Yankees 2, Red Sox 1

My second game in three days, which is a lot for a family man such as myself. Starting to feel pretty old…

Took a co-worker of mine (she happens to be a Boston fan) to this one, under the agreement that we’d both wear neutral garb. Somehow that translated into an Australian beer hat for me. Either way, we blended right in. Some punk kid actually asked me if I was a Red Sox fan.

Speaking of which, we got to our seats to find two women and a child in our way. One had a red Yaz shirt (above right), the other had a pink Varitek shirt, and the kid had some kind of weird homemade Sox sign. It was immediately clear that these were decent folk (they just looked that way) and from out of town (they just looked that way). Also immediately clear was the fact that they were sitting in my season seats.

We could have easily moved over two seats and let the trio sit together, except for the fact that I’ve never moved out of these seats for anyone. Ever. I wasn’t about to start for a bunch of straggler Sox fans. So they had to sit on either side of me and my friend, which made for a funny dynamic (one of the gals knew almost nothing about baseball, and relied on her pal for just about everything) across our row. It ended up being fine.

The game was great. Also great (or at least promising) was the “new Yankee bar” part 2. Turns out the joint’s called “The Dugout” or something close to that. It’s sorta cheap and as spacious as the Trop on a Tuesday night.
Highlights:
1) Patrons are encouraged to freestyle rap in the main space; video of the whole affair is simultaneously projected on the wall. Jon Pauley and I almost blessed the mic a couple of times (I was drawing blanks except for a couple of Public Enemy fragments and most of “Jump Around”)…
2) Beer pong activity was evident in the corner of the room.
3) Hilarious blue metallic 16 oz bottles of Bud Lite were being sold for $6 a pop, complete with Yankee logo.

I think the Dugout just might work out for everyone.