Rosy Glow – Baseball

Rosy Glow – Baseball

By
Andrew DeMarco

With the beginning of the new baseball season I was reminded of an event that happened a while ago. Two years ago I learned something about my wife that needed to be remedied. I found out that she had never been to a professional baseball game. I learned about this when someone at her office offered her two tickets to a Yankee game and she wanted to go. I found this strange since I went to my first game at the tender age of five.

I thought it was about time that she experienced the thrill of our national pastime, so I agreed to meet her that Friday night after work and help her scratch another item off her bucket list.

It should be noted that at one time I would have jumped at the opportunity to go to a game, whether baseball, football, or hockey, you name it I was there. However I found that as I get older going to a game is more of a chore than enjoyment. I am not good with huge crowds anymore and although a diehard Yankee fan I do not like the new stadium, to me it is a monument to one man’s ego where the old stadium was a monument to the team, however I went nonetheless.

After having a bite to eat we found our seats which I felt were overpriced but decent enough, especially for a first game. My wife was taking in all the sights and sounds before the game and we both realized that it was one of those hot and humid summer nights. Right after the National Anthem the public address announcer made the following announcement. “The New York Yankees would like to announce that at the outset of tonight’s game it is the hottest game time starting temperature in the history of the Yankees 102 degrees!” I am thinking it is 7:00pm and 102, I really don’t need this. So the game commences and to make matters worse the Yankees and A’s score 14 runs between them in just the first 3 innings. We have been here about 2 hours and the game is just a third over.

So now I am longing for home and my Lazy Boy in the air conditioning with “cold beer” and not paying outrageous prices for warm beer. Then I notice the kids in front of us who are oblivious to the heat and humidity and at the edge of their seats hanging on every pitch. I look at my wife and she is really enjoying all this, she is like the little kids in front of us rooting on the Yankees, and becoming the head cheerleader for the kids. My wife is also making friends with everyone sitting around us and they are all getting a kick out of her enthusiasm.

Suddenly the heat and humidity got the best of me and my mind became foggy, and things changed, I was not longer in the bazaar that is the New Yankee Stadium, but I was across 161ST Street in the original Stadium, with its columns and façade. I was with my father and at my first ball game in 1960. I am seeing the Tigers playing the Yankees in one of those Sunday doubleheaders which were the norm. The first game ended in the bottom of the 10th inning when Bill “Moose” Skowron hit a three run homer. I was with my father the following year for my first night game, against the Indians. I was there with my father, Uncle Cappy and Cousin Louis for an old timer’s game and seeing Joe D, Don Larson, and Johnny Mize to name a few.

Next stop was in the updated Stadium at the” Pine Tar” game sitting in the “good seats” (three rows back at the first base end of the Yankee dugout) with George Brett running out of the Royals dugout and right at me and my buddies Dean and Rich. I was remembering all the games we use to go to and the premier parking thanks to some old friends and high school buddies who were now New York’s Finest. I remember when I was older reversing the roles by taking my father to a game on Father’s Day, and telling him not to eat too many hog dogs or drink too much beer because if he gets sick my mother would yell at me.

The next thing I know it was an hour later and I am back in the Bazaar and it is just the sixth inning. It was at this point that my wife told me she had experienced enough, I guess the kid in her was getting tired and she wanted to go. It should be noted that the little guys in front of us were still going strong, although I could not say the same for their parents. So we make our way to the train and settle in for our ride home. My wife is going on about how she enjoyed the game, and the crowd, sounds and excitement of the game. So even though the heat and humidity had provided an uncomfortable feeling, watching my wife and those kids along with my heat induced flashback provided me with what Cousin Bob would call that Rosy Glow.