As many of you know, or you may not know, I moved to metro
Atlanta, Georgia from the Bronx, New York back in 1999 and get to see the
Yankees live very few times these days. The Yankees came down to Atlanta in
2009 and of course I attended as many games as I could so I was excited to see
them come back down in 2012. I am a very superstitious person in my nature so my
line of thinking was “the last time the Yankees came to Atlanta they won the
World Series” in 2009 so that made me all the more excited for 2012 trip to
Turner Field. We all know the history of that season, Derek Jeter's ankle, the
offense going to sleep in October and the eventual loss in the American League
Championship Series in 2012 but that's not what this story is about.
I remember a warm and muggy night on this day in 2012 when the
Yankees were playing in the second game of a three game set at Turner Field in
Atlanta. The Yankees had the bases loaded and Alex Rodriguez was at the plate
while I sat in my usual box seats, fourth row Yankee side of the field. The
Braves were winning 4-0 and my phone was blowing up with texts and Facebook
posts about the Braves whooping the Yankees, the Yankees suck, omg Braves,
Braves, Braves while I was there at the stadium and how the streak was ready to
come to an end. That streak involves the Yankees win/loss record with me in
attendance. I am 29 years old and I have seen tons of Yankees games live in the
Bronx, in Tampa and now in Atlanta and the team has never lost a game while I
was in attendance. While I have to admit my hopes were low at that point and my
phone was one more #RISPFAIL away from being thrown onto the field before a
funny thing happened, the Yankees rallied.
The Yankees loaded the bases with Rodriguez coming to the
plate while I was wearing my A Rod jersey, something I was reluctant to do
after the steroid admission but I was saving my Cano jersey for the next night,
which seemed like fate to me. The Braves had shutdown reliever Jonny Venters on
the mound which made me far from confident, Venters was awesome, which was only
compounded when the count went full. Then something amazing happened, A Rod
connected.... pandemonium.
Alex had hit his 23rd career grand slam tying a 74 year old
major league record held by the Yankees Lou Gehrig. A Rod tied the game in the
8th inning and the Yankees ended up winning the game 6-4. The Facebook posts
stopped, the texts went silent and I witnessed history. While I was at the next
game the next night I ended up talking to the camera man at the stadium and he gave
me the press release for the game the night before. Truth be told the only
reason I think he gave us the release was because my wife was in a low cut
dress and he thought she was hot, but hey I'll take it and took it as a
compliment. I saw history and now have history in my hands and it all
happened on a muggy night in Atlanta on this day in 2012. It was Craig Kimbrel
bobblehead night as well which was awesome because my two sons now have a
bobblehead of the Braves all-time saves leader.
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)