Saturday, September 24, 2011

The Best Rain-Out Ever!

Gina and I ventured out to Yankee Stadium with the tickets we bought with our StubHub credit from the DJ3K rain out in July. Of course, we got rained out again! But not before we added to our repertoire of Yankee adventures. On the drive in, I was monitoring Twitter for the weather details and came across a tweet for Michael Kay's radio show on ESPN radio. It said he was broadcasting live from a bar across the street from the stadium. Gina and I were literally overcome...WHAT? Could this be for real? So, we parked and headed to the bar. Sure enough we walk through to the back of the bar, and there he is -- my man Michael Kay. I immediately clutched my heart (seriously) which is right when he turned and looked at the doorway seeing me acting a fool! Typical for me and G, especially when we're together.

I just have to say, I have always loved Michael Kay and his voice on the broadcast along with Bobby Murcer, Jim Kaat and Ken Singleton...it's what I grew up on. In my family, it's pretty typical to hear baseball quotes in regular conversation, such as: "that's the fallacy of the pre-determined outcome, you can't assume the double play in that situation" or "you study long you study wrong" or "he was not enamored with that call" or "keep it simple stupid" or the great standard "...the aforementioned New York Yankees." I could go on and on.

So, Gina and I waited until the first commercial break, and after reading a lengthy promo, Michael took off his head-set and greeted some fans, including us. We were able to have a quick chat with Michael Kay and take a picture. He was witty and gracious and just really nice to us. I also got to tell him the story I always said I would tell him if I got the opportunity to meet him, and that is that I used the word "aforementioned" from his copyright bit in every single paper I wrote in college as an english major at Quinnipiac. True story. I'm literally laughing as I typed that last part, because I consciously did put that word in every paper, because I told Michael Kay that story to his face and because he actually knew what I meant! We shook hands again and that was that.

We walked into the stadium on cloud nine and were ready with our ponchos to stick out any length of rain delays to see our Yanks play. We took our first trip to Monument Park in the new stadium where we bowed our heads at Roger Maris' plaque, bowed to Donnie Baseball's #23 and rubbed our sweat on Babe Ruth's forehead. Then we visited Derek's 'Jeter's Flakes' poster in the food court and made our way to the seats. Shortly after we got to section 232, the announcement was made postponing the game. We took the nearest stairs out of the ball park, which let us out onto River Ave behind the bleachers. As Gina and I joked about how we might see Jeter leaving the ballpark, there was his Ford Edge, no tints. I think at this point Gina might have partly collapsed. I jumped up and down, waving and yelling, "Derek, Derek!" Then Derek Jeter actually turned his head, looked right at us and waved!! Really? We went to four spring training games this past March and not even a nod from DJ. So now this time, Gina was really overcome and just flat-out cried. So the night came to a close with us embracing under the subway tracks on River Ave, tears and raindrops streaming down our faces. Just the best rain-out ever! See our slideshow below:

-- Dana

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