No Jeter

For the first time since at least 1995, I went to a Yankee game and Derek Jeter wasn't on the team.  Last year I blogged about seeing Jeter one last time.  With no more Jeter, Rivera, or David Phelps (Notre Dame) I don't think there's anybody on the Yankees that I like.

I went with my former boss, Rick, who shares season tickets with some other people.  It was good to spend some time with him and talk about sports and school and whatever else.  He picked me up from school and had to deal with some pretty awful traffic.  After stopping at the Court Deli near the stadium for dinner, we got into the stadium just a little late.  It was Michael Pineda against Colby Lewis.  The starters combined to allow 12 runs over the course of 12 and two-thirds innings.  Pineda wasn't cheating hard enough.  The Rangers got to work in the third, scoring seven.  It looked like it wouldn't be a very interesting game.  The Yankees made it 7-4 in the fourth.  After seven and a half, the Rangers led 10-5.  Garrett Jones hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth and Mark Teixeira homered in the ninth, but the Yankees couldn't make it all the way back and lost 10-9.  The two teams combined for six home runs, with Prince Fielder hitting two of them.  I do prefer a pitchers' duel, but this was a much more interesting game than it seemed it would be early on.

My view for most of the game

My brother Tom came to the game very randomly with his friends Alex and Paul.  I think Alex had gotten tickets through his wife's company at the last minute.  Their seats were between home plate and third base just outside the moat right be the field.  They also included free popcorn and soft drinks.  Tom came up and sat with Rick and me for an inning.  Then he took me down to their seats for an inning.  I saw Prince Fielder's 416-foot home run to center when I was down there.

My view for about an inning

One other thing to note:  according to the Yankees, Alex Rodriguez tied Babe Ruth for fourth on the all-time RBI list.  Except that's not what happened.  A-Roid drove in his 1,992nd run.  The Elias Sports Bureau had Ruth with 1,992 RBIs and Lou Gehrig with 1,993 RBIs.  Major League Baseball's website has Ruth with 2,213 RBIs and Baseball-Reference has him with 2,214.  The Yankees' website has Ruth with 1,971 RBIs as a Yankee.  So according to the Yankees, Ruth had a total of 21 RBIs with the Red Sox and Braves.  Now he only had 12 with the Braves, but he had 113 with the Red Sox in 1919 (and some for the five years before that with the Red Sox).  As for Lou Gehrig, but Major League Baseball's website and Baseball-Reference have him at 1,995 (very sadly, Barroid ended up with one more than him).  So not that far off from Elias for Gehrig.  Unfortunately, A-Roid has since passed Gehrig, but he's still 199 or 200 away from Ruth.

I didn't get any food or beer at the stadium other than the free popcorn Tom gave me since we ate before going in and Yankee Stadium has a terrible beer selection.  Attendance was 40,008.  Yankee Stadium is just a mediocre stadium, but it really should be better.  The first and easiest fix is getting good beer in there.  But it's always fun to go to a game.  Thanks to Rick for taking me to the game.  I might get to another Yankee game this season or I might not.  I'm good either way.