A Fitting Farewell

Yesterday, barring a miracle, I made my final visit to the soon-to-be old Yankee Stadium with Lee Mazzola. Speaking of miracles, I discussed with another friend a couple of weeks ago the fact that this would be my last game there, unless Lee happened to invite me to a playoff game. Then, of course, I realized that there probably weren't going to be any playoff games. Now, especially after yesterday's game, I think we can safely remove the word "probably" from that statement.

Lee and I haven't had much luck attending Yankee games together, particularly at the stadium. I would somehow like to figure out their overall record in home games we've been to together, but I'm assuming it's significantly below .500. I'm not going to say that yesterday was typical, but the outcome certainly was. In fact, I think we even had a complacent feeling that this one was in the bag when the Yanks led 6-2 after 6 innings. But, one Robinson Cano error on a routine double play ball, an unsuccessful Damaso Marte/Edwar Ramirez bullpen effort, and an unfortunate A-Rod clutch "failure" later, and we wandered out of the stadium shaking our collective heads after a 7-6 defeat. Making matters worse was the fact that, as one stadium vendor had frequently reminded us, the Yanks are opposing Roy Halladay today.

Nevertheless, we made the most of the day and the subsequent evening, as we always do, particularly when Jon Pauley is involved. Still, yesterday seemed a fitting farewell to the old stadium, not to mention the Yankees' season, and their streak of 13 consecutive postseason appearances.