2722 and 2723 For Good Measure

I have a picture of the swing Derek Jeter took tonight for his 2722nd hit as a Yankee, breaking Lou Gehrig's record. The hit was a shot just inside the first base line, past the diving Oriole first baseman,Luke Scott. On any other night, the game probably would have been postponed for it rained all day in New York, was raining at game time, was raining when the game started an hour plus late, was raining when Jeter struck out in his first at bat, and rained on and off throughout the game, currently in a rain delay in the seventh inning, nearly six hours after it was supposed to begin. I imagine the crowd size looks something like this now:



These folks were part of the throng of 413 who watched the Yankees lose to the White Sox 4-1 on September 22, 1966.

Derek added number 2723 in the fourth inning, both hits coming after I had to have someone buy me a beer for the first time since I was 19 or so. They card everyone at the Stadium and I'd gone up, once it was clear the game would be played, in my pocketless sweatpants, so no ID. The woman wouldn't let me pay her for it. We were all festive in the rain, at that time 45000 or so. I said "You'll have a great story from tonight, how you bought a beer for a 63 year old man because he couldn't prove he was 21 on the night Jeter broke Gehrig's record."

Later, somewhere in the midst of horrible Yankee relief pitching that turned the game into an Oriole rout I ate institutional nachos and watched the showers fall against the stadium lights and thought that with the temperature 15 or so degrees lower this is how it might be on November 5 when if everything breaks right, Game 7 of the World Series will be played in the new palace. November frigging 5th! There will, however, be considerably more than 413 people hanging around then, no matter the length, no matter the cold, no matter the wet.