My Favorite Yankee Moment? Alfonso Soriano Begins To Rake

For monetary and distance reasons, I only go to about one or two New York Yankees games a year. So, whenever I get the chance to be in attendance, I hope for something to cheer about. Back in August of 2013 I went to a night game against the Los Angeles Angels. The Yankees had played pretty poorly all year and they had re-acquired Alfonso Soriano a few weeks earlier to try and bolster the lineup. To that point he had yet to come alive and we were all beginning to wonder if we had wasted prospect Corey Black on the aging Soriano. 

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Well, the game started out poorly for the Bombers. While my family and I grabbed some snacks, the struggling C.C. Sabathia gave up a monster two-run home run to Mark Trumbo. We were down 2-0 before we even took our seats in the left field bleachers. We tacked on a run in the bottom of the first, but Sabathia gave us very little confidence. The cold summer night spelled and looming poor performance spelled out an early departure from the game.

Behind me in the bleachers was a very loud, very annoying bachelorette party. Constantly talking and moving way to much. The kept getting up and getting drinks and snacks. I don’t know if you know this, but the more a bachelorette party drinks the louder and m0re annoying they get (I did not need to hear how cute Derek Jeter is 17 times! Derek Jeter wasn’t even playing in the game, ladies!). After C.C. gave up another run in the third and these ladies dropped a whole thing of popcorn on my shoulders I wouldn’t have had much objection if my dad told us to wrap it up right then and there.

But we stayed and because of our loyalty, we were rewarded in the 5th inning. We were down 3-2 at that point and Alfonso Soriano stepped to the plate with one runner on against Jason Vargas. Soriano, who was struggling mightily, launched a 400-foot home run into the Yankee Stadium seats to put the team up by one.  When he trotted out to left field the next inning we shouted “Soriano!” until he turned around and waved. One guy in particular decided it was appropriate to continue yelling his name for the next three innings until Soriano himself waved him off (I wanted so hard to introduce him to the bachelorette party just to see what would happen).

In the sixth, Soriano lined a single to drive in another run. The following frame he stepped to the plate against Joe Blanton with two runners on base. Soriano homered once again. At that point the Yankees were up 12-3 and would score two more runs in the eighth to go up 14-3. We left early as usual that day (My dad hates traffic and leaving the Bronx to return to go Long Island is hard enough without 50,000 people trying to do the same.) and when we returned to our house the game was still going on. The Angels had scored four runs in the ninth against some bum named Dellin Betances who couldn’t find the plate to save his life. The Yankees would win the game anyway by the score of 14-7.

Over the next three days, Soriano continued to flat out rake. Between the game against the Angels and August 16th against the Red Sox, he would drive in 18 runs and collect 13 hits. It was historic and I loved the fact that I was there when it began. Soriano’s 2014 campaign didn’t go all too well and the Yankees released him before the All-Star Game. But I’ll always remember the performance he put together at Yankee Stadium. It’s the best game I ever witnessed in person.