Copyright 2003 Daily News, L.P. Daily News (New York)
October 26, 2003, Sunday RACING FINAL EDITION
SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. 69 BLEACHER CREATURE
LENGTH: 596 words
HEADLINE: OUR BAD VIBES AREN'T HELPING
BYLINE: BY FILIP BONDY
BODY: Tina
Lewis, queen of the right-field bleachers, couldn't come to the game
last night, couldn't even watch. She's been sick, busy surviving
cancer, and these October nights have become too long and too wearing.
"You
know something's got to be really wrong with me for me not to be
going," Tina said from her place in Manhattan. "I'm not 100%. My white
cells are going every way, except the way they're supposed to. I'm all
right, don't worry. But this is just too much pressure for me to go
through, yet."
Tina didn't watch Game 7
against the Red Sox, either, not even on TV. She couldn't enjoy Aaron
Boone's homer, because she was in the hospital at the time for tests
and treatment. The only way she knew the Yankees won that night was
because she heard the horns honking outside, a wall of happy street
noise.
That will be the moment Tina always
takes from this autumn, the horns beeping. She sat then smiling,
thinking about Section 39 and a mournful Pedro Martinez and all the
depressed, obnoxious morons with the Boston caps.
"I'm just glad we got rid of those idiots from Boston," she said. "I couldn't take the idea of them celebrating in our home."
Tina
said last night to wish luck to all the other Creatures - except for
one, with whom she's carrying on a vicious feud. That's the thing about
the Creatures. We're always feuding, even when we get sick. It's part
our charm, what makes us so effective and hard-edged. This is how the
Creatures and our primordial ancestors, the ones you see pictured in
jackets and ties and hats cheering for Ruth and Gehrig, have led the
Yankees to 26 championships.
Those fans
feuded with each other, no doubt, just like Little Mike and Tony Capone
are fighting now. Those two can't stand the sight of each other.
"Rumor has it he hasn't kissed a girl in three years," Little Mike said, and Capone wasn't around to defend himself.
The
mood was prickly for Game 6, the mountain high. A lot of the Yankees'
problems were probably the fault of Bad Mouth Larry. Larry Palumbo is
an upstanding Creature, a dedicated, Hall of Fame heckler in the Bronx.
But whenever he ventures outside New York to attend a game, he brings
terrible fortune upon the Yankees. His curses become a curse, if that's
possible.
Larry went to Philly for an
interleague series in '97, and the Yanks were swept. He went up to
Fenway in '98 for one game, and the Yankees lost it. He was in Arizona
for Games 6 and 7, enough said. And then Larry showed up in Miami for
Games 4 and 5 (not for Game 3), which pretty much pushed the Bombers to
the precipice.
So last night wasn't going
to be easy. The fans had to make do without Tina again, who wasn't in
Section 39, Row A, Seat 29. They had to endure negativity from Little
Mike and Junior, who kept worrying that the young crop of Yankees
wasn't up to the task. And then there was that disturbing New York cop,
Officer Gerard Uriciouli, who was heckling the hecklers again, rooting
against the Yankees.
"Your lives revolve around grown men playing a game," Uriciouli chastised Little Mike and the Creatures. "Go Marlins."
We
worked to ignore Uriciouli, reverse the karma. Mike McGuire claimed he
was the Babe's living ghost, that his father had vague connections with
Ruth. And we took some solace in this: If the Marlins won the Series,
they would have equaled in just 11 seasons the number of championships
captured by the Mutts in 42 lackluster campaigns.
It wasn't worth losing just for that, but it would certainly make for a shorter, more vindictive winter.
E-mail: fjbondy@netscape.net
GRAPHIC: EPA SHAKE ON IT You can bet that the Yankees and Marlins are more cordial before Game 6 than Bleacher Creatures are to each other in times of trouble.
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