This time, when I run into Officer Smokin', I will get a horizontal shot of him. Back to the 203 Bleachers! But sadly, without the birthday hats.

P.S. - this Chevy Biggest Fan competition ... can my entire family compete as one entry? Collectively, we are the biggest Yankees fans (and the loudest) in the U.S., spanning from NYC, to NJ, all the way to Arizona. Even my four-year-old niece is a Yankees fan.

In case you didn't get the APB, August 31 was my birthday. And the Yankees held a stellar game in my honor. Many thanks to the nearly 45,000+ people who came out to celebrate this special occasion. Pictures to come!

I have always loved this crazy, sweaty city for more reasons than I can count, often thinking that I could not survive anywhere else, and part of the love for NYC has to do with the Yankees. The team has ALWAYS been a backdrop in my life. I mean, I remember exactly where I was standing when I heard the news about Thurman Munson's death.

But lately, I have become a bit envious of smaller markets, mainly courtesy of Twitter, which offered me the opportunity to follow Verified athlete accounts. So I have stumbled upon direct tweets from all sorts of baseball athletes in non-NYC markets, who are talking (rather frequently) about real life things, like going to a local BBQ joint or taking the ACELA express to an away game, and talking *with* people. And I gotta tell you, I feel like I have an insider's glimpse into their experiences, as if they were friends of mine, merely relaying what they were doing like it ain't no big thang.

It made me think about how lucky fans in smaller markets are because their athletes seem to be so much more accessible and seem to interact with their fans with more frequency than ours do .... It's making me wistful for smaller markets, where a fan can win a *dinner* with Dustin Pedroia without having to shell out thousands of dollars for the opportunity. (And hells YEAH, I'd go on a dinner date with Dustin Pedroia if I had that opportunity!)

I guess our relationship with our athletes reflects the city itself, where everything is bigger and more dramatic and more overwhelming etc. And I guess that the sheer Fan-to-Athlete ratio is astronomical, too.

AND I guess that is the price you pay to play in the center of the universe. We're the big league of the big leagues ~ if you can make it here, you'll make it anywhere, as the song goes.

But hells BELLS I would love to have more of an opportunity to communicate with my favorite Yankee. Sigh.

For the first time in my life I FINALLY went to watch a Trenton Thunder game (and I am a Jersey girl for heavens sake! Oh the shame, the humanity!) ... Good grief I wish I would have been a bit more cognizant of this team and the stadium before. What great fun ... and to think that a good number of players we watch today in the Bronx came through this team. And what is even more fun, the prices (tickets and merchandise... can you say "$12 t-shirts"?) are a third of what you would pay in Yankee Stadium. AND the food is much much better. My garden burger in Trenton actually had fresh lettuce, tomatoes and onions, while my garden burger in the Bronx looked like a hockey puck on a soggy bun. No lettuce, tomatoes etc.

We were also three rows in from third base so naturally I was able to get a good close look at Brandon Laird - who is freaking hot, by the way. AND Austin Romine was catching - who is also freaking hot by the way. In fact they are ALL freaking hot, including the first base coach! (Who ever that was.) To die for! OH how I wish I was in my early 20s again.

Anyway ... The bloggers keep talking about these two dudes so I am keeping my fingers crossed that they make it big so I can be issued my bragging rights. I mean, how CRAZY would it be if you had seen F.Cervelli or Robbie Cano playing for them a few years ago??

It was also interesting to observe the team in relation to the big leagues ...  for instance an opponent player had ripped his pants midgame and had to play for the rest of the game with this big honking tear in his pants. How crazy is that! And then the minors surely must deal with such low budgets that most of the players need to be hosted by families in the area (at least I know the Phillies' Single A farm team, the Blue Claws, rely on sponsors).

When you think of these huge differences between the minors and the majors, it is no wonder these new kids on the block can be so overwhelmed by their promotions. Particularly the promotion to New York, the center of the universe.

At any rate, I walked away from the game (alas they lost), resolving to do my part for America's favorite past time:  As soon as I can afford a house in New Jersey, I am hosting a minor leaguer.

Who knows, in five years time, perhaps I can say that I lived with the next Phil Hughes. 

We're all Virgos! (Actually, Nick Johnson and Greg Golson are also Virgos but at this point, who are they?)

And what is even more interesting, they both share the same birthday as my sister. August 24th. Must be an auspicious day!

Phil Hughes pitching - what a treat!

Granderson back - thank the heavens!

Swisher home run - boy do the bleecher creatures love him!

Robbie grand slam - crazy exciting!

Extended "wave" through the crowds - went around 5 times.

Great seats - field level, right along the right field foul line! And they were padded!

Totally made up for the May 1 game....

Photos to come soon

Not much of a blog post ... except to say I'll be there early enough to catch batting practice. What a great way to start my holiday weekend! I will take lots of pictures of my Bronx boys. Looks like Javier is pitching tonight (thank the heavens -- please make it so!) which means tomorrow is probably CC!!! WOOT WOOT!!!!

 ... No offense to Javy but I have already seen him pitch in the House this month. I do not need a repeat performance.

Honestly, I have no idea how they do it.

I have the good fortune of having many non-native NYC/metro area friends, people who have lived elsewhere and have moved here. As someone who grew up within an arm's reach of Manhattan, I often wonder what it must be like to pack up everything they own and move to a strange (and in our case, immense) city and completely start over. I marvel at their ability to surrender to that huge "unknowing".

The part that strikes me the most, though, is that most of them bring with them their preferences for their home teams. And so I have friends who are Phillies fans, Twins fans, and yes, *yes* even Red Sox fans. I have even dated a Red Sox fan. ...That was strange. And clearly did not last very long.

So in a city that is all about its home teams, I wonder how they can endure the constant barrage of Yankees and Mets coverage. One friend, who is a Twins fan, recently blogged about going to every single Twins game last week in the Bronx, and how dejected he had become ~ except for the last game which made him feel a glimmer of hope. (He's also blogged about how hostile Yankees fans can be, which I think is unfortunate. I mean, I love my Bomber boys but why spread the hate?)

When he blogged about the last Twins/Yankees game, he predicted that it would mark a turnaround ... and he actually gloated about the Yanks' loss. At first I felt the fire of defensiveness course through me (how dare he insult my team and my city) ... but then I thought, sheesh. How awful must it be for him to be living here (for work) and to be so cut off from his home team?

That would be like me moving to Boston. I can't even begin to *imagine*!!!

Now we are two games behind Tampa Bay.

And then I hear that the Tigers pitcher plunked Jeter's pinky.

Zoinks.

Are we headed for a bad energy cloud?? Mercury has gone direct which means things should be smooth sailing. I wonder what is up.

Guess it is time to do a little astrological research on the players. Who's got their Saturn in a funk? Who's got a nefarious Neptune? Who's got a villanous Venus?? Inquiring minds need to know.

But there is one small blessing today: Thank the heavens my friend from Detroit stopped texting me about Johnny D. The pain was becoming unbearable.

Yeah, yeah, yeah -- I am reading the message boards for YES and the Yankees etc. etc. on Facebook about last night's game and yeah yeah yeah, I hear you about his "weak" arm and being a streaky hitter. All of that might be true, who am I to say.. I've never played professional baseball so I can't properly judge.

BUT!

I still lament the fact that Johnny is no longer with our team.

It KILLS me when I get text messages from a friend living in Detroit who has to share with me every time Johnny is at bat, every time Johnny is hitting a home run. For the TIGERS. Do you know what that is like? It's like watching an ex-boyfriend date another chick, that's what it is like. Burns a black hole deep within my (broken) heart.

Why do I feel such strong emotions on his loss, you ask?

In keeping with my blog's mission, I am not going to cite statistics on why his loss might affect the Yankees ~ I'd like to be more straight up.

I miss him because he is freakin' handsome as all hell.

I will talk about my new stadium blanket that I got when I subscribed to MLB Insiders Club magazine.

I can't believe how happy this little bit of fabric made me, when it came in the mail. I felt a level of excitement that surpassed the feeling I had when I found my mint-flavored, cruelty-free, MLB-certified New York Yankees lip balm in my local Duane Reade. The blanket is very cozy, which will come in handy when we are all sitting in the stadium during the World Series this coming October, sipping our hot chocolate, congratulating ourselves on another great year in Yankees history while simultaneously dreading the end of baseball season.

Alas, the upload some how managed to turn the image into a horizontal, so my apologies for the neck strain.

And thanks for enduring the paraphernalia giddiness.

But I have to say that my posts are not going to be about ERAs, BAPIBS, DERs or even UERAs because I have no idea what the heck those are or what they mean. I did not study statistics in college.

HOWEVER! I ardently love my Bronx Boys so I am going to react and talk about Yankees news like the beguiled, besotted, bewitched, captivated, enamored, enraptured, foolish, smitten woman that I am.

You have been warned.