pull it and play Scorecard Memories On Demand!

You've been warned.

[nobeernofun]

My ticket stub from 7/28/94 come down. I went to tape it back up on my wall. I looked on the back to take the old tape off & put the new tape on. I seen CF. 2B. & 3...4 ? I figured the CF, 2B was for the home run pool Bernie Williams ,Pat Kelly But what was the 3 & 4 ? they did not have Subway races back then. we did the Att. pool. but what was the other pool ? BTW looks like it was a good game too.

[$heriff Tom]

I actually already covered all my 1994 scorecards, they are archived in my Sheriffs Badge section. Sadly, the date you mentioned is not one of them. Aside from an August game, the last game I am seeing for that year for me is July 26th. Oopsie!

[Ms. Jericho]

Is there are reason for the frowny face?

[sancho231]

hey Tom, check if you have a card for the first subway series, june 18th 1997, I cut school and went to this game, 105PM start. I remember one of my friends wore a Boston hat to the game the got it ripped off his head and torn to bits. I 'm also pretty sure i sat right in font of big D and kaplin who were cracking jokes and smoking weed the whole time.

[$heriff Tom]

Ill check that tonight. I may just do up John's game and get it up here as well. If not, should be up before Monday. I would imagine I was at that Subway Series game for sure, that would be a must grab. How clear the scorecard is is simply another matter in itself.

[9]

That first Subway Series game SUCKED -- shut out 6-0.

[$heriff Tom]

The "Walkman John Debut" game of 8/8/96 will be up on Monday morning. Its essentially written, and just needs to be polished and I want to add a player profile as was my wont.

Theme of the day seems to be crazy camp kids. Its a nice stroll down memory lane, to when we met the vaunted Walkman John. I dont see any references to who was then a young lout on the card, but apparently he did pick it up and score a bit.

So be here Monday morning for the return of Toms Scorecard Memories!

[$heriff Tom]

August 8th, 1996 - Thursday Afternoon
Walkman John joins the Section 39 crew!

Ah, yes, going on just about 13 years now. I had remembered this day differently than our friend John - fact was he was out there in 39, along with dozens of camp kids. Me? I remembered it as him being there WITH a camp. Honestly, fact that I remembered anything was an accomplishment. I still take credit for calling John over to sit with the big guns.

The main thing was the glut of kiddie corps out there that day. Being a Thursday afternoon, we were clustered with camps. The heading of the card crows, “We’ve been invaded by Santas Elves!” In the “Date” section, instead of WALKMAN JOHNS FIRST GAME we wrote “Day Camp Day Game”, and in the “Played At” tag we added the obvious “Romper Room.”

These kids were all over the place, in garish colors. Loud shirts, colorful hats. “There is enough electricity coming off those hats to light up the entire city of New York” someone scrawled. At one point someone muttered, “even the little kids are saying there are too many little kids here.”

Bald Ray played bouncer, standing up as each new crew of kids turned the corner, pointing to the far reaches and repeating loudly, “Day camps over there….this is the rowdy section!” At one point, someone – totally fed up, threw up their arms and groused, “What, is every camp in the United States of America out here??”

This was the sort of crowd that almost saw me leave the David Wells perfecto early. That would have been one for the books. Of course, I bet I did not have the same hangover on this Thursday afternoon that I had the Sunday of the Wells game. Well, he ended up pitching a perfect game with the same kind of hangover, apparently, so my staying for all of it was not such a feat in retrospect.

Some of the kids were ahead of the curve on bleacher behavior. One 8 year old brazenly hollered, “I want beer!” and a whole clump of them lustily joined in on the “Box Seats Suck!” chants, which they later changed to a repeated refrain of “Box Seat Faggots!”. Even with all this, a more devious sort promised, “I will say the sorts of things that will ruin their lives forever.”

Being a day game and with us inexplicably out of work for the day apparently (I wonder why….maybe I was fired at the time) we were looking for the beer guy. “Hey, drunk kid” rang out a shout to a dancing fool of a lad. “Where’s the beer guy?” The beer guy finally made his way up, scowling at all the kids who would not pad his pockets, and was mimicked with an imitator calling out, “Here’s your beer….that will be one arm, and one leg, plus tax, please.” Whats funny is, for all his efforts, someone else shouted, “the beer guy blows!!!!”

