A block from the subway I saw a large SUV with Massachusetts plates and giant "NY" Yankee logo on the back window. I wondered how many times that brave fan had to have that fixed
There was a pretty woman with the Russian newspaper seated opposite me on the train.
Her blouse was scooped down to reveal 95% of her breasts. When I caught myself looking up twice from the Times Magazine, I knew that I'd have to change seats or I'd never finish the article I was reading.
I met my friend Sherry who is a Mets fan at the Hard Rock Cafe. She was excited to visit the new Yankee Stadium for the first time and had promised that she wouldn't wear any Mets gear. She did bring along a backpack. I told her that she would have to check it. “You can bring it in to Citi Field with a quick look,” she said. “Not here,” I said and we went across the street to check her bag.
She told me that Citi Field has no mention of any Met history and liked the portraits of Yankee greats that line the concourse of the Stadium. On the way to the seats, a man stopped me and said “Marine Park?” He remembered me from when we played basketball there back in the seventies and eighties. I also saw my friend Joe for the first time this season. He sat in the row behind me for the fifteen years in the old Stadium.
There were lots of mixed family and mixed couple Yankee-Met fans. I told Sherry who was excited that Johan Santana was pitching that she could cheer for the Mets but the Met fans were in for a quiet afternoon.
Alex Cora led off the game with hard hit ball to right that Melky Cabrera caught and smacked into the manual scoreboard in right field. The collision loosened the Mets and Yankees signs from the scoreboard which Melky took time to replace.
The Yankees struck for four runs in the fourth inning. With Robinson Cano on third and Hideki Matsui on first and two down, Francisco Cervelli singled to give the Yankees the lead. Derek Jeter then singled to score Matsui and it was 2-0 Yanks. Johnny Damon followed with a single of his own to score Cervelli and Jeter. He was thrown out at second but it was 4-0 Yankees.
The Mets had an opportunity to get back in the game. A.J. Burnett walked Daniel Murphy and gave up a single to Brian Schneider. He walked Luis Castillo to load the bases but struck the next two Mets out and escaped unscathed when Carlos Beltran lined out to Jeter.
The Yankees exploded in the home fourth inning. Nick Swisher led off with a walk. Matsui homered to make it 6-0. Cabrera doubled, Cervelli and Jeter both had infield singles. Cabrera scored and it was 7-0. Santana was gone and Brian Stokes was on in relief.But not much. Damon greeted him with a double that scored Cervelli. Sherry and the Mets fans were not a happy bunch. Mark Teixeira reached on a hit. Alex Rodriguez hit into a double play and Jeter scored, Cano homered to right and it was 11-0. Swisher walked for the second time and Matsui walked as well. Cabrera hit his second double of the inning scoring Swisher and Matsui. Melky was thrown out at third but the Yankees had a nine run inning and let the Mets 13-0.
Sherry and I decided to take a stroll around the park to the other end of the field at the right field foul pole. It got us out of the sun for a few minutes (the meteorologists were wrong again) and we checked out a couple of views from the other side of the ballpark.
Nothing much happened the two innings we wandering about. We got back the seats to see the Yankees add two more runs in thee seventh on an infield hit by Ramiro Pena and a sacrifice fly by Cano. 15-0.
The Stadium was three quarters empty when the game ended. We went across the street to get Sherry's backpack and hopped on the D train.She thanked me for the game and got off at Seventh Avenue to catch the E train back to Queens. I headed back to Brooklyn to grab some dinner.
Richard Weksberg contributes a review of every Sunday Yankees home game for NYYFans.com. He can be reached at rweksberg -at- yahoo.com
