Yankee Stadium "Bleacher Creatures" visit Section 14
By "Walkman" John / courtesy of Section39.com
New Haven Knights vs. Asheville Smoke
Saturday, January 19, 2002
There are those who say that there is nothing that compares to experiencing a major league game in person. Some say that to get an understanding of “small town” America you must go to a minor league game in some respective city. What I, and more than a few fellow Creatures of Section 39 did instead, was visit the “great city” of New Haven, CT to watch the Knights of the UHL.
Buying over a dozen tickets for the affordable group sales price of seven bucks each, Big Tone Capone, a New Haven resident, orchestrated the trip. We were to embark on a journey to Connecticut to watch the Knights with the infamous fans of Section 14, but first we had to get there.
The scheduled point of rendezvous was to be the “big clock” in the middle of Grand Central Terminal, except; of course, the clock itself is barely larger than your standard wristwatch. But anyway, after arriving at high noon, I first met Bald Ray, who turned out to be under the weather and needing to go to “Duane Reade for some tissues.” A few minutes later, Sheriff Tom and Midget Mike waddled, in laughing at who knows what and then each spending 23 bucks for a round trip ticket to New Haven, via the Metro-North line.
Slowly the rest of the group filed in, including: Lucy and her friend Saudia, Marc (Metssucksballs), DomiFan, Justin, 41, and Big D. We were to later meet Laura, who drove up, and Capone, Steve, and Baloo, who left earlier in the week to check out the Knights action on Friday night. We were to hear that Friday was the night that Steve, according to Capone, “found something he had in common with Jim Morrison.” This commonality happened to be that the New Haven Police Department has, at one time, wrongly incarcerated both of these individuals.
According to eyewitnesses, during the game there was a security guard in a large green jacket watching Section 14. Of course several “Green Giant” chants went his way. At the end of the game this guy walked up to Capone, acting all tough, and an argument ensued. Attempting to rectify the situation, Steve apparently got between them and began yelling, “What the Fuck is your problem,” or words to that effect, and thereby caught the attention of some of New Haven’s Finest. Well, you know how it goes, one thing led to another and Gbang ended up in the slammer for eight hours. And to think the trip hadn’t even started.
Getting back to our journey, there was one last keen observation before we boarded the train. A few of us just happened to notice that there was a midget standing and waiting for someone, near the ticket booths. Once Tom, MSB, and basically the entire group heard of this, they ran over just in time to see his friend arrive and actually have to kneel down to simply hug the guy. Laughing heartily after seeing that, we boarded the 1:07 pm New Haven bound train.
The ride was long, at times annoying, and most of all loud. Sitting in a car that just so happened to be right where one of the conductors worked didn’t help our cause, as he threatened to toss us off the train, 20 minutes before departure. It was amusing to see just how disgusted the rest of the passengers were by our presence. Eventually, several moved to the other end of the car or walked past us to move to an entirely different car; however we did have a few fans, as one guy sat down and actually turned off his walkman in order to listen to our litany of bad jokes and stories. The worst gag of the one-hour and forty-minute trip was the spotting of several Oyster Bar & Restaurant ads at each stop, with “Lobster” followed by an arrow that made it look like a Metro-North station sign. So of course, the next few stops were guessed to be “Bacon” or “Corn on the Cobb.” Needless to say that gag was funny for a whole 10 seconds.
We arrived in New Haven at around 3 pm, and proceeded to meet Capone and Company at the widely popular TK’s Restaurant or “Café,” as it proclaims itself to be. The place has everything any sports fan could possibly want. Big screen TV. TV’s at each booth. Hell, they even have TVs in the bathrooms. Also available is great food (Ugly Wings rule!) drinks, and if you need to kill some time or simply want a challenge, there are even Trivial Pursuit question cards available. What made this particular weekend such an ideal time for this trip is that it happened to be NFL division playoff weekend, with the first game of the afternoon in Chicago where the Bears took on the Eagles. In the end Philly dominated the Bears and no person was happier then Midget Mike. “See you later Chicago, Cinderella teams suck!” he yelled while beating Steve in a game of pool.
Speaking of Steve, when I had arrived I began drinking a bottle of Smirnoff Ice, which was great, but as Gbang would say prophetically, “You’ll be feeling them if you have about six of those.” Without realizing it, by the time I left the bar, well, I had about…seven, which appeared to be just a little more than I could handle.
Sometime around 5 pm Laura arrived, after passing a momentous seven accidents on I-95, due to the heavy snowfall that DomiFan had predicted would not occur, despite the 100% chance of precipitation forecasted. After a blowout of a football game and lots of alcohol, it was time to head off to the Coliseum.
Upon arriving a few minutes before the 7:35 pm face-off, I noticed that Section 14’s “poncho night” was in effect. For a quick background, Section 14 is located just a few feet away from the visiting team’s bench. About a month ago, the Asheville Smoke and a few fans of the section got into a bit of a “disagreement” involving water being sprayed by the team’s trainer, beer getting tossed in return and Smoke defenseman Bob Rapoza nearly jumping over the boards. To honor that event the denizens of Section 14 wore ponchos and held signs such as “Jump Higher Bob!” and “Need a Beer?”
