Yankee Stadium June 30 2016

Speaking of enjoying the beauty of the game (baseball, that is) I did just that yesterday (see my previous post).  I attended the Yankee/Rangers game with my wife and son, who both appreciate baseball for its abstract beauty and have little interest in who the players are;  we were sitting in the grandstand (the highest level) down the left-field line and enjoyed the view of the green grass, the blue sky and the white baseball as left-fielder Brett Gardner moved toward fly balls that seemed to float in the sun.  The game was a good pitcher's duel, with each team having only a single run (albeit on solo home runs) until the ninth inning, when Chase Headley walked, moved to second on Didi Gregorious's sacrifice bunt, to third on a fielder's choice and scored the winning run on a passed ball (more and more I cannot quote Casey Stengel on Choo-Choo Coleman --"fastest catcher I ever saw going after passed balls" -- without having to explain what a passed ball is), a winning run scored without a hit.

Every time baseball tries to shorten games something happens to lengthen them; this year it's the challenges to an umpire's decision, which can take several minutes to check.  When Susan asked me why the game we were watching took so long (three hours and twelve minutes) considering how low-scoring it was,  I explained that there were no challenges but not only was Yankee pitcher Michael Pineda rather slow to the plate but the Yankee pitchers had sixteen strikeouts, which of course made for longer Texas at-bats. Susan, Gideon, and I tend to prefer going to see The Staten Island Yankees and the Brooklyn Cyclones where, as Susan correctly pointed out, one is much closer to the game and more likely to be involved in it.  Of course the cost is considerably lower, too, even if one wanted to sit close to the game in Yankee Stadium and even if one could afford it, most of those seats were sold long ago.  I do wish that more Yankee, Mets, Cyclones and Staten Island Yankees games were during the day during the week:  not only would it be more convenient for those of us with young children, but also games can end very late and at night and week-end games one too often has to deal with drunken louts.