#WeekendOfGARY
How I spent my Labor Day weekend
My Labor Day Weekend destination this year wasn’t too far away. About 1.4 miles from my apartment, to be more specific. It was Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
My beloved New York Yankees were in town for a three game series. And now that I live within such a short distance from a Major League Baseball stadium, I wanted to see them in action, as opposed to on the television.
The plan was to attend all three games of the series with my camera in tow and Instagram the heck out of it.
It was the first time I got to see the “Baby Bombers,” the moniker given to some of the Yankees after they went all #TeamSell at the trade deadline, which I had been advocating for weeks. This means I got to see Aaron Judge — who I last saw while he was a member of the low-A Charleston Riverdogs when they visited the Delmarva Shorebirds and I still lived at the beach — Tyler Austin, Rob Refsnyder, and other young talent. Relief pitcher Jonathan Holder struck out 12 batters in four innings, including 11 batters in a row, in his last outing in AAA before he was called up.
But the player I was most excited to see was Gary Sanchez, who was the quickest in Major League Baseball history to hit 11 home runs, doing it in his first 23 games. That’s a big deal. One of my favorite writers, Joe Posnanski, goes into detail about how significant that is.
Watching him on television has been very exciting. It got to the point where whenever he hit a home run, I would text my brother “GARY.” Then I started tweeting “GARY” (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) if I was at a computer.
But I wanted to see him, and the other Yankees, in person.
While Tropical Storm Hermine threatened to bring rain to Baltimore over the course of the weekend, that, fortunately, did not happen. I enjoyed three beautiful days for baseball with good company and took many photos, some of which you’ll see below.
So without further ado, here is the #WeekendOfGARY collection. Feel free to like the Instagram posts, if you so desire.
Day 1
Baltimore 8, New York 0
Gary Sanchez: 0–2, BB
DAY 2
Baltimore 2, New York, 0
Gary Sanchez: 1–4
DAY 3
New York 5, Baltimore 2
Gary Sanchez: 0–2, 2 BB
And there you have it.
I took a ton of photos over the course of the weekend. Some of them are probably better than what I posted on Instagram. Oh well. Maybe at some point I’ll #TBT some of the other #WeekendOfGARY photos, so be on the lookout on my Instagram account for more posts.
While I didn’t get to see Gary Sanchez hit a home run — and while the Yankees were shut out twice — I did enjoy three games of baseball and it all ended on a good note. Thank you, Wade Miley.