Big Apple Sports: All New York Sports. All The Time.

Tonight I made my long-awaited return to the best place in the world: The Right Field Bleachers. Some of my favorite times and best memories have come while sitting amongst the Bleacher Creatures. Those guys are the best of the best. Yankee fans are the best fans in all of sports and the Bleacher Creatures are the best of the Yankee fans. Their trademark “Roll Call” has garnered national attention, and their chants and taunts (usually directed at opposing fans, opposing outfielders and people in the box seats) are legendary.

It’s been a long time since I’ve sat out in right field, because tickets out there are very hard to come by these days. Ever since Filip Bondy wrote the classic book Bleeding Pinstripes: A Season With the Bleacher Creatures at Yankee Stadium, the popularity of right field has exploded. So as you can imagine, I was eagerly awaiting tonight’s game.

Well, it was a colossal letdown as the Yankees offense threw out a complete stinker, getting shut out by Cliff Lee and the Cleveland Indians by a score of 3-0. The Yankees only managed to get 7 hits during the game, and then were unable to bring the runners home. They never gave the fans a chance to get in the game, as it looked like one of those nights from the very beginning. Chien-Ming Wang was solid tonight, allowing 3 runs in 7 innings while taking the loss. The Creatures were very tame tonight. There were some scattered boos directed at Indian fans and some taunts at Cleveland centerfielder Grady Sizemore, but nothing compared to their usual legendary antics.

Either way, it was great to be back in right field tonight. I have so many great memories from out there, I’ll always enjoy sitting there. And if you ask me, dollar for dollar there’s no better seat in the house than in right field. It’s as close to a dead-center view as you can get at Yankee Stadium, you can get a great view of every single pitch and you can get very good reads on balls hit into play. While tonight wasn’t as great as I hoped it would be, it was still a good time and luckily it won’t be the last time I sit in right field this year. In the meantime, enjoy the video I took of the Roll Call and some pictures I took from out there.

Happy Birthday to President Harry S. Truman, Edd Roush, Don Rickles, Sonny Liston, Mike Cuellar, Alex Van Halen, Bill Cowher, Ronnie Lott, Korey Stringer, Speedy Claxton, John Maine and Adrian Gonzalez