15 years
Seems like a lot longer, actually. New York was a different city then. My life was a different life. Regardless, 15 years ago today I witnessed the greatest sporting event I have ever seen in person. Or ever will see in person
There are other games that I’ve been fortunate to see in person that come close. September 7, 1996 when Canada beat Sweden in 2 overtimes in the World Cup of Hockey semi-final in Philadelphia . I remember Mats Sundin getting roughly a million and a half scoring chances and cashing in on none of them. I remember Tommy Salo playing the game of his life in goal for the Swedes. I remember the Philly fans, hockey sophisticates all, yelling"C'mawn Lindrows" and not caring a ton for the rest of the action in what was a classic international contest. I sometimes wonder what the atmosphere for that game would've been like if it was played in Montreal where I was lucky enough to attend a couple of WCOH games in 2004.
Another event I was luckey enough to attend was Game 5 of the 2001 World Series where free tickets fell into my lap because so many in the advertising community were too afraid to go to Yankee Stadium because of the recent terrorist attacks. Scott Brosius almost deposited a ball in my lap in the 9th inning (hey, I didn’t say they were good seats) and the rest of that one and only November World Series is, as they say, history.
And then there was probably the most obscure of all of these and yet, after that game 15 years ago today probably the dearest to me: Game 1 of the Northern League East finals between the New Jersey Jackals and the Albany Diamond Dogs in 1998.
The Jackals were the first minor league baseball team to arrive within a reasonable (less than an hour) driving distance from my house so we attended about half a dozen games or so that first season and decided to go to the championship series game since it was the last game of the year as the championship series was a best of 3 with the final two games scheduled for Albany. Well, there were maybe 500 people in the roughly 3,800 seat Yogi Berra Stadium as is likely to happen in post-season minor league ballgames. The Jackals were down by a few heading into the top of the ninth. I grabbed a beer and went to hang out in the grassy play area next to the visitor’s bullpen to listen in on any conversations that the pitchers had while warming up. As the Albany closer warmed up in the top of the 9th, the ball hissing through the damp early fall air and thwacking menacingly into the catcher’s mitt one guy leaned over the fence and told one of the locals “That guy’s our MVP when we win this series” while pointing to the player at bat who obligingly smacked the next pitch roughly 955 feet over the right-center field wall to put Albany up by five. It looked grim for the locals. The Albany closer threw one final rocket and waited to be released into the game.
I headed back over to where we were sitting behind home plate little knowing what I would see next. What happened, plain and simple was the finest two out comeback I’ve seen in person in any ballgame at any level. The Jackals managed to make it 6-3 before the second out and were down to their final strike a few times but kept plugging away with singles and doubles. There was no big blow, just a series of liners, bloops and seeing-eye grounders and when the dust cleared the home team had won 7-6. They won the next game easily in Albany to capture the first-ever Northern League East championship.
11 years on, the Jackals are still up there in Montclair soldiering on despite competition from many other minor league clubs that now clutter New Jersey, New York City and southern New York State. The Diamond Dogs folded in 2002 with the arrival of a new ballpark with an affiliated short-season team in Troy. Their ballpark which had served A’s and Yankees affiliates as well as the Siena football team for a quarter-century has been mainly dismantled and is now an overgrown ruin awaiting development.
15 years from that night at MSG, I’m no longer a season ticket holder having been driven from the place by high prices and poor product. I’m also a wiser sports consumer realizing that fully devoting one’s emotional energy toward supporting one multimillion dollar corporation over another in a contrived situation is perhaps not the best use of said energy, though enjoying the spectacle for what it is has become a very enjoyable pastime. Not that I don’t choose “good guys” and “bad guys” in the games I follow, of course I do, it is after all part of the fun. But now, it’s fun. For many people it is religion. I’m not a member of that church anymore.
There are other games that I’ve been fortunate to see in person that come close. September 7, 1996 when Canada beat Sweden in 2 overtimes in the World Cup of Hockey semi-final in Philadelphia . I remember Mats Sundin getting roughly a million and a half scoring chances and cashing in on none of them. I remember Tommy Salo playing the game of his life in goal for the Swedes. I remember the Philly fans, hockey sophisticates all, yelling"C'mawn Lindrows" and not caring a ton for the rest of the action in what was a classic international contest. I sometimes wonder what the atmosphere for that game would've been like if it was played in Montreal where I was lucky enough to attend a couple of WCOH games in 2004.
Another event I was luckey enough to attend was Game 5 of the 2001 World Series where free tickets fell into my lap because so many in the advertising community were too afraid to go to Yankee Stadium because of the recent terrorist attacks. Scott Brosius almost deposited a ball in my lap in the 9th inning (hey, I didn’t say they were good seats) and the rest of that one and only November World Series is, as they say, history.
And then there was probably the most obscure of all of these and yet, after that game 15 years ago today probably the dearest to me: Game 1 of the Northern League East finals between the New Jersey Jackals and the Albany Diamond Dogs in 1998.
The Jackals were the first minor league baseball team to arrive within a reasonable (less than an hour) driving distance from my house so we attended about half a dozen games or so that first season and decided to go to the championship series game since it was the last game of the year as the championship series was a best of 3 with the final two games scheduled for Albany. Well, there were maybe 500 people in the roughly 3,800 seat Yogi Berra Stadium as is likely to happen in post-season minor league ballgames. The Jackals were down by a few heading into the top of the ninth. I grabbed a beer and went to hang out in the grassy play area next to the visitor’s bullpen to listen in on any conversations that the pitchers had while warming up. As the Albany closer warmed up in the top of the 9th, the ball hissing through the damp early fall air and thwacking menacingly into the catcher’s mitt one guy leaned over the fence and told one of the locals “That guy’s our MVP when we win this series” while pointing to the player at bat who obligingly smacked the next pitch roughly 955 feet over the right-center field wall to put Albany up by five. It looked grim for the locals. The Albany closer threw one final rocket and waited to be released into the game.
I headed back over to where we were sitting behind home plate little knowing what I would see next. What happened, plain and simple was the finest two out comeback I’ve seen in person in any ballgame at any level. The Jackals managed to make it 6-3 before the second out and were down to their final strike a few times but kept plugging away with singles and doubles. There was no big blow, just a series of liners, bloops and seeing-eye grounders and when the dust cleared the home team had won 7-6. They won the next game easily in Albany to capture the first-ever Northern League East championship.
11 years on, the Jackals are still up there in Montclair soldiering on despite competition from many other minor league clubs that now clutter New Jersey, New York City and southern New York State. The Diamond Dogs folded in 2002 with the arrival of a new ballpark with an affiliated short-season team in Troy. Their ballpark which had served A’s and Yankees affiliates as well as the Siena football team for a quarter-century has been mainly dismantled and is now an overgrown ruin awaiting development.
15 years from that night at MSG, I’m no longer a season ticket holder having been driven from the place by high prices and poor product. I’m also a wiser sports consumer realizing that fully devoting one’s emotional energy toward supporting one multimillion dollar corporation over another in a contrived situation is perhaps not the best use of said energy, though enjoying the spectacle for what it is has become a very enjoyable pastime. Not that I don’t choose “good guys” and “bad guys” in the games I follow, of course I do, it is after all part of the fun. But now, it’s fun. For many people it is religion. I’m not a member of that church anymore.
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