Baseball Season - NY Yankees vs Boston Red Sox..
10
September 2002
Loving American enthusiasm when it comes to their sport! You know how we hate the Australians when it comes to rugby? (Nothing like a healthy dose of sporting competitiveness, but I have to say…I HATE it when Australia beat us in rugby…I mean theirs is a country where you needed a criminal record to be a citizen!). Any other sport and I don't care, just as long as we win the rugby!
Well, it is the same deal with American Baseball. There is definitely NO love lost when it comes to the Yankees and the Red Sox. And good luck to any supporter for the Red Sox who goes to the Yankee stadium to watch a playoff between the two teams! Red Sox fans are well advised not to advertise it too vocally if they are in the bleachers…unless lynching is something they are particularly fond of!
There is a good reason why alcohol is not allowed in the bleachers anymore and police and security people are stationed non discreetly at every angle. Every bag is searched before entering and if it is too large taken off you until the end of the game. I was surprised they let mine through. Not being a light traveller at the best of times it is a fairly intimidating prospect looking for anything in my bag (even for me!), bit like a lucky dip, lucky as in lucky to find what I need i.e. car keys and the like.
New Yorkers are fiercely proud of their team and with good reason…they always win! Makes it easy to support them. You can walk into any bar that has a T.V, follow the glazed gazes up to it and it will most likely be a Yankee game playing. Must be kind of soothing to watch, as they always seem to win. I have to say as a game to watch live, it made it pretty boring. Before I get myself lynched for saying that, think about it… 9 innings, one exceptional team playing a team that is nowhere near the same level. Game starts at 7pm until it ends, in this situation about 10pm.
Having played softball at school I had a pretty good understanding of the game already which helped. In comparison to rugby this is a very stagnant game to watch as the primary focus is on the pitcher and the batter. Great to watch when the big hitters came up to the plate and the pitchers start their secret code language and pull their earlobes, wipe their nose, run their fingers through hair and all sorts of odd secret codes to indicate how they will pitch…unless of course they really are suffering from hayfever.
However, the only real tension in the stadium was from the fans, not the game itself. The bleachers which are the cheap seats (where we sat) were a regular war zone between the fans…to the extent that Red Sox fans had to be escorted off to safety before the passionate Yankee fans (far outnumbering the Red Sox) strung them up. Great entertainment! My New Zealand friend being a fan of the underdog (and a bit bored) decided to yell out her support for the Red Sox…bless her…luckily she is a she is all I can say! There were some pretty nasty looks thrown her way.
No face painting or cheerleaders though, which surprised me (I was looking forward to the ra ra of it all that you see in the movies) but we did get to have a good sing along to the national anthem with hand on heart of course. No idea what the words are but as long as I looked earnest and stared at the enormous flag dominating the grounds I new I would fit right in. Entertainment wise I think it was an expertly orchestrated event. The cameras picked out famous actors in the audience (obviously set up) and put them up on the big screen and played the theme song from the show they used to be in.
And for die hard Yankee fans in the bleachers they used too do a role call before each game to see if you were in attendance. 6th inning was the dragging of the plates to music (didn't quite get that unless it is for pure entertainment reasons only) and was a great reason to yell out again…in fact any opportunity to be loud and cheer out was firmly embraced by the bleacher seat audience.
What a great night
out, I loved it and can't wait to go again…hopefully to a more competitive
game though! Nothing like eating a hotdog, sitting outside on a balmy
night, great atmosphere, loads of entertaining rival fans, lots of noise…and
of course the game! Beats watching it on the telly! Maybe they will wrangle
up some cheerleader next time (only thing missing in my book) and a bit
of face painting wouldn't go a miss either!
(You can also read about what I am up to on www.nzoom.co.nz under entertainment - rant.)
Regards,
romiley
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