Tampa Bay Rays @ New York Yankees (1)

I left the hotel at 6 for the 7.05 game, but I needn't have left quite so soon, because although the first subway from the hotel's stop down to 59th/Roosevelt was OK, the 4 train was jam-packed, as were the next two, so in the end I waited about 20 minutes for a train to arrive that I could actually get on.  Fortunately, the 4 is an express train, so although it's quite a way (over 100 streets worth!) it doesn't take very long to get there.

My credit card did not yield the tickets from the ticket man's computer.  Fortunately, I had taken all the receipts with me - I always do, just in case of this sort of thing.  When the man typed in the reference numbers from my receipts, the tickets did come out successfully.  I had chosen a cheaper seat for this game - it was only $95, which is 50% more than the most expensive generally-available Rockies ticket - so I was in the outfield.

Most players have trouble hitting a ball 400ft, let alone a bat!

The play is certainly quite distant, but I was next to the Rays' bullpen, although we weren't allowed to take photos during an inning.  We also had an armed police officer at the front of the section, presumably to protect the players, rather than the crowd!

The weather forecast is not that great all week, but there was no problem with this evening's game.  In fact, Nova, pitching for New York was extremely economical, throwing very few pitches.  Conversely, the Yankees loaded the bases several times during the course of the game, including the 2nd inning when Curtis Granderson hit a bases-clearing double to put the game out of reach.

Now batting, number 2, Derek. Jeter.  Number 2.

The game after that wasn't boring exactly, but it lost any tension with New York having a 4 run lead.  It finished 5-0, but still took over 3 hours, despite the pitch economy.

I found the PA announcements very hard to hear in the stadium.  The only one I could understand was the late Bob Sheppard's anouncement of Derek Jeter's at-bats.  Maybe that's because everybody knows exactly what he's saying, but it just seemed clearer, perhaps Bob's decades of announcing experience are relevant here!

I think I've noted in the past how New Yorkers appear to believe that the jam-packed train currently at the platform is the last ever train going their way and they must add to the crush and somehow get on the train rather than wait for the next one.  I only had to wait about a minute for an empty 4 train to arrive - we could see it stopped just outside the station waiting for the packed one to leave - and thus travel back in comfort on a mostly empty train.