I had no intention of attending any of the World Series games at Yankee Stadium as ticket prices were so high, but a phone call from my father persuaded me to try, with a bit of financial incentive. Tickets for Game 4 had dropped, but that was a bullpen game for the Dodgers and not something I wanted to sit through. After the Yankees won to force Game 5, I started checking for tickets on Wednesday morning. There were plenty on the secondary market, but they were still a bit much. Then I checked TicketMaster and surprisingly, some tickets were released, including a pair in 414, along the first base line. I was unable to secure the pair, but managed to get a single. I asked my friend Mike, who is closing in on 10,000 baseball games lifetime, if he wanted to go, and of course, he did. So I kept looking and found another single in the same row, just a few seats away. I snapped that up, and a few hours later, we found ourselves in front of Yankee Stadium, along with about 50,000 others (the crowd lined up about 30 minutes before first pitch is shown below).
For some reason, my ticket was not scanning properly so I had to go to the box office and get another, but that only took a couple of minutes. After a break to eat dinner at the picnic tables, we went to our seats, stopping to say hi to Bryan, who has a season ticket in 420A (view below).
We were six sections away, but as you can see when comparing the two pictures, that is a substantial difference. Coincidentally, this is about where I sat when I saw the Yankees lose to Arizona at Bank One Ballpark in 2001.
Hideki Matsui, the MVP of the 2009 World Series, threw out the first pitch, hoping to lend some of his magic to the Yankees.
And it seemed to work, as Aaron Judge finally hit a World Series homer and Jazz Chisholm and Giancarlo Stanton added solo shots as the Yankees broke out to a 5-0 lead after 3 innings. Dodger starter Jack Flaherty was pulled after just nine batters, so it was another bullpen game. Fans around me were beyond excited, spilling beer as they celebrated. Meanwhile, Gerrit Cole had not allowed a hit through four frames. "Win today, fly tomorrow!" one fan exclaimed, echoing Aaron Boone's sentiments.
It sure looked like the series would return to LA, and one of our friends out there even bought a ticket for Game 6, but then an incredible, amazing, unbelievable inning transpired. Enrique Hernandez led off the fifth with a single, and then Tommy Edman lined to Judge, who simply dropped it. Will Smith followed with a grounder to short and Anthony Volpe's throw to third bounced and Chisholm could not control it, and the bases were loaded. After Gavin Lux and Shohei Ohtani (above) struck out, Mookie Betts rolled one along first. Cole neglected to cover the base and Anthony Rizzo was too far as Betts legged out the single, leading to the first Dodger run. Freddie Freeman followed with a single to make it 5-3, and Teoscar Hernandez doubled to tie the game. I have never felt a stadium mood change so dramatically as it did during those 20 minutes. The Yankees loaded the bases in the bottom half but Gleyber Torres flew out to end the threat.
In the 6th, the Yankees again took the lead, helped by some egregiously bad umpiring from Mark Ripperger, who missed two third strikes on Judge (above), who walked. Stanton later hit a sacrifice fly to score Juan Soto. But the Dodgers were not to be denied. Tommy Kahnle started the 8th for New York and gave up singles to Enrique Hernandez and Edman before walking Smith. Luke Weaver replaced Kahnle and yielded a sacrifice fly to Lux that tied the game, then Ohtani reached on catcher's interference. Betts followed with another sacrifice fly and the Dodgers had their first lead of the night. Blake Treinen remained in the game for Los Angeles and after getting Soto to ground out, gave up a double to Judge and walked Chisholm. But Stanton flew out and Rizzo struck out and some fans started to leave. Mike and I moved over to Bryan's section and watched as Walker Buehler (celebrating below) came on to close the game out for the Dodgers. Volpe grounded out and then Austin Wells and Alex Verdugo struck out and the Dodgers were World Series Champions. It happened so quickly that it took a minute to process.
It was great to see the Yankees lose another World Series, and although I am not a Dodger fan, it was nice to see Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto get their rings.
Most fans left, but those wearing Dodger Blue moved downstairs to celebrate with their team. There were quite a few of them on hand, and they enjoyed the best experience in all of sports.
We stayed for the presentation of the trophy (Dave Roberts was amusing as he mentioned the 'adversity' the team had faced) as well as the MVP award to Freeman, who tied a record with 12 RBIs over the series.
With that done, I leave you with the final shot of the 2024 MLB season. Sure, the Dodgers spent a lot of money but that's the game these days. All of the owners can compete, some choose not to. While others just have bad baseball ops people who think homers are overrated and let players like Teoscar Hernandez go.
No comments:
Post a Comment