What are the Odds?

Attached are some of the pictures I took of the Yankees at Baltimore last night. If you want to check out the full set just click the link to my flickr page.

By now you are all aware that the Yankees lost last night in the 10th inning which means that the dream of winning the division is officially over. It sucks, I had really hoped that they would magically pull it off, but in the end I'm fine with it. We made it to the post season which has never been a guarantee this year.

Last night it seemed like Torre was testing out his post season squad. Damon was in Center, Giambi was DH, and Mussina was on the mound. Unfortunately Moose didn't look very good, and Rivera blew a save. After last night I don't see Mussina starting in the post season short of Clemens arm falling off.

That brings me to the title of my post. Even though the the Yankees didn't get the division and lost the game I am a happy man today. If you haven't figured it out yet that picture of a baseball in a case is my first true foul ball which I caught last night courtesy of Jason Giambi. I've relayed this story many times before on this page, but once more can't hurt. Shortly after Giambi came to New York he was slumping and was booed like there was no tomorrow. I was living in Boston at the time and the Yankees were in town for the first series of the season. I found out that he was at a bar next to where I was so I ran in and said to him (through his wall of body guards) that I was happy to have him in New York and wished him luck. He cleared the fortress of bounces, got up, shook my hand and gave me his autograph. I asked him if I could buy him a beer but he said no, instead he bought me one. So fast forward a few years and here we are again. He didn't get me a beer, but he did give me my first true foul ball.* Thanks Jason, just to let you know I was wearing your shirt underneath my Jeter Jersey.

My girlfriend was at the game with me last night. She isn't a huge baseball fan but she is used to enduring all of my baseball superstitions and f-bombs when the Yankees aren't doing well. I tried to describe to her what it was like to catch that foul ball, but I guess it is just something that you can't explain. You have to go to game after game every summer since you can remember. You have to bring your glove to a game and just miss, but you still keep trying. And then when you finally do catch that ball you just can't believe it. I'm still smiling this morning. But that is me, I love this game. Always have, always will, no matter how old I get or how many games I've been to. Someone said Baseball is about where we were and where we are going, its true.

*I kind of caught another foul ball of Nick Johnson last year, but that one was actually tossed to me by the Nationals Bat boy. He tossed me another one shortly after that but I gave that to a little kid.