As always, alcohol was the talk of the town. A promo idea, bringing a bottle of Jack in on Mickey Mantle Day and get in free, was suggested. Speaking of promos, someone mentioned Coors Field’s “Oxygen Tank Night.”

Other random acts of lunacy abounded. Someone was walking around in a shirt that flat-out said, “FU*K YOU AND GOOD BYE” - and no, the C was not starred out. Every scorecard has random lines which, although you can not tell why they were said, they still look funny in retrospect. This one had, “I like a hard, steady spray” and in another spot, “ah, damn…now I got to touch my own squirter.” Somehow, I guess those two are related.

Oh, and folks, this one has a phone #! These appear time to time. Its either an “Ed” or an “Anthony” or both of them shared a pad, cause there is one phone #, and 2 names. The number, if you want to call it, is 745-3888. I don’t think 917 #s were all the rage back then, and with no area code I am guessing it was a 212? So, by all means, start calling around, and find out if Ed or Anthony pulled through.

As to the game itself, the Yankees won it, 8-4. Their lineup looked like this - Jeter, Boggs, Paulie, big Chubs Fielder cleaning up, Tino, Bernie, Strawberry, Joltin’ Joe Girardi-io, and Andy Fox. Gerald Williams actually elbowed his way into the game, pinch hitting for Straw in the 7th.

On the hill, David Weathers started at looked shoddy. In 3 plus, he gave up 5 hits and walked 3, but his reliever Bob Wickman cleaned up the mess and ended up with the win. We also saw Jeff Nelson, Dale Polley (holy crap, I had totally forgotten his existence till now) and Mariano Rivera, notching his 3rd save of the year. His line did not make the scorecard, whoever finished up the 9th must have been too excited about the win to bother going back to wrap it up. Its not my handwriting that inning….may it be the aforementioned Walkman John? We know for fact he did pick up the card that day. As to notes, Strawberry had his second and third thwacks of the year, both to deep right, driving in four on the day. Six different Yankees scored runs on the day, and we got to see a Sacrifice Fly from Fielder!

Yankee foe was the Palehose. Their lineup played like this - dancing Tony Phillips, 2B Norberto Martin, 1B Frank Thomas, DH Harold Baines, 3B Robin Ventura (look out, Nolan Ryan’s comin!), RF Dave Martines, CF Darren Lewis, C Ron Karkovice (routinely runner-up to Willie McGee and Otis Nixon as ugliest man in baseball) and loudmouth Ozzie Guillen manning short. Phillips whiffed 3 times, but sadly was in left, not right, that day, so we were not able to really pile on him as we always enjoyed. Lewis inexplicably had a good day, going 2-3, with 3 RBIS and 2 runs scored. Hit his 4th homer on the day, off the aforementioned Polley.

Silly Luis Andujar started for Chicago, and did not last long. No pitching lines made the scorecard for Chicago – they were simply ignored aside from the name, although the Yankee side is complete aside from Mo. But you can tell with a peek at the card that its an ugly one. In 3 innings he gave up 6 hits and walked 4. He was relieved by an interesting cat, one Mike Bertotti, who was born in Jersey and became good friends of a college buddy of mine. I remember this was a big deal at the time, although Bertotti never made much of himself. He actually got to retire with a supremely ugly ERA of 7.36, and he is our profile for the game.


Bertotti debuted in 1995, starting 4 games for Chicago, and hardly getting out alive. In 14 innings (an average of 3 innings per start) he gave up 23 hits, 11 walks, SIX home runs, and 20 earned runs for a 12.56 ERA. In 1996 he actually escaped with a 2-0 record, only starting 2 of his 15 games. His ERA over 5 was ugly, but his career best! He still gave up 28 hits and 20 walks in 28 innings. He was done for in 97, not even logging 4 innings. After 9 hits and a couple of more walks, he was done for. According the Baseball Reference, he made $378,500 in his career. So yes, he was paid that much, for THAT. Drafted in 1991, in the 31st round, so at least he was no real “ bonus baby.”

So there you go, the return of Scorecard Memories. I hope you enjoyed it, more to come. Cheers.

