Game 42: Another Saturday Night

Neither the Yankees nor the Met have many Saturday night home games. The only one the Yankees played in the New York area last year was against the Mets at Citi Field, with current farmhand Tim Redding getting the start for our crosstown rivals.

For the most part, the lack of these night games are a good thing. For one, this tilt will be televised on FOX and that of course means that Joe Buck and Tim McCarver will invade out ears with their smarmy declarations and/or nonsensical ramblings.

More relevant to the teams, however, Saturday afternoons tend to draw the biggest crowds in the New York area as many people find it more convenient to spend part of their day going out to the ballpark as opposed to burning most of the useful hours of their evening in the Bronx or Queens.

A few of my buddies and I used to have a Saturday package in Section 7, Row M of the Old Stadium and we quite literally never had a game scheduled later for later than 4:10pm. If we had to wait until 7pm the game to jump off, things might have gotten awfully ugly.

It was just a quick subway ride up to the Bronx from the Upper West Side, so even for the 1:00pm starts, we used to drink a few beers before we left, in an effort to dodge the excessively priced stadium concessions. For the one or two games per season that started at four o'clock, we couldn't resist mixing up a batch of margaritas and kicking on the terrace to pregame. There were three of us with the package, and since we basically never had anything better to do on a Saturday afternoon stuck in a small apartment, it's safe to assume that we would have taken in too far with our preparations for an evening game.

Of course the concept of pregaming is a flawed one. The money-saving aspect of it is debatable at best (do you really drink less when you show up all locked and loaded, or are you actually prone to spend more?) and beyond that, it increases the odds of you getting too drunk exponentially.

At a certain point not too long ago I realized that, despite what you are led to believe in college, drinking isn't a race and there is no prize given out to the person who consumes the most alcohol at the end of the night. Most of the time, it's the person who starts drinking later and takes it somewhat easier than everyone else who has the best time (and the most tolerable morning after).

Anyway, when the Yankees moved over to the new Stadium we got pushed out of our Saturday package by all the people who got priced out of their full season packages and had to step back to partial plans. I live Upstate now anyhow and probably wouldn't have bought into one this year anyway, but one of the things I miss dearly about having a place in the city was that bundle of 13 games a season. I hardly go to games anymore because I have a sweet ass TV and don't want to drive three hours both ways and pay for parking at the Stadium, but having that Saturday blocked off to go to a game with my buddies roughly every other weekend was one of the pillars of my summers in the city.

Oh yeah, the game...

Phil Hughes, fresh of his worst start of the season (which wasn't bad until J.D. Drew had to rain on the party with a three run homer) goes for the Yanks. For the Mets, Mike Pelfrey, who has cooled off considerably after a scorching hot start gets the ball.

Another Saturday night and I ain't got nobody,
I've got some money 'cause I just got paid,
Now, how I wish I had someone to talk to,
I'm in an awful way.

-Lineups-

Yankees:

Jeter SS
Gardner CF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Cano 2B
Swisher RF
Cervelli C
Winn LF
Hughes P

Mets:

Reyes SS
Castillo 2B
Bay LF
Davis 1B
Wright 3B
Pagan CF
Barajas C
Francoeur RF
Pelfrey P