Yankees vs. Orioles 9/13/2009

It is a long story and was a last minute decision (literally) but I decided to head down to the city for the Yankees-Orioles game in the Bronx. it was a great day for the Yankees offense as they compiled 20 hits and beat the O's by a score of 13-3. C.C. started off struggling and seemed to really be laboring through the game (4 walks and only 1 strikeout), but was able to pick it up in the 5th inning and kept his pitch count down which led him to pitching 7 innings.

Some things to note:

• During batting practice today, a man was hit in the mouth by a foul ball. He was very still (he looked conscious) and was given an oxygen mask to assist him with breathing. His young son (about 7) saw this all take place was hysterical. Many of the players were also concerned, one being Joba, who came over and gave the little boy a baseball in attempt to calm him down.

• They had to clear out the entire section I was in (right field, the section to the right of the moat) so that they could lift the man off the ground and place him onto a golf cart which had been brought over to this side of the field. He looked so helpless and many of us were just standing there with a blank look on our face. They lifted him over the wall, placed him on a golf cart and drove him around the outfield dirt which led him to an opening in the outfield wall. Hopefully he will be OK and we all can learn a lesson from this terrible event. While fans are warned about being attentive for foul balls, it is something that truly needs to be taken seriously as something bad can happen. This also reminds me of the game I was at in Toronto in which a lady was hit in the head by a broken bat. She was extremely bloody but was lucky in the sense that she was conscious and able to get up and walk around without any assistance

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• While the Yankees played some great baseball, I was unable to enjoy the game due to an obnoxious lady seated behind me. It all started in the beginning of the game when she spilled mustard on the back of my friends shirt. Accidents happen, and he didn't seem too upset. But then a couple of innings later, this same lady spills an entire cup of beer under my seat, which gets all over my purse, jeans, and my legs. I was not thrilled and expressed this to the lady. My purse reeks of beer now and I don't know how to really clean it off. My friend's side was OK, as most of the beer landed where I was seated.

• Since the ground was all wet, I ended up holding the huge purse on my lap for the entire game. Now this was all great until she decided to spill another cup of beer. This time it not only gets my white flip flops drenched, but it also reaches my friend who had put my bag of school books in front of him on the ground. ALL of my new notebooks, teaching books, agenda book, and scorecard were damaged. Not only do they reek terribly of beer but I am going to have to now replace a bunch of these books since the print has smeared on one of them (which need to be used by students) and the other just smell so much like beer that I can not have them around the kids. I cant afford to replace these books, but I really don't have much of a choice.

• Not even an apology or anything from this lady either which pissed me off the most. In fact, she somehow thought it was hilarious and proceeded to buy at least 6 more beers from what I had counted (she was up every inning, coming back with 2 beers in her hand). My question is this: is there anything you can possibly do (besides beating the lady up) when this happens? I have been to 7 minor league games and 3 games in Toronto this year and have never had this happen. And while I know that accidents do occur, is it fair to have this happen 3 times in one night, all by the same drunk person? I regret bringing the book to the game (which was a first, since I took the train), but I had so much HW for my Master's class that I needed get some of the material read while on the train.

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Enough complaining, I suppose. Not really much else to say about the game. Lots of offense. It was great to also see the young guys on the Orioles. They really could be something in the next few years if they can work around the young, offensive guys on the team by developing some good starters and acquiring some decent relievers (which would include them holding onto some of these young guys rather than trading them away like the Pirates tend to do).

I have a handful of pictures that came out amazing, but I am only going to post a few of them tonight. I will add more of them in the next few days.

• Joe Girardi and Alex Rodriguez were ejected from the game. We weren't sure what happened but were told that it was for arguing balls and strikes.

• Apparently during the broadcast, Leiter decided to take his sock off and demonstrate some sort of pitching technique to Kay. They showed it on the screen.
• Nick Swisher stands on the dirt section nearly 99 percent of the time in the OF. I found that interesting, as if it was some sort of marker on where to stand.