BOXSCORE FOR GAME

www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA199608080.shtml

MIKE BERTOTTI

[9]

Where have you gone, Norberto Martin? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

[Jason Giambi]

www.baseball-reference.com/m/martino01.shtml

[$heriff Tom]

Folks, starting something new, went into more detail in my own section below. Forward me your requests for first-games, games you bought your kids or your future spouse for the first time, or any special game - really, and I will do up a Scorecard Memory. If it was between 93-2001-ish, odds are I was there too and I can do this.

I am next tackling our friend Debbie's debut weekend in the bleachers, a spirited tilt against the Red Sox in May of 1998. I have sneak-peeked the scorecards in question, and they are quite a hoot.

[$heriff Tom]

DEBBIE'S FIRST BLEACHER WEEKEND - PART 1

May 30th, 1998

We all remember our first time….and today we go back to “Water Girl Debbie’s” first bleacher weekend, a balmy late May weekend against the dreaded Boston Red Sox. Sellout crowds, a “foreign takeover” and the general lunacy that would not only accompany Yankees / Boston, but would accompany anything that went down on what used to be THE place to be on a weekend.

So lets kick it off with Saturday, May 30th

For whatever reason, a celebrity softball game had been scheduled that day, and for whatever reason, it was cancelled. That was met with mass rejoicing. With our without celebs playing the part of buffoon, the game was a sellout, which could be pegged beforehand from the “rioting in line” we noted. According to the tag on top, this was my 15th game of the year, and the Yankees were 13-1 with me in attendance. I am dubious about this, and shall doublecheck. Then again, its mentioned quite frankly on here that we came in 26 games over .500, and yet at least one person was “still bitching.” Whoever it was, according to the card, was apparently longing for the days of Omar Moreno.

In regards to a slogan for the game, I simply scrolled, “Im a danger to myself and others.” A nice quip.

Before the game charitable fund was being discussed, with a $1 donation recommended towards getting Stat Man a new shirt. To this day, over 10 years later, a new shirt has not been purchased. I would call that fund a smashing unsuccess.

George walked in, with a smile hidden by his nose, to chants of “Go Back to Israel!” You could feel the love for George, who was one of the first to take me into the family. Didn’t stop me from joining in on the chant, though.

It was HOT in there. Over a decade later, when discussing her first series, Debbie remembered the heat – and the crazy Dominicans on hand later in the weekend – more than anything. On this card Kaplan agreed with the heat part, suggesting the next time the temps got so hot that we should all come out in bikinis. That’s an idea that sadly never came to fruition. In lieu of a bikini, someone was actually parading around in a Bobby Meachem shirt. At one point I wrote down that “this lotion makes me smell gay.” Going by the heat, I guess someone talked me into some sunscreen. No word on here if I was wearing my plastic Yankee helmet, which would literally become a danger to touch in the sun. According to our friends at Baseballreference.com, it was indeed sunny, winds of a whopping 3 MPH, and temps just over 80. We must have all been hung over to complain so much about 81 degrees.

Scorecard was getting lots of scribbly use. A poll was kicked off, on who people liked better, “Drunk Tom” or “Sober Tom.” Well, 31 people voted, and your winner, with 21 of them, was DRUNK Tom! I bet that same result would have at least flipped the other way in later years when Drunk Tom was not nearly as funny as he seemed to be then. Oh, one more person appears to have voted, and they said “Don’t like Tom either way.” Fantastic!

Everyones favorite, Bozo, was on hand. I give Bozo lots of props on Hecklehouse. A pudgy guy with a clown wig and no other way of standing out. Bad Mouth Larry, watching Bozo gladhanding on his way in, admitted Bozo was a nice guy, but he just could not stand the hair, so to Larry he was pretty much an enemy. Shortly after Bozo settled in, everyones favorite, the Giant Hot Dog, made an appearance over in the box seats. “Your Dad is a Polish Sausage” someone screamed. To this, Hot Dog turned around, bent over, and shook his hot dog butt at us.

It was noted that I held beer like devoted Moms would hold a baby. I have to say that’s simply cause I could not afford to drop them. Miltons bell was being crapped on again as a “rally killer.” I guarantee those words appeared on over 100 of my 500 or so scorecards over the years.

Big Joe was in the crowd, and as rowdy as usual. Apparently he ticked someone off, who snapped back at Joe, who was putting on the pounds as we all know, “go eat a hot dog.” Insults were bouncing, after I cracked on Larrys nose he replied, “you’re no box of chocolates yourself, Tom.” Some cowboy must have been hanging around, cause one of us broke out the old, “there are only two things that live in Texas….steers and queers…and he don’t look like a steer to me” line in regard to them, and Big Joe randomly opined that “there are Ghost Towns in Texas.”

