Jun 20 2007 10:44 AM
Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jun 20 2007 10:51 AM
Yankees visit fan-friendly Coors
By Randy Holtz, Rocky Mountain News
June 20, 2007
Jerseys, jerseys, jerseys
The competition for most common Yankees jersey at Coors Field was a spirited one between the No. 2 of shortstop Derek Jeter and the No. 13 of third baseman Alex Rodriguez. Jeter appeared to have a slight edge over A-Rod. The jerseys of both Yankee stars appeared to outnumber any single Rockies player by at least 3-to-1.
Other jerseys - in numerical order - seen in the stands of former and current Yankees:
Player No.
Babe Ruth 3
Lou Gehrig 4
Mickey Mantle 7
Yogi Berra 8
Roger Clemens 12 (During his former Yankees days)
Alfonso Soriano 12
Thurman Munson 15
Johnny Damon 18
Roger Clemens (current jersey) 22
Don Mattingly 23
Robinson Cano 24
Jason Giambi 25
Mike Mussina 35
Mariano Rivera 42
Andy Pettitte 46
Ron Guidry 49
Bernie Williams 51
Bobby Abreu 53
Hideki Matsui 55
And then there was Joe DiMaggio (worn by Windsor resident Joseph Gallegos, who correctly pointed out that the jersey had no name - just DiMaggio's No. 5 - because players didn't wear names on their jerseys when DiMaggio played.) [Ed: As one (One?!) awake reader noted, the Yankees have never worn names on their jerseys.]
Biggest early cheer
The biggest cheer early in the game came when Josh Fogg struck out Alex Rodriguez with two runners on to end the top of the third. See, it wasn't all Yankees fans at the stadium. There were plenty of purple- clad Rockies loyalists, too. And many seemed to be at the top of their throaty game to try to counteract the noise made by the pinstriped folk.
T-shirt of the day
Lifetime Yankees fan Chris Shea of south Denver attended the game with his wife, Christina. Chris wore a navy Yankees T-shirt with the words "GOT RINGS?" on the front. On the back was a rendering of the Yanks' 26 World Series rings and the message: "Hardware. There's no better feeling than a ring on your finger. The Yankees have more rings than you can shake a Sock at. Twenty-six, to be exact. Oh, one more thing: It won't be 86 years before our next one." [Ed: How do these people dress themselves and get to games? How do they put together the scratch to buy these shirts and game tickets? I could think a long time and not come up with a dumber shirt.]
That last sentence was a shot at the Yankees' long-suffering rival, the Boston Red Sox, who ended an 86-year title drought with their championship in 2004.
The littlest Yankees fan
A sad note for those who despise Yankees fans: They're breeding. Craig and Kari Grestini, of Thornton, sported their Yankees gear as they stood outside Section 306 before the game, and it was clear Kari had either swallowed a basketball or was very pregnant.
"The baby's coming in about a month," she said. "We don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet, but whatever the child is, it's going to be a Yankee fan, I'll tell you that." [Ed: I'll let this pass.]
The Grestinis, according to Craig, had little choice in the matter, also. Craig grew up in Michigan before moving to Colorado, but his entire family on both sides were rabid Yankees fans from the New York area. "My uncle's middle name is DiMaggio. His name is Joe DiMaggio Grestini. True story." [Ed: This was your grandmother's way of acknowldging that Joe was probably the real father.]
Burritos aplenty
Nancy Benavente, who has peddled Nancy's Fancy Burritos outside stadiums in Denver for nearly two decades, did an unusually brisk business.
Benavente, whose burritos universally are regarded as the tastiest among the many vendors outside Coors Field, said she was doing "about three times" her normal business for a normal Tuesday-night game. "It's hot," she said as a line formed in front of her two coolers of burritos. "But it's worth it."
Their allegiance was clear
About a half-hour before the first pitch, Jeff and Christy Manning stood on the upper concourse behind home plate, dressed head to toe in Boston Red Sox regalia. "Just an accident that you wore that stuff to the game?" asked an observer. "Oh, yeah, pure coincidence," Jeff said.
The Mannings said their banter with Yankees fans was "spirited, but good-natured." And what are Jeff's memories of the 2004 American League Championship Series, when the Red Sox roared back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the rival Yankees on their way to the title? "It not only was the greatest comeback in sports history," he said, grinning. "It was the greatest choke job in sports history. Man, it was beautiful."
Allegiance, part 2
Earlier, a father and son stood behind the left-field pavilion dressed in bright orange-and-blue New York Mets jerseys. "I cannot think of anything in the world - aside from war and poverty - that I hate as much as the New York Yankees," said Ken Farlow, 57.
"When the Giants left New York, I was a man without a team. I had to wait for my team to show up. Then the Mets came. I can't stand the Yankees, and I can't stand Yankees fans."
The man who saw perfection twice
Sitting on the very top row of the Rockpile - in Row 32, about a mile or so from home plate - was a white-haired man in a white Yankees hat. Mike Boulais, 70, grew up in Connecticut before moving to Florida to sell tropical fruit, then moved to Denver a month ago to retire.
His distinction as a Yanks fan is impressive. He was in Yankee Stadium for Don Larsen's World Series perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956, and on a trip back to New York in 1999, he saw David Cone's perfect game against the Montreal Expos. That makes Boulais one of the handful of people who have personally witnessed two of the three perfect games in Yankees history. (David Wells pitched the other one in 1998). Why does he love his Yankees? "The history," Boulais said. "No sports team on this Earth has a history like the New York Yankees."
Capitalism: The American way
The highest price seen for parking near the stadium was at a lot at 19th and Market streets. It was $50 a car. Maybe somebody should've told those people to park at a meter.
A downtown Denver parking ticket costs $20. Had they parked on the street, the folks who parked in the $50 lot would have had $30 left over, enough cash for nearly two Coors Field beers.