As for the game itself, the Knights picked up a big win as they beat the Smoke 5-2 on the support of two goals by left-winger Glenn Stewart and solid goaltending by Ray Fraser, who made 33 saves on the night. Oddly enough the game went without incidents between the players and section 14, and/or on the ice, as there were no fighting majors. But of course, where Section 39 goes, trouble usually follows.
In this case the main principles would be Sheriff Tom and Lucy. During the second period the section was ripping into the closest player on the Smoke bench, backup goalie Blaine Russell, with lines such as “If they killed you for being an intelligent man, they’d be killing an innocent man,” according to MSB. If rumors are correct, Lucy attempted to defend him. Tom then shot back a retort that involved the odious “B” word, and then all hell broke loose. Before the second period was over Tom would get smacked about three times with Lucy yelling over and over “I’m not playin’.”
Most of the section had little clue what was going on as security rushed to the section, while Capone tried to calm the parties down (now there’s a first). By the end of the second period, Lucy and Saudia pulled a Theo Fleury by getting up and leaving, despite not being ejected. Big D, as well, took off to help them home and Bald Ray also took the opportunity to exit, as the trip to Duane Reade did not do much for what was ailing him. The entertainment didn’t end there as the second intermission meant that it was Chuck-a-Puck time.
I’m sure most of you know of this Knights ritual, but to sum it up for those who don’t, it involves fans buying orange rubber pucks before the end of the second period, putting their names on them and tossing them on the ice, trying to land them in either a car or on mats that are on the ice. Although he didn’t win anything, 41 got the best shot of the night, as he nailed one of the Coliseum employees coming out of the car with, as John Sterling would say, “a line drive bullet,” right in the gut. By the time the chaos was over, they announced that one of the winners, who landed a puck near one of the mats, was none other then “Patrick Ewing!” In reality, it was Midget Mike, who was allowed to collect the prize of two free tickets to another regular season Knights game.
At around 10:35 pm the game was over and it was back to TK’s for some, while others accepted a ride home. It was perfect timing, as I sobered up to see the New England Patriots take advantage of some obscure rule, which saved their season late in the fourth quarter, to the cheers of several Patriot fans. From the time the game ended until around 2 am, we hung around, talking and watching Justin try to get Domi drunk but ending up doing several shots himself. At this point I learned how some drinks are made, how good 41 is at Trivial Pursuit, and how some people just “aren’t’ the Cat’s Meow.”
The bar closed around 2 am and it was time for the long trip home, a marathon of a ride that had a cast of 41, DomiFan, Justin, myself and Laura, driving in her ’87 Volvo. The roads were pretty much cleared of the six inches of snow that had fallen throughout the night, but early on we encountered obstacles. A few feet in front of us were four snowplows working on the road despite the fact that there was NO remaining snow to be plowed away. In fact, every few seconds the blades would be lowered, thus digging nothing but concrete and making sparks. “They are screwing up the roads so they have a job to do next month,” Justin and 41 concluded. This wouldn’t be so bad but for the fact that the trucks spread out to the point in that we were boxed in. Thus for several miles we were traveling no higher then 30 mph and each time Laura would try to pass one truck would either slow down or speed ahead keeping the car at bay. It was obvious that this was being done on purpose, with the drivers talking on their radio, probably saying “Ah, we’re making time and a half tonight, got nothing else to do, no snow on the ground, let’s fuck with these people.” Finally after seeing another car get out of the trap by making a wide right turn around one truck, we made a run for it and got out, and the snowplows were defeated.
As was mentioned on the board earlier, the trip involved dropping everybody off in front of their place, no matter how out of the way it was. Thus Justin was let off first in Long Island at around 4:30 am, Domi about an hour later in lower Manhattan, then, after a quick stop in Hoboken in between, 41 was deposited in the middle of Jersey. Something told me that this was a long trip in that by the time the final part of the trip was taking place, the sun was coming out. The trip for me came to a conclusion at 7:30 am, Sunday morning. For the record, the ride home took over 5 hours, encompassed three states, 3 of the 5 boroughs, a trip on the NJ Turnpike and the infamous Pulaski Skyway, views of both sides of the Hudson, 312 miles, a full tank of gas, and one lost Jets hat. Despite the trials and tribulations, it was all worth it, as it was a great weekend overall.
I could not complete this installment without giving a few thanks. First, of course, are the fans and regulars in Section 14. They proved that anyone could have a great time watching the Knights and minor league hockey, even if you are not a big hockey fan. The section reminds me of what Section 39 used to be, in terms of being able to chant “suck” or rip the players up close without some jackass security guard or the “Rudys” of the world getting ready to toss you out. I am looking forward to returning for another Knights game and hopefully the fans there will make a trip to Section 39 for a game in the upcoming season. Thanks also go out to Laura, who had no qualms about driving us home despite the long distance and the many hours it took. Finally, thanks go out to Tone Capone for planning the trip, buying the tickets, and introducing us to TK’s. Well that’s it for now and look for future columns, as the infamous “game summaries” will be making a comeback as well as occasional writings on the world of baseball statistics.
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