Someone had a plastic megaphone, and you were able to punch in codes that would robotically yell out different rally calls. Pressing # 69 actually said “Lets Do It.” I cant believe I did not commandeer that thing for later use in the bars. Another item of note was our amusement at the fact that for once only two guys were handling the hose during the watering of the basepaths in between innings, instead of the usual clown car amount of guys.

Looks like I missed the entire bottom of the 4th, with a streak of MOs (mystery outs) as I was apparently “buying beer.” Not sure how to explain the other 5 MOs on the card, including the very first Yankee at-bat that day, by Chuck Knoblauch. In regards to guest scorekeepers, it looks like at least 2 other people had a hand in this one, but there are no telltale signs as to who.

As to the game, the Yankees dropped it 3-2, in front of 55,191. Your Boston lineup was CF D Lewis, DH Jefferson, 3B Valentin, 1B Homo Vaughn, LF the black guy with the Irish name Troy O’Leary, C Hatteberg, SS M Benjamin, RF Bragg, and 2B Merloni. Bragg drove in 2 of the Bosux runs, and Vaughn cracked a jack off of the pus-sy toad Hideki Irabu, his 15th. On the hill Bret Gayberhagen got the W, throwing 6.2 innings of 1 run ball, with Jim Corsi nabbing a hold and Flash Gordon coming in for his 19th save to that point. One funny note in regards to Gayberhagens line – whoever was handling the card at that point – and my guess is Gang Bang Steve - attempted to write them in upon Brets exit. He smartly added “take these with a grain of salt.” Comparing to the baseballreference line, he was somehow short one hit and TWO strikeouts. Ah, the mystery outs rear their ugly head.

Our hometown Yankees showed this lineup – 2B Knoblauch, SS Jeter, RF O’Neill, 1B Tino, CF Bernie, DH Strawberry, LF Curtis, C Posada, and 3B Brosius. Bernie had 3 hits (he was batting .340 at the end of the day) while Straw whiffed 3 times. Over on the hill the much maligned Hideki Irabu dropped his 1st decision to 4 wins at that point, throwing 7 innings of 3 hit ball. Problem is he walked SEVEN. We also saw the big Australian G Lloyd that afternoon, and Jeff Nelson and his porno mustache wrapped things up.

The game fell in at just a shade under 3 hours - 2 hours and 57 min – which sucks for a 3-2 game. Your umpires were HP Ted Barrett, 1B Jim Joyce, 2B Al Clark, and 3B John Hirschbeck. We hope you enjoyed this version of SCORECARD MEMORIES!

www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA199805300.shtml

[9]

What a shitty lineup for Boston.

[$heriff Tom]

Yeah, I didnt bother with a player spotlight for the game - these things take me longer than they should to prepare as it is - but I would have went with Merloni, as big a clown as any in that lineup. I was surprised, though, to find out he had a pretty decent batting average. Certainly higher than I thought he had escaped his career with.

[9]

I still remember going to a Saturday afternoon game when we nearly came back from 9-0 or 10-0 against the Sux and Merloni made a fantastic play at 2B to rob us of the game-tying hit.

[zwhiterose1]

Tom....thank you for this. It's awesome!!! I'm looking forward to part 2! I's very cool to see my memories in print. Funny you mention Big Joe....as it was him and Kaplan that invited me to sit there in the first place!!

[$heriff Tom]

Well, after some hemming and hawing over the last couple of years, actually, I am bringing it back once again. Ill start by making it a weekly thing, throwing up one a week. The main crux has been TIME. But I can surely manage that.

I think Ill just move on to 1997, and finish up 1996 at another time. If you have enjoyed the ones I have done thus far, they get better. The material to work with becomes much stronger, more comic minds start peppering the seats.

I may have one up this weekend, but if not, soon enough. Thanks for any interest!

[$heriff Tom]

Well, I decided to start back up at the dawning of the 1997 season. I never completed 96, but got disheartened by doing a bunch and somehow losing them in a computer issue. I hate going back and redoing things. Someday....

So heres my starting point. Hope you enjoy....

FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 1997
OPENING DAY
“I may enjoy it, but I don’t condone it…”[/i]

YANKEES vs OAKLAND A’s

Well, lets kick this hornets back off with the dawning of the 1997 Home Season. Duly noted on the linescore as Champs vs Chumps. Playing the role of the Chumps, the A’s (long known as the A’sholes round these parts) . In the “date” section I scrolled “A Glorious Happenstance” with the game being played at “the home of the Brave-beaters.” I got this as a FRIDAY opening day….great googly moogly! What a recipe for disaster. Who schedules that??

Lots of scrawls on this card. Yay me! I was the “First one reprimanded - for cursing.” Apparently the odds were 8-1 id be the first one to get a warning of any sort. The 10-1 odds for me being first thrown out did not come to fruition. (in that regard, Paul Kaplan stood at 2-1 odds, but lasted as well). Im guessing around this time things were switched up to flat benches out there and we lost our comfy seating, as someone wrote, “what the F*@k is with these benches? Are we at the JV soccer game?”

Some stupid marching band played before the game, and were rewarded with seats! “They got free seats for that?” someone snarled. “They should have been kicked out for that!” The pregame fun was not over, as the mayor was booed heartily, even as the Championship flag was being set to ascend.

Joe Dimaggio threw out the first pitch. Hey, we loved the Yankee Clipper, but more than one person was heard to exclaim, "again???"

First time we heard the bell was at 12:19, as Ali’s grandson led the honors. “second fight” sparked up at 1:21. The first one was apparently “outside.” No further details offered, sadly. 1st warning that had nothing to do with me was snapped from security at 1:24. And apparently “first lumberjack sighting” was at 1:15. Our own house band was not struck up till 2:35, with a rousing chorus of Y R U GAY.

Our good friend Jose Canseco was blessed to be parked in front of us in right, and took his fair share of hoots. “Good to see Jose out here” someone said, settling in. “Jose should be the offfical RF for every team we play” someone replied. According to the card, Jose and the bleachers were “exchanging pleasantries” as early as 11:30 AM out there. By the 12th inning…yes, this went on this long….someone threw a bottle at the guy. No word where it came from but Im sure we were blamed.

Filip Bondy was also around, accompanying his grey-bearded Dad, who was promptly branded Moses. Whenever the guy stood up, someone new would speak out in a deep voice, “Thou Shalt Not Be A Met Fan!” or some such. Apparently a “Dave” got the boot, and since he was wearing a red Yankee hat, we deemed that as the reasoning for it.

Fans were in quite a mood. Even Cousin Brewski, all smiles, was shouted down with a “Brewski’s a dick!” Soon after, and I can tell time by placement on the card directly underneath that statement, there was a “beachball assassination” by George, who apparently was not busy off flying his plane that day. We used to fight with each other for the chance to pop the beachballs that would occasionally make a cameo out there in 39.

Conversations were ripe. Apparently someone knew a person who “wacked off to Mary Poppins.” We talked about someones Mom, who enjoyed playing basketball, cause she liked the “hard-wood” In quite the groaner of a line, someone said, “her son is autistic…that means he is a good painter.” “Sit down, 1980s Howard Stern!” was thrown at a guy with shaggy hair and shades.

Someone had, of all things, a BASEBALL JOKE BOOK out there. Only one corny joke made the card, regarding the reason horses don’t play the outfield. Something about not being fans of flies or some such. Another fan stood up holding up some gaudy sign splashed with color. Someone noted it looked like “a wallpaper sign” which led someone else to tell them “toss some water on the other side! Stick it on something!”

More commentary. Gang Bang Steve emphatically stated Cubans “don’t hustle.” A nice quote to take away from the game, though context was never explained was, “I enjoy it…but I don’t condone it.” In fact, I made that this games subheader!

Ah, a poll! A fun one. FUNNIEST NAME OF A GAME. The winner was “poker.” Others getting votes (although no totals were tallied) included Hopscotch, Parcheesi, Marco Polo, Life, Hangman, Yahtzee, Hungry Hungry Hippo, and Blind Mans Bluff.

Apparently a raucous Bleacher vs Box Seat food-fight sparked up in the top of the 6th. Shame on us all.

Game went into extras, time for more fun. Apparently a guy was walking around in the open with a can of beer that inning. No word on wether or not he lasted the full 12 (innings, and beers) Not much else on here, seems we were pretty well behaved.

