Talk Bronx New York

The New York Yankees are hoping to wrap up the World Series against the Phillies in Philadelphia Monday night. But if they lose Game 5 and have to go back to the Bronx to finish up the series, they really should get some of the fans from Sunday’s Yankee Stadium game-watching event into the ballpark. Because the Bronx backers at that event - local fans who were just happy to be in the stadium to cheer on their team- were far more enthusiastic and happy to be there than most of the postseason crowds at the stadium so far.

I went to the game-watching event with fellow Faster Times writer Jon Lewin - he’s the Met fan counterpart of Subway Squawkers, our New York City baseball blog. Barbra from Manhattan, one of our readers, joined us (she took the photo of the last pitch of the game, seen at left) .  Somewhere close to 10,000 or so Yankee fans were also at the event, where we watched the game on the 100-foot video screen.

The stadium officials let us sit in the field-level seats at the new ballpark, in front of the moat. We got to sit on the third-base line, right by the visitors’ dugout. So we finally got to see what it was like to luxuriate in comfortably cushioned box seats with wooden armrests. Seats were great, cup holders not so much. Two of us suffered overturned soda casualties thanks to poorly-designed holders. At $6 for a Sierra Mist, that hurt!

We didn’t get to have the fancy food or waiter service amenities  usually provided with such seats - the stadium’s food choices were limited for the event (no Lobel steak sandwiches). So we had to make do with buying hot dogs and chicken fingers.

But, unlike too many of the rich folk who usually sit in those deluxe seats, the crowd was very much into watching the game itself.  They arguably were as loud as any crowd I’ve heard at a game this season - the only thing that matched them for sheer decibel level were the screams I heard in the stadium after Met second baseman Luis Castillo dropped that pop up in a Subway Series game.

The Yankees and Phillies battled back and forth in Game 4,  but the part of the game fans will remember 20 years from now will not be Joe Blanton mostly holding his own against CC Sabathia, or Chase Utley taking Sabathia deep for the third time in the series, or even Joba Chamberlain giving up a game-tying homer to Pedro Feliz in the bottom of the eighth. No, the iconic part of the game was the top half of the ninth inning, after Phillies closer Brad Lidge came in to pitch, with a 4-4 tie.

Although Lidge did have a flawless 2009 postseason record up until this game, he hadn’t pitched at all in the 2009 World Series, and hadn’t been in a game since October 21. And after Lidge didn’t exactly distinguish himself in Game 5. Jon, my Met fan cohort, right away noted Lidge lack of work, and said he thought it was “a mistake” for the Phillies to not have used him before in the series.

But the lack of work didn’t seem to hurt Lidge - at first. He got Hideki Matsui and Derek Jeter out, and was one strike away from getting the third out. But in an epic nine pitch at-bat,  Lidge lost the battle to Johnny Damon. Damon fouled off five pitches, and worked Lidge to a 3-2 count before lacing a single.

Then Damon did his dash, and the Yankee crowd in the Bronx roared. His double steal - in one play - seemed to come out of nowhere, as the FOX broadcast did a very poor job of showing how the Phillies fielders had shifted for Mark Teixeira at bat.  And Joe Buck’s narration of the play was downright boring. It took him and Tim McCarver a few minutes to even understand how stunning Damon’s steals were.  Bad job on their parts.

But the fans at Yankee Stadium watching the game roared with delight at the moment, and understood how big it was. After Damon landed on third, the unnerved Brad Lidge hit Teixeira with a pitch - unintentionally, I’m sure, unlike the obvious HBP against Alex Rodriguez in the first inning. And then A-Rod’s game-winning double put the Yankees ahead, and Jorge Posada followed it with a two-RBI hit to give the Yanks an imposing 7-4 lead, with Mariano Rivera coming in for the bottom of the ninth.

While the top of the ninth deflated the Phillies crowd, it pumped up the Yankee fans in attendance - I was worried I tore my vocal cords screaming after A-Rod’s big hit!

This game will be an iconic moment for Damon - arguably as big, if not bigger, than his grand slam against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS, but it will also be a signature game for Rodriguez, who continued his incredible 2009 postseason with the biggest hit of his career.

The Yankee fans we saw at the game-watching party seemed convinced that the series would not return to the Bronx - even though Game 1 star Cliff Lee is pitching Game 5 for the Phillies. And drivers around the stadium honked their car horns as if the series were over already.

But if there is a Game 6, it would behoove the Bombers to find a way to inject that enthusiasm into the Bronx. Maybe they can sell some more standing room seats or something to get more of the regular fans in. It’s just too bad that the usual Yankee Stadium postseason crowd, despite outnumbering the number of folks in the ballpark Sunday night, doesn’t have half the passion or enthusiasm as the fans in Yankee Stadium watching Game 4 on the big screen. Heck, even my Met fan friend was paying close attention to the game - although perhaps he was just wishing that his nightmare of a season were already over!

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