The best day of '05

So it's a big day out here in the Bay Area. Today I get my first visitor to the West Coast, and a worthy first visitor it is, none other than the fiery "Steamin" Mikey Lehman.

Mike was always considered a Sippy Momo Jr. Like me, he is 5'10, 175 lbs and an Upper West Side Jew/die hard Mets fan. Surprise, surprise he wears a 10.5 sneaker just like every other Jew in the whole world.

Big Mike is a senior in college, living the good life rolling with his frat dogs and doing the dirty dirty with aspiring sorority sisters. The only advice I ever give him is to stay in school as long as possible.

I'm happy to bring up Mike because it brings me back to the greatest day of my Summer 2005. It was Friday June 24th and a beutiful day in NYC.

Me, AFOMG, cousins, Jason and Jawn, crazy Chris, GOAT, nice guy Sean and little Georgie all took the 4 train to Yankee stadium for Petey's first start back at Yankee Stadium as a Met.

This was a must win for Pedro, the Mets and me. I fucking hate Yankee fans. The night was beautiful and we needed a win.

The 1st inning came around and surprise, surprise. Derek Jeter went ding dong. All the annoying Yankee fans in our LF section taunted us, "Who's Your Daddy?" chants were everywhere.

The thing was, we had size. AFOMG is about 6'4 205lbs and bears a striking resemblence to John Rocker. Everyone is always just scared of Jawn Jawn. Little Georgie looks like a Soprano standing 5'7, 250 lbs. So people would talk and I would grill them, knowing I was protected like a ZBT kid trying to start a fight with a rival Jewish fraternity. Sad but awesome.

We all got really drunk. The beer guy in our section was the greatest. He was a vendor at Yankee Stadium rooting for the Mets. And he was rooting for everyone louder than anyone.

"Who just lost 3 out of 4 to the Devil Rays. Your New York Yankees!"

All the Yankee fans hated him but we loved him. We forced ourselves to keep drinking so he would keep coming back to the section. It was fucking great.

So after DJ went yard Pedro calmed down. We scored 3 in the 2nd and after Uncle Cliffie went yard in the 4th, we were up 4-1 and the night was awesome.

We took over our section in no way I have ever seen. There is nothing better than sonning Yankee fans in their own stadium. The second they lost their lead, they lost their voice. It was hilarious.

There was also a pretty hot cougar in training wearing a Lenny Dykstra jersey. I almost got down on one knee.

So the game kept on going and the Mets pretty much dominated.

Then there was Steamin Mikey Lehman. Mike is the man, a great kid and very likable. But he is by far and away the most annoying person to go to a game with. He has the most penetrating "boo" you could ever imagine. He could make people booing the same team tell him to shut up.

At the same time, when Mike cheers his voice is overwhelmingly penetrating. By the 2nd inning people were looking back. By the third inning people were telling him to "shut the fuck up." By the 5th, fights were about to break out.

But Mike kept going.

"Yankees Suck! Yankees Suck! Yankees suck!" Mikey must have repeated this line with his lispy voice making it sounds more like "Yankeesth Sthuck" at least 100 times.

Then Mike got the call from the bullpen. It wasn't from me or AFOMG but instead it was NYC's finest man in blue.

The cop signalled to Mike. We all couldn't stop laughing.

After about 5 minutes Mike came back up, a giant grin on his face.

"What happened?" I ask.

So this was the dialogue

Cop: What are you doing up there?
Mike: I'm just watching the game and cheering on my team
Cop: Well you can't say Yankees suck
Mike: Why not, I paid my money like everyone else?
Cop: You just cant.
Mike: Fine, well can I say Yankees stink?
Cop: Yeah that's fine
Mike: Ok. ( looking up at the game) Yankees Stink ( fist pumping)
Cop: You say Yankees stink one more time you're outta here!

Gotta love the Yankee security. So to this day we make fun of Mike about that.

But, then the game kept going. The Mets won pretty handily despite a much expected Braden Looper scare. But we pulled through. The game was awesome and we opened the series with a win.

But the night didn't end. For the next 45 minutes we stood there. We were all drunk, happy and proud. Proud to be Mets fans. We would find little kids in Mets jersey's and give them high fives. We would find fathers who brought their sons to a game and tell them how great of a job they were doing raising their kids.

We took over Yankee stadium and it was awesome. It was just one of those nights that you remember. And now having Steamin' Mikey Lehman out here does it for me. I haven't found my Mets crew out here and it bothers me, but that will come. Mets fans flock to one another.

Anyway, good to have the kid out here. Anyone else who wants come out the 26th-28th. I got tix for the Celtics and Nuggets for the first Yankees2000 reader that replies. Even you mom.

Stay up.

SM