Saturday, October 26th 1996. World Series Game 6 Yankees vs Braves in New York. I'm from NYC but had just started Fall semester away at Michigan State University. I had never had the experience of going to a World Series game and was not going to miss an opportunity to see one at home. I have no money, no ticket and no connection but hey, you never know.
So with the Yankees up 3 games to 2, I decide to hop an Amtrak leaving for NYC the day before and arrive in Grand Central an hour or two before first pitch. I get on the 4 train and half hour later get off at the Stadium. The place is absolutely packed. People as far as you can see. Everybody is chanting and the crowd is electric. I figured I would walk around the Stadium and see what I can see. Maybe there is a chink in the armor. Maybe there is a scam going on I can get in on. As I said, I grew up in New York City. I also used to work the streets of Manhattan selling stuff only tourists would buy. I guess you could say I have a knack for sniffing out scams.
Sure enough I see a tight crowd of people who obviously didn't come together off a ways from one of the Stadium gates. Something told me I should pay closer attention. Every now and then I would see the guy in the center slyly point over towards the nearby gate and see someone in the crowd mosey over to that gate and get in. Lets take a closer look. Turns out the guy outside the gate is in cahoots with his buddy, the ticket taker at the gate! They worked out a password system. You pay the money man and he tells you the password. You tell the password to the gate keeper and he lets you in. $25 and a fake ticket handoff later, I've made it into my first World Series game at Yankee Stadium!
Well, with no assigned seat the entire Stadium was my playground. I wandered from section to section and would keep empty seats warm. When their owner showed up I would just move on to the next section. To cap a perfect scam story, the Yankees closed the series that night, Wade Boggs rode around the outfield on some mounted officers horse and I walked away with the memory of a lifetime. Oh, the password was "Appleseed" if you were curious.
So with the Yankees up 3 games to 2, I decide to hop an Amtrak leaving for NYC the day before and arrive in Grand Central an hour or two before first pitch. I get on the 4 train and half hour later get off at the Stadium. The place is absolutely packed. People as far as you can see. Everybody is chanting and the crowd is electric. I figured I would walk around the Stadium and see what I can see. Maybe there is a chink in the armor. Maybe there is a scam going on I can get in on. As I said, I grew up in New York City. I also used to work the streets of Manhattan selling stuff only tourists would buy. I guess you could say I have a knack for sniffing out scams.
Sure enough I see a tight crowd of people who obviously didn't come together off a ways from one of the Stadium gates. Something told me I should pay closer attention. Every now and then I would see the guy in the center slyly point over towards the nearby gate and see someone in the crowd mosey over to that gate and get in. Lets take a closer look. Turns out the guy outside the gate is in cahoots with his buddy, the ticket taker at the gate! They worked out a password system. You pay the money man and he tells you the password. You tell the password to the gate keeper and he lets you in. $25 and a fake ticket handoff later, I've made it into my first World Series game at Yankee Stadium!
Well, with no assigned seat the entire Stadium was my playground. I wandered from section to section and would keep empty seats warm. When their owner showed up I would just move on to the next section. To cap a perfect scam story, the Yankees closed the series that night, Wade Boggs rode around the outfield on some mounted officers horse and I walked away with the memory of a lifetime. Oh, the password was "Appleseed" if you were curious.