What a relief. Watching these games has been stressful for an old guy like me. The Yankees defeated the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies, 4 games to 2, and won their first world championship since the 2000 season when they defeated the New York Mets, 4 games to 1. What a great way to celebrate the opening of the new Yankee Stadium. The Yanks lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks in '01 and the Florida Marlins in '03. Last year, the last in the old Yankee Stadium, they didn't make the playoffs at all. The first decade of the 21st century has come to an end with the Yankees and their arch-rivals the Red Sox having won 2 championships while the Angels, White Sox, D'backs, Marlins, Cardinals and Phillies each have won once.
The Series is obviously news that you can find elsewhere so I'm not going to recap the games. I know that all
these star players are millionaires but I was still happy for them,
especially the veterans, Jeter, Rivera, Posada and Pettitte. I'm grateful for all the entertainment they have provided during the course of the season. The first
three have spent their entire career as Yankees. Matsui may not be a
Yankee next year, but he sure went out in style as Series MVP after his
6 r.b.i.'s in game 6. He and Damon are at the end of their contracts.
Loved when Damon stole 2nd and 3rd on the same play in game four. I don't recall ever seeing that happen before.
I wasn't at the Stadium for any games during the '09 season but I saw most of them thanks to my Direct TV baseball package. I'm at the point now where viewing the games in the comfort of my living room beats the aggravation and expense of attending in person. I don't need to be there. I used to hate it when the forecast was for rain and I had a ticket. If I decided to stay home, the game would be played and I'd be out the ticket money. If I'd go, I'd have to endure the unpleasantness of me getting rained on and/or the game getting rained out. The rain check was small consolation. In the post-season, there's also the likelihood of cold weather to deal with. Besides the comfort factor, at home I can practically call the balls and strikes on every pitch and I see the replays at every conceivable angle, maybe even more times than I'd like.
My most memorable day at Yankee Stadium occurred during the 1961 season when the M&M boys, Mantle and Maris, were chasing Babe Ruth's 1927 record of 60 home runs. It was a twi-night doubleheader in July against the White Sox. Roger Maris hit HR #'s 37 & 38 in game 1 and 39 & 40 in the 2nd game. Mantle hit his 38th, Clete Boyer hit 2 HR's and Elston Howard also connected. The Yanks won both games, a 5 - 1 win for Whitey Ford and a 12 - 0 complete game for Bill Stafford. You can check out the box scores on www.baseball-almanac.com. Click on history, teams, scroll down to a box which reads "team by team items of interest" and click on schedules in the AL or NL column, scroll down to the date you're interested in and click for the box score. So if you find an old ticket stub you can check what happened. Like me, you may find that your memory is not as good as you thought it was.
Strangely enough, though I'm a life-long Yankee fan, the first major league baseball game I attended was on August 4th, 1956 at Ebbets Field, the former home of the Dodgers. I think it was with a Cub Scout outing. The Dodgers beat the Cardinals 12 - 4. On August 26th, 1957 I also saw one game at the Polo Grounds which at the time was the home of the New York Giants (not the football team that now plays in New Jersey). The Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds that day by a football score, 17 - 3. In 1958, the Dodgers and Giants moved respectively to L.A and 'Frisco. My first game at Yankee Stadium was June 19, 1957, a 10 - 2 victory over the Detroit Tigers. I don't recall who took me. I was able to pinpoint the date from notes I wrote inside the cover of my oldest Yankee yearbook - the 1960 edition (the price was 50 cents). I wrote down the the scores and opponents of the games I attended that year, two doubleheaders and 6 single games, plus the scores and opponents of the 3 games I attended prior to 1960.