Ballgame

On Thursday I went to a Yankees game for the first time since 2001. I stopped going because it got boring to go to the games by myself and have to bond with strangers so that no one would take my seat when I had to go to the restroom.

But anyway, I went.

The first order of business was, how am I going to get there? Ever since I got my first car in 1989, I’ve driven to the games when I go. I used to go to the games with my father and we’d take public transportation. It was fast going, but hellish on the way back as people were stacked three or four deep on the subway platform.

[WARNING: Skip this part if you don’t like to hear about racial profiling or the lack thereof.]

I think parking was about $5 when my father used to take his car back in the 70’s. On Thursday it was $13. That didn’t bother me. I’ve paid way more than that for 1 hour of parking in midtown Manhattan. What did bother me was the young white people openly getting toasted in the parking lot. The reverse side of my parking stub clearly stated “Drinking of alcoholic beverages on sidewalks or in parking lots prohibited. NYC Parks Rules & Regulations A35 56 RCNY 1-05 (F).”

Cops were standing right outside the outdoor parking lot and they could clearly see the tailgating and drinking. Why was it okay for them to get openly plastered? If the parking lot was filled with young black and Hispanic men drinking liquor, wouldn’t they have been arrested? An open container of liquor gives a cop “probably cause” and he can search you, arrest you, give you a summons, etc. This was par for the course under Giuliani, at least in minority neighborhoods. Is this a “Bloomberg is soft on quality of life issues” thing, or is it a case of the cops in general feeling that drunken white youths aren’t a problem?

[End of double standard observations.]

As always, as I approached the park it seemed both larger and smaller than it appears on TV. I entered the gate with about 15 minutes to spare before the first pitch. I picked up a Bud in a plastic bottle. It was $7.75 for a 16 oz. bottle. Later I got a $5 hotdog. Still later I got a hamburger and fries for $12.50. I bought a $40 Yankees shirt for myself and a $30 creeper for baby Orlando. Then I got a Coors light for another $7.75. The ticket itself (Main reserve) was $55. You do the math.

It was worth it, though. The weather was good, not too hot, not too cool. Melky Cabrera hit his first homerun. Bernie hit a homerun. A-rod hit a homerun, but we booed him anyway. And we lost the game to the Indians. I’ve forgotten the score already.

Good times.