Ah, to watch a Yankees game without hearing John Sterling or Suzyn Waldman…

So last night, I finally attended my first New York Yankees home baseball game.  Went to the Stadium with a couple of good friends and had a fantastic time.  Yankees won the game over Tampa Bay, and we had some amazing seats – although they were in the high rows (the 400 section), it afforded us a tremendous view of the entire playing field, as well as the gigantic outfield scoreboard.  We even got to see the tribute to George Steinbrenner, as well as see his bronze marker unveiled in Monument Park.  Curtis Granderson knocked out two home runs in the game – awesome.  And trust me, one of the best memories of the game occurred afterward, as we’re driving back to Albany over the Tappan Zee Bridge, and singing along with the Glee version of “Sweet Caroline” blasting through the car stereo system.  That’s just fun.

Now somebody’s going to think, “Hey Chuck, all this time you could have gone to a Yankees game and you never did?  What’s wrong with you?”

Well, personally I’ve only attended a few major league baseball games.  I’m more of a local kid.  I used to love going to Heritage Park or East Field or the Joe Bruno Stadium for Albany-Colonie Yankees games or Glens Falls White Sox games or Tri-City ValleyCats matchups.  In fact, some of my first published writing gigs were game program inserts for the AC Yankees game yearbooks.

In fact, for the 1994 AC Yankees game program, I wrote an article that compared the eight greatest Capital District minor league baseball teams, putting all eight into a season-long baseball tournament.  Each team played under the conditions of their era – no Sunday baseball for the 1927 Albany Senators, no night games in lightless East Field for the 1981 Glens Falls White Sox, etc.  In the end, the 1989 Albany-Colonie Yankees won the tournament, with outfielder Deion Sanders catching the final pop fly in the outfield (yes, “Prime Time” was an AC Yankee).  That game program is worth about $200 on the collector’s market today – of which about $199.50 of that value comes from the collectible Derek Jeter baseball card that was stapled to the interior of the game yearbook.

But that’s not to say that I haven’t been to a major league baseball game.  I’ve been to several in my lifetime.

The first major league baseball game I ever attended was in 1975, my stepfather had scored tickets to a twi-night doubleheader at Fenway Park between the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles.  We arrived at Fenway, and sat through both games – I believe the Sox and the O’s split the doubleheader, and I say “I believe” because I did not see a single play.  No, I was fortunate enough to sit right behind one of the stadium girders.  The only thing I remember from that game was some kid behind me, yelling at every Oriole that stepped into the batter’s box, “Two Four Six Nine, You Look Like Frankenstein!”

Yeah.

Eventually I did watch baseball games in other major league stadia; my college buddy Jeff Roniger and I saw a Mets game at Shea Stadium in the early 90’s, I think David Cone was pitching that night.  I’ve also seen a Phillies game at Veterans Stadium, an Orioles-Yankees game at Camden Yards, a Blue Jays-Brewers matchup in 1994 at SkyDome (the game was played a week before the strike that canceled the 1994 World Series), and a Seattle Mariners-New York Mets interleague game at Safeco Field back in 2004.  And as for Fenway, I went back there in about 2000 and, 25 years after the first game I attended, I actually SAW the matchup at Fenway this time.

Do I have a loyalty to a major league baseball team?  Nah.  I can watch a Yankees game and a Red Sox game and a Mets game with the same amount of interest and ennui.  I had more of a loyalty toward the Albany-Colonie Yankees than to the big league squad, so I keep an eye out for former AC Yanks or Tri-City ValleyCats that have made it to the Show.  Now granted, there’s plenty of former AC Yankees still in the bigs – Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada, to name a few.  But the other day, Kyle Drabek pitched in the major leagues for the first time – you might have heard of his father, former AC Yankee and major league pitcher Doug Drabek.

The last major league baseball game I attended was in 2008, a friend of mine scored first base tickets to a Yankees-Orioles game at Camden Yards.  Yes, these are my photos from that game.  This is the closest I have ever gotten to photographing major league baseball action.  The photos below were not from last night, but were from the 2008 game in Baltimore.

So here’s the question I post to you, my loyal readers.

1. What was the first major league baseball game you saw in person?
2. How much do you remember about that game?
3. Did you save anything from that game (ticket stub, game program, caught baseball, autograph)?

Respond away!