Yankee Stadium

The New York Yankees will take the field one last time Sunday night at Yankee Stadium. I visited Yankee Stadium once, bravely wearing my Boston Red Sox cap (to my dismay I didn't hear any slurs). It was a day game against Tampa Bay, July 22, 1999. We arrived at the stadium well ahead of game time, and shuffled through a long line in Monument Park. I still have the pictures I took that day with a Kodak disposable camera.

We sat in the right field bleachers and watched the Yankees pull out a 5-4 win over the Devil Rays. That day we saw Derek Jeter, Paul O'Neill, Bernie Williams, Joe Girardi (current Yankee skipper), Mariano Rivera, and Wade Boggs (pinch-hitting for the visitors). It was the 15,000th game in Yankee franchise history. The Yankees would go on to win the World Series that year. This year, they will miss the playoffs, and Tampa will be playing in October.

The thing I remember the most from the game was the heckling. Directly in front of us was a group of large, Italian-American men in their 30s and 40s, straight out of a Scorsese film or Sopranos episode. In between sips from their alcoholic beverages, they would unleash a constant stream of heckling, most of it directed at Yankee right fielder Paul O'Neill. The gentlemen just wanted O'Neill to turn around and wave, but he stubbornly refused. The fans became more determined, and tried to convince the Yankee that he would be traded back to the Reds. They chanted, "Cin-cin-nat-ti! Cin-cin-nat-ti!" At one point, I spontaneously joined the heckling, and yelled out "O-HIII-OO!" O'Neill finally broke down late in the game and turned around and gave the fans a wave.