In 1978 I first got season tickets to the Yankees. I would go every Sunday as it was a Sunday plan. My brother and I would buy sandwiches and ride the Four Train up to the Stadium. There is nothing like the feeling when the train bursts of the tunnel into the summer sunlight and you get your first view of the Stadium as the train pulls into the stop. As you get out and walk to the stairwell you see the crowd below filing into Stan’s to buy caps and t-shirts or popping into the bar or the bowling alley for a quick beer. The vendors are outside hawking the little souvenir bats and pennants.
You go and get your program and stop off for a hot dog as you walk to your seat. You sit down and look out at the beautiful field laid out in front of you as the players shag fly balls and practice bunting. Suddenly you here that unmistakable sound that means it’s summer:
“BBBBBBEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRR HHHHHHHEEEEEERRRRRRREEEEE!!!!!!! GET YOUR ICE COLD BEER. COUSIN BREWSKI IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
You call for a couple and put them under your seat. Soon the scrubs get off the field and the ground crew starts to manicure the field. The “Voice of God” Bob Shepard starts to announce the lineups and you take the little stub of a pencil they give you and you fill out the lineup card in the program. Suddenly there is a flourish on the PA system and the Yankees take the field. They start to toss the pea around the horn until finally they roll it into the dugout. The batter gets in the box. And the umpire looks at pitcher and nods. It’s time.
“PLAY BALL!!!!!!!!!!”
4 comments:
"...the beautiful field laid out in front of you..."
This was what knocked me out when I was first taken to Ebbetts Field. The green! That pattern of dark green and lighter green patches that they get by mowing the grass a certain way. And the whole beautiful geometry of the thing.
Plus, being a kid I thought that Pee Wee Reese, Gil Hodges, Duke Snyder, Roy Campanella, Jackie Robinson and Carl Furillo were just a regular team, nothing extraordinary, just regular ballplayers on a regular team. Little did I know.
My uncle tells the story of how he brought his little brother my uncle Angelo to Ebbetts field when he was eight years old and Angelo climbed on the foul pole and caught a foul ball.
Uncle Angelo was a real ball buster.
Tits are now being prepared for Troop and I's exciting joint venture.
That's all I am sayin.
Tits are being prepared and it is a dirty position.
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