Another run scored on a Luis Polonia throwing error to put the Blue Jays ahead 5-4 heading into the bottom of the sixth. Pérez struck out Joe Carter, but it would fall apart from there as he walked Olerud and then gave up a double to Mike Huff and a sacrifice fly to Coles. It stayed that way until the sixth, when Pérez gave up a single to future Hall of Famer, Paul Molitor. The cockiness of our fandom had us feeling that the Yankees would cruise to another win. After a Paul O’Neill walk, Danny Tartabull hit a three-run home run to give the Yankees a 4-2 lead. Wade Boggs hit a sacrifice fly to score the first run. The Yankees broke through in the third with a Pat Kelly bunt single and a Luis Polonia double. We didn’t know it at the time, but that was his last hit of the 1994 season. In the bottom of the second, Mattingly singled up the middle. We were all accustomed to this team coming back, as it was that type of year. After striking out Darnell Coles, Ed Sprague tripled to knock in the two baserunners. Pérez got in trouble in the second after giving up a one-out single to John Olerud and then walking Mike Huff. The game began with Yankees starter Mélido Pérez and Blue Jays starter Pat Hentgen both exchanging perfect innings. With a 6.5-game lead in the division, October felt inevitable. The Yankees came in with 70 wins and just 42 losses, the best record in the American League and just four games behind the Expos for the overall best record. For the first time in nearly a decade, the Yankees were a bona fide World Series contender. At worst, my brother and I thought there would be a short stoppage and then they would pick up the schedule and begin the playoffs. The “rich guys” in the front row blamed the players for their greed irony at its finest. Looking back, there was definitely an ominous feeling that juxtaposed the beautiful August afternoon everyone wondered if this would actually be the last game. We watched Mattingly win his batting title, his MVP, be the best player in the sport for a period of time, his back injury sap his power, and see the man finish a career that oozed with dignity and pride. It seem inconceivable that Mattingly would be robbed of finally getting to the playoffs. I remember walking into the stadium with my brother saying that there would be no way the season would be shutdown. It was the day Don Mattingly’s best chance at a World Series title died.Īs a 19-year-old baseball fan, I had enough naiveté to believe that the players and owners would come to a last-minute deal. It was the final game of the 1994 season, the day before Major League Baseball shut down. It was a day that all Yankees fans of that era would never forget it either. I got them for the first and only time on August 11, 1994. I was 19-years-old and was working at shoe store the owner had season tickets-front row season tickets-and would regularly hand them out to the people working for him. Obviously, the seat was amazing, the single best seat I’ve ever had. Over the years, we’ve gone to a handful of games with him, arriving early and never getting up from our seats for the entire game. That one game, I was literally able to put my feet up on the Yankees’ dugout roof. Just once, I had the good fortune to sit in the front row at Yankee Stadium. This rule reinforced the idea that going to the stadium was special why would you leave early? That rule would lead to some pretty long lines getting out of the parking garage (and my grandfather one time directing traffic to speed things up). We only had one rule in the Armida house when it came to Yankee games: you never leave early. While we were never in the box seats or anything, we always managed to have a good view and have a great time. I was lucky to have a father who would allow us to skip school to go to Opening Day, to go to the occasional weeknight game, and to get the best seats a family of five could afford. It wasn’t an annual tradition, but it felt like we were there enough to know our way around the stadium, and just the right amount to make it feel special. Despite the distance, our family would make a trip every now and then to the Bronx. When I was 12-years-old, we moved further up north to Orange County. I grew up in Rockland County, New York as a child, about 45 minutes away. Growing up, it was always a treat to go to Yankee Stadium.
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