Lets wrap the fun part with the scorecard condition. Counting 6 MO’s (mystery outs) on here which is only 1 every 2 innings. However, I do see the elusive “MDP” - a missed double play. Yay! I seem to have kept score for most of the game, which shocks me, being a Friday and all. Maybe I had no money for beer. Really surprised at how neat this scorecard is.

AH, as to the game. Well, Mark McGwire hit a home-run, steroid boosted of course, TO THE BLACK! To cut to the chase, Jokeland pulled this one out 3-1, in TWELVE FRIGGIN INNINGS. Your losing pitcher? Our friend Jeff Nelson. The winning pitcher? Our friend Aaron Small!

Lineups looked like this. The A’s offered up Tony Batista as SS, Brosius 3B, Canseco RF, McGwire 1B, Berroa DH, Giambi LF, Ernie Young CF, Scott Spezio at 2B, and in the who the F*(* is that department, George Williams behind the dish. Other luminaries who appeared in pinch or replacement roles included Matt Stairs and Damon Mashore. Mike Mohler got the start and threw a serviceable 6.1, followed by Richie Lewis, Billy Taylor, and Small, who threw 3 hitless innings (with 2 BB and a K) in his winning effort.

In your Oakland wrap, Batista went 0-3 with the racist K-K-K. Canseco went an impressive 0-6! McGwire batted .500 on the day with a 2-4 and his deep blast. He did manage to get picked off second by David Cone, which Im sure was ripe for a few guffaws.

Yankees countered with SS Jeter, 3B Boggs, CF BW, 1B Tino, DH Fielder, Rf O’Neill, LF “Hard hittin’ Mark Whiten, 2B Duncan, and C Girardi. Pat Kelly, Tim Raines, and Luis Sojo all made cameos. David Cone got the start on the hill, and threw 7 scoreless innings, walking 4 and whiffing TWELVE, before the cavalcade of relievers. Mike Stanton and Brian Boehringer left without causing too much trouble, before MARIANO BLEW THE SAVE. In 1 inning he was torched for 3 hits and a jack to the black by McGwire. Jeff Nelson finished up, packing up a loss, giving up 2 key runs in 3 innings of work. Yankee hurlers did manage to strike out 15 Oakland batsmen on the day into eve.

On the Yankee side of things, both Boggs and Paulie went 2-5, but nothing of note, despite Girardi managing 3 whiffs in his 5 trips to the plate wielding the wood.

Your arbiters on the day were the late Durwood Merrill behind the dish, Dale Scott at first, Dave Phillips at 2B, and Rocky Roe at third. Game slogged, but it was 12 innings after all. 56,710 called the Stadium home that day, in dry conditions, with a start-time temp of a cool 48 degrees.


I hope you enjoyed this entry of TOMS SCORECARD MEMORIES! The door is always open. Ill leave you with todays DOOF OF THE DAY, the aforementioned Oakland catcher, George Williams. I swear I forgot this guy existed. He did stick around 4 seasons, got a seasons worth of at-bats with over 500, cracking a whopping 10 homers with 48 RBIs, and a .243 career mark. I do believe this qualifies him as A DOOF.

[nobeernofun]

Apparently a raucous Bleacher vs Box Seat food-fight sparked up in the top of the 6th. Shame on us all.

Those Food fights where vicious. the sound of those Coke bottles hitting the facade at like 60 m.p.h. and winging pieces of pretzels & dipping them in beer so they'd stick to who or what ever they hit.
Ah the good old days.

[cactusjames]

Not to go off topic and toot my own horn, but I was looking through some of them for a specific mention of me, not for me but I remember laughing at the whole thing not just my thing. But do you know what the date was for the game where Capone was busting my balls and my comeback was at least I can see my dick when I look down. I remember liking that one a lot other than just my dumb line. Any idea when that was Tom?

[$heriff Tom]

Give me a date, or at least close to one....or even a year. I do have over 600 of these!

[cactusjames]

I wish I could think of one, if I had an idea I could even look myself, but I have no clue that's why I asked hoping maybe you put in online recently. It's tough for me to keep track of all my great lines. There's been a lot since I told Don Francis to go eat out Mr. Met.

[MSBNYY]

Well, I think you entered the fray around 2001-2002ish. I don't remember you from 2000.