Baseball 180!

By Sean Connolly

In memory of Yankee Stadium I’d like to share my first experience of the house that Ruth built. It was on September 4th of 1993. I was pretty young, about 6 years old, and we didn’t have the greatest seats in the stadium so the field looked miles away from me. The Yankees were playing the Cleveland Indians that day and I remember being excited because my two favorite pitchers in the league were facing off against each other, Charles Nagy of the Indians against Jim Abbott of the Yanks.

I remember being in shock over the enormity of the stadium and how small the players looked on the field. I was in the upper deck about 10 rows in front of the very last seat in the very center behind home plate. I’ve been in the field boxes, suites, bleachers, and behind left and right field, but I have to say that is the best seat in the house.

I got a program for the game and tried my hardest to score the game…I think I got to the third inning before I gave up. The Indians had a talented team back then so the stadium was full of stars. Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton, and a young Manny Ramirez were the hitters that Abbott had to get through. I remember having difficulty spelling Manny’s name in the box score, I don’t think anybody has that trouble any more with the 500+ HR hitter. Bernie Williams, Don Mattingly, Paul O’Neil, and Wade Boggs were some of the players I had sketched into the program that day in September, but I was especially exited to write in Abbott’s in the pitching section.

It was early September, and it looked as if the Yankees would miss the playoffs once again. But I didn’t care, it was my first game, you could have put anybody on that field, as long as they had pinstripes on. I had always admired Abbott because he only had one arm. He would throw the ball to the plate and then use the hand he threw with to grab the glove off the other arm and then play defense with it. A task that seemed so complicated and I marveled at every pitch he threw.

This day Abbott was pitching great. He walked a bunch but he wouldn’t let them go anywhere. There was a buzz in the stadium, a buzz that I thought was normal, something that you don’t feel when you’re watching it on t.v. But, after being to about 40 games since, this buzz wasn’t normal.

I don’t remember the middle innings too much but I do remember the bottom of the 8th and the top of the 9th. The Yankees batted in the bottom of the 8th and I was confused as to why people were so eager for the Yankees to get out. The top of the 9th came and Abbott was still in.

Everybody was on their feet, no one sat, not one pitch. Now, that sounds great but when you’re 6 years old and barely up to people’s hips it becomes kind of aggravating. I climbed up on to the seat and stood on it. On any other day my dad would tell me to get down, but not here, and that’s when I knew something was happening.

There were 2 outs in the inning and I was excited because the Yanks had a 4-0 lead and they were going to win. But I was still interested in why every one else was going crazy. Maybe it’s their first game too? Maybe this is how all the games are, even if it is September and the Yankees aren’t going to make it to the post season?

Abbott threw his final pitch. A ground ball to short. Velarde throws to Mattingly. Game over. Everybody was jumping around and my dad says ‘I guess you’re the Yankees’ good luck charm’. I smiled and then heard the words no hitter. Now I had always pretended to throw a no hitter in my back yard, going through batter after batter in my head, so I could only imagine what one is like. But, after I heard the words no hitter, I looked up to the score board, scanned down the zeros to the right of ‘INDIANS’ and looked under ‘H’. Nothing, Jim Abbott a one armed pitcher had done something only a select few had done, and I just witnessed it.

My first baseball game, my first time seeing the Yankees, in the best seat in the house.

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