The Experience of A Lifetime

What I am about to write has absolutely nothing to do with mixed martial arts but as a sports fan, I felt like I had to share the experience I had last night at the Ballpark in the Bronx.

I consider myself an all around sports nut. I follow professional sports, collegiate sports and ever since the first time I watched a UFC event, I became a huge mixed martial arts fan but nothing in this life comes close to my love for the NY Yankees.

Being a die hard fan I get to not only enjoy being spoiled by the amount of success the Yankees have had over the past 15 years, I get to enjoy the misery of all the other baseball fans who claim the Yankees have an unfair advantage because they have a much higher payroll then any other team, get over it, they play by the same rules as every other team. They pay millions of dollars in luxury tax and revenue sharing that the smaller market owners put in their pockets as opposed to putting towards improving their ballclub.

With that being said, what I experienced from section 234, row 14, seat 1 last night will live on in my memory for the rest of my life. The first 7 innings were pretty mundane with the exception of Carlos Gomez’s base running blunder in the 4th and  another big two out run batted in by the suddenly heroic Alex Rodriguez. When the Twins scored those two-two out runs off the previously invincible Phil Hughes and all time great Mariano Rivera, I knew not to let myself get down, this the NY Yankees I told myself, they have had 15 walkoff wins this year.

Then the ghosts who had resided across the street for so many years re-appeared in the bottom of the ninth as Mark Teixeira singled to right field leading to one of the most dramatic home runs in Yankee history and that is saying a lot considering the many monumental home runs they have hit. As soon as A-Rod connected he knew it was gone, as I found myself celebrating with complete strangers I thought to myself how lucky I was to be there.

The ups and downs that ensued over the next two innings were enough for me to schedule an appointment with my cardiologist on Monday morning. The Yankees blew a bases loaded one out opportunity in the bottom of the tenth and the umpire made a horrendous call on Joe Mauer’s fly ball into the leftfield corner in the top of the tenth. With the bases loaded the Yankee Gods were called upon one more time as David Robertson buckled down and retired the next three Twin hitters to get out of another precarious situation.

When the ball left the bat of Teixeira in the bottom of the 11th, I was on my feet like I had been for the past hour or so. As I watched the ball skip off the top of the leftfield fence and  in to the stands, the whole crowd roared in unison as the Yankees completed another historic comeback. We all looked at each other with an amazed expression as if to say did we just witness that?

Like I said, this has nothing to do with MMA but it was such an awesome experience that I had to share it with all of you.