sights and sounds from a windy night in the bleachers:
i didn't boo johnny damon, for the same reason i didn't boo mike myers. they helped win in 2004; without any of them, it wouldn't have happened. that said, it seemed like i was the only one. the infield stands, for his first at bat, seemed more equitably divided. the bleachers booed. a lot. and more than that, they shouted profanities, chanted his name derisively, mixed 'yankees suck' in with 'johnny sucks'. every time he turned around in center field, a cascade of fresh invective, and a sea of double-middle-fingers. the funniest parts were when amidst all the more subtle cries of treason and greed, some yahoo pipes up with something simple like, "i hate you!" as i said, i couldn't bring myself to do anything like that, but then again, i couldn't exactly stop myself from laughing either.
two guys in front of us, dancing on the seat backs for reasons unknown (well, obviously they were inspired by large volumes of alcohol, but apart from that), and telling everyone, after a while, that they were in the navy. in case we didn't believe them, one of them eventually brandished his identification card. they were slurring and not focusing on anything (least of all the game) by the second inning. on a monday night, no less.
there were, as always, more than a few yankee fans in the crowd, the vast majority of which are good sports indeed. one guy a couple rows in front of us was in the row which had the cops visit not once but three times to show someone out. each time, as his (sox fan) girlfriend laughed t him, some of the people giving him a hard time would point to him and say "it was him! it was him!".
perhaps the funniest thing, though, were the yankee fans, who, underdressed, were forced to sign up for a credit card so they could huddle under a red sox blanket. "how d'ya like the blanket? you warm under there?" and then they tried to get the photo guys to come take his picture.
$12 million more or no, you've got to figure that johnny damon shed a tear when presented with the opportunity to contrast the 'sweet caroline' singalong with the awful 'ymca' and 'cotton-eye joe' routines in the bronx.
in the line for the t home:
someone goes up to accost a guy who brazenly cut the line. apparently, they asked, "so why do you get to cut everyone?" they said the reply was, "i'm kind of an asshole."
it's so easy to be kind of an asshole when the yankees are in town. but mostly people do it in a way that makes people laugh.