Let’s Go Yankees

It started when I got a rare visit from Alan at work.

 “What are you doing tonight?”

“No plans“, I told him, wary but curious.

“Do you want to go get Yankees playoff tickets tonight?” he said enthusiastically.

It turned out that the previous round of playoffs ticket selling had gotten bad press through Ticketmaster and its suspect selling out of tickets seconds after they went on sale that the owner George Steinbrenner announced the only way they were going to sell tickets was to get them at the stadium.

 Within minutes of The Yankees defeating the Texas Rangers, the Yankees announced that tickets for the next series would be sold at the stadium only at 10:00 the following morning.

  Alan’s plan was to spend the night on line sleeping on the streets of the Bronx at Yankee Stadium and for some reason it seemed like a good idea to me.

 Having learned from camping overnight at the beach for Jimmy Buffett tickets, I took with me only what I thought I’d need to spend 12 hours in the cold which was a duffle bag with an extra jacket and Monopoly .We drove to the Bronx at about 10 at night and by the time we got to Yankee Stadium the line was already wrapped halfway around the stadium.

 Right after we got on line we were followed by possibly the only Baltimore Orioles fan on line. He was wearing an Orioles jacket on line in the Bronx . Very brave.  We became friends with him and his friend, As well as a couple of girls who lived in the Bronx. As we and the people around us played Monopoly to pass the time, we endured the heckling from one obnoxious guy several groups behind us whom kept harassing our new Baltimore friend with “Heys OREO!” his Bronx accent very predominant.

 After hours of Monopoly, we slept for a few hours. Bright and early in the morning, one of the girls and I went for an early Deli breakfast run for bagels and juice. The girl was basically my bodyguard. Being from ‘the streets’ as she put it, she ensured my safe passage away from the safe confines of Yankee Stadium (two block radius). I only felt threatened once, but she quickly put an end to that. For her troubles, I bought her breakfast. Shortly after we got back, the line moved and fast. At one point it turned into a run and people were jumping over some kid who was still asleep, passed out drunk, or dead. That poor guy. If he wasn’t dead, he lost his prime spot on line and his friends didn’t bother to wake him.

  We were given the opportunity for 4 tickets each, Two for each of the first two games or 4 for one game. Between us, we opted for 8 tickets for the first game. With our spoils, we returned home to divvy up who would get to partake in our precious treasure.

  It ended up being Alan’s sister and her husband. Deana (not my Dena, the fun one), Priscilla, Sean, George, Alan and myself.  The game itself ended up being the famous “Jeffrey Maier” playoff game.