Mets 6, Yankees 2

Got to spend most of the day with Lee Jr, which was awesome. Had a mild panic attack when the boy almost took a header off the jungle gym at Totlot 116.

The Mz got home around 3pm, and I left for the game soon after. Kinda weird, but I went to the Subway Series myself this year. I guess that's part of being a season ticket holder-- you reserve the right to say "Fuck it, I'm going myself today."

3:27 In the five minutes it took me to walk up to the bus stop I went from "eh, it's not so bad out" to "better put on my jacket" to "Jesus, it's pouring out!" This is the same continuum one follows when listening to any post-Lovesexy Prince album for the first time (from "hey, this is pretty good" to "jeez..." to "turn this fucking shit off!").

3:44 An unbearable stench of unknown origin was present at the 125th St subway stop. People were gagging, covering their noses, and frantically walking around in hopes of getting away from the stink. Either somebody died somewhere or someone was about to.

3:50 A gaggle of tragically underdressed girls got on at 145th, wearing navy blue short shorts and tank tops. They were literally freezing their asses off.

4:09 Took the express elevator up and immediately picked up a cup of Guinness right across from the stairs to my seats. It's a wonderful stadium.

4:10 OK, not the best pour I've ever had, but still hitting the spot.

4:12 Hey, Luis Castillo's leading off!

4:14 Even in the pouring rain, my seats are as dry as Don Henley's snare drum.

4:16 My section is pretty lame: cadavers and Met fans. Seriously, the average age for at least five rows is about 63. Not sure if it makes me feel younger or older.

4:25 TRIVIA #1: Name all the Muslim major leaguers in history.

4:26 This is looking like a long afternoon here. Maybe I should leave right now and catch the 5:00 showing of The Hangover.

4:38 Why hasn't there been a remake of Bachelor Party? Or maybe there has?

4:39 We've certainly lost the intimidation factor here at Yankee Stadium-- it's about as threatening as Epcot Center.

4:41 Two couples just got booted out of their wrong seats, which are right in the middle of the row. The wives had that classic "we sat here because our husbands told us to" look on their faces. The husbands had no look on their faces because they were staring straight down.

4:42 Now this is exactly how I thought Pettitte would pitch this year-- 50+ pitches and still in the 2nd inning.

4:49 God, I can't wait to upgrade my seats.

4:52 NOT EXACTLY TRIVIA: Rank the four major professional team sports in order of average player IQ, from lowest to highest.

4:55 Kinda drunk after just one imperial pint of Guinness. This doesn't bode well for next Friday night.

5:03 I wonder what the most ridiculous name is that they'd actually put up on the giant $100 Yankee Fan Marquee... Karl Dingleberry, perhaps? I gotta try that this year.

5:05 Our billion-dollar stadium allows us to see the lyrics to "I Wanna Rock" on a 5000 sq. foot screen.

5:09 TRIVIA #2: How many players have won World Series as both Yankees and Mets?

5:15 So much for the pristine rest rooms. There's a giant splat of snot and blood on the top of the urinal I'm peeing in (on? into?).

[I decided to go find KumoD and his friend. We watched the rest of the lousy game together and parted ways.]

Rays 9, Yankees 7

Lee Jr.'s first game at the new Stadium!

We had an awful time getting up to the park today. I (we) decided to try a different route than usual, with the boy/stroller coming along and all. Seemed like the 1-to-uptown 2-to-4 with the elevator finish would make a nice trip. I had doubts as soon as we left the apartment, spouting tell-tale lines like "this is the old school way to go" (in other words, I never go this way any more).

I'm not blaming the route, but things weren't smooth. We waited for almost a half hour for the downtown 1 at 110th (including a dreaded honker-- a train that speeds by without stopping because it's so fucking crowded), and barely squeezed on with the damn stroller. The up-and-down transfer at 96th was predictably sucky, but at least Mz got a seat with the boy so she could finish feeding him his little jar of food. I even got a chance to sit down at around 125th, but minutes later some bitch in a headdress plopped down into the foot-wide space next to me, nearly popping her fat ass on the keys in my pocket. Then it was two more sets of stairs, a claustro-ride for one stop on the 4, and finally an absurd round of elevator rides. I think the MTA's elevators are generally excellent, but there's a lot of room for error if you don't know exactly what you're doing. How am I supposed to know where the "Mezzanine" is and whether that's really where I want to get off?

Luckily the space-age elevators inside the Stadium don't leave any doubt in one's mind. They kick ass. It's almost unfair.

LJ fell asleep as we rolled around the Grandstand concourse, not really sure if we should even bother trying to sit in our seats with him. We bit the bullet and checked his stroller at Guest Services (super easy) and carried the little potato-sack up to row 14. He snoozed for a bit longer, and woke up during some stupid game on the scoreboard. They still have a lot of work to do on that board-- everything ends up looking like a metal band's live album cover. They still have the same schizo font situation going on, and damned if I can't ever figure out what the fucking count is.

We left at the end of the 8th, just as "Enter Sandman" started to pump through the speakers. These are the kind of moves one makes when you bring children to baseball games. I did this gladly and of my own free will-- either you understand thsi or you don't.

Not sure what to say about Mariano, although the words "exit strategy" keep popping into my mind. Might get ugly at some point.

Yankees 12, Rangers 3

Our annual staff trip to Yankee Stadium (40 people) didn't disappoint. We sat waaaaaay out and up in the right field Grandstand (section 405), where the view was actually pretty decent. Got a little drunk and a little noisy, but certainly behaved well within society's norms (except for a moronic argument between me and KumoD about "God Bless America"). A good time was had by all.

I wish I'd heard John Sterling's call of Hideki Matsui's 4th inning dong-- apparently Big John accidentally launched into his "an AAAAA-Bomb..." routine and had to switch to "well, it would have been if A-Rod had hit it..." before properly crediting the homer to Hideki. Unbelievable. Hell, just listen to it here (even with the dumb video).

So I really wanna get some of this old Yankee Stadium swag. I've given up on buying a pair of seats, especially after I found out that they take them apart, clean them, and put a new commemorative frame on them. What's the point?

I do like this sign quite a bit. Note that I've never been thrown out of Yankee Stadium.

This next sign might be kinda cool too-- maybe I'll put in a bid on it.