wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] Ron Kaplan from Montclair, NJ January 01, 2009 - 11:41AM

  The first Yankee game I went to was in 1968 and came as a prize for perfect attendance at my synagogue's Sabbath services. It was a July doubleheader against the Cleveland Indians. The seats were in the bleachers and it was one of the sunniest, hottest days in memory. I came away with the second-worst sunburn of my life, but the seats overlooks the Indians bullpen and Mike Paul, one of their relievers bided his time by making faces at me. The Yankees lost both games, by the way.

  
  
• [2] Kim W. from Brooklyn, NY January 01, 2009 - 11:45AM

  Ironically, I'm a Red Sox fan living in New York, but I have memories of both stadiums. Here's the Yankee one.

  I was dating a Yankee fan ten years ago -- we treated the rivalry as more of a good-natured thing to tease each other about -- and he and I went to one Yankees/Red Sox game together. I don't even remember the game; this was back in the 1990's, so the Red Sox still probably had no chance to win. But I do remember that both teams gave each other a good game, and we all had healthy respect for each other.

  But that's not what I remember. What I remember is that the ice cream vendor in our section came up with an unusual sales pitch about a third of the way through the game; rather than hawking just plain ice cream, he started calling to all of us that he had "Special 'Boston Sucks' ice cream, only two dollars!" And his sales started going way up. Far from being offended, I just laughed at his ingenuity -- and then later I laughed at his enthusiasm when he'd sold out entirely by the seventh inning, but still kept running up and down the aisles in our section, encouraging everyone to join him in a cheer of "Boston Sucks! Boston Sucks! Boston Sucks!"

  Enthusiasm in anyone is attractive, even if it's your rivals. I'm also pleased to report that the only reaction I got the couple times I cheered for the Red Sox was some good-natured ribbing.

  And it was a good game.