The Final Countdown

It's the second to last game in the history of Yankee Stadium, the outcome of the game is basically meaningless, and the back of the starting pitcher's jersey says "91." Not exactly how I pictured it, although I guess I never really cared to picture it.

It seems odd that MLB didn't schedule the Red Sox to come in for this last series but there are a few reasons that I think its cool that we have the Orioles:

1) I want to go out with a win and an unmotivated Orioles team does wonders for that possibility.

2) Back in 1903 when the New York Yankees franchise came into being, they were called the Baltimore Orioles. It seems oddly fitting that they will close down the park that is a symbol of their history against a team whose name represents the franchise's even more distant history.

3) Baltimore is Babe Ruth's home town or (wait for it)....the House that Built Ruth?

4) Nobody's ever gonna forget the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry, but the Yanks and O's have had some good times together as well: The Armando Benitez brawl/Tim Raines home run, the Jeffery Maier game, the end of Cal Ripken's consecutive games streak, Arthur Rhodes' entire career, the David Wells/Jimmy Key pseudo-trade in the winter of 1997, and a 6-3 Yankee win on my 7th birthday that occurred while I sat in a broken-down Chevy on the Tri-Borough bridge.

The game is scoreless through one after A-Rod popped out with two outs and a man in scoring position, one of the many proud Yankee Stadium traditions whose life is coming to an end. Michael Kay reports that Babe Ruth said, on Opening Day 1923, that he would give a year of his life to hit one out that day. No word on whether he upped the offer to 30 years of his life and all of his vocal cords prior to first pitch.

Came up with a list of my 10 favorite Yankee Stadium experiences this morning. They are as follows, in reverse order of total awesomeness:

10) Braves 4 Yankees 0, Game 2, 1996 World Series: My first World Series game gets a 24/10 for pre-game enjoyability and a minus-6/10 for in-game enjoyability. Greg Maddux wrote an autobiographical book about this game entitled "1-3."

9) Yankees 6 Mets 5, Game 2, 2000 World Series. In the second most inexplicable moment of my baseball-game-attending life (see #2 for the most inexplicable), I watched from the top row of the upper deck as Roger Clemens fired a shard of broken bat at Mike Piazza. Clemens later explained that his actions were misunderstood, and that he had much more understandably thought he was holding the baseball and aiming his 90-mph throw at the bat boy (This is not a joke). This game gets bonus points for the most important forgotten catch in Yankee history (Clay Bellinger casually reaching over the fence to bring back what would have been a game tying homer in the 9th) and for Mariano Rivera's game-ending 3 pitch strikeout of Kurt Abbot, such an exercise in dominance that no words can do it justice. In the immortal post-game words of Joe Torre: Jesus Christmas!

8) Yankees 2 Red Sox 1, July 7, 2003. The best regular-season game I ever went to and also the weirdest. Here is a basic synopsis of the game: Deaf right fielder misjudges fly ball in first inning leading to a Red Sox run, hated Red Sox head-hunter injures the entire Yankees middle infield in the first two at bats of the game, veteran Yankee starter brushes off miscue to retire 22 batters in a row and pitch an 8-inning 2 hitter, ultra-mediocre utility infielder enters game after injuries and adds to legend as a killer of the best pitcher of his generation -- scoring the game-tying run, closer for whom Stadium is a house of horrors enters in ninth inning and gives up walk-off error to the deaf right fielder who had looked like the probable goat. I think it's safe to say that one won't ever be repeated.

7) Yankees 5 Rangers 4, Game 2, 1996 ALDS. Back-to-back games on this list culminated in a walk-off error. Charlie Hayes tried to bunt Jeter over to third, Dean Palmer fires the ball into right field, Yankees win my first ever postseason game, someone from the upper deck throws a roll of toilet paper that hits me in the back of the head. Great Trivia Question here: What Rangers pitcher got the loss in this game? Answer: Mike Stanton.

6) Yankees 7 Indians 2, Game 1, 1998 ALCS. One of the all-time greatest games in the long, proud history of bitterness, catharsis, and schadenfreude. The Yankees faced off against Jaret Wright, who personally took them out of the previous season's playoffs, and opened the game thusly: