Bronx, N.Y., June 16, 2002 — Don’t get me wrong. I never seriously considered attending the Mets Yankees game in Shea tonight. Sportscasters, and most Yankee fans, can tell you that when we have interleague series against the Mets, it’s more often than not a happy experience for a Yankee fan. And had I known way back when I could have purchased tickets for this game that David Wells would take the mound for us, I might have reconsidered, but don’t bet on it.

David has been masterful the last several times he has pitched for us. The way he has been handling opposing lineups without appearing to extend a great amount of effort has been very impressive. I know that he had to throw five first-pitch strikes in a row (until and including Mo Vaughn) his fourth time through the order tonite to make his 20-13 first-pitch strikes to balls ratio seem impressive, but that’s not always the big number. If you discount the intentional walk to Piazza in the first, his inning-by-inning balls count was 3, 3, 3, 1, 5, 3, 3, and even 5 in the eighth, four after the devastating Vaughn bomb. When Jon Miller said after the seventh that that was the first time David had set the Mets down 1-2-3, I had to look at my scorecard twice; it just didn’t seem possible that he hadn’t set them down in order repeatedly.

Another positive factor is that June 16 has been a kind day in Yankee history too. Ron Guidry notched his first complete-game victory on June 16, 1977 over the K.C. Royals (back when that team was much more aptly named than it is today). And the New York Highlanders (who would later become the New York Yankees) notched their first shutout victory on this day in 1903, a 1-0 victory over the White Sox.

And I have had an enjoyable moment or two (not many) at what I call the rusting (or is it rust-colored?) hulk in Queens. There was the first ever interleague game between these two in Shea for instance, back in 1998 (June 26). (The first series took place in the Bronx in 1997; this was back when the Lords of Baseball were merciful, or clueless, and we were only subjected to one of these a year.) Leiter had a 4-3 lead on Mendoza (in for Irabu in the sixth) in the seventh when Knoblauch worked out a one-out walk and Derek singled. The Mets fan in the row in front of me with whom I had been doing borderline polite but heated verbal battle for two hours stood up, turned and smiled when Bobby V took the ball from Al and signaled with his right hand, indicating Mel Rojas. “Good game,” he said, as he shook my hand, gathered his valuables and left. (It may be the only time I was left speechless at a ballgame.) Several minutes later Paul went yard on Mel’s first pitch.

But my reluctance is well-founded, and it’s not just because of a fairly horrendous Yankee record in these ESPN Sunday night tilts. A resident of Central Jersey for most of my life (until 2000), we failed to quit while we were ahead, attended a Yankee win the next day and decided to take the Weehawken, New Jersey, ferry to Shea for the Sunday night tilt the day after that. I was surprised because the ferry never took us to Yankee Stadium for night games, restricting their Stadium service to weekend day games. It was only mildly distasteful that the trip to Shea was about 20-30 minutes longer than the 45-50 minute trip to Yankee Stadium. And we did see a great game, I suppose. But Masato Yoshii held us to two hits over seven while Joe let el duque throw an astounding 143 pitches over eight. He only gave up two hits, but they both came in the sixth after Piazza reached on a wild pitch on strike three on what would have been the third out, and Scotty Brosius’s seventh-inning dinger was the only reason the Mets had to come to bat in the bottom of the ninth. They scored on an Olerud double and Lopez sac fly.

Frustrating? That was nothing. I was right to be surprised that there was ferry service that evening. It was midnight when the boat pulled away from Shea, and after 1:00 (obviously) when we arrived outside the docks in Weehawken. I say outside the docks, because regular ferry service to and from Manhattan had shut down at midnight as usual, and no one thought to leave a slip open for the one ferry that was still “out at sea.” And no, it wasn’t the S.S. Minnow!) We floated around in the Hudson for 25-30 minutes waiting for some qualified captain to come to work, pull a regular ferry out and allow us to pull in and disembark from a boat that all were eager to depart by then. It then got worse, as they had not thought to keep any clerical people around to take everyone’s $5 for parking. And of course there was a car that had to pay and escape that parking lot for every two or three people on board, and it was 2:30 a.m. by the time we finally hit the open road for home.

With all this history, I did try to keep my feelings of negativity in check during tonight’s game. But it goes without saying that we should have already scored more than two, that our shoddy defense finally caught up with us, that it’s hard to believe Rondell couldn’t have gotten to Robbie’s “double.” But we are only 1.5 out, our pitching is great, we will make the playoffs, probably as AL East Champs IMHO. But anyone reading a two-line blurb on this game will read that Boomer lost because Vaughn hit a bomb off him, and that’s a crime.

Of course, a Mets fan could have looked for encouragement in the history books before tonight’s game too. How many finer days could they have to look back on than June 16, 1978, when their beloved hero Tom Seaver finally threw a no-hitter? Oops, I almost forgot. When he proudly strolled off the mound after shutting down the St. Louis Cardinals 4-0 exactly 24 years ago, he was wearing a Cincinnati Reds uniform, wasn’t he? And one more for the history books. June 16, 1895, was the birth date of Stan Laurel, of the classic Laurel and Hardy comedy team of yesteryear. And tonight can accurately be decribed as “another fine mess.